This course is designed to explore practical contemporary synthesis techniques in the context of creating a musical composition. It focuses on the musical and emotional implications of synthesizer components and techniques: envelopes, LFO’s, filters, oscillators, modulation, and audio effects. Frequent peer feedback on both the synthesizer patches and musical composition help to develop the student’s technical and musical capabilities.

At the conclusion of the course the student will have a solid foundation in practical contemporary synthesis techniques within an industry standard synthesizer, will have created a piece of music to demonstrate his or her skills, and will have developed the ability to critique synthesizer patches based on their appropriateness, emotional impact, category, and expressiveness.