Let’s explore how to import an audio file into the Serum synth to create a wavetable that says “Serum”. This is not about creating a simple sampler; rather, Serum analyzes the audio to capture the essence of the sound through a process that breaks it up into subtables. This method provides a unique way to generate distinctive waveforms and wavetables from audio inputs.
Importing Audio and Adjusting Subtables
The process begins by importing an audio file where I clearly pronounce the word “Serum”. Serum then breaks this file into 256 subtables. Now, it’s possible to hear the word “Serum” within the wavetable, though it may sound distorted so we’ll need to smooth it out to enhance clarity.
Selecting the Optimal Number of Subtables
During the import process you can compare different Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) import sizes, such as 256 and 512. This will affect how smoothly the word “Serum” appears as you modulate through the wavetable. For this, we found 256 gave us our best initial sound.
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Next we remove unnecessary parts, such as silence at the beginning and redundant subtables at the end. This process is crucial for focusing the wavetable on the essential sounds. After trimming, we then remove 3/4 of the subtables. Initially this creates a jarring jump between subtable sounds. But it also sets us up for spectral morphing, which will smoothly interploate between each subtable, resulting in a crystal clear and smooth “Serum”.
Conclusion
Through meticulous editing and strategic use of the Serum synth’s powerful synthesis features, users can transform a simple spoken word into a complex and usable wavetable.
In the realm of electronic music, the epic EMD Dance lead is an iconic sound that stands out for its richness and fullness. The key to this sound is the supersaw, which might seem complex, but with a straightforward approach, anyone can achieve this powerful sound. Here’s a simplified guide using Reveal Sound’s Spire.
Unison: The Foundation
The essence of the sound’s big washiness lies in its unison. More voices equate to a richer, more enveloping sound. By maxing Spire’s Unison Density, our sound officially becomes a supersaw that fills the audio spectrum with its aggressive, bright presence.
Adding Oscillators
The next step involves bringing in two additional oscillators, set to the same settings as the original. The magic happens when these are slightly detuned from each other. This detuning is crucial as it introduces a lush, phasey quality to the sound, and makes are sound even more lush and aggressive.
Filtering and Bite
To sculpt the sound further, a basic high pass filter is applied. This helps in cutting out the low frequencies, ensuring the overall sound doesn’t muddy the mix. Then, to add bite and definition, the sustain level is reduced. This adjustment allows the attack of the sound to be more pronounced, making it stand out in a mix.
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Often, the process of shaping the sound can lead to a loss in overall volume. To compensate, the volume is increased. Following this, a bit of distortion is introduced, clipping the sound slightly. This is not just about making it louder but adding character and warmth to it through subtle drive and distortion.
Compression and Reverb
To ensure the sound is really punchy, compression is applied. Compression is usually used to control dynamics, but in this scenario it’s more about squeezing the tone. After compression, reverb is added to give the sound space and depth. However, it’s essential to dampen the reverb to prevent it from overwhelming the mix, ensuring the sound remains clear and focused.
Conclusion
Creating an epic supersaw-style EDM dance lead is about more than just stacking sounds; it’s about carefully shaping and controlling those sounds to achieve a desired emotional impact. Through the use of additional oscillators, strategic filtering, volume adjustment, distortion, compression, and reverb, a simple waveform can be transformed into a powerful musical expression. This step-by-step approach demystifies the process, making it accessible for producers at all levels to add the iconic supersaw to their sonic toolbox.
In the fascinating world of sound design, creating the signature bell-like Taco Bell sound involves a mix of technique, creativity, and a bit of experimentation. This guide breaks down the process into manageable steps, using a combination of sine waves, FM synthesis, and effects to achieve a captivating bell sound.
Starting Point: The Plain Saw
The journey to crafting any sound is a simple saw wave.
Shape: The Tail
Next, we add a tail. This involves extending release stages of our amp envelope, providing a lingering resonance that mimics the natural decay of a bell after being struck.
The Magic of FM Synthesis
FM synthesis is key to achieving the bell’s metallic and harmonic character. By modulating the frequency of one oscillator with another, we can create the complex overtones characteristic of a bell’s tone.
Fine-Tuning Oscillators to nail the Taco Bell sound timbre
Changing both oscillators to a sine wave purifies our sound, providing a cleaner base for the FM synthesis. This step is crucial for getting that clear, bell-like quality.
