How do you get your synths to sound huge?

[DJ Warmonger]

Correct EQ makes day and night difference for me. Otherwise, various processing tricks don't cut it.

Also, the bass. Without proper bass no lead will sound huge as it should.

[Kinh]

have you tried: drift (low amplitude fm with brown (-6 db per octave so most 1 pole with cutoff at 0 hz fed white noise get you real close) noise

50 cycle hum is in all electronic devices at a low level. its a sine wave with weak harmonics. its a subtle thing but i think is one of the main things missing to get a good emulation. i even tried 60 hz first but found that 50 actually sounded better and makes more musical sense for most keys. also most emulations dont account for slightly colored high frequency noise which will be present in any circuit in whatever flavor occasioned by its constitution


lowpss filter with zdf and 'infinite linear interpolation' taming the aliasing in the tanh saturation goes a really long way too. there's reaktor and flowstone patches that exist, as well as published paper about it

that's what i did, and my now softsynth game is unassailable, immune to all criticism!

have you tried: drift (low amplitude fm with brown (-6 db per octave so most 1 pole with cutoff at 0 hz fed white noise get you real close) noise

Are you suggesting I simply layer brown noise?

50 cycle hum is in all electronic devices at a low level. its a sine wave with weak harmonics. its a subtle thing but i think is one of the main things missing to get a good emulation. i even tried 60 hz first but found that 50 actually sounded better and makes more musical sense for most keys. also most emulations dont account for slightly colored high frequency noise which will be present in any circuit in whatever flavor occasioned by its constitution

How does one emulate this? Are you talking about adding a signal or filtering a synth through something? The plugins out there are designed to eliminate this sort of thing.

lowpss filter with zdf and 'infinite linear interpolation' taming the aliasing in the tanh saturation goes a really long way too. there's reaktor and flowstone patches that exist, as well as published paper about it

I dont know what this means exactly.

[do_androids_dream]

Don't stress. It's your mixing chops. Make track after track after track without spending too much time worrying about this particular 'problem' each time. You will get there - but there's absolutely no short cuts in music making - it's experience and repetition of techniques, tweaking those techniques, adding in a new bit of info etc. that wins out. Try all the techniques mentioned here - watch loads of youtube stuff - you'll pick it all up eventually.

[ATN69]

Big speakers On a serious note I find that layering, using paining and mid/side processing will help to give huge sounds like pads and plucks

[Robmobius]

Um... Lots of Parallel processing and signal splitting.

Add sub + Saturation distortion + Correct EQ (has already been said).

Try layering synths together as well.

[Kinh]

Um... Lots of Parallel processing and signal splitting.

Add sub + Saturation distortion + Correct EQ (has already been said).

Try layering synths together as well.

I dont know what you mean by signal splitting in this case

[tedannemann]

I think a lot of the "hugeness" is based one the chord "voicings" alone. Just search on YouTube for "How To Make Future Bass Chords" or "How To Make Flume Synths" and so on. Translate your triads into layered, more complex voicings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfm6lMgO-7o (watch the whole video, for sound listen at 22:48)

[Robmobius]

Um... Lots of Parallel processing and signal splitting.

Add sub + Saturation distortion + Correct EQ (has already been said).

Try layering synths together as well.

I dont know what you mean by signal splitting in this case

Well... Basically, send the mids (and tops) out into their own bus. So you can process them separately from the low end and then add your extra chorus, distortion, stereo spread, etc. while leaving the bass end mono and intact. You don't really want too much happening on the low end other than some saturation or something.

But if you are going to add a sub then you really don't want anything from the synth to interfere with that it. So you'd EQ out that low end of the synth (or where it would conflict). Generally, you want everything below 250 hz to be in mono.

[Kinh]

Um... Lots of Parallel processing and signal splitting.

Add sub + Saturation distortion + Correct EQ (has already been said).

Try layering synths together as well.

I dont know what you mean by signal splitting in this case

Well... Basically, send the mids (and tops) out into their own bus. So you can process them separately from the low end and then add your extra chorus, distortion, stereo spread, etc. while leaving the bass end mono and intact. You don't really want too much happening on the low end other than some saturation or something.

But if you are going to add a sub then you really don't want anything from the synth to interfere with that it. So you'd EQ out that low end of the synth (or where it would conflict). Generally, you want everything below 250 hz to be in mono.

