Hey.

I've been struggeling alot with melodies lately and getting a "huge" house sound, such as Alesso.

They are all (almost) using Nexus 2 as a lead OR support sound.

Nexus 2 offers some really huge dance leads, and I cannot seem to get close to Nexus 2 with any other synth.

What I'm looking for is some kind of rave:ish sound like this:

http://youtu.be/wHSX7tl__WA?t=4m4s

I know how to design sounds (maybe I'm not the best, but I've read and watched ALOT, and when I say ALOT, I mean ALOT of tutorials on how sounds etc work), but when I make a huge supersaw in all of my synths, they tend to be rather weak compared to this nexus 2 synth (not volume wise).. but the synth of nexus 2 is probably layered like hell or something, because it sounds so much thicker than the sounds I'm getting.

Could anyone help me out?

I got a huge list of synths such as:

Zebra2, omnisphere, Sylenth1, Massive, FM, Reaktor5, FAW, Rob Papen Blue, etc.

I even have a Virus TI Snow (lol), which I'm not liking to use since you can do most of the stuff in other softsynths, so I'm actually trying to sell my virus at the moment.

I just feel the hardware and the fact that I have to bounce it down to audio limits my workflow.. also I'm travelling alot, then I cannot bring it with me.

I know this is a very simple sound.. most of you guys would probably just say "go youtube 'supersaw'" but that's not the case. It's thicker than the supersaws I get in any other synths.

I guess I could make these type of lead sounds in the VIRUS TI, but there must be some softsynths that come really close. I mean it's just sawwaves or square waves, alot detuned and layered etc.

But I really cannot get that "thick" huge sound that nexus 2 offers.

And I'm a MAC user and I cannot afford the nexus 2 with all its expansions (hence therefore I'm selling my VIRUS TI, I'm out of money, but not to buy nexus 2).

Help very appreciated. I am, in my own eyes, a pretty experienced sound designer, not that I'm very good at getting all the sounds that I want, but I simply know how everything works.

Thanks alot!

Hate to jump on the kvr bandwagon(not), but check out Diva.

The sound may be hyped up quite a bit for rich sounds, but it is not the least bit overrated.

Some of nexus' supersaw presets are made from 3 or 4 lead sounds. There are producers that layer 3 or 4 nexus instances for one riff or melody. Experiment with layering and octave layering with different synths.

Oops

+1
layering is one thing. use effects is another. compressing the sound makes also difference. actually many presets in N2 are based on patches from hardware like virus, triton, fantom. simply experiment and you will get there. anyway, for really solid/cutting sound add a quiet bass/subbass layer.

so getting back to this thread in desperate need of being able to get something close to nexus, and it's freaking impossible! I've tried every synth, including the VIRUS TI...

I don't know what I'm doing wrong honestly, I EQ and check out the freuqencies in a frequency analyzer/spectrum.

I've been trying to use hard sync on sawtooth and square and even tried FM synthesis and digiwaves from Logic's ES2 to achieve some grittyness, together with distortion, compression and layering other type of sounds.

For some reason I don't get the same "raveyness". These Nexus leads are really detuned, probably together with an average release and reverb/delay. I've tried to recreate a raveish synth patch in Logic's ES2 which really is a TOTALLY underrated synth. All these options and modulations!!!

Or am I using the wrong synth maybe? is the tonal characteristic of Logic's ES2 simply too weak? together with sylenth1 I've layered detune saws, some brighter, some mid and a little bit of sub/sinewaves in the bottom..

All is extremely detuned (not so it sounds false). I've also topped it with a little bit of a harsh topend lead built on hardsynced squares or saws (tried both) and mixed it right in. Then bus'ed them to a compression channel to glue them together and I've added reverb to the overall mix.

But really it sounds so much weaker and not even close to what nexus 2 has to offer. I'm probably going to buy nexus 2 anyways, becuase it's simply awsome to have as background sounds, but I'd really like to be able to make these synth patches myself. I feel utterly bad for not being able to, eventhough I know abit of sounddesign and been reading all about it, trying it out for 2 years now..

Suggestions? please.

sylenth should get you very close to any of those sounds my friend

It really isn't half as strong as the nexus presets.. care to upload so I get what you mean? because I've tried everything in sylenth..

the main deal in making those "powerful" synths is effects. Sylenth gets you the basic sound, but effects processing adds the rest of the "flavor". The waves jjp plugins and vintage EQ's work magic for me when making big synths. Also, some subtle white noise can help add power.

Great tips!

I guess the processing outside of the plugin is the problem for me, and always have been. I've been trying to apply all types of effects such as chorus, reverb, eq, distortion, filtering, compression, etc.

Do you have any other good processing tips here?

Also, what Waves JJP plugins are you using for what sounds? there are so many of them!

Waves jjp bass works amazingly on ripping or deep saw basses, and strangely enough, I find that the jjp guitars works wonders on the high end frequencies of big room synths in my opinion.

if you want to see examples of some of the synths I made from sylenth even before I got the waves jjp guitars or bass plugins, check out my soundcloud (in my signature)

So that's one of my personal effects that I like to use. Also, check out multiband compressors (a great tool for compressing frequencies you want and leaving those that you want un-compressed as they are), flangers, chorus (as you noted earlier, but make sure it's subtle), and ohmicide is also great for really adding flavor to your sounds. Cheers!

I think I got pretty close with this: https://www.box.com/s/5e48c1b07231899cafed

2 instances of Synth1, each with osc1 detune set to about 10 o'clock, and 2 voice unison with detune. The only thing that's different is that one instance is an octave higher than the other. The thing that made it "scream," though, is that I added some external saturation afterwards. And also there was some external delay.