Dialing in the FM Amount and Pitch
By increasing the FM amount and adjusting the pitch of oscillator 2, we refine the bell tone’s timbre and pitch, bringing it closer to the Taco Bell sound.
Sculpting the Transient
The attack transient is what gives the bell sound its initial strike impression. Adjusting the amp envelope’s attack, sustain, and decay shapes the sound’s onset and fading, mimicking the striking and damping of a real bell.
Volume Adjustments
If the overall volume is too low, a simple adjustment can ensure your bell tone cuts through the mix, maintaining its presence.
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Using Pitch Wobble to capture the realism of the Taco Bell sound
A slow LFO applied to the pitch introduces a subtle wobble at the end of the sound, adding a realistic but subtle out-of-tune feel to the synthetic bell.
The Finishing Touch: Big Reverb
Lastly, a generous application of reverb envelops the bell tone in a spacious ambiance, simulating the natural acoustic reflections of a bell in a large space.
Conclusion
Creating a bell sound, especially one as iconic as the Taco Bell sound from scratch is a rewarding process that blends technical skill with creative expression. By following these steps and adjusting parameters to taste, sound designers can craft unique bell tones suitable for a variety of musical projects and soundscapes. Whether you’re designing sounds for a track, a game, or just for fun, these techniques offer a solid foundation for exploring the limitless possibilities of sound design.
The unmistakable sound of the Parliament Funkadelic Flashlight bass is a milestone in funk music, largely due to Bernie Worrell’s ingenious use of the Moog synthesizer. This blog post delves into how to replicate that fat analog sound characteristic of “Flashlight,” regardless of whether you have a Moog or not.
The Essence of “Flashlight” on the Moog
Bernie Worrell’s mastery in crafting the “Flashlight” sound on the Moog synthesizer serves as our foundation. Here’s how to start:
Initial Setup with the Moog
Waveform Selection: Begin with a plain saw waveform.
Oscillator Configuration: Modify the first oscillator by dropping it down an octave and switching its waveform from saw to square. The Moog’s square wave isn’t perfectly square, contributing to a unique pulse sound that’s slightly brighter.
Adding Depth with a Second Oscillator: Introduce a second oscillator, tuned an octave higher than the first and slightly detuned to create subtle movement and depth in the sound.
Filter Adjustments: Utilize the low-pass filter to cut off higher frequencies and adjust the resonance to sharpen the sound. Enhance the analog warmth by driving the filter through Moog’s distinctive feedback system.
Vibrato for Expression: Incorporate vibrato via the mod wheel, using either the original complex method with the third oscillator or a simpler modern LFO system for dynamic playability.
Emulating “Flashlight” on Modern Synths
If you’re working without a Moog, you can still get close to the Parliament Funkadelic Flashlight bass sound by focusing on certain features in your synth.
Using Serum for Analog Emulation
Analog-Style Waveforms: Select analog-emulating waveforms, such as Serum’s MG wavetable, to mimic the imperfect shapes of analog synth waveforms.
Filter Emulation: Employ a Moog-style filter (also known as Ladder filter), indicated by Serum’s MG label, and use the drive function to simulate the Moog’s external feedback system, crucial for that rich, warm sound.
Remake This Sound Yourself
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For synths lacking specific analog-style features:
Basic Waveform Adjustments: Opt for a square wave but tweak the pulse width to make it slightly narrower to achieve a sound similar to Moog’s square wave. Ensure your low-pass filter has a steep cutoff (24 dB).
Creating Drive Without the Drive Knob: If your synth doesn’t have a drive function, lower the volume of the higher oscillator for a softer sound and boost the low end with an EQ around 200Hz to mimic the warmth of Moog’s filter drive.
Conclusion: Bridging the Gap to “Flashlight”
Recreating the “Flashlight” sound is about understanding the synthesis techniques Bernie Worrell used and adapting those principles to your equipment. Whether you’re using a Moog, a synth like Serum, or a more basic model, focusing on waveform selection, oscillator configuration and filter manipulation will get you close to that legendary P-Funk sound. This exploration into synthesizer settings not only pays homage to “Flashlight” but also encourages creativity and experimentation in music production. The unmistakable sound of the Parliament Funkadelic Flashlight bass is a truly fantastic sound worth recreating.
James Blake’s “Retrograde” is renowned for its haunting and ethereal synth lead. This article will guide you through the process of recreating this iconic sound, providing a step-by-step approach to achieve that mesmerizing effect.
