How do you get your synths to sound huge?
- KVRAF
- 4590 posts since 7 Jun, 2012 from Warsaw
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.
Also, the bass. Without proper bass no lead will sound huge as it should.
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Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)
Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 1780 posts since 26 Aug, 2012
kamalmanzukie wrote:
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!
Are you suggesting I simply layer brown noise?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
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.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
I dont know what this means exactly.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
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do_androids_dream do_androids_dream https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=164034
- KVRAF
- 2908 posts since 26 Oct, 2007 from Kent, UK
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.
- KVRAF
- 2110 posts since 5 Oct, 2015 from Swedish / Living in Hong Kong
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
Win 10 -64bit, CPU i7-7700K, 32Gb, Focusrite 2i2, FL-studio 20, Studio One 4, Reason 10
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- KVRAF
- 3959 posts since 10 Sep, 2010 from A shit hole (Ireland).
Um... Lots of Parallel processing and signal splitting.
Add sub + Saturation distortion + Correct EQ (has already been said).
Try layering synths together as well.
Add sub + Saturation distortion + Correct EQ (has already been said).
Try layering synths together as well.
I will take the Lord's name in vain, whenever I want. Hail Satan! And his little goblins too.
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 1780 posts since 26 Aug, 2012
I dont know what you mean by signal splitting in this caseRobmobius wrote:Um... Lots of Parallel processing and signal splitting.
Add sub + Saturation distortion + Correct EQ (has already been said).
Try layering synths together as well.
- KVRist
- 265 posts since 25 Jan, 2016 from in my DAW
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)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfm6lMgO-7o (watch the whole video, for sound listen at 22:48)
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- KVRAF
- 3959 posts since 10 Sep, 2010 from A shit hole (Ireland).
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.Kinh wrote:I dont know what you mean by signal splitting in this caseRobmobius wrote:Um... Lots of Parallel processing and signal splitting.
Add sub + Saturation distortion + Correct EQ (has already been said).
Try layering synths together as well.
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.
I will take the Lord's name in vain, whenever I want. Hail Satan! And his little goblins too.
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 1780 posts since 26 Aug, 2012
Shit, of course! Thanks, I'll try that.Robmobius wrote: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.Kinh wrote:I dont know what you mean by signal splitting in this caseRobmobius wrote:Um... Lots of Parallel processing and signal splitting.
Add sub + Saturation distortion + Correct EQ (has already been said).
Try layering synths together as well.
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.
Last edited by Kinh on Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRist
- 168 posts since 18 Oct, 2017
Interesting. My bass already sounds a lot better by cutting some low off of the lead.
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- KVRAF
- 4718 posts since 26 Nov, 2015 from Way Downunder
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!
And compress and boost the hell out of them!
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- KVRist
- 167 posts since 12 May, 2012
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 withKinh wrote:kamalmanzukie wrote:
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!Are you suggesting I simply layer brown noise?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
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.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
I dont know what this means exactly.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
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
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- KVRist
- 167 posts since 12 May, 2012
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
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
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- KVRist
- 167 posts since 12 May, 2012
here:kamalmanzukie wrote: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
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aOGuE ... q70Y8Yhut4
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 1780 posts since 26 Aug, 2012
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'.kamalmanzukie wrote:here:kamalmanzukie wrote: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
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aOGuE ... q70Y8Yhut4