A lot of great suggestions in the thread, but I am surprised no one had mentioned Syntorial[0] yet. Especially given how widely recommended it is (seen it both

A lot of great suggestions in the thread, but I am surprised no one had mentioned Syntorial[0] yet. Especially given how widely recommended it is (seen it both on HN and elsewhere many times over the years). For context: it is over a decade old (if not more), but is constantly updated and improved, and none of it is outdated (not that fundamental sound synthesis can get outdated, but i digress). It is basically a sound synthesis learning tool (and is also a synth in itself). The final goal of the whole thing is to essentially learn to be able to go from “sound in my head” to “sound in my synth” on your own. You start with a base sin wave (or a square pulse, i forgot), and you go from there. It goes quite a bit into the fundamental physics of it, like harmonics/frequency interaction, oscilattors of different types and how could they be used, different wave interactions, etc. The tool is also good at giving practical intuition tips and not handholding you the entire time, so you get a good amount of room to experiment and try things to get it right. Which is imo the most invaluable part of the whole tool, as it doesn’t just tell you exactly what to do every time, but gives the exact amount info you would need to get there yourself. It is very “from the first principles,” in a sense that you start with a basic oscillating wave, and everything just naturally builds up on top of it. I really liked how it basically simulated the process of discovering all that on your own (but in a much more efficient and educative way). It blew my mind at the time, not in the last part because it straight up opened my eyes to the fact that all a sound ultimately is is a collection of very basic oscillators and waves that get DSPd and “basic physics’d” into a sound with a unique harmonic profile. It is difficult to unsee that revelation and not think of sounds that way afterworks, which affirms to me that it was indeed fundamentally shifting in my understanding of the topic. Disclaimer: I am yet to finish the full thing (planning to do so, eventually), but the “from the first principles” approach they use is great and sounds very much up your alley. 0. https://www.syntorial.com/ https://www.syntorial.com/