Synthesizer Explorer (3D)
About this app
An analogue synthesizer with 61 keys, wooden cheeks and a hinged panel, with sound in real time. Oscillator, filter, amplifier, envelope and LFO sit in the order of the signal, and dots of light show the path. Turn the cutoff and watch the filter remove overtones in the spectrum. Bass, strings and brass from the same knobs. Plays Bach, Pachelbel and a sequence with a filter sweep.
With explain mode: an AI tutor walks you through the app, points out what matters in the scene and answers your questions.
Subtractive synthesis in one sentence
An analogue synthesizer starts from a tone with many overtones, such as a sawtooth. A low-pass filter removes everything above the cutoff frequency, typically at 24 dB per octave. The amplifier (VCA) makes the note loud and soft, driven by the envelope with attack, decay, sustain and release. A slow oscillator, the LFO, moves pitch or filter. These few building blocks give bass, strings, brass and pads.
What the app shows
A synthesizer with 61 keys, pitch and mod wheel, wooden cheeks and a panel on which the building blocks sit in the order of the signal. Dots of light show where the sound is right now. A screen on the instrument shows the waveform, a panel the spectrum with the filter curve. The panel hinges up, revealing one circuit board per building block. Sound is generated in real time in the browser, without recordings.
Things to try
Play the keys or your computer keyboard and turn the large cutoff knob directly: the note gets dull or bright, and the overtones vanish from the spectrum. Turn up the resonance and sweep the filter until the note sings. Drag the envelope and hear the difference between pluck and pad. Let it play Bach, Pachelbel or the sequence and watch keys and knobs move along.
Frequently asked questions
- What is subtractive synthesis?
- A way of making sound: an oscillator delivers a tone rich in overtones, and a filter removes part of it. The sound is shaped by taking away. Volume contour and movement come from envelope and LFO. Most analogue synthesizers work this way.
- What does ADSR mean?
- Attack, decay, sustain, release: the four stages of the envelope. Attack is the time to the peak, decay the time to the hold level, release the fade time after letting go. Sustain is a level, not a time: how loud the note stays while the key is held.
- What does filter resonance do?
- It emphasises the frequencies right at the cutoff through feedback inside the filter. The sound becomes sharper and singing. Sweeping the cutoff with high resonance gives the typical whistle. Very high resonance makes an analogue filter oscillate by itself.
- What can I try in the Synthesizer Explorer?
- You play 3D keys, a small keyboard or your computer keyboard, turn knobs and faders directly on the instrument, choose six sounds from bass to pluck, watch waveform, spectrum and envelope live, hinge up the panel and let it play Bach, Pachelbel or a sequence.
Subject: Music (Gymnasium)
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