Best Way to Design & Record the Multiple Layers of a Composite Sound?
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Hi, I'm recreating this song & am about to tackle the lead stab that starts at 0:27.
Now, there are about five to six musical voices that make up this composite sound - all using different notes to harmonize it & at varying volumes. I for sure have the notes correctly transcribed, but now I'm wondering how to go about realizing each layer of the sound. I initially loaded every layer as one MIDI file a la a chord into my main synth (Synth1) & it came out sounding like a brick.
I'm thinking I may have to run one instance of the synth for each layer. If so, any recommendation on a process before I go full force? I'm imagining it'd be something like:
1) Create the patch for a single note of the layer
2) Copy & paste this in a new instance of the synth for each note in the layer
3) Adjust the volumes accordingly as they appear in the track
Am I thinking of this right or is there a better way to approach this thing? Any insight is appreciated! Thank you.
Zane Shaw
4 years ago
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2 votes
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Sound Design Help
Thank you Joe! This has gotten me a lot closer. I'm excited to hear the end result once all the mixing is done - thanks so much for your help.
0 4 years ago Reply
A few important elements are missing. Try starting with this:
Oscillator: Saw. Use two oscillators and detune them about 6 cents apart. You can play with the amount until you find a sound you like. This will take away the stiffness of the tone, give it some movement, and smear it a bit.
Filter: Low Pass. Turn the cutoff down until you take off a small portion of the brightness. Give it a decent amount of resonance. Then modulate it with a...
Filter Envelope: Sustain all the way down, and decay around 3500 ms. Then turn the envelope amount up just a bit. This will create that "eeow" shape. You'll have to play around with the Cutoff, Resonance, and Envelope Amount settings to get it just right.
LFO: Modulate the pitch just a little bit, with a fast triangle wave. You want to just add a subtle wobble effect.
0 4 years ago Reply
Thanks for the response Joe!
Preface: admittedly, I've only gone up to module 8 in Syntorial so far - my computer died on me afterwards and I haven't been able to get a replacement yet; I've been getting synth practice in by using a portable version of Reaper and the local library's computer.
I tried both methods of realizing this: having every voice in a single synth and having an instance of the synth for each voice. They appear in this order in the audio file attached below.
I'm familiar with timbral concepts from doing songwriting, but the issues that arise with synths and production are completely new to me. Turns out the 'brick' problem was solved by separating each voice in the sound from each other by a few ms - I'm guessing the transients lining up exactly made it sound one-dimensional. I also added an exciter to both versions (only to the top melody line in the one-synth-for-each-voice version) as I couldn't get the right brightness otherwise.
What am I missing animation-wise in the patch? Mine is still so dead and unlively compared to the original track. And even with an exciter, I don't have that top-end 'resonance' that the original has.
0 4 years ago Reply
I think your first approach, playing a chord with one instance of the synth, is the right way to go. If it didn't sound right, it's most likely due to how the patch was programmed. If you upload a sample of what that sounded like (aka the "brick") I may be able to suggest some tweaks.
0 4 years ago Reply