Free sound design with Synapse Audio Dune CM

Available from the Plugin Suite right now, Dune CM can be used as a solid – and free – sound design synth

> Step by step 2. Making your own sounds

1

A great first step with sound design is using the mod wheel to change oscillator and envelope parameters, morphing the sound. Press Bank B the middle panel to create a new patch. At the top of the UI you’ll see the twin oscillator controls, make sure that the Osc Mix control is raised so we’re able to hear a balance of both. 2

Press Sel and cycle the waveform options for each oscillator from the drop down. Concocting interesting combinations is one of the joys of sound design, and we’ve elected to work with number 59 and 33, the Oscillator 2 fine-tuned slightly off to give the sound a more resonating vibe. 3

While the sound has a calming, meditative quality (check out the file Audio 1 which you can download to hear this), to make it more ominous we bring in a growl on Oscillator 3 (Audio 2) and start looking at how we can modulate the sound. 4

Click on the Mod Matrix 1>2 button in the centre panel. Here you can assign your pitch and mod wheels, as well as velocity controls to various parameters in the synth. We’ve scaled the level of Oscillator 3 so we can gradually glide from a dirty noise synth to ethereal peace. 5

There are three LFOs which can generate sawtooth, square, sine or sample and hold waves, and these can be used to add vibration and pulse to your thickening sound. For further thickening, Unison mode allows you to add up to eight extra voices. Click on the eight buttons to hear each, and use the Spread knob to widen the field. 6

Applying the mod wheel to the Filter cutoff gives us a nice frequency sweep. You can hear our result by listening to Audio 4 (from the tutorial files you can download). This is just one indication of how astonishing this remarkable free synth can be!