ALESIS ANDROMEDA A6 - Manual (Page 90)

Chapter 3: Basics of Analog Synthesis
88 A NDROMEDA A6 R EFERENCE M ANUAL
C
OMPONENTS OF AN
A
NALOG
S
YNTHESIZER
With the preceding information as background, let’s take a look at how our
discoveries about sound relate to a physical electronic instrument. Here’s a series of
flowcharts illustrating this concept that we will build upon over the next few pages:
1. In its most rudimentary form, the heart of synthesizer is really nothing more
than a group of oscillators (to provide the raw sound), feeding the filters (to
control the harmonic content of the sound), feeding the output of the
instrument (where the final volume level is set).
2. Now we start adding controllers – hardware that gives the instrument
playability and expression – and modulation – circuitry and/or software that
is used to shape or vary the sound.
First up is the keyboard controlling the pitch of the oscillators: