Video: Getting Started with ES2

In this chapter we're going to look at the ES2 synthesizer. ES2 combines a powerful tone- generation system with extensive modulation features. It seamlessly blends Subtractive, FM and Wavetable synthesis to generate a huge range of sounds. This makes it the perfect synthesizer for creating intense leads, evolving textures, rich basses, and futuristic synthetic tones. So taking a look at the interface here, on the left we have the Oscillator section. So this is where we're going to be generating the basis of our sound.

Join author Brian Trifon as he shows how to improve music and audio productions using virtual instruments in Logic Pro. This course tours the program's virtual instruments, including the ES2 hybrid synthesizer, Sculpture physical modeling synthesizer, EFM1 FM synthesizer, the EVOC 20 vocoder, the Ultrabeat drum synthesizer, and the EXS24 sampler, and shows how to achieve various effects with each instrument's parameters. The course also covers working with oscillators and filters, understanding signal flow, creating custom synthesizer patches, adding effects, synthesizing speech, creating a library of custom sound samples, and much more.

Virtual Instruments with Logic Pro will be updating on a monthly basis, eventually covering all the virtual instruments in the application. Look for the latest movies here and on the lynda.com blog.

Getting Started with ES2

In this chapter we're going to look at the ES2 synthesizer.ES2 combines a powerful tone- generation system with extensivemodulation features.It seamlessly blends Subtractive, FM and Wavetable synthesis to generate ahuge range of sounds.This makes it the perfect synthesizer for creating intense leads, evolvingtextures, rich basses, and futuristic synthetic tones.So taking a look at the interface here, on the left we have theOscillator section.So this is where we're going to be generating the basis of our sound.

So, there're three oscillators and you can select between a variety of differentwaveforms and modulate one oscillator with another. And then we're going tobalance the level between the oscillatorswith this very clever mix triangle here, so you can adjust the balance betweenall three oscillators.And so once we've got our sound that's happening in the Oscillator section, itgoes into the Filter section, so that's in the center here.You can see there are two different filters.So there's one multimode filter.So, filter 1 here. We can select if it's going to be a low pass, high pass, so on andso forth, and then a second low-pass filter.

And the really cool thing is these can be either run in a series orparallel, and so we'll talk about the difference between those and howthat's going to affect the sound.Then over the right we've got the Amplifier section here.So this is where we're going to set our output level. It can also bring back insome of the unfiltered sine from the first oscillator.And then we can add effects as well.So, there's a Distortion and we've got some modulation effects withChorus, Flanger, and Phaser. So, really cool!The whole bottom half of ES2 is dedicated to modulation.

So, in the center here we've got the Modulation Router.This is where we can assign the two LFOs and the three envelopes to modulate someaspects of the oscillators, filters, and amplifier section.Down at the very bottom of the interface we have these macro controls, and theseallow us to affect more change than just a single knob.So, for example, this cutoff macro here is going to affect the filter cutoff forboth filter 1 and 2, so it does it at the same time.One other aspect that's really neat in this modulation section is the Vector envelope.

This allows us to take a snapshot of the different oscillator, filter, andamplifier settings at certain moments in time and interpolate between them,so it sort of seamlessly morphs between these different states over time.So you get really expressive sounds of the vector envelope. It's really cool.Also, down at the bottom here we've got this MIDI tab, and this is where we canassign MIDI controllers, so you can interact more with the ES2.So, now that we've taken an overview of the interface of ES2, let's hear it in action.So, I've prepared an example here that has four instances of ES2 that arecreating all the melodic and bass and synthetic sounds that are happening.

So, you can hear that there's a quite a range of sounds that the ES2 can produce.(music playing)

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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