Synthesizers and Samplers Explained (Udemy.com)

The instructions are simple enough for a beginner like me to understand easily. The instructor takes his time to bring the necessary concepts. At first, I found that it was not going fast enough, but in the end, the speed allows time to assimilate things as I go along, and I often even stop the videos to experiment myself at the same time. Really satisfied with the whole thing. Only small criticism is the use of software available only on MAC, but hey, it does not harm the whole explanations. So, a good 5/5 and a thank you for a quality and not too expensive training.

This is a great course for new synth and sampler learners. A relatively quick course to learn broad synth tech skills. You will have a stronger understanding of the synth technical use and how they can be combined with a sampler & DAW for recording new music. Probably a little over focused on old ProTools DAW, but I am a new 2025 user of Korg/Roland Synth hardware and StudioOne/Bitwig DAWs and it was still very helpful because the basic synth tech is the same. Nice course that is understated and professional.

I think it is a a very good introductory course on sound synthesis and music producing in general, for people like me who almost know nothing about this, but I'd like to see parts other than synthesis to be more better covered. Thank You for this course! Gave me an inspiration and the necessary information to pursue my desire of making music

Really, really pleased with this course. Alongside Matt's examples, I worked through on both the Reason synths he mentions (using the tryout version that I downloaded) along with some of the other synths that I have for Ableton Live. Because he uses a variety of synths, it's really straightforward to follow his examples. I've followed everything and have started creating my own patches, something that I never thought I'd manage on my own. Big confidence and ability booster, thank you.

Great overview of several fundamental aspects to both understanding and using synthesizers, samplers, and DAWs. The power point slides allow you to take notes and review concepts and maintain the key concepts. My only complaint--and this isn't necessarily unique to Matt's course but true of most synth courses available on UDEMY--is that it's all done on the computer. While it's much easier to record lectures using plug in synths it would be more engaging and rewarding if some of this could have been shown on physical synths, I think the uniqueness of their functionality would have come through better and taken away from some of the monotony.

I spent two days taking this course and find it awesome. I came to it wanting to understand a Midi controller I had just purchased and Ableton Live, the digital audio workstation (DAW) I'll use with it. As I taught myself Live I realized that to use the software properly, I needed to understand synthesizers and samplers. This course taught me everything I wanted to know. Matt Hays is clearly an expert on the subject and explains the material in a digestible way. That he used ProTools and Logic Pro, rather than Ableton Live, to illustrate his points did not bother me at all. His course covers not only the different ways sounds can be synthesized and how samplers, synthesizers, and midi controllers work. It also teaches you how to create your own software instrument by sampling a sound, and how to bring all your synthesized and midi-controlled sounds together in a cool piece of music. I highly recommend this course.

Clear information, Clear speaker, and all his information is backed up with more information just to get a better understanding of what he is talking about. This is a good course for anyone who doesn't know much about sound design and wants to get a better understanding on how all those knobs work. Highly Recommend it to beginners.

The Synthesizer section of the course covers the basics of what the key features of synthesizers do, but aside from the envelope section, there's not much time spent on how to manipulate those controls in order to get any desired sort of sound. In other words, I'm still very much left to fiddle with the synths till I randomly get something I like, rather than actually knowing what to adjust in order to generate the sort of sounds I want. Knowing that additive synths add waveforms together and subtractive synths remove harmonics from complex waveforms doesn't really help take out a lot of the guesswork out of sound design - at least not for a novice. The envelopes section was helpful in that regard though, as I could clearly see how manipulating the ADSR would help me get the sort of sounds I'm looking for. Otherwise, the sampler section was alright, but the MIDI section was basic to the point of being not very useful.

Well, yes. Now I know that a synthesiser is not a spaceship with a lot of knobs which will crash if I press any of them. Did this because I want to create my own patches and make them as hard to decypher as possible. Thank you for putting this out and hopefully you will come up with something a bit more for advanced users in the future.

This course goes in great depth of the basics of building a sound in many types of synths and samplers, and feels very thorough. While there doesn't feel like there's anything left out, it also isn't overwhelming, and the instructor does a fantastic job showing practical examples in a wide variety of DAWs and plugins. If you are looking to learn how to create your own sounds to produce music or get into sound design, this is a great place to start!