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In reply to: Techno reverse white noise effect
In reply to: Patch request
It sounds like two layers: strings and synth lead. For the synth lead try:
Oscillator: Saw. 2 voice Unison with a slow rate, to create some movement.
Filter: Low Pass, 12 dB. Boost the Resonance. Bring the cutoff down to take a chunk of high end off, but leave it bright.
Portamento: Just a little, to smooth the movement between notes.
For the Strings layer, you could either layer in a String sample, or create a string-like synth patch. For info on how to synthesize strings see this video:
Which products are you considering? In this realm, I recommend synths that incorporate samples in some way, as you’ll probably want to work with all sorts of textures when designing sounds like these.
That being said, you can achieve this drone with pretty much any subtractive synth. I was able to get fairly close with Primer. Try starting with this:
LAYER 1: Low Drone
1. Oscillator: Two oscillators, both saw wave, one octave apart, equal volume. 2-voice unison with slow Detune to smear the sound, and some Spread to widen the sound.
2. Filter: Low Pass. This is where the throatiness comes from and will require some tweaking. However it’s all about giving it a lot of Resonance, and then setting the Cutoff just right. So start with the Cutoff at the halfway point, boost the Res almost all the way up, and then and tweak the cutoff until it matches the recording.
3. Chorus. To avoid sterility, you need some movement in there. Try a pretty heavy mix with slow rate.
4. Reverb. Really wet, and really big.
LAYER 2: Noise
1. Oscillator: White noise. 4-voice Unison, really wide Spread, slow Detune. We want this noise spread out and bubbly.
2. Filter: Low Pass. Start with the Cutoff at the halfway point. And like the other layer, we want a ton of resonance, except this time turn it up all the way until it self-oscillates, generating an actual sine-like pitch. Then tweak the Cutoff until the pitch matches the subtle pitch you hear in that wide white-noisy layer of the drone.
3. Effects: Slap on some Chorus with the same settings as layer 1. Maybe even through on some Phaser with low feedback. And heavy Reverb like Layer 1. We’re going for lots of movement and space.
4. If you still need more movement, you can modulate the volume with an LFO. Use an atypical waveform, like S&H or whatever strange shapes your synth offers.
In reply to: Patch Request – Kraftwerk Numbers
Try starting with this (I used Serum):
1. Oscillator: Saw wave. Double and detune it, or use a 2-voice Unison, and set the Detune amount as small as you can, maybe 1 cent, so that it flanges.
2. Amp Envelope: 0 Sustain, really fast Decay around 180ms.
3. Filter: Low Pass. I liked 24 dB slope for this. Enable key tracking since the part is played across about 2 octaves and we want a consistent level of brightness across our range. Turn the Cutoff pretty far down, to be modulated by…
4. Filter Envelope. 0 Sustain and also a quick Decay, even shorter than the Amp Envelope’s, like 70 ms. Also add a little Attack, around 30ms, which will create the fat horn-like filter shape this sound has. Turn up the amount until you get that horn-ish sound.
5. LFO 1: Route to pitch, very slow rate, triangle wave, small amount. This will create the wonky out-of-tune pitch effect as you play.
6. LFO 2: Route to the Filter Envelope amount, with a very slow rate, and a triangle wave. Now the sound will gradually get brighter/darker as it’s played, but each note will always end at the Cutoff, giving us that consistent horn-ish sound.
7. Delay: 1/8th note. A little wet. Decent amount of Feedback.
In regards to setp 6: Considering they were working with synths that are more limited than today’s plugins, they may not have had the ability to modulate the Filter Envelope Amount (I’m not sure what synth they used). But they could’ve done that manually by turning the knob up and down as it played.
In reply to: Trying to synthesize my tinitus
The Tea Kettle tinnitus is pretty simple: Combine a square wave and some white noise. Then play a really high pitch (I found a very high D was pretty close).
The Cicada tinnitus can be achieved with just white noise. But it requires a little more processing. I’d try putting on a Band Pass with a very high Cutoff and a maxed Resonance. This will make the noise sharper and higher. Then add on a Chorus effect with about 50% wetness, and a pretty fast rate. That will garble it and move it around.
Post what you come up with!
