SP404 Synthesis: An Exercise to Master your MFX

This is a video for every SP404 user out there who feels like they've reached the end of all of Youtube's tutorials, but still feels the urge to learn their machine inside & out.

After discovering Subsonic & Noise Gen, I realized that the SP404 has the bare minimum ingredients to create many different tones, even enough to fill a whole track.

You can simply transform a Sine wave into a number of different waveforms using the 3 types of distortion alone, not to mention all the different effects to modulate the sound. In a way, we're simulating "Synthesis," the act of using a synthesizer with oscillators passed through a variety of components such as filters, envelopes and such, though without the elegance.

This is a challenge for you to try and make something using only the MFX, in an effort to learn how to use the machine better. I don't actually recommend this technique for making music because there's near infinite more effective ways of getting into synthesis, but if you want to really get a grasp of how to quickly access MFX and master the ones you aren't familiar with, give this a try.

EDIT: This track has been successfully titled "Dusty Muffins" by @this.is.adan congratulations on determining a perfect name.

0:00 Intro
1:30 The Challenge
2:50 The Two Biggest Pro Tips
5:15 Preparing the Project
9:40 Synth Recipe #1
15:15 Building a Keyboard
20:45 Synth Recipe #2
26:07 Synth Recipe #3
30:00 Synth Recipe #4
31:58 Sub Bass
35:45 Kick Drum
37:06 Percussion
38:35 Two Common Mistakes
39:40 Hi Hat(s)
41:32 Building the Kit
42:43 Clap
43:42 Happy Accidents
44:26 Falling Sub Kick
45:35 “The Chirp”
46:19 Snare
48:08 The Whole Kit
50:02 Rainstorm
54:36 Final Demonstration + Outro