Ok so as it's about psytrance, not "EDM" I can add a bit more as I have few years on that scene in my portfolio.recursive one wrote:Supersaw is just an exemplary sound evrybody knows.wagtunes wrote:Well you see, and again, you've got basically two things that make up EDM.recursive one wrote:I actually think you may have a point here. Probably I'm imagining things and overstate the importance of "sound character". Maybe I'm not getting many relevant responses becuase the question actually doesn't have a relevant responsewagtunes wrote: I think the problem is with the original question itself.
Define suitable.
Anyway, when I'm listening to my favourite tracks and the sounds they are using, I'm not actually sure Synth1 would easily cut it.
1. The beat and overall vibe.
2. The sounds.
Which is more important? Think about it. You can replace 2 with just about anything. But if you take 1 away, it's absolutely no longer EDM.
I may not be a musical Einstein but I'm smart enough to have figured out over the course of these many years that the driving force behind EDM is kick, 2, 3, 4.
Take that away and it doesn't matter what kind of sounds you're using.
I mean seriously, is it an absolute MUST that you have a supersaw in an EDM track? No one has ever made a good EDM track without a supersaw? I would find that very hard to believe.
Actually the kind of music I'm interested the most and try to make myself is rather something like this. I guess such music is not what you perosnally can enjoy, but you will probably agree that the sounds do matter here (yes, it does have some supersaws, among tons of the other sounds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DY6av9zPNg
Or this, that's an old track it was made before Spire and Serum even appeared (2004 I think)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thi2FXdFkfM
And it's 2018 reincarnation. Well, its does show that copy/paste problem, the artist is using the same samples and sounds over more than a decade, but it's the epitome of fatness and punch. Do that with your Synth1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD4NmnlziRA
First of all you check guy named Artha and say what you think. He's more into oldschool but it's my friend so I can tell you that he's using Synth1, Ableton and nothing really fancy. His synth patches are also very basic (as he told me). https://youtu.be/iputLM6fUwI
I was more into psytrance like Electric Universe (you can look out for Alien Bug but my latest track is from 2012, I hadn't skills then that I have now so be aware that some tracks really suck
). "Eschaton" and "Gates to oblivion" is more like Electric Universe, also first one include some Dubstep sounds (it was also mentioned in this topic 
)That kind of sounds are actually pretty simple: 2x detuned saw waves, bp filter + lfo + distortion (here you should go wild) + reverb/delay. Also use envelopes for for pitch changes per note. Any synth can be used here as you'll hit it with saturators, modulators and reverbs to make it big sounding. Saturator is your friend in psytrance. Put it everywhere, double!
Same for Delay, don't be shy, go crazy with them.The synth that was easily "fat" was z3ta, I remember that when I put it on track together with Reaktor and other synths, all of them sounded thin in comparison to z3ta. And of course the same processing goes to all of them so it means something. Unfortunately it's not available anymore beside second hand from time to time (also z3ta 2). tbh I have a lot of synths. I don't need more and still I want to get z3ta 2 (more than Serum).
I see that other synths were mentioned so no need to repeat same thing.
At this moment when I'm thinking about "fat synth straight out of the box" it's: z3ta, Repro 1&5 (useful for sfx and pads in psytrance but not much for leads), Monark, Retrologue.
To fatten synths up, send it to aux/send channel. Add plugin like Doubler, Chorus, Detune, that kind of effect. You can do another aux channel and then pan them left/right. Mix with original synth to taste.
Similar principle for bass, but you have to filter out low end on aux channels. Keep low end mono.
Alright that's all what's on my mind now. Maybe more tricks will come to my mind later
