https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQqXRSV8msA
There are many 'instrument creation environments' out there - MAX/MSP, Puredata, Supercollider, Reaktor, even DAWs like Renoise and Logic. But if one uses a general purpose programming language like C++ or what I've elected to use - Purebasic - for synthesis, it is like building a structure with tiny bricks rather than pre-fabricated modules - it may take longer but the flexibility and control over the end result is unparalleled. One is not bound by the look and feel of GUIs and components or even by DSP restrictions.
And there is just SO much to explore. For example, simply picking up a Bezier curve and looking at it briefly leads to:
What happens if I modulate the control points with low-to-audio frequency oscillators?
Or modulate them stochastically (with various probability functions)?
Or use the Bezier curve to warp the phase of a sine oscillator instead of vectors? (that's what I'm trying next)
There's excitement in the anticipation of the results when trying out these things - sometimes the outcome is underwhelming but the more one experiments, the more likely one is to strike something interesting.
And for some strange reason there are not many 'show and tell examples' out there of the source code of an actual, usable synth coded from scratch, let alone practical code examples illustrating techniques outside of the subtractive 'here is an oscillator through a filter with envelope' paradigm
I have sought to correct that