Understanding the Sound
Before diving into the creation process, it’s essential to understand what makes the “Retrograde” synth lead unique. It involves an extreme and slow bending of multiple pitches at once to create an intentionally out-of-tune sound that eventually resolves into one still-kind-of-out-of-tune sound. This intentional dissonance creates an intense tension that adds to the song’s emotional depth.
Required Synth
To recreate this sound, you’ll need a synthesizer with three oscillators, and the ability to route an envelope to those oscillators’ pitch. The envelope will also need to allow for both positive and negative modulation. Vital is a great choice. Additionally, a basic understanding of synthesis is beneficial.
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Oscillator Settings: Enable three oscillators, all with saw waves.
Filter: 24 dB Low Pass Filter. Bring the Cutoff down a little, just enough to take a bit of bright edge off the top.
Pitch Envelope: Modulate the first Oscillator’s pitch with an envelope. Set the Envelope’s Sustain to 0 so that the pitch jumps up and decays back down to the pitch you played. Adjust the modulation amount so that it jumps just the right amount. Make the Decay very slow, around 5 seconds. And if your synth allows it, give the Decay a pretty steep curve so that its descent moves faster at first and then really slows down as it approaches the Sustain.
Repeat the same thing for Oscillator 2 and 3 with one difference: use negative modulation so that the pitch jumps down and decays upward. For Oscillator 2 use just a small level of modulation amount. And for Oscillator 3, use more.
Smear and Pulsate: Tune Oscillator 1 up 10 cents, and Oscillator 3 down 10 cents. This will create a smearing, kind-of detuned sound as the pitches approach the Envelope’s sustain level.
Filter Envelope: Modulate the Filter Cutoff using the same pitch-routed envelope above (or an additional envelope with the same ADSR settings) and give it a healthy amount of negative modulation. This will start the sound dark and get brighter over time.
Amp Envelope: Lastly, swell in the sound by adding about 1 second’s worth of Attack.
Conclusion
Recreating the synth lead from James Blake’s “Retrograde” is a rewarding exercise for any synth enthusiast. It’s not just about replicating a sound but also about understanding the elements that make a sonic signature unique. With patience and experimentation, you can not only recreate this iconic sound but also apply these techniques to develop your unique patches.
In this blog, we’ll explore the steps to recreate the iconic synthesizer sound from Paul McCartney’s holiday classic, “Wonderful Christmastime.” This guide is perfect for musicians and synth enthusiasts who want to capture the essence of this festive tune.
Starting with the Saw Waveform
The journey begins with a simple saw waveform, a universal starting point for any patch.
Increasing Polyphony
Next, we switch the synthesizer to Poly mode. This allows us to play Paul’s chords, adding depth and complexity to the sound.
Changing the Waveform to Medium Pulse
To mimic the distinctive timbre of the song, we change the waveform to a pulse wave with medium pulse width. This is kind of similar to a saw waveform, but with a slightly more hollow and artificial sound, in a good way!
Adjusting the Amp Release
Make the Amp Envelope’s release a little longer. This tweak allows the notes to fade out more naturally, instead of abruptly cutting off. This gives the sound playable feel, much like you get from a traditional keyboard instrument like a piano.
Creating the “Meow” Sound
The signature “meow” shape is achieved using the filter envelope. This involves setting the cutoff to the desired endpoint, adjusting the envelope amount for the starting point, lowering the sustain so that the decay moves the cutoff down, and then shortening the decay and release parameters. The goal is to have a quick, sweeping effect. To make the sound “juicy,” we increase the resonance. This “squeezes” the filter and creates that “meow” shape.
Implementing Key Tracking
Key tracking is used to make the lower notes darker and the higher notes brighter. While you could use this sound without it, key tracking gets us closer to an exact match.
Incorporating Pulse Width Modulation
Pulse width modulation (PWM) is added to introduce movement into the sound, giving it a subtle “smear” effect. This is a subtle step that removes stiffness and adds a little life.
Softening the Attack
Slightly increasing the amplifier’s attack time softens the onset of each note, reducing the percussive element and creating an almost “compressed-like” sound.
Adding Delay
The finishing touch is the addition of delay. This effect is prominent in the original track, echoing each chord we play. Set the rate to 1/8 so that we hear an echo between each chord during the chorus.
