PSyn?

[Bulls Hit]

Just read a review of cakewalk Kinetic which includes a synthesiser called PSyn.

I know nothing about synths, samplers etc. I was wondering how would you drive a software synth like that? Does it generate its own noises, or do you feed it with a midi keyboard, or do you assign it to a track like a plugin?

[rjt]

PSYN is a Cake synth found in Kinetic and P5. It is a subtractive synth.... meaning you get a waveform by adding several (in this case 4 osc--each of which can select multiple wavs) together and then filter it to smooth or modify the signal content. It is a decent synth and there are some nice tutorials for how to use it on the Sonar Forum project5 board. To use it, you put it in a track in Sonar, P5 or Kinetic, then feed midi data to it. That data can be recorded midi data, canned midi data or live midi data from a keyboard. PSYN then plays the midi data which can then be captured in the program as an audio wav and further mangled.

Take Care

[Bulls Hit]

Thanks rjt.

So when you've got the synth on a track with midi data playing, can you fiddle with the knobs etc and change the sounds in real time and then record the changed sounds?

[rjt]

In Sonar, the answer is yes. You can play the track and fiddle with the knobs in real time and hear the changes. When you "freeze" or bounce the track, the settings you made are recorded. If you want to record knob changes while the track is playing, you can use Sonar automation for that. Not all synths have automation in Sonar, but PSYN has a fair number.... this means that you can create a wav file while a knob is turning etc. Unfortunately, I don't have Kinetic, so am not as sure about how that works.

Take Care