Remaking the lead synth from the 2023 song "When I Wake Up" by Hunter & Wolfe can be an exciting challenge for any synthesizer enthusiast. Here’s how you can create the "When I Wake Up" 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 synthesizer in Hunter & Wolfe’s “When I Wake Up” features a blippy square wave that dominates the track’s opening, creating a lofi texture. This sound combines a somewhat abrupt sounding square oscillator with subtle noise and frenetic cutoff frequency modulation to introduce organic and lofi imperfections.
Original Performing Instrument
Unknown
Our Remake of The Lead Synth
This audio clip is how close we've matched the original tone of the lead synth from the song "When I Wake Up" by Hunter & Wolfe, 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
Amp Envelope
- Attack: 0 ms
- Decay: 1300 ms
- Sustain: 0%
- Release: 1100 ms
Oscillators
- Oscillator 1
- Waveform: Pulse
- Pulse Width: 100%
- Volume: 100%
- Unison
- Oscillators: All
- Voice Count: 2
- Detune Range: 7 Cents
- Stereo Spread: 100%
- Reset All Oscillators Phase On Note Start: No
- Noise Volume: 30%
Filter
- Type: Low Pass
- Cutoff: 65%
- Resonance: 80%
LFO
- Destination: Filter Cutoff
- Waveform: Sample and Hold (Random)
- Amount: 0%
- Rate: 1/32 Note
Reverb
- Mix: 20% Wet
- Size: Medium
Note: the patch settings may slightly differ in the Syntorial challenge.
Explore More
- Synth Patch / Preset Share – Audible Genius Community (Hunter & Wolfe – When I Wake Up (Melody) Request)
- How To Recreate Sounds: A Simple Approach – YouTube (General Sound Recreation Methodology)
- Pheek’s Guide To Making Dub Techno (Modulation and Oscillator Techniques)
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
Comments
This recipe is the result of a Syntorial community preset remake request. Need support remaking this sound? Have comments?
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