Conclusion
By following these steps, you can recreate the unique synth sound from Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.” Each step in this process contributes to capturing the essence of this festive classic, allowing you to add a touch of holiday spirit to your own music creations. Whether you’re a fan of the song or a synth enthusiast, these techniques offer a fun way to engage with one of the most recognizable holiday tunes.
Welcome to the second installment of the Patch Remake series, where I’ll show you how I recreate patches that have been requested in the Syntorial Forum.
We’re kicking off with the sweet, sweet filtered distorted strings from “Worlds 2018 Rise” from League Of Legends, by Glitch Mob and Mako
RECIPE:
Oscillator 1: Saw. If your synth has a bowed-string-style wavetable, you can use that instead, and modulate the Wavetable Position with an LFO, to get a more string-like sound. But a Saw will get you close as well. 6-voice Unison with enough Detune to smear the sound without making its pitch wobble.
Oscillator 2: Same as Osc 1, but one octave lower, and much quieter.
Amp Envelope: To create a strong bowed-style shape, set a quick Attack around 35 ms, Sustain to halfway, very quick Decay around 10 ms, and a quick Release around 50 ms.
Distortion: Tube-style, fully cranked.
Filter: It’s important that this goes AFTER the Distortion. 24 dB Low Pass, a decent amount of Res, and bring the Cutoff down a little above halfway. You’re looking for a pretty rounded sound, but tweak until it sounds right.
Reverb: Medium size, very wet. Cut off some lows to reduce the mud.
If you want to request a patch, create a topic on our Forum!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
All right today’s patch remake is World’s 2018 Rise from league of legends made by Glitch Mob and Mako.
Here is the patch, which is this kind of like, filtered distorted string-like patch. Kind of arpeggiated.
Here’s a remake. Pretty close. You’re just going for that kind of like hard bowed, you know like a bowed string, like a cello or violin, kind of orchestral thing that’s the kind of vibe we’re going for here so, Let’s start from scratch,as always.
Here’s what it sounds like with a plain old saw. So first thing to do to get this sort of string texture is we add some unison to this and i’m actually going to go with uh more of like an analog saw.
You’d be fine to use a regular one, I just like the way this sounds. So I’m gonna to bring us up to six voice unison and this blend- just make sure all the voices are equal volume.
Gonna bring detune down,we don’t want to sound pitchy we just want to be able to hear that nice smear when you get with a bunch of stringed instruments and…
I’m going to reduce the width of the unison a little more narrow, a little more focused. And then simply because they did this in the recording,I’m going to pan it to the right a bit.
Okay now, we want the second oscillator to be the same but an octave lower. In serum’s case we can just copy oscillator A to B and then bring it down an octave. And we still want the upper one to be more noticeable, it’s kind of the primary part of the sound.
So I brought the level down of Oscillator B, so it’s just kind of just kind of like a lower layer. All right, next I’m gonna bring in some distortion, some tube distortion.
I’m going to crank it, so that gives us our dirt. Now we immediately need to filter it afterwards. In this case, for this patch, the filter makes more sense afterwards because we want the distorted sound that then has this rounding you know at the end.
And this um,this distortion effect has a filter,you can switch to post and do it here, but I couldn’t quite get the sound I wanted so instead I just put a filter at the end.
So I want a 24 db filter, make it a little brighter and then give it a little shape with res. right?
Kind of points,almost gives it sort of a vocalesque kind of vibe now to really get the string sound we need to set the amp envelope a certain way. Again we wanted this like attack bow kind of thing.
So we wanted to kind of fade in really fast with a short attack, so we’ll go like that and then to give it a kind of right that immediate sort of attack. We’re gonna kind of bring our sustain down and then give it a short decay.
Actually, before I do that let me give it some release. Okay, now right? when sustain’s all the way up, it’s kind of very almost kind of rigid but when I bring the sustain down with a fast decay, it gives me more of that “yum” that sort of bowed attack.
You can really see the shape if I zoom in, there’s kind of the beginning of the bow and this immediate spike and then a bit of a short tail for the release.
Lastly, our reverb and we want the reverb to be after the filter, so let’s move the filter here. We’re going to go with a plate, medium size.
I want to be pretty wet, I want no pre-delay in this case. Ppre-delay puts a little bit of space between the dry sound and the actual reverb. We want to blend right in, right? We want the reverb and the dry sound to happen at the same time and then use low cut to get rid of some of that low mud.
All right there it is, that’s the sound. Now, I also made a version that uh uses a sort of a string wave table sounds like this.
Gives you a bit more of an actual string vibe it’s it’s pretty similar, but this is a cello wave table it’s from this add-on pack this doesn’t come with serum but it’s it’s basically a bunch of wavetables with orchestral instruments like strings, horns, that kind of thing.
And so this was one for cello and the key is when you want to use one of these wavetables is you want to take an LFO and modulate the wave table positionso it’s constantly changing the waveform a little bit because that’s what happens with an actual sample, like an actual string sample.
It’s not this rigid waveform that’s repeating over and over again. The waveform is changing and morphing that’s what you know, a real instrument, a sample sounds like so you kind of get that vibe by having the LFO modulated.
So it’s just an option, if you want a bit more of a realistic kind of string tone but again for this patch, it’s more just about the filtering, the distortion and most importantly the amp envelope.
All right, if you like this patch remake and you want to request another one, wanna request one from your you know, that you want to hear me do, want to see me do, head over to our forum and post a topic there with a link to the YouTube video.
Also, if you’re good at doing remakes yourself, you know take a look at the forum, see what other people are requesting and see if you can help out.
In this new series, I’ll show you how I recreate patches that have been requested in the Syntorial Forum.
We’re kicking off with “So Familia” by Kahn, Commodo and Gantz, which is a fairly simple, rhodes-esque patch.
RECIPE:
Oscillator: Saw
Filter: Low Pass 24 dB, with a little Drive, and Key Tracking enabled. Bring the Cutoff down until you get the desired roundness.
Amp Envelope: Create a piano shape by bringing the Sustain down and setting the Decay and Release to medium long, around 1.2 seconds.
Velocity: Route it to volume, and play the higher repeating note louder than the lower notes. Also, if your synth allows, route the velocity to the Amp Envelope attack as well. Set the Attack to around 120 ms, and then set the Velocity modulation amount to a negative value that brings the Attack down to zero. Now, the harder notes (higher velocity) will have a sharper attack transient, and softer notes will have a softer attack transient.
NOTE: if you can’t route velocity to amp attack, instead create a second copy of the patch for the lower notes, and set their amp attack to around 120 ms.
If you want to request a patch, create a topic on our Forum!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Today’s patch remake is from “So Familia” by Khan, Commodo and Gantz it’s this kind of Rhodes-y, sort of electric piano-style patch. Here it is: And here is the remake: It’s a pretty simple patch, though there is something interesting going on with the velocity.
Let’s get the basic sound set up first let’s bring up another copy of Serum this one is from scratch Let’s bring in our filter. Now, we want the higher note to be brighter than the lower notes, and if you look at the notes you see there’s this B. It just repeats over and over again while these notes play underneath. We want that to be brighter than the others so… turn on our key tracking for the filter adjust the cut off Yeah! And now our B is a little bit brighter than those lower notes.
Next let’s get our envelope, our amp envelope shape in order so it’s kind of like a piano-style you know, fading tone but it’s got a bit of a longer fade than your average piano. So, let’s bring our sustain down and then increase our decay a little bit. Match with the release There we go. it looks shorter. And jumping back to the filter for a second, I want to increase the drive let’s bring a little warmth into this patch There we go.
Nice! Now that’s basically the tone here. Really simple patch and i love these simple patches that have a nice vibe without having to do much. However, there’s variation in it, variation of the volume and variation in the attack, so we’re going to bring in velocity for that. That’s really going to bring in this nice subtle texture that makes it less rigid-
So first off, let’s route our velocity to our volume that’s very typical and now, you’ll see if we go back to the notes over here you’ll see that all these high repeating Bs repeating b’s have a higher velocity they’re being played harder than the lower notes, which have a lower velocity. So we want this higher note to be brighter now with velocity routed to our volume, that B is really sticking out now. but along with that just louder volume, I feel like those higher notes, those higher Bs have a bit of a stronger attack, a more pointed attack transient.
So, what we can do here in Serum is, we can allow–we can route the velocity to our amp attack. So here’s how i want the lower notes to sound. I’m going to increase the amp attack. I want them to sound kind of like this All right? this little… yeah but only the lower notes I don’t want the upper notes to sound that way. So, because I’m playing the upper notes harder, I’m going to route velocity to the attack, I’m going to create negative modulation.
