Remaking the brass synth from the 2024 song "This Will Destroy Me" by My Head Is Empty can be an exciting challenge for any synthesizer enthusiast. Here’s how you can create the "This Will Destroy Me" brass patch and play this iconic sound on most hardware or software subtractive synthesizers (Serum, Vital, Pigments, Prophet, Korg, Moog, etc). We've included the preset download directly for your convenience, but we strongly recommend you use our programming tutorial to recreate it yourself.
Original Audio
My Head Is Empty’s “This Will Destroy Me” features a rich, cinematic brass-style pad that serves as the emotional foundation of the track, immediately establishing its melancholic atmosphere from the opening moments. The sound combines multiple detuned saw oscillators with subtle pitch drift to create a warm, swelling texture that mimics the organic imperfections of a brass ensemble while maintaining a distinctly synthetic character. A low-pass filter with slow modulation and generous reverb creates the pad’s expansive, enveloping quality that fills the sonic space with both intimacy and grandeur. You can hear this signature brass pad enter at 0:00 and sustain throughout the entire track, providing the harmonic bed for the sampled Hitchcock film dialogue.
Original Performing Instrument
Unknown
Our Remake of The Brass Synth
This audio clip is how close we've matched the original tone of the brass synth from the song "This Will Destroy Me" by My Head Is Empty, giving you a reference point as you design your own synthesizer preset. Play it as often as you need to familiarize yourself with the nuances of the sound.
Synth Patch Programming Recipe
Getting Started
- Start by initializing your synthesizer to a plain saw with no filter, modulation or effects. For soft synths use the "init"/"default" preset or the the button to reset all parameters to their default factory values.
- No two synths are exactly alike, so treat the values below as approximate, and use your ear.
- Percentage values (e.g. 50%) represent the relative position of a knob or slider within its full range. The full range of each parameter may differ from synth to synth, so use your ear.
Note: the patch settings may slightly differ in the Syntorial challenge.
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Preset Downloads
Don't want to learn synth programming now? Use our synth preset as your starting point and tweak it from there. Register an account with Audible Genius and download the presets for free for the following synths:
- Vital
Comments
This recipe is the result of a Syntorial community preset remake request. Need support remaking this sound? Have comments?
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