Synthesizers are My Orchestra

Utku Asuroglu
Selim Göncü

Since mid-1960s, synthesizers have had a huge impact on many genres of music, ranging from rock to experimental music. This course will focus on music practice with hands-on experience with synthesizers. Requiring no previous experience, the participants will learn about the characteristics of sound and the fundamentals of synthesizers. Sounds are vibrations and synthesizers control these vibrations. Focusing on every single main building block of a synthesizer, this course will help the participants to understand, what kinds of creative (and unorthodox) synthesis methods can be used to create a huge variety of sounds.

At the end of this workshop, the students will create original compositions (in any form) using synthesizers.

Synthesizers come in many different makes and kinds: Analog vs. Digital, Monophonic vs. Polyphonic, Moog vs. Dave Smith etc. Furthermore, the 21st century witnessed the rise of the digital software synthesizer. No matter what the kind/make of a synthesizer, they all share the very same basic building blocks that will be discussed in-depth in this workshop. The participants are not required to bring a particular model to the workshop. The minimum requirement is a computer running any software synthesizer. In case you have questions about which software/model to bring to the workshop, feel free to reach out to the instructors.