Okay, so what this means now, is the harder i hit the–the harder I hit the key Right? as the velocity increases my modulation amount will bring the attack down. That’s what the negative modulation amount is doing. So the harder I hit a key, the lower the attack will be. The softer I hit a key, the higher the attack will be. So those high Bs have a point on them but the lower notes kind of ease in. All right? it’s really nice So now the patch is way less rigid. You know let’s compare, actually… I’m going to bypass all the destinations. Here’s what it sounded like before Now let’s bring it back in All right? Ah! velocity really gave it some life.
Now if you have a patch request you’d like to see me remake, head over to our forum, post a topic there with the link to the youtube video also if you’re good at remaking patches like this, I could always use your help look through the forum and help other people out answer their questions and make suggestions
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Proceed with caution, lest your face be melted off.
Recipe
Oscillators: 4 oscillators total – Osc 1-3: Saw wave, 9 voice unison, with the unison detune amount turned up to where it juuuuust starts to sound a little out of tune. This detune amount will give you the aggression you’re looking for. Also max out the Unison width so we get a big wide sound. Then detune Osc 2’s overall Fine pitch down a bit, and Osc 3’s up a bit. Now you effectively have a giant 27-voice unison. FACE. MELTED. – Osc 4: White noise. Pitch it up 4 octaves and high pass it. We just want really high, hissy white noise. Also apply the same unison settings as Osc 1-3 to get a big wide sound. And dial up the volume so that it’s very audible, but blends into the other saw oscillators
Filter: High Pass, 12 dB slope. Turn up the cutoff just enough to take some of the frump off the bottom.
Amp Envelope: Bring the Sustain down pretty far, and make the Decay fast. Then bring the overall volume up to compensate for the volume lost with the low Sustain. Now we have strong attack transient.
Distortion: Dial in just a little bit of aggressive clip-style distortion. It’ll fight with the pulsating unison voices, and make it a bit angry. Don’t go over board here. Just a tad.
Reverb: Big size, pretty wet. Dampen it to remove some highs, so that only the body echos throughout the caverns.
Compression: Spire’s X-Comp knob is brilliantly simple. I just turned it up halfway and it squeezes the sound, making it even more aggressive. But any compressor will do. Just bring down the threshold until it starts to tighten up.
Can’t wait to try these out? Come over to the Patch Share forum and show us what you came up with!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
In this tutorial we’re gonna make a giant supersaw trance lead. And the key to this sound is basically just a saw wave with tons of unison. However, if you really wanna make a big, hard-hitting one, there’s a lot of subtle changes you need to make to really get that big sound.
I’m using Spire, and as you’ll see, there’s a couple reasons why it really lends itself well to this sound. But really, any synth that gives you big unison, lots of unison voices, you’ll be able to achieve it with that synth. So, let’s get started. Here we just have, good old, plain saw wave. And we’re gonna switch over to mono. One voice at a time. And, we’re gonna get right into it, unison.
So Spire gives us up to nine voices, and the more voices, the better. So, I’m gonna do all nine, as many as I can. And we’re gonna go full width. Nice wide, big sound. De-tune is key here. As you turn it up, yeah you get a more de-tuned sound, but that lends itself to kind of an aggressive tone. Listen to how it just becomes a little angry. So you can kinda dial in how much anger, how much aggression you want in the tone of your lead.
I’m gonna go right about there. Now, Spire has something unique which really helps with this and that’s this density knob, which, kind of messes around with how the different voices, in this case, all nine, how they’re spread out exactly. Right now we’re getting a very clean, uniform spread of our nine voices.
This is actually meant to emulate something called a hypersaw, which you see on the Access Virus, a famous synth. But if I crank the density, it’s gonna become a supersaw, which emulates something we saw in an old Roland, JP-8000 synth, it was a classic sound and it’s still used today because it’s this big, supersaw. Hear how aggressive and kind of messy it is? It’s that imperfect analog, versus clean hyper digital. Either one works, this is really taste, but we’re going for big, aggressive, trance, supersaw lead, so I’m gonna supersaw, full density.
Other synths will sometimes give you control over the spread, like Serum lets you really get in and dial how these things are spread out in a more complex manner. But in any case, you’re fine with either one. I just like this supersaw, ’cause of how big an aggressive it is. Now, I wanna go even bigger. But I’m maxed out at nine. So I’m gonna bring in two more oscillators with the same settings and de-tune them.
