Eskmo - Riding | Lead Synth Patch Remake

Remaking the lead synth from the 2017 song "Riding" by Eskmo can be an exciting challenge for any synthesizer enthusiast. Here’s how you can create the "Riding" lead 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

The lead synth in Eskmo’s “Riding” kicks in at 0:56 with a staccato, melody that alternates fat, rounded low notes with thin, squeaky high notes. It sounds built from two saw waves spaced one octave apart with unison for width, a highly resonant lowpass filter (key-tracked to brighten higher notes), filter drive plus additional distortion, compression to even dynamics, and a small room-style reverb. Velocity-sensitive amplitude makes the low notes hit harder than the highs. The result is a quirky, focused melodic hook.

Our Remake of The Lead Synth sound

This audio clip is how close we've matched the original tone of the lead synth from the song "Riding" by Eskmo, 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 allx 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.

Voices

• Voice Mode: Poly 2

Oscillator Setup

Oscillator 1

• Mix: 0%
• Wavetable: Default Saw
• Routing: Filter 1
• Random Phase: 0%
• Unison Voices: 4
• Unison Detune: 16%
• Unison Stereo Spread: 50%
• Modulations:
• Velocity → Level

Oscillator 2

• Mix: 0%
• Wavetable: Default Saw
• Routing: Filter 1+2
• Random Phase: 0%
• Transpose: -12 st
• Unison Voices: 4
• Unison Detune: 14%
• Unison Stereo Spread: 50%
• Modulations:
• Velocity → Level

Filter Settings

Filter 1

• Model: Dirty
• Style: 24dB Slope
• Blend: Low Pass (0)
• Cutoff: 51% (344.539 Hz)
• Resonance: 79%
• Drive: 37%
• Keytrack: 100%

Envelope Settings

Envelope 1 (Amp)

• Attack: 109 ms
• Decay: 120 ms
• Sustain: 0%
• Release: 90 ms

Effects Processing (Ordered)

Distortion

• Mix: Default (100%)
• Drive: 48%
• Filter Blend: Low Pass (0)
• Filter Cutoff: Default (830.6 Hz)
• Filter: Post
• Filter Resonance: 29%
• Type: Default (Soft Clip)

Compressor

• Mode: Default (Multiband)
• Mix: Default (100%)
• Attack: Default (50%)
• Release: Default (50%)
• Low Values
• Low Gain: 18 dB
• Low Upper Ratio: 90%
• Band Values
• Band Gain: 12 dB
• Band Upper Ratio: 86%
• High Values
• High Gain: 4 dB

Reverb

• Mix: 3%
• Size: 0%
• Chorus Amount: 5%
• Chorus Frequency: Default (0.250 Hz)
• Time: -6.000 s
• Pre Low Cutoff: 25% (51.136 Hz)

Modulation Matrix

• Velocity → Osc 1 Level 89%
• Velocity → Osc 2 Level 28%

Note: the patch settings may slightly differ in the Syntorial challenge.

Explore More

• Patch Request: Eskmo – Riding (Lead) – Audible Genius Community
• 13 Reasons Why Composer Brendan ‘Eskmo’ Angelides on Show’s Score (Billboard)
• 13 Reasons Why (A Netflix Original Series Score) – Musicboard
• Riding by Brendan Angelides & Eskmo – Shazam
• Eskmo: albums, songs, concerts | Deezer

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?