Audible Genius Syntorial 2 & Building Blocks Bundle

Master sound design and music theory with one powerful learning bundle.

The Audible Genius Syntorial 2 & Building Blocks Bundle combines two award-winning interactive training tools that teach synthesis and music composition by ear. Syntorial 2 turns learning synth programming into a hands-on, game-like experience with 197 lessons and over 700 patch challenges, while Building Blocks breaks down music theory into an intuitive, DAW-style workflow focused on drums, bass, chords, and melody.

Together, they offer a complete, modern approach to understanding both sound design and songwriting - perfect for producers who learn best by doing.

Brand New Look

Feast your eyes on the new modernized and fully resizable User Interface.

The Visualizer

Learn Modulation easier with the Visualizer, an intuitive visual animation showing how the Envelopes, LFO and Filter work in real-time.

Brand New Videos

Every Video Demonstration has been remade with better pacing and face-to-face guidance with Joe Hanley. Certain challenging topics like the Filter Envelope have been rethought with more detail and insight. And new info has been added to the On Your Own videos touching on more patch types and subtle sound design techniques.

Nuanced Scoring and Remapped Parameters

The new orange color introduces a layer of subtlety to the scoring system allowing for more realistic feedback. And several of the knobs and sliders' fixed values have been remapped to avoid differences that are too subtle to hear. Together, these two new features will help you move through the course with more consistent progress and less frustrating roadblocks.

Shorter Group Challenges and Bonus Rounds

Group Challenges have been shortened from 6 patches to 3, to help you move forward through the course. Still want the other 3? Enter the optional Bonus Round. And if you still want more practice...

The Randomizer

Launch any Challenge in Randomizer mode and Syntorial will randomly generate infinite new patches for you to recreate. Need more practice? Need to go back and review an old challenge? The Randomizer has you covered.

A NEW WAY TO LEARN SYNTHESIS

Syntorial is video game-like training software, that will teach you how to program synth patches by ear. With almost 200 lessons, combining video demonstrations with interactive challenges, you'll get hands-on experience programming patches on a built-in soft synth, and learn everything you need to know to start making your own sounds with ease.

This isn't your ordinary synth tutorial. This is Syntorial.

INTERACTIVE LEARNING

Syntorial doesn’t just show you how synth programming works. It engages you in 129 Interactive Challenges in which you have to program patches on a built-in synth. You aren’t just learning how to design sound, you are becoming a sound designer.

FOR MUSICIANS, NOT PHYSICISTS

Instead of talking about the science and physics behind synthesizers, Syntorial will show you how each control affects sound, as well as when, why and how you would use them when designing sounds. This is information that you can immediately apply to real-life situations.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE EAR

One step at a time, Syntorial trains your ear to recognize how each control shapes and manipulates sound. By the end of the program, you’ll be able to take the sounds you hear and re-create them, completely by ear.

SYNTH PLUGIN INCLUDED

Syntorial's built-in synth, known as Primer, also comes as a VST/AU plugin, included with your purchase of Syntorial. This way you can take the very synth that you're training on, and use it in any recording software that accepts VST and AU plugins.

CAKEWALK Z3TA+2

The Cakewalk Z3TA+ 2 Lesson Pack adds 37 extra videos, totalling 3 hours and 17 minutes. Each video demonstrates how to apply everything you've learned in Syntorial, on Z3TA+ 2. Get to know Z3TA+ 2's ins and outs, and take advantage of the endless sonic manipulations it has to offer.

MINIMOOG VOYAGER LESSON PACK

The Minimoog Voyager Lesson Pack adds 34 videos, totalling 2 hours and 22 minutes. Each video demonstrates how to apply everything you've learned in Syntorial, on the Voyager. Get to know your Voyager's ins and outs, and learn the true value of this classic analog hardware synth.

SYLENTH1 LESSON PACK

The Sylenth1 Lesson Pack adds 38 videos, totalling 2 hours and 47 minutes, demonstrating how to apply everything you’ve learned in Syntorial, on Sylenth1, and guides you through the recreation of 46 Syntorial patches in Sylenth1. Learn how to really take advantage of Sylenth1’s rich virtual analog sound and unique layered interface.

MASSIVE LESSON PACK

Massive is an incredibly powerful and versatile soft synth with a deep selection of wavetables and modulation options, allowing for an endless variety of sound. The Massive Lesson Pack adds 41 Videos, totalling 4 hours and 44 minutes. Transfer everything you learn in Syntorial, to Massive, and learn all of the extra features Massive has to offer.

SERUM LESSON PACK

Serum is a truly innovative wavetable synth. Between its in-depth wavetable editing capabilities, and its intuitive visual feedback, Serum is both easy to learn and powerful to use. The Serum Lesson Pack adds 55 Videos, totalling over 9 hours. Transfer everything you learn in Syntorial, to Serum, and learn all of the extra features Serum has to offer.

Available in English, French and Japanese.

Choose your preferred language—English, French or Japanese—at startup and switch freely at any time. Experience The Essentials in either language. Optional add-on Lesson Packs are currently offered in English only, giving you more specialized content to explore.

Features

• 197 LESSONS 
• 128 CHALLENGES - Learn by doing! Complete challenges by programming patches with Syntorial’s built-in synth.
• 706 PATCHES - Program, program, program. After all, that’s what it’s all about, right? By the end, you will have programmed over 700 patches, from simple to complex, familiar to strange.
• 33 ON YOUR OWN - Syntorial will give you periodic tasks to be carried out on your own with whatever synth(s) you use.
• 147 VIDEOS - Everything is taught through video demonstrations using the same synth that you’ll use in the challenges.
• 64 SYNTH PARAMETERS - Syntorial covers the most common parameters found on most synths.  
• 38 QUIZZES - Multiple choice questions to help you retain and remember everything you learn
• Pay once and get Syntorial on 3 platforms: Mac, PC and iPad

Building Blocks 1 & 2

Music Theory & Composition Course for DAW-Based Music Makers

Drum Patterns, Basslines, Chord Progressions, and Melodies: Learn how to create these four essential elements of music in an engaging DAW environment with Building Blocks.