So, here’s oscillator one. I can copy, go to oscillator two, and paste. Go to oscillator three and paste again. So now, all three, one, two, and three, are both these big nine voice unison saws. I’m then gonna take oscillator two, turn it up to the same volume as one. And I’m gonna de-tune it up a little bit. Let’s just see how much. Bring in oscillator three and de-tune it down a little bit. Alright, so now we effectively have like a 27 voice, supersaw, this is a massive sound.
Now, on the top of our sound, we have that kind of washy sizzle, the shh. That’s just what happens when you put together a ton of de-tuned saws. I wanna emphasize that even more by layering some white noise. Oscillator four. And I’m gonna turn on the other oscillators for a second so you can hear this. So right now it’s a saw, switch to noise. Now, the key here is you’re gonna have to filter it separately from the other saws. And Spire gives us this built right into the oscillator itself.
If you’re using another synth, and you have like a second filter, ’cause we’re gonna need to use our main filter for something else, you can use that separate filter to shape the noise in a way I’m about to show you or you could just use a whole other copy of the synth, a whole other layer. But right now it’s low-passed. So we’re just getting this low, kinda gross round noise. We want this bright, sizzle-y top, so.
Switch to a high pass. Now we’ve got rid of the bottom and we just have the top. And this also has a big resonant peak in it, I wanna get rid of that. And it needs some width. Very nice, now. That’s kind of a rare feature as well, I see that in Spire, I don’t see noise width in a lot of synths, so, again, another key feature here. I’m gonna bring back in my other oscillators.
Now, this noise is still a little too bottom heavy. Even though it’s high-passed, I want it brighter, I want it higher. So I’m gonna pitch it up. There we go. Alright, so now we have this big, de-tuned washy sound. And this has gotta be bright and cutting, and some of these lower notes, there’s a lot of low end and body. I actually wanna remove that, so I’m just gonna grab, basic high-pass. And by default, Spire has a filter envelope, so I’m gonna get rid of that. And then I’m just gonna take off.
We don’t wanna get rid of too much of the body, we this to be a full sound, but I just wanna get rid of that big bottom. Okay, so we’ve established our sound. Now I wanna give it more bite, more impact, really drive it home. But before I do, just a quick word about our synth training app, Syntorial.
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Alright, so the first thing I wanna do is, create an attack transient, want this thing to really hit on every single note. We’re gonna use our amp envelope for that. So right now, we just have max sustain, there’s nothing really happening, it’s just on, off. So I’m gonna bring our sustain down. To about here. And, so you can hear what’s happening I’m gonna give it a long decay for a second. So you can hear, over this decay, it’s just getting quieter.
But I wanna make it faster so it creates more of a TKK on the front of the sound. So I’m gonna go right about here. And because our sustain is so low, we’ve lost a lot of our overall volume. So, bring it up. Alright, now we’ve got that spike at the front of the sound. Now I wanna make it a little angrier. I’m gonna use distortion. Lot of different distortion types here, I’m gonna go with clip. Crank our drive, and then I just wanna dial in a little bit, right? So there’s no distortion being applied, it’s fully dry right now.
It makes the noise a little bit more noticeable and it makes the saws a little angrier, a little more combative. And you can use other types of distortion. Not a huge difference in this case, but I like the clip, it’s got a bit more of a bite to it.
Next I wanna squeeze it with compression. Spire’s got this wonderful x-comp knob. It’s just a simple one-knob compressor. All this movement going on with the unison, all these voices, trying to compress that creates this really combative sound where everything is just kinda fighting and it just gets uncomfortably angry. Very nice.
You could do this with a regular compressor too, you’ll have to tweak the settings more, but the idea is that you’re forcing this moving sound to be compressed down, you’re squeezing it. Finally, this needs to be big and epic, we’re gonna use reverb for that. Gonna dial in a fair amount of wetness. I want it to be in a huge space, which a longer decay will give us. Oh yeah, we’re in a canyon, in a cavern.
Now, that’s nice, but that big, long, bright reverb kinda butts heads with the main sound. It just creates a lot of sound, it’s kinda messy. So I’m gonna dampen the reverb. It’s kinda like putting a low-pass on just the reverb. So we still get that big sound but there’s no more brightness in it so it’s not really filling up too much sound, it’s not really fighting the regular patch. And there you have it, big, supersaw trance lead.
Now, if there’s some patches you would like help with, any kinda patch, head on over to our forum at syntorial.com, and post a request there. And I or someone else will help you with it. There’s a link down in the description for that. And of course, we have a lot of videos like this on YouTube, so please subscribe.
