ECE4893A: Electronics for Music Synthesis (Spring 2008)

ECE4893A: Electronics for Music Synthesis (Spring 2008)


Aaron with synth class students
Instructor: Prof.
Aaron Lanterman
Office: Centergy 5212 (but I’m rarely there)
Phone: 404-385-2548
E-mail:
lanterma@ece.gatech.edu (best
way to reach me)
Course website: users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma/ems


When and where: TuTh, 12:05-1:25, Van Leer C341


The photo: Xavier, Aaron, and Christine showing off Xavier+Christine’s
design for a voltage-controlled phaser (from Spring 2006)




(Note: I often abbreviate the class title as “EMS.” This usage of “EMS”
should not be confused with
“EMS” as in Electronic Music
Studios, the makers of many classic synthesizers such as the Synthis.)

Aaron’s SDIY Pages

Homeworks

  • Grades will be based on a series of written homeworks, a quiz that
    will be weighted the same as a homework, and the quality of a final project.

  • Homework 1 (due Tues, Feb. 12)
  • Homework 2 (due Tues, Feb. 28)
  • Homework 3 (due Thurs, March 13)
  • Homework 4 (due Tues, April 8)

Lectures

Dear readers from outside the class:
If you find these
lectures useful, please consider making a small donation (maybe $25 or
thereabouts, although any amount is appreciated)
to the Georgia Tech Foundation earmarked to go towards
my synthesizer research; the funds will go towards parts and equipment
for student projects.
Here
are instructions on how to donate.

<!–

  • 2/15 –
    Analog Waveshaping, Part II:

  • 2/20 –
    Single-pole OTA-based VCFs (and MOTM kit progress)

  • 3/1 –
    Sallen-Key VCF theory; Buchla LPG example (Vactrol-based S-K)

  • 3/13 –
    Sallen-Key
    OTA-based examples; State-variable filter theory
    (show & tell of assembled MOTM kits)

  • 3/15 –
    State-variable VCF examples

  • 3/27 –
    Transistor Ladder (Moog) and Diode Ladder VCFs, and a few other odds
    and ends

  • 3/29 –
    Exponential voltage-to-current conversion

  • 4/3 –
    Sample playback and the dangers of aliased digital oscillators

  • 4/5 –
    Alias-free synthesis of classic analog waveforms; digital state
    variable filters     (At some point, I say “I don’t know why you need a delay
    here.” I have no idea why I said that… clearly you need a delay when you
    code it up. I said some nonsense about stability – that’s not the issue.
    Ignore anything I say that’s nonsense.) (First part of the lecture was devoted
    to ads for some student activities, so you can skip ahead.)

  • 4/12 –
    Digital emulation of a SSM2040/Prophet 5-style filter
    (You can ignore anything after where I say “let’s try
    matching the half-power point,” or something like that; I ran out of note
    material and tried to freewheel it, and spun off into oblivion.
    I was also just generally brain dead that day…)

  • 4/17 – Impulse invariance techniques
    (alas, this appears to not have been taped…
    sorry…)

  • 4/19 –
    Demo of SSM2040/Prophet 5-style emulation VCF;
    Waveshaping and Chebychev Polynomials

  • 4/24 –
    Additive Synthesis

  • 4/26 – FM Synthesis

    –>

    References

    We will draw material from numerous sources: book, articles, patents,
    and particularly schematics and descriptions posted on websites. Think of
    google as the main class text. Here’s some
    good ones: