Tycho Lead Sounds

[Syncretia]

Anyone who listens to Tycho will know the warm analog sound that features in nearly all of his songs. It is very prominent on his album latest album Dive. Of course, he uses different synths on different tracks but nearly all of his leads have the same characteristics. Unfortunately, he uses lots of old school analog synths so I will never be able to recreate the sounds exactly.

My guess is that he uses a lot of reverb, a bit of delay, and there is a bit of detuning going on. But, I haven't really come up with an instrument or patch that sounds like his sound yet.

[stillshaded]

I've haven't heard his newest stuff butt I'm familiar with his sound in general. I think you'd be surprised at how much easier it would be to get that sound with an analog synth. When I got my mks-50 I instantly got those sine-ish key sounds that I'd been trying to get with a plugin.

Not sure exactly what you're going for but a lot of the synth sounds he uses have the filter cutoff being tracked by the keyboard. Most synths have this setting. It allows you to make each note have the same harmonic 'signature'. Without it the filter cutoff will be static and resonate a particular point on the frequency spectrum regardless of where you play on the keyboard.. hope that helps.. don't know if that made any sense

[allcentury]

got to meet & know tycho for a bit, but i really only know his work from 'the past is prologue' almost all of those sounds were samples or from his virus indigo

[Syncretia]

Interesting. His sound between Past Is Prologue and Diva are very similar. Although I personally find the sounds on the new album deeper and richer. Recently, I read an article about his collection of analog synths. It's strange though because he basically uses the same sound slightly modified for most of his songs.

I haven't really gotten the exact sound but I'm getting close by editing a preset called HS Reed Pressue. I take that preset, make the first osc a "Quad" voice, and detune it, add another osc which I believe to be a triangle but I'm not sure exactly because Zebra is funny. Then I increase the delay a bit and boost the EQ at 300 hz a fair bit. It definitely creates a Tychoesque sound.

[domkane]

there's nothing an analogue sound-generator can do that digital can't replicate.

[Syncretia]

there's nothing an analogue sound-generator can do that digital can't replicate.

Um....

Digital synths are getting better but I wouldn't say that just yet.

Anyway, this is about recreating a particular analog sound. I've gotten something along the lines of Tycho's sound, but it's far from being a replication.

[domkane]

OK, can you post a link to a specific example of the "analogue" sound that you're after? I'll see what I can do when I get a moment.

[Zloin]

I would like to know how he achieved this sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mehLx_Fjv_c

the warm synth at the beginning. and it seems as the higher the notes, the "fuzzier" the sound. i have absolutely no doubt how to achieve a sound like this. any ideas?

i'm using reason 5 - preferably with the Thor Synthesizer

[domkane]

I don't use Reason, but is Thor an FM synth? If so, you should be able to do it fairly easily. Sounds to me that saturation you talk of isn't actually pitch-related, but more velocity-related... I just so happens that a lot of the higher notes they play are being hit harder (higher velocity).

To experiment, have a look through the Thor presets and see if there's one that sounds like a (or called) Vibraphone and start playing with that, and run it through some gentle saturation.

[deastman]

Just sounds like a touch of distortion on the sound, the louder it gets.

Thor is a semi-modular synth in Reason. I haven't used it myself, as I gave up on Reason with the previous version before it was introduced. Still, it should be easy enough to reproduce.

Sounds like a filtered, detuned sawtooth oscillator, with keyboard tracking on the cutoff frequency and a slight bit of a slow attack on the filter envelope. I wasn't paying close attention, but I think it was a monophonic, legato sound with a bit of portamento. Add a saturation effect and adjust to taste.

[Zloin]

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hey folks!


I spend quite some time experimenting and came up with a lead synth which is far more similiar to Tychos song 'Dive' than the discussed 'A Walk'.

Maybe you can give some feedback to a electro-newbie? I would be very glad about it.

The original leadsynth starts at 4:00: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKZBrc4VCRQ

Now what I came up with: http://files.pixelprojects.ch/tycholead.wav
And here a screenshot of the Thor (Reason 5): http://files.pixelprojects.ch/tycholead.jpg (http://files.pixelprojects.ch/tycholead.jpg)

Basically I've taken 2 analog oscillators, one with sawtooth waveform and a sine waveform, detuned them, routed both through an LP 24 filter (740 Hz with quite a bit of drive). After that I took a "saturate shaper" to give the sound more texture. The LFO 1 with egded (?) sine wave controlls the AMP gain with a 1/4 tempo synch beat. The last thing I added was a little bit of delay.

Thats at least what I've heard out of the song. Maybe you have some great inputs?

[TheMollusk]

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old post but i felt like taking on the challenge.

so here it is, as close as i can get to tycho's sounds, without spending ages!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/836 ... ycho_2.mp3

(Please Ignore the crappy sine baseline, i made this in 15 mins)

ok first bar is copied from Dive - Daydream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFr9StkVwTk

its made with Rhodes

effects chain is:
Reverb
Vibrato (slow sweep time, low range)
Vibrato (slow sweep time, low range slightly diffident values)
EQ (High & Low Cut)
Compressor
EQ (for touching up)

Second Bar is copied from Dive - A Walk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mehLx_Fjv_c

sine wave with high sustain and some release

Effects Chain is:
Reverb
Compressor
wave shaper (Cyanide2)
EQ (Mid Boost)
Reverb
EQ (Low Boost)

also added a random paper scratching sample because Tycho uses that sorta shit constantly!

it may not be something you care about anymore but it was a fun!

http://soundcloud.com/themollusk
http://www.myspace.com/themolluskband (http://www.myspace.com/themolluskband)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mollu ... 9444318641

[sazema]

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This lead/key sound is nothing less then a sound of any Boards of Canada detuned sound.
It's very easy to create it with any synth.
Here is a quick made preset for Sylenth synth.
Just play with:

- lfo on detune
- adsr envelope for more lead or more key sound

http://ge.tt/api/1/files/5O122yT/0/blob?download (http://ge.tt/api/1/files/5O122yT/0/blob?download)

cheers

[quayquay17]

Check out phonec

[allcentury]

i take it no one has seen him live. His set up is pretty simple, he typically plays an electric guitar through the FX section of his Virus TI / Virus Indigo.

Almost ALL of his sounds on Past is Prologue were done on the virus and or the guitar thru the virus.