Signal flow
Oscillator, filter, amplifier: the path of a synth sound.
Lesson 2 of 2
Most synths, including Drift, are built the same way: a sound is made, then shaped, then given a volume over time. Following that path is the key to understanding any synth.
Oscillator
The oscillator makes the raw tone, a wave repeating many times a second. Its shape decides the basic color of the sound, and the note you play decides how fast it repeats, which is its pitch.
Filter
The filter removes part of the sound. A low-pass filter, the most common kind, lets the low frequencies through and cuts the high ones, making the sound darker.
Amplifier
The amplifier sets how loud the sound is at each moment: how it starts, holds and fades when you press and release a key. That shape is called an envelope.
Oscillator → filter → amplifier
One control from each stage: the wave, the filter cutoff and the sustain level.
Drag the squares on the envelope, or turn the knobs: they move together.
On top of this path, modulators such as envelopes and LFOs move the controls automatically while notes play. They are what make a synth sound alive, and they get their own chapters.