Building Blocks is an online music theory and composition course tailored to the needs of DAW-based music makers. Starting from the very beginning, you'll embark on a video game-style interactive journey in an online DAW. And along the way, you'll build real-life music-making skills with an intuitive step-by-step process until you're making your own original beats from scratch.

Llearn how to create all four essential elements of music composition: Drum Patterns, Basslines, Chord Progressions, and Melodies. Take a detailed look at what's covered:

Modernized Music Theory

Building Blocks has thrown out the traditional music theory rule book and created a new approach that's tailored to the needs of DAW-based musicians.

Traditional music theory takes place in the centuries-old music staff and is loaded with information that doesn't always apply to a DAW environment. So Building Blocks takes a streamlined need-to-know approach, removing the music staff and replacing it with the Piano Roll.

Learning music theory in the Piano Roll is crucial for DAW-based musicians. The Piano Roll is a note editing interface found in today's most popular DAWs. So you'll be learning in an environment that you can actually use to create music in your every-day music-making process.

Create Original Music

Throughout this online music composition course, you'll be writing your own original music in our online music production studio. Every few lessons, you'll be prompted to take what you've learned and write a drum pattern, bassline, chord progression, or melody. Sometimes you'll be asked to write them together, or create a full beat from scratch.

By the end of Building Blocks, you'll have plenty of original music to jump-start new songs. And our MIDI Export feature will make it easier for you to transfer your music from Building Blocks to your DAW-of-choice.

Interactive Ear Training

Unlike other music production courses, Building Blocks is more than just a series of videos. In almost every lesson, you'll encounter an interactive ear training challenge that takes place in our online music production studio.

You'll recreate hidden drum patterns, basslines, chord progressions, and melodies by ear. Every time you place a note correctly, your ear will get a little bit stronger. And eventually, you'll be able to start creating the music you hear and feel.

Check out this detailed Walkthrough:

A Proven Method

The Building Blocks online music production course is brought to you by Audible Genius, the creators of Syntorial. Syntorial is an award-winning synthesizer training app.

Syntorial has become the go-to method for learning how to design sounds with a synthesizer. With Building Blocks, we've taken the same interactive ear-focused approach and brought it into the world of composition.

What Exactly Will I Learn in Level 1?

Drums

• Using the three core drums of Kick, Snare, and Hi-Hat, to create an endless variety of patterns and rhythmic feels.
• Using Velocity to vary the volume of drum notes to make your drum grooves bounce and come alive.

Bass

• Writing Bass rhythms that feel great with the Drums, an essential relationship that is needed to set up a strong rhythmic foundation for your song.
• Setting up the tonality for the Chords, and writing basslines that support the Chords' harmony.

Chords

• How to use different chord types to influence a song's tonality and mood.
• Voicing block chords to create a variety of top-line movement.
• Arpeggiating chords to excite the overall rhythm with linear movement.

All Tracks

• How to use Phrasing to provide conversational movement and rhythm, enabling your music to connect with the listener.
• How to make the tracks work together to create a cohesive sound and feel.

Music Theory

• Core song elements: Beat, tempo, measures, and more.
• Understanding Relative Pitch and using it to determine a song's tonality and mood.
• Building essential chord types and navigating their related chord tones and non-chord tones.
• Rhythm: Placement, duration, how it relates to the beat, and how it determines a song's groove and feel.
• Tonality: How pitches and the intervals between them influence the mood of a song.

Ear Training

• Develop and train your ear to recognize the elements mentioned above, including pitch and rhythm.
• Gain the ability to start taking what you hear in your head and in the music you listen to, and translate it into your music.

What Exactly Will I Learn in Level 2?

Melody

• Writing an engaging Melody that connects with the listener.
• Infusing expression into a Melody with Legato and Grace Notes.
• Using speech patterns to inspire Melodic phrasing.
• Navigating Melodies over chord changes.

Chords

• Writing chord progressions with changing roots.
• Anticipating chord changes to create a more fluid and flexible movement through your song's harmony.
• Inverting chord voicings to make your chord progression more melodic and engaging, and less clunky.

Bass

• Writing Basslines under chord changes.
• Anticipating root changes.
• Adding life and personality to your bassline with Legato and Grace Notes.

Drums

• Adding additional drums to your patterns like Open Hi-Hat, Toms, Clap, and Sidestick.
• Generating more rhythmic feels with Half-Time and 16th Shuffle.
• Creating drum patterns without one or both backbeats to create a more low-key rhythmic foundation.

Music Theory

• Extending the relative pitch range to a full octave.
• Intentionally overlapping adjacent notes to create Legato connections.
• Adding Grace Notes to create expressive bends at the beginning of a note.
• Staying in Key to create Diatonic chord progressions.
• Following the continually shifting chord tones and non-chord tones through chord changes.
• Moving backbeats to different beat locations and how it affects a song's overall feel.
• Increasing the number of beat divisions to generate a shuffled and/or triplet rhythmic feel.

Ear Training

• Develop and train your ear to recognize the elements mentioned above, including pitch, rhythm, and chord changes.
• Further refine the ability to start taking what you hear in your head and in the music you listen to, and translate it into your music.