How to make darkpsy hi-tech FM leads

[pablosn]

As a reference this two leads are what im trying to achieve:

At 02:32 and 16:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P31ktEfGgzU

I have FM8 and i got some basic template but is nowhere near these two leads.
Any advice?
Also what kind of effects are used to achieve that metallic sound on the first one?

[PurpleSunray]

Basic synth setup:
2 OSC, start with saw on on both (play around with waveforms later on to create more interesting sounds)
-2/-3 or -4 oct detune on OSC 1
Module frequency of OCS2 with OSC1
Low-pass it, with some resonance and overdrive. Play with cutoff to find a sweet spot
High-pass it to get rid of the low-freqency stuff you don't want to hear
Distort and/or saturize

PM me if you want to have a preset to see how it's done (don't have FM8, but maybe we find one which we both own )

> Also what kind of effects are used to achieve that metallic sound on the first one?
I do it with digital overdrive on the LP filter, but there are lot of other ways to achieve the same (you need something that brings clipping-like-distortion .. you want 'sharp edges' on the waveform to bring that high-freq-metallic feeling)

[pablosn]

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Ok people, i got a lot of help from PurpleSunray through PMs and i got to achieve the sound i wanted.
Here is a preset for Albino 3 vsti by him.

hey bro =)
Here you have a patch for albino 3:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y64qntr8c8cw6 ... 2.FXP?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/y64qntr8c8cw66j/zpm_fm2.FXP?dl=0)

It uses a spectral wave on osc1 do bring the 'brightness' (albino lacks overdive distoration so this waveform is for metalic-sound, try others or morph it ).
There is no FM between the OSCs, but the freq-modulation is done with the arrpegio+env to gain more control:
The ARP is on 1/64, so you get a re-trigger every 1/64 bar.
Mod envelope is routed to main pitch, so ths means that every 1/64 bar the envelope triggers and decay brings the pitch down.
LFO1+3 are free-run and mod the pitch as well to bring more variation into the FM. If the patch sound 'out-of-tune' try chaning drive of LFO1 on main pitch.
LFO4 modulates the HP filter cutoff, so you don't need to find a sweep spot.. the lof modulates it anyhow HP filter saturation is on max (very important!´),
That's it already.. let me know if you need anymore help

~ peace~

[onkelmonokel]

First of all; thank you PurpleSunray for the thorough explanation!
I am currently working on learning how to produce Hi-Tech. It's been a love-child of mine since I heard the power of Noise-Poison.
I'm getting closer to my goal of understanding it the more I try, but what I'm really struggling with is getting the leads to sound as mindblowing as I want them to.
I've been learning from scratch by listening to the structure of songs and DJing for several years, and I have a fairly good grasp of the other parts.
I'm starting to get the hang of the construction and sound picture of FM-synths, but I find it really hard to make good sequences.
Would you have any pro-tips to better understand how leads are built up?
Do I tweak the same synth or do I alternate between a few?
Are there any good effect-plugins that would make the learning of leads easier?
This song for example, paints a good picture of what I want to achieve.
It blows my mind; and it would blow my mind even more to be able to play anything remotely close to it live.
I've set my mind on it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYky3dTtXHU

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
Bless.

[PurpleSunray]

First of all; thank you PurpleSunray for the thorough explanation!
I am currently working on learning how to produce Hi-Tech. It's been a love-child of mine since I heard the power of Noise-Poison.
I'm getting closer to my goal of understanding it the more I try, but what I'm really struggling with is getting the leads to sound as mindblowing as I want them to.
I've been learning from scratch by listening to the structure of songs and DJing for several years, and I have a fairly good grasp of the other parts.
I'm starting to get the hang of the construction and sound picture of FM-synths, but I find it really hard to make good sequences.
Would you have any pro-tips to better understand how leads are built up?
Do I tweak the same synth or do I alternate between a few?
Are there any good effect-plugins that would make the learning of leads easier?
This song for example, paints a good picture of what I want to achieve.
It blows my mind; and it would blow my mind even more to be able to play anything remotely close to it live.
I've set my mind on it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYky3dTtXHU

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
Bless.

Well, there is no real "that's how it's done!".
Dark / hi-tech psy are quite experimental genres, there is no "right" or "wrong".. experiment with synths and if its sounds good to your ears, that's the way to go

Building lead sounds comes back to what I have just written.
That's how I build it:
1) Build bassline an a drumtrack and it give some groove.
Should sound good own it's own already. If you are able to dance to a solo bassline+drums already, it makes it soo much easier to put leads on top
Copy & past into 64 bars and run it on a loop.
2) Setup a couple of synth patches you like. i.e. a saw-FMs, a low pitch sine-fm, a high pitch sine-fm and some psytrance-style squelch
3) Select one of the synths and rhythmically hammer onto your midi keyboard. #3 or #4 octave of the basenote usually fits best.. but you are creating psy, no opera, so musical scales are kind of guidelines.. no strict rules
4) Record / resample the synth lane you played on 3
6) Play the record again and listen for any sequences, notes, or 'microtones' you like. Copy the things you like into a new lane and delete the stuff you don't like.
7) Arrange and process the nice-sounding pieces. Create patterns at 1/64 bar resolution to get those fast-firing sounds, decreasing resolution to get slower leads.
After you copied/pasted/cuted a basic pattern, FX process it. Use delays, filters, distortion effect, ... whatever you like.
Record / resample the result into a new lane and start over with 6 again.
Repeat until you are happy with what you hear.
8 ) Do 3-7 again for the other synths prepared on 2

So.. summary:
Play a synth -> resample -> arrange -> fx -> resample -> arrange -> fx -> reample -> arrange -> fx .... until:

[chaosWyrM]

this question comes up quite a bit

i realize youre asking about the squelchy fm type leads. theres another way to make hi-tech leads however (that produces more interesting results IMO) that doesnt require any synths at all.

what you do is take just about any audio clip, seriously...almost anything will work.

isolate a very small part of it and copy it....so you have very short burst of sound.

copy and paste that in a pattern you like

go back and pitch it up and down to your liking.

done.

its a super easy way to make those fast staccato leads and they wont sound like you lifted them from a million other darkpsy/hi tech tracks.

again i understand its not what you were specifically asking about...im just offering another tool to try out.

not your typical darkpsy track (or maybe it is...i dont know)...but i used that exact technique in this track if you want to hear it in action (skip to 2:15 if you dont want to wait):

http://soundcloud.com/chaoswyrm/a-praye ... -omnissiah

[DJ Warmonger]

what you do is take just about any audio clip, seriously...almost anything will work.

isolate a very small part of it and copy it....so you have very short burst of sound.

I was also thinking about making that with Serum (this is what it's for, after all). Now I know how it would sound like

[chaosWyrM]

Now I know how it would sound like

lol...is that good or bad?