Apple MainStage 3 Instruments - MainStage 3 Instruments

ES2 tutorials
Create ES2 sounds from scratch
ES2 sound design from scratch overview
The “Create ES2 sounds from scratch” tutorials guide you—from the ground up (from scratch)—
through the creation of commonly used sounds. The ES2 sound design with templates on
page 106 tutorials also guide you through the sound creation process, but you use a number of
templates as your starting point.
To see the settings for these tutorials in the ES2 window, choose Tutorial Settings from the
Settings pop-up menu.
The Analog Saw Init tutorial setting is designed to be used as a starting point when you are
programming new sounds from scratch. When programming entirely new sounds, professional
sound designers like to use this type of setting, which has an unfiltered sawtooth wave sound
without envelopes, modulations, or any gimmicks. This type of setting is also useful when you
are getting to know a new synthesizer. It allows you to access all parameters without having to
consider any preset values.
••
Start with the filters, the heart of any subtractive synthesizer. Check out the four lowpass filter
types—12 dB, 18 dB, 24 dB, and fat (Filter 2)—with different values for Cut (Cutoff Frequency)
and Res (Resonance). Define Env 2 as the filter envelope. This modulation wiring is preset in
the Router.
••
Set Filter Blend to its leftmost position, which allows you to listen to Filter 1 in isolation. In
many circumstances, you’ll probably prefer Filter 1, but Filter 2 has its advantages. In addition
to the lowpass filter with 12 dB/octave slope (Lo), Filter 1 also offers a highpass, peak, bandpass
(BP), and band rejection (BR) mode. Filter 2’s lowpass sounds “softer” when compared with
Filter 1. It is best-suited to sounds where the filter effect is or should be less audible, such as
with Strings and FM sounds. Distorted TB-303-style sounds are more easily achieved with
Filter 2.
••
This setting is also ideal for experimenting with different oscillator waveforms.
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