#synth tutorial

[royalleemusic]

This may come in handy for one or more of my songs. May sound horrible,it may not. Won’t know ‘til I try :)

[jakobhaq]

I hope you like tutorials because I'm starting to enjoy making them! This time I am showing you how to do "DubStep Modulation" using Propellerhead Thor.

Download Thor presets and MIDI Designer "wub" template here: http://thesoundtestroom.com/ha53-dubstep-modulation-tutorial

Propellerheads Thor on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/se/app/thor-polysonic-synthesizer/id660195946?mt=8&uo=4&at=1l3voJz

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[ogresound]

Tutorial Tuesday 2: Noisia Style Bass(es)

I'm doing a double bill Tutorial Tuesday this week - Noisia-esc bass noises today, and then Jan Hammer synth guitar bits tomorrow (with a multisample to play with!)

I don't really have the facilities to make a video (and I hate the sound of my voice), nor do I really want to clutter my soundcloud with clips, but I hope you'll be able to follow along regardless!

For this tutorial, you will need:

An FM synth with 4 operators (or more but 4 will do for demo purposes). I get good results with both Ableton's own operator, and my Yamaha TX81Z. For this tutorial thing we'll use operator.

A distortion/bitcrusher plugin. I'll use Ableton's redux, but feel free to use whatever you like.

1. Load up an instance of Operator and the bit crusher/distortion plugin. Turn on all 4 operators, and set operator A to a sine wave. I'm using Sine wave A, as it has a bit more character. Set the attack to around 95 ms. Turn on the bitcrusher, I'm reducing the bit rate big time. It's important to A/B the sound through the distortion plugin to get an idea of what's going on. Hit a low note (F#0 suits me just fine), and notice how the sine's being pushed into distinctly none-sine territory. That's some literal waveshaping right there.

2. On operator B, I'm using another Sine wave A. I set the attack to 34 ms, and tune it up by 1 octave, and 32 millicents (or whatever fine tune is measured in). I raise the volume to -29 DBs, where I can hear the synth patch is beginning to self modulate nicely. Part of the trick with these sort of patches is to introduce as much movement as possible.

3. For Operator C I load up a Saw64, and up the attack length to 314 ms. Coarse tuning is set to 12. I then raise the volume of the operator again until I can feel it contributing to our oscillation.

4. Operator D is white noise, which I coarse tune to 16. ~3 ms of attack and I raise the level to -43 db. Our patch is starting to sound a bit more Noisia esc. Play a few different notes and listen to how the modulation changes.

5. So the real magic with these kind of sounds is largely dependent on the algorithm you choose (ie. which operators modulate other operators, or not). I pick one I like the sound of, and lower the tone section of Operator to around 35%, to tame the high end (no aliasing for me!). In changing algorithms, you often get more bang for your buck, as it were - ie. one patch can essentially become 8 variable patches. 

6. Finally, set your synth to just 1 voice, and add some long glide (which in part will be dependent on the tempo of your track, but I find values of 1.5 seconds or higher tend to work well with some cheeky octave slide action). For more movement try adding a modulated notch filter around the 500Hz mark. Obviously, this patch will require some EQ-ing and compression to make it sit nicely in your mix, but it's a pretty good starting point! I like adding a touch of reverb and stereo-widening to these type of bass tones, then high pass it and layer a pure, clean sine wave underneath for sub bass duties.

Hope this has been useful...Operator and FM synths moreover are pretty good for making some nasty basses, as well as lush pads, bell tones and cheesy 80's DX style pianos. A/B your distortion unit again and have a listen to our none driven synth patch, which will sound completely different. I think the main trick is to play with your attack/release envelopes on each operator, as well as the tuning. FM gets pretty deep, and can be endlessly fun/inspirational once you get into it!