In reply to: Trying to synthesize my tinitus
Hi David
That’s tough to do without crawling inside your head and hearing what you’re hearing.
However, on https://www.soundrelief.com/tinnitus/sounds-tinnitus/, there are several clips emulating the different types of tinnitus. Which one (or ones) are the most similar to what you’re hearing?
In reply to: PATCH CHALLENGE: Strings
I’m surprised you didn’t mention velocity tracking in your tutorial
Ah! You’re right. Forgot. Very important for expressiveness.
here’s a quick string ensemble patch I made
Very nice. Especially considering that it was made quickly. What synth?
In reply to: Staccato Strings Sound Request.
Made a video tut and patch challenge for this one: https://www.syntorial.com/community/topic/patch-challenge-strings/
The tut covers a variety of string elements, including strings.
In reply to: Riverside by Sidney Samson
Try this (I’m using the Arturia Mini V)
1. Oscillators: Two osc, both medium Pulse waves. Detune one up 30 cents, the other down 30 cents. This will give you that real aggressively out-of-tune tone
2. Enable the “Out” switch and External Input Volume to about 8. This will overload the filter and give us some nasty distortion, introducing the lo-fi aspect.
3. Increase Filter Emphasis (Resononace) to about 3.5 to get extra buzz on the top end, again giving us a more lo-fi feel
4. Set you pitch bend rage to 2 semitones, and then manually bend pitch when needed
In reply to: Synth Spotlight – Spire
It just seems like a great thing all around, and I hope you make more!
I plan on it. I just have to pick the next synth…
In reply to: Lead synth 'pluck' in Mark Sherry – Imbecile
Just wanted to say thanks again Joe.
My pleasure!
In reply to: Patch Request: Sasha, Channel Deq
Glad to hear you’re enjoying Syntorial!
After doing a lot of patch requests, I’ve to come realize that Saw works in so many cases. Even if the patch in question was made with a wavetable, once you filter and process it, the difference between Saw and everything else can often be pretty minimal (with the exception of square and wide pulse waves, as they have that distinct artificial hollow-ish sound)
In reply to: Patch Request: Sasha, Channel Deq
Try this:
1. Oscillator: Saw
2. Amp Envelope: long Release
3. Filter: Low Pass. 24 dB slope. Cutoff around 500 Hz. Crank the Res as high as you can without self-oscillation. Key Tracking all the way on/up. If you’re using Serum, turn up the Fat knob to make up for the low end that you lose due to the high Res. If not Serum, try just boosting the overall volume or boosting the low end with EQ.
4. Voices: Poly mode, but with only 2 voices. The notes are long so too much overlapping will get muddy. You can hear notes being cut off in the recording, yet 2 notes are often allowed to play at the same time.
5. Reverb: Hall. 20% wet.
And I think the Bass might be the same patch, but with a lower Cut off, and possibly lower res. But it’s really just a sub bass.
And the harpsichord, again, might be the same patch but with very different filter. Try a narrow Band Pass with a higher cutoff to make it smaller and buzzier
Why isn’t unison with two voices detuned exactly the same as two oscs enabled and detuned regardless of transposing?
Without transposition, you’re right, they would be the same, except with Unison you can use Spread to spread them out into the stereo field. For real-life practical purposes, if you want two oscillators detuned at the same octave with no spread, you can do this with either method.
Hi Ben
Couldn’t you just transpose the second osc and then detune each osc manually to get the same effect?
Not really. The pulsating and smearing effect of detuning really only works when the two osc are at the same octave. If they’re 12 semi apart, yes you can still get a subtle pulsation, but not as washy as it would be at the same octave. And if the semi separation is higher than 12 semi, there’s practically no pulsation/smearing with detuning.
Whereas Unison doubles (or quadruples) each oscillator and detunes the duplicated oscillators, so it doesn’t matter where the semi is set, since they each get that nice same-octave smearing and pulsation.
Can’t you just use two different OSC waveforms and detune them?
Same as above. Once 2+ oscillators are no longer at the same octave, manually detuning them won’t create much of a pulsation/smearing effect. So Unison double/quadruples each of the oscillators regardless of what their Semi is set to.
