Everything you need to know about analog-style synthesis and digital effects.

Everyone needs to be a synth programmer or engineer nowadays. And not just keyboard players, either. Guitarists and songwriters using the free copies of Cubase LE that tumble out of the box along with a computer interface, drummers with a new DTX e-kit, remix artists running Reason, live DJ/musicians running Live!, videographers running Final Cut Pro or even iMovie. Garage Bandits… the list goes on and on.

Released June 2007, the Sound Advice DVD features almost 9 hours of ‘no parameter left behind’ information and expertise on analog-style synth programming and digital effects.

Written and presented by top sound designer Dave Polich, who has crafted waveROM and presets and for many of the world’s most successful music hardware and software products of the past ten years (including the Motif series whose sound engine lurks inside of the DTX brains), Sound Advice’s 3 DVDs (2 DVD-9 / 1 DVD-5) encompass synth programming techniques, an exhaustive parameter-by-parameter guide, and everything you could possibly wish to know about digital effects.

The DVD’s navigation system allows you to use Sound Advice in many different ways: As a complete master class tutorial, as a work of reference (you can search on individual sound parameters), or as an encyclopedia of techniques and sound types (creating pads, modifying sound FX etc).

Legendary producer and 2007 GRAMMY nominee Alan Parsons describes the DVD as offering: "All you need to know about oscillators, filters, envelopes, dynamics and effects that will enable you to produce the sound that you are looking for on your synth - totally from scratch."

DVD Contents

Disc 1 starts with how to create simple sounds; breaking down examples into three main categories: decaying sounds, sustaining sounds, and non-pitched sounds. The next section shows you how to tweak a series of classic sound types: brightening up a piano, changing the tone of an electric guitar, modifying the envelope of a brass patch, and many others.

Disc 2 comprises an exhaustive look at all the major analog-style synth parameters from Amplitude Scaling to Velocity Curves. Perfectly watchable from start to finish, with diagrams, text boxes, and plenty of real-world musical examples, Disc 2 is primarily designed as a reference guide.

Disc 3 is entirely devoted to digital effects - now an integral part of the sound design landscape. All major DSP effects, from reverbs and delays, to chorus, flanger, and phaser, to EQ and compression, are examined in minute, parameter-by-parameter detail.

Who Needs It

Produced by KEYFAX NewMedia, who has been making instructional videos and DVDs on music technology for more than 15 years, Sound Advice is filmed in a clean and uncluttered style, with supporting text boxes and simple diagrammatic material.

Talking ‘in plain English,’ Sound Advice is aimed at the novice to intermediate user who has a keen potential interest in sound, but who doesn’t exactly want to study the subject at college. Applications include digital musicians of all persuasions, songwriter/engineers, technology-enabled DJs, and students and teachers in music education.

Even as a modern drummer you may still not feel a burning need to become a sound designer. But sound, especially using the DTX kits, is a crucial if not defining part of the landscape for any e-kit player. A resource that gives you a solid understanding of how to tweak or potentially create new sounds, along with a thorough knowledge of digital effects and how they can be applied, will substantially increase anyone’s potential as a purveyor of electronic drums and percussion.

Sound Advice is available in all good music stores, or can be purchased direct from