4Hero sound pallette

[5:30]

Hi

I'm a relative newbie and I was wondering if anyone knew how to get some of the bass and synth sounds on the latest 4Hero album 'Play with the changes'. I'm specifically interested in the song 'Take my time', which gets really "electronicy" in the chorus.

I'm just wondering what synths they used, and what vsts/settings I can use to recreate that sort of sound.

Sorry I cant post an audio example.

P.s could anyone point me in the right direction if I want to create that Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones feel (circa Off The Wall).

Thanks in advance

[afreshcupofjoe]

From what I've listened to on that album it pretty much runs the whole gamut of diverse production techniques. It seems to be a combination of sampled breaks and one shots from old vinyl, 808/909 and other drum machine samples, various synths and romplers, mixed with a lot of live instrumentation. The bass especially seems to be mostly played live rather than sampled for most of the stuff I heard. There is no one instrument that I could recommend that would really be best. A rompler or sample library like Steinberg Hypersonic2, Sonik Synth, Sampletank XL2, or Luxonix Purity/Ravity would probably be a good place to start because they offer such a wide variety of premade sounds, but anything is fair game.

[jrs1]

Whenever I'm trying to recreate synth sounds I usually start with a subtractive synth, and listen to the timbre of the sound.

'Take my time' sounds a touch 80s, so maybe the synths used on that are FM synths. Though I'd say just have a play round with a subtractive synth, as they're easy and fun! Either that or go preset surfing through all the synths you have.

If you wanted me to have a go at recreating some specific examples I could do.

oh here's an excerpt of 'take my time'. First the original plays, then just the 'sides' then just the 'middle'.
What I can hear in 'take your time' (quick listen/analysis:)
-Bass: Sawtooth with some square, FM or Subtractive.
-real guitar: real guitar/sample
-Fake Brass: 'rompler' brass preset.
-Chords / Pads: subtr sunth, saw & square. Maybe two different patches, one with a low frequency cut-off, one with a higher (you can hear the upper end of the square-ish sound). OR the filter sweeps down.


hope that helps

[5:30]

Thanks for your replies, They've helped a lot. I'll try to use them as a starting point and see how it goes. As far as the advice on romplers goes, I already have Sampletank but dont think it fits this sound and have trouble making it sound 'full' enough. I have tried "preset surfing" but I've always found it quite dificult as the sounds never sound quite as lush individually.

Also, thanks for the synth advice jrs1 I'll definitely give those tips a try as I'm really looking to create that 80's Michael Jackson sound (just a much harder version).

Thanks for the quick listen/analysis, its exactly what I neeed.

Time for me to get back to some more 'trial and error' I think.