Any tips or online guides for newbies wishing to pick up electronic music via analog synthesizers? Asking for a friend with no experience and no knowledge of music theory etc ;)
Download VCV Rack (it's free and open source, and it has many digital models of real world modules) and start exploring the network of YouTube channels dedicated to analog synthesis. There's currently some kind of Cambrian explosion of small batch analog synth hardware happening, so there's never been a better time to learn. Be warned that the first time you open the app you will not be able to produce sound without help, but that's the same level of user friendliness you'll get from a real modular synth, so it will build character. :)
Experiment. A Volca is a really cheap way to start, a minibrute is not much more but considerably more flexible. For ~$400 you could pick up and old Virus A, which is DSP-based but has a great sound all the same, especially in unison mode, and is such a well-specified and designed synth that you'll learn a ton of things that could take you several years to pick up on a piecemeal basis.
Of course software solutions abound but there is no substitute for knob twiddling, and doing it in software makes it too easy to look without really listening.
the short answer will disappoint you: pick one you like and experiment.
the long answer: entire genres were built on not knowing music theory or disregarding it (techno, i'm looking at you). most music producers started by turning knobs without knowing what they were doing. most music producers continue to turns knobs just to see what happens, even after learning stuff about synths. the knowledge will come over time ; if you get "the bug" you will inevitably start reading stuff about all this.
of course, there may be exceptions. most "worldwide mainstream" electronic is obeying the usual codes of popular music, so if that's what you want to do, don't listen to me (and maybe produce on a computer).
> the long answer: entire genres were built on not knowing music theory or disregarding it (techno, i'm looking at you).
Thats putting things mildly. The entire electronic music scene was born from experimentation. From the Kraftworks and other synth pioneers, to the beginnings of the dance scene with Chicago house and Detroit techno. From sample heavy genres like Jungle and Hard House, to synth heavy genres like trance. Even IDM was born from producers disregarding popular conventions and look how much that has since bled into the mainstream with tracks incorporating glitchy effects into pop songs.
But it's not just the domain of electronic music either. Prog Rock existed because uni students wanted to push the boundaries. Then Punk came about because they wanted to redefine what it meant to writing music and play an instrument.
So long as music remains an art form, it will be subjected to ignorant hobbyists with a creative flair. And that is what I love most about music; when people say "I have an idea, it might not work but we will have fun trying". But very occasionally, those hobbyists create something so popular they then become trendsetters themselves, like Prodigy, Orbital, Aphex Twin, and the other artists I alluded to above.
You could learn the basics of substractive synthesis (the most common one) for free with software emulations, either on desktop (VST/AU plugins) or with iOS apps (Android is not very well served in this area)
To be honest many producers in the younger generation haven't ever touched real hardware synths (let alone real analog synths) and do everything "in the box" using software. There's endless debate on whether this sounds the same (it's the "Emacs vs vi" wars of the synth world), but as Tatsuya says in the last paragraph of the interview, you'd be hard pressed to hear any difference once in a mix.
A few of the best sounding classic-analog-emulating software synths would be : Diva, Serum, SynthMaster, Sylenth1, Spire, and the Arturia collection.
Hardware synths are fun though, and most importantly their interface can spark inspiration where technically equivalent but mouse-operated software synths wouldn't.
A small selection of hardware synths, by rough ascending price :
- The cheap and fun Korg Volca range mentioned in the article.
- The Boutique range from Roland. Spot-on virtual analog (=DSP-based) reissues of their classics, the JU-06 is probably the easiest to figure out and most faithful to the original Juno 106 (a staple of the 80s), but it's sold out in most places.
- The Arturia microBrute and miniBrute. They spearheaded the cheap analog renaissance a few years ago and sound lovely and gnarly
- The beautifully designed Korg Minilogue mentioned in the article.
- My all-time favourite interface on a synth is the Nord Lead 3's. It's full-featured but especially suited to beginners because of a truly unique feature : endless rotary knobs with LEDs indicating current value. It's virtual analog (DSP-based) with everything you'd expect on the substractive synthesis front, plus the easiest FM synthesis interface you'll find anywhere. It's been discontinued for years (and its successors don't have the LED knobs), but some units pop up on eBay regularly.
- At the higher end of the price range, there are also dozens of options : the Prophet 6 and OB-6 by Dave Smith Instruments (the inventor of MIDI) are poised to become modern classics. The DSP-based Virus TI is incredibly versatile (although it's getting long in the tooth, as CPU power has caught up with DSPs meaning a plug-in like Serum is just as good)
I don’t have any recommendations for reading, but do enthusiastically recommend the korg volcas from the article - they are self contained, fun and intuitive to use, and very affordable. They sound good enough that you will continue to use them even if you have more expensive gear, and what you learn about synthesis transfers easily.