u/FlexDerity

It’s just acoustical physics, really.

It’s complicated but I’ll do my best to dumb it down for synthesizer owners that don’t use eurorack and therefore obviously can’t perform a basic Maths patch make noise calculation.

Plastic is basically oil.

Oil properties are both remarkably sticky and extremely slippery all at the same time. This is important to remember, plastic (and metal) is fake wood.

To clarify an important detail, sound waves “appear” to come out of the monitor speakers.

BUT the “sound wave” . . it actually comes out of the monitor in two distinguished parts..

1. the low frequency component of the sound wave comes out of the bigger speaker cone and

2. the high frequency component of the sound wave comes out of the smaller speaker (tweeter).

1+2. This forms a complete sound wave.

The fast high frequency and slow low frequency connect together in front of the monitor due to the space time continuum (bubble gum effect), one sound frequency pulling to go faster vs the other sound frequency tugging to go slower.

This opposing nature of pull and tug manipulates the sound into an essentially wavey like matter, hence “sound wave”.

So, These two bits are emitted out of the monitor and into the air that then join to form a sound wave.

We then hear this sound wave, that’s what professionals call studio atmosphere hearing skills aka Golden Ears.

So when this sound wave travels thru the studios atmosphere and makes contact with the plastic (oil) part of the synthesizer; the following (A +B) behaviours occur..

A. Slow frequency, the slowly travelling, low frequency component of the sound wave sticks into the oil and this sticking reduces its frequency by slowing its travel speed down and thus then spoils its acoustic accuracy when it later unsticks and eventually reflects back into the studios atmosphere.

B. High frequency, the fast moving component of the sound wave, makes contact with the plastic (oil) at the exact same time, but because it’s fast moving it just slips straight off of the surface of the oil (similar to aquaplaning but it’s actually oilplanin to be accurate).

Depending on the angle of the plastic surface and the localised gravitational qualities and conditions at that part of the planet, it can significantly increase the speed aka frequency of the sound wave high frequency component.

The changes of A and B, we call acoustical atmospheric artefacts.

If the listeners are professionals and have golden ears then they will undoubtedly notice the sound waves reflecting unfavourably when artifactus oil (plastic) is being used on the synthesizer (or any gear) because it makes a slime like sound texture that is distracting and out of tune.

Wood surfaces, on the other hand, they just work correctly because they are natural and not synthetic fakery, wood is real so it sounds real . . Science.

To conclude, it’s not the sound coming from within the plastic synth case that is destroying your mix. It’s the acoustic reflections from the external surface of the synth that is sabotaging your joy.

Buy some glue and get some wood today, your golden ears are waiting.