Shit, of course! Thanks, I'll try that.

[Woodgardens]

Interesting. My bass already sounds a lot better by cutting some low off of the lead.

[MogwaiBoy]

Use sawtooth waves if you reall want to fill out the sound and command the ear.


And compress and boost the hell out of them!

[kamalmanzukie]

have you tried: drift (low amplitude fm with brown (-6 db per octave so most 1 pole with cutoff at 0 hz fed white noise get you real close) noise

50 cycle hum is in all electronic devices at a low level. its a sine wave with weak harmonics. its a subtle thing but i think is one of the main things missing to get a good emulation. i even tried 60 hz first but found that 50 actually sounded better and makes more musical sense for most keys. also most emulations dont account for slightly colored high frequency noise which will be present in any circuit in whatever flavor occasioned by its constitution


lowpss filter with zdf and 'infinite linear interpolation' taming the aliasing in the tanh saturation goes a really long way too. there's reaktor and flowstone patches that exist, as well as published paper about it

that's what i did, and my now softsynth game is unassailable, immune to all criticism!

have you tried: drift (low amplitude fm with brown (-6 db per octave so most 1 pole with cutoff at 0 hz fed white noise get you real close) noise

Are you suggesting I simply layer brown noise?

50 cycle hum is in all electronic devices at a low level. its a sine wave with weak harmonics. its a subtle thing but i think is one of the main things missing to get a good emulation. i even tried 60 hz first but found that 50 actually sounded better and makes more musical sense for most keys. also most emulations dont account for slightly colored high frequency noise which will be present in any circuit in whatever flavor occasioned by its constitution

How does one emulate this? Are you talking about adding a signal or filtering a synth through something? The plugins out there are designed to eliminate this sort of thing.

lowpss filter with zdf and 'infinite linear interpolation' taming the aliasing in the tanh saturation goes a really long way too. there's reaktor and flowstone patches that exist, as well as published paper about it

I dont know what this means exactly.

sorry, the things i'm suggesting are probably more synth design methods than general tips. its all stuff to try to get the signal to behave more like a real analog. if you use any kind of modular softsynths this sort of thing is possible. or anything that accepts frequency modulation. the basic idea is analog has a lot of weak subtle things acting on it that give it a very pleasing character. so what i am talking about is modulating the frequency of your oscillators with

A) 50 hz waveform that is very close to a sine wave but still with weak harmonics. its known as parabol waveform (you could use a sine and a waveshaper)
B)the brown noise which is extremely low frequency
C)some higher order noise as well to act like bleed

the point is to make this modulation extremely weak, though. more around the level of the noise floor of recording equiptment. maybe a bit more. when two separate oscillators are played together they wont be boringly perfectly in tune, they'll breathe its really makes a profound difference

[kamalmanzukie]

actually ill make it easy for you. heres all of that edited together. its cherrypicked from half a dozen files, with only the parts considered the most beneficial added in. certified fair trade, GMO as hell

if you can get this weakly modulating the frequency of whatever you use (1.5 hz at most + or - at most) i think you'll find some of the mojo you're after

[kamalmanzukie]

actually ill make it easy for you. heres all of that edited together. its cherrypicked from half a dozen files, with only the parts considered the most beneficial added in. certified fair trade, GMO as hell

if you can get this weakly modulating the frequency of whatever you use (1.5 hz at most + or - at most) i think you'll find some of the mojo you're after

here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aOGuE ... q70Y8Yhut4

[Kinh]

actually ill make it easy for you. heres all of that edited together. its cherrypicked from half a dozen files, with only the parts considered the most beneficial added in. certified fair trade, GMO as hell

if you can get this weakly modulating the frequency of whatever you use (1.5 hz at most + or - at most) i think you'll find some of the mojo you're after

here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aOGuE ... q70Y8Yhut4

I'm no sound designer. So can you tell me what do I need to learn or do to accomplish what you're suggesting. I get the basics of what you're saying which is use a special type of wave form to modulate the frequency of the oscillator. I have FM8 and Reaktor6. Modular synthesis is uncharted territory for me and FM8, as far as I know you have a frequency offset to modulate which has a ratio, both of which are controlled by an 'amount'.