KiMiASound Design
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A course by Ray Bridge Digital

KiMiA Sound Design

From your first waveform to expert patches. You already play the keyboard: this course teaches you to design the sound under your fingers.

Try the sample module: FiltersSee the whole course

See it

Hundreds of pictures of real waves and harmonics, before and after every change. Each one was rendered by KiMiA’s own sound engine.

BeforeAfter

Hear it

Switch between before and after while the sound plays, and train your ear to notice what changed.

Play it

Written for keyboard players. Every lesson ends at the keyboard, so your touch, your voicing and your phrasing become part of the sound.

Level 1

Foundations

How sound works, and your way around KiMiA.

01FREESound for keyboard playersPitch, loudness and harmonics: the overtones you already play, made visible.5 lessons · open02FREEMeet KiMiAPlay and Edit; Patch 1 and Patch 2, layers A to D and the eight engines; the library, banks, macros and Set pads.6 lessons · open
Level 2

The subtractive core

The building blocks behind almost every synth sound.

03OscillatorsThe waves, two waves on one oscillator, the Supersaw; Sub and Noise; detune, Vintage drift and unison.5 lessons · open04Oscillator colorsSync, ring and FM between the oscillators, PWM, and eleven oscillator modes, from Additive and Chords to Waveshaper, FM, Swarm and Particles.8 lessons · open05FREEFilters: from bright to darkCutoff, resonance and slope; low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and notch; two filters; filters that follow your playing.5 lessons · open06FREEFilter flavorsLadder, MS-20, Diode, Steiner, the polysynth chips, Morph and Multimode, the low-pass gate, Comb, Vowel and Resonator.5 lessons · open07EnvelopesShaping time: five envelopes, the two-stage decay, curves, and envelopes that follow your touch, from hammer to bow.6 lessons · open08Modulators and movementEight modulators: shapes you draw, sample and hold, random and drift; free, retriggered, as envelopes or looping; tempo sync.6 lessons · open
Level 3

Color, space and playing

Character, effects and the art of playing a synth.

09Drive and CharacterDrive before the filters; Warm, Clip, Fold and Crush after them; gain staging.5 lessons · open10Insert effectsAll eighteen: chorus to spin, wah to pump, amp to ring mod, delay and grains, every knob heard.7 lessons · open11Delay, Reverb and ShimmerThe shared effects and their sends: echoes on the beat, six spaces, a tail that climbs.5 lessons · open12Playing the synthVoice modes and note priority, glide, touch, wheel and aftertouch; Scale, Chord and Rotate; splits and layers.6 lessons · open13Arpeggiator and stepsTwenty-two patterns, then steps: rhythms and riffs, ties and rests, ratchets.7 lessons · open14Modulation masteryThe Sound and Performance Matrix, ranges and lag; macros, the Super Knob and the XY pad; Random.6 lessons · open
Level 4

KiMiA’s other engines

Wavetables, FM, physical models, the organ, the piano, the drums and grains.

15Wavetable synthesisTables, position, warp modes, formant and tone.6 lessons · open16FM synthesisFour operators, ratios, algorithms and feedback: bells, EPs and basses.6 lessons · open17Physical modelingStruck, plucked and bowed: bars, tines, strings and bows, built from how real instruments vibrate.6 lessons · open18Organ, piano and drumsDrawbars, percussion, scanner and Leslie; the sampled piano; drum kits.7 lessons · open19Granular: the Grain engineGrains from a table, a sample, your own recording or the Looper: Cloud, Scan, Freeze and Pulse, every control.7 lessons · open
Level 5

Expert craft

Thinking like a sound designer.

20The timbre dictionaryDark, warm, bright, hollow, nasal, glassy, metallic, breathy — and how to make each.7 lessons · open21Instrument recipesKeys, strings, brass, winds, basses, leads, pads and effects from scratch.7 lessons · open22Stage-ready sound designDual Patch, Set pads and seamless switching, the looper, Gig check, levels and CPU for live playing.6 lessons · open
Level 6

Beyond KiMiA

Synthesis beyond today’s KiMiA: the ideas behind other instruments.

23Other synthesis worldsSampling, the vocoder, MPE, additive and resynthesis.6 lessons · open