Remaking the lead synth from the 2019 song "Amber Sun" by Gareth Emery & Ashley Wallbridge can be an exciting challenge for any synthesizer enthusiast. Here’s how you can create the "Amber Sun" 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 in Gareth Emery & Ashley Wallbridge’s “Amber Sun” enters at 2:03 and is a big-sounding sawtooth lead. It’s essentially a simple stack of two detuned saw oscillators with portamento for smooth note-to-note slides and occasional mod-wheel vibrato. The patch is drenched in long, lush reverb giving it spacious warmth while retaining trance lead clarity.
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 "Amber Sun" by Gareth Emery & Ashley Wallbridge, 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.
Voices
- Voice Mode: Mono Legato
- Portamento: 50 ms
Amp Envelope
- Attack: 0 ms
- Sustain: 100%
- Release: 20 ms
Oscillators
- Oscillator 1
- Waveform: Saw
- Volume: 50%
- Pitch: -3 Cents
- Oscillator 2
- Waveform: Saw
- Pitch: +3 Cents
- Volume: 50%
- Reset All Oscillators Phase On Note Start: No
Filter
- Type: Low Pass
- Cutoff: 90%
LFO
- Destination: Pitch
- Waveform: Triangle
- Amount: 0%
- Rate: 1/8 Note
Reverb
- Mix: 20% Wet
- Size: Big
Modulation Wheel
- Destination: LFO Amount
- Modulation Amount: 10%
Note: the patch settings may slightly differ in the Syntorial challenge.
Explore More
- FREE Sylenth1 Preset taster pack – Ashley Wallbridge Academy
- Gareth Emery Interview – Sonic Academy (YouTube)
- How To Make Music Like Gareth Emery – FL Studio Tutorial (YouTube)
- Sylenth1 Tutorial 002 – Exposure-sounding lead (YouTube)
- Question about instrument(s) used : Gareth Emery – Reddit
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:
- Primer, our free synthesizer VST
