Jump to content

Synthesis and Sound Design


x2k

Recommended Posts

I'm starting this because of the selling beats there where juse asked if I could elaborate on making sounds and what synths and effects I use.

 

It's a massive subject so rather than try and write loads of shit out tell me what you want to know and I'll try my best to answer.

 

I'll start with a short list of my favourite plugins and why.

 

Synths

 

NI Massive - It's quick and intuitive to use, if I want to make something quickly and not spend too much time on it then it perfect, it's also very capable of a big range of stuff.

 

NI FM8 - My favourite FM synth, fm synthesis is a bit more challenging to get to grips with but it's extremely powerful.

 

CamelAudio Alchemy - For granular synthesis and additive resynthesis, generally I use this for taking a simple and boring sound turning it into some lush textures. I often use it for pads.

 

Sylenth1 - Basic synth which sounds lush, I use this for things like trance leads, hoovers and super saws.

 

u-he Zebra - A very flexible synth with a lot of power but takes longer to program, I'll use this when I want to do something more interesting and I'm not in a rush.

 

NI Razor - Still getting into this.

 

Effects

CamelAudio CamelPhat/CamelCrushers - Probably my most used distort, ever need to phatten something up I normally reach for these.

 

D16 Decimort - bit crushing/lo-fiing

 

Reverbs - I tend to use my UAD ones which are expensive, I'll expand if you want.

 

Cubase/Ableton Built-in Delays/Chorus/Flangers/Phasers - For echos, movement, thickening and spacial effects.

 

SugarBytes WOW & Tone2 Bi-Filter - For creative filtering (often notch or formant filters).

 

Various Compressors and EQs - Used both creatively and to fix things and get the mix sounding good.

 

Other Plugins

 

Kontakt - Processing and mangling sounds further beyond synthesis.

 

I also use the Kontakt Library, Cubase's built in halionone library and Addictive Drums for real instrument sounds which I may process further to create new sounds.

 

This isn't a complete list of what I use but they are my most used plugin which I think probably get used in every track I make these days.

 

Fire away with some specific questions :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way depending on what you are trying to achieve leads to quite different approaches to using synths I find...

 

For nice clean synth sounds 90% of the work is done in the synth itself so it's all about programming a really good patch then just using some effects to get in sitting in the mix nicely if needed. These are the sort sounds that you might hear in trance, hard dance music or synth based hip hop.

 

For more gnarly sounds like you might hear in a lot of drum & bass or dubstep a lot more processing goes on, the basic synth sound it made then a shit load of effects get smashed on it and automated, then often you might sample what you have created (known as "resampling") and processed further.

 

Just thought I'd mention that, it might help lead to some questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You ever use any tape saturation plugins on your synths Tom?

 

Absolutely. Tape saturation can really do good things to your mix but the trick I find is to apply a little to many elements in the mix rather than lots on the master. It's like you don't hear it much on the individual channel but the cumulative effect on the mix makes a good difference.

 

For nice saturation plugins check out Bootsy's vsts, best of all they're free.

 

http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/vst-effects/

 

FerricTDS is the tape saturation plugin but there's some other nice saturators there. As these plugins model analog gear it's quite important to calibrate them properly to get a decent effect (they have a sweet spot) so it's worth reading the overviews on how to use them in the manual first.

 

With FerricTDS for example you put it into bypass mode and adjust the input until the needle is just hitting the red, the enable it and dial in your settings. Adjusting the input level is pretty much the most important part though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I probably should have said why too. Tape saturation adds some harmonic distortion and also some dynamic compression so the result is a more solid sound. It's quite a pleasant sort of distortion and makes the sound feel a bit warm so it's good for sterile synth sounds. So basically I use it to give something a more solid and pleasant sounding place in the mix.

 

If you over do it the sound becomes muffled and fuzzy though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ah right, i've just been blindly using ferric TDS - i should definitely be less of a maverick!

 

Thanks

 

Try calibrating it properly first, I think you'll like it better then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i need to start getting plugins for my mix too, i've just been focused on getting vsti's and totally ignoring my mix.

 

i want to learn to make that dirty bass that i hear in dnb but first, can you help me achieve that sound that's in the lead synth of that song "party rock"?

 

another example would be that lead synth in the verse of neyo and pitbull "give me everything"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I'm assuming the synth you're talking about is the one that hits at about 2:23 in this

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8

 

and at about 0:46 in this

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPo5wWmKEaI&ob=av3e

 

 

If so that's really fucking random because I just happen to have a patch someone made trying to emulate the LMFO one in Massive on my desktop, not sure why it's there or who made it but I'll upload it anyway.

 

Anyway regrads how to make such a sound, I don't really consider the 2 sounds in those to tracks the same, to me they sound quite different but they are both monophic lead sounds with portamento on them so I can see why you would refer to them as the same sound.

 

Right, if I say anything you already know then sorry but I just wanna make sure I explain as best as possible, so...

 

monophonic mean's that only 1 note is played at a time, obviously you can play a polyphonic (more thany 1 note can be played so chords can be played) monophically by playing single not melodies but often synth will behave a bit differently when set to monophonic so for this time of sound it would generally be a good choice.

 

portamento (also known as glide) is when the synth takes some time to get from 1 note to the next effectively bending the pitch.

 

I'll quickly go over the details on how to set these options up in the 2 synths.

 

Massive:

1. Initialise the patch, this means clear clear the setting to a basic patch. In Massive you do this by going File->New Sound

 

2. Go to the voicing tab and select the option monopho or monorotate, to see the difference check the manual but either will do for this task.

3. Leave the trigger mode to Always, this means that the glide will always take place from the last note to current note. Legato means that the glide will only happen when 2 notes overlap but for now leave it as always. The synth is now monophonic, try playing 2 notes at once.

 

4. Go to the OSC tab, here you see a knob for glide time, there is probably already some glide time set but you can adjust it to taste. Equal & Rate change the way it behaves slightly, again check the manual (I don't wanna answer everything for you)

 

Sylenth1:

1. Initialise the patch. You do this by going to one of the last patches in back 4 called "init" (providing you've not overwritten them yet.

 

2. In the top bar you will see a setting called Polyphony which is probably set to something like 3, reduce that to 1. Sylenth is now monophonic

 

3. Down the bottom right of the synth there's a Portomento knob. Make sure that the Legato light next to it is not lit, and change the little mode switch to S

4. Adjust the portamento knob to taste.

 

In terms of the actual sound you can really do anything you want to get the tone you like, something bright like a saw wave would be good, but it will need a bit more to be exciting. You could try 2 detune saw waves or like the LMFO patch modulate the pitch by a fast lfo, you could try and put a filter on it or whatever you want really. Finally a bit of reverb or maybe even a delay will make it sound a bit more exciting.

 

One very useful tip is learn what the basic wave forms sound like. These are sine, square/pulse, triangle and sawtooth, they all have their own characteristic and you get used to them pretty quick but it will really help you decide what to pick when you try to replicate a sound.

 

EDIT: I don't seem to be able to attack a .ksd file so here's patch on sendpace, again it's not mine, dunno who's it is http://www.sendspace.com/file/41hwsw

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...