// the sound lab
MAKE THE MACHINE SING.
A synthesizer is just electricity, shaped. Choose a waveform, carve its envelope, bend it through a filter — then learn what notes actually do together. Pick any key and the machine will build its chord for you, and tell you why it sounds bright or dark.
▶ Click any key, button or preset to power up the audio engine.
OSCILLATOR
The raw shape of the wave. Each shape has its own colour of sound.
ENVELOPE · ADSR
How a note swells and fades after you press the key.
FILTER
Sculpts which frequencies pass. Resonance adds a vocal-like peak.
PRESETS
Ready-made patches. Tap one, then play.
THE CHORD MACHINE
A chord is a few notes stacked together. The most common is the triad: the 1st (the note you pick), the 3rd, and the 5th. Pick a note below — the machine plays its third and fifth and names them for you.
The 1st · the root
The note you choose. It names the chord and is the ground everything else is measured from. In semitones it is 0 — itself.
The 3rd · the mood
Count up the keyboard, black keys included. A major 3rd is 4 semitones up and sounds bright. A minor 3rd is 3 semitones up and sounds dark. This single note is the only difference between major and minor.
The 5th · the anchor
A perfect 5th is 7 semitones above the root. It is rock-solid and identical in major and minor, which is why the 3rd is what your ear listens for.
From the books
Hear the book.
The one note that flips major to minor is the whole idea of my book The Fundamental, a recovery told in seven chords. The Architecture of Resolution is the free companion: one pattern, from the seventh chord to gravity.