Hi everyone,

I make house music but I will be honest in that I am not very good at sound design/synthesis so I am struggling to get the sound I am looking for. I can't find any presets in sample packs etc.

Does anyone know how to get a synth sound similar to the below?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D27tAs-7o-0 (Bicep - $tripper)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uJa56ZKOfU (New Jack City - Just Love It)

Are they all using the same synth or something? I hear this sound a lot but I just cannot find it!!

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Give me a shout if you want some more examples.

Much love,

Lawrence[/url]

for that oldschool 90's house sound, you could go with a 909 (for sample pack I prefer the goldbaby ones) and a korg m1 (there is a vst version) for those organ-like stabs (try using minor7 chords)

Exactly. These are the classic House machines. I'd only add the Yamaha DX-7, for the organ part. Play with envelope and filtering and you'll get something similar.

There's tons of sample packs for these machines on the internet. Google it.

Awesome, thanks!

Do you have any idea of good chords? I know minor 7's etc but any specifics?

With regards to sample packs, I know you are probably right in saying there are loads on the internet but I struggle to find them! Are they particular instruments, i.e. organs, rhodes?

They synths mentioned are enough for this kind of House.

- TR-909 for drums. The Bicep track uses it.
- Korg M1 for classic House piano. Check out Madonna's "Vogue"
- Yamaha DX-7. The organ patch was used a lot too. Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" comes to mind.

Try to Google them again, and I'm sure you'll find something.

Regarding to chords... most dance music is writing in minor scales. Someone posted a link some threads ago, talking about the favourite ones. I'll try to find it when I'm at home, but I'm sure someone will pop up with it in the meantime

Thanks!

I bought the M1 last night. Love it!

With regards to the synth sound, what do you think they have done to it to get it like that? I know it sounds filtered. I just think maybe I'm trying to find the perfect ready made preset when actually an organ/rhodes is the basic sound but then there is some processing etc involved to get it to how it sounds.

Some more examples are below... (I'm at work so can't YouTube I'm afraid)

Polkadot - Wasn't Like That

Bodhi - Deliquesce

Dale Howard - You Can

These are more 'modern' takes on it but it still has that vibe.

I would appreciate it if you listen to those (especially Dale Howard) as this is the vibe I'm going for!

Thanks again!

I listen to Bicep a lot. There's also other mainstream producers making this exact kind of House like Azari & III, Tensnake and Maya Jane Coles. The Dale Howard track follows these exact "rules".

Generally, these are sampled low pitch chords. This is a legacy from old samplers I guess. They'd sample a single chord, spread it across the keyboard, and didn't care about scales or so. The sampler's limitations gaves these sounds the lo-fi feel, which these new producers try to emulate.

For effects, try low pass filitering with some flanger or LFO. And short envelopes. Rhodes sounds are perfect to this task too.

I'd suggest you to mess around your gear/samples and see what works. I really don't see anything special about these sounds (of course they're good productions and has lots of groove, something modern EDM producers don't care too much). The thing here is: study the tracks and try to reproduce them, in order to get used to the style cliches. Yes, there's nothing wrong in copy the tracks you like so you'll find your own style.

Check out this guy. He's doing the exact same kind of new-oldskool House:

http://soundcloud.com/alexlister

Are you searching for samples or instruments? You could try the 4Front R-piano. It's a simple and free VST.

Soundexamples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdWIDR7_Tsk

Download here:
http://www.yohng.com/software/rpiano.html

And filter it and/or do some eq tweaks...

Thanks everyone!

This really has given me a good insight into this style!

You mention about them sampling chords and spreading them across the keyboard. Are artists like bicep still doing this or are they creating the sound and then programming proper chord progressions on the piano roll?

In the ESX24 in Logic, there are some examples of this I think, which actually are quite a similar vibe.

gaf_thit, I guess I am looking for either. I'll check out the piano you suggested.

Being honest, I do think I need to experiment more etc. I am kind of hoping I find the prefect preset and then I can just prog in chords but I doubt most proper producers do this?

Cheers

Oh my! That Alex Lister guy is awesome!

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about!!

well on the sampling: there is no need to do it if you are working in the box, since you can load as many instances of a sampler/synth as you want (or 'til you run out of cpu), but it might be a workflow you like, so give it a try...

I personaly don't do it too often, but it's sometimes great to go back to limiting yourself to working with just that one sampled chord and see what you can come up with. Plus, if you need to, you can always go back, reload the instrument and make adjustments so def. worth a try

If you are looking for presets to get you that sound, just going through those original dx7, tx81z, m1 etc synhts should give you a blast from the past right away so if you're not into (re)creating too much, that might be a good start

Here it is in case anyone's still interested:

http://lostinmusik.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/is-there-a-corre ct-key-to-write-dance-music-in-the-short-answer-is-yes/

The Lister stuff sounds more like garage rather than old school house.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAFqulfIq_I

Original style 1992

Thanks for passing on Link, very informative