any Synth freaks here?

[FIXXXER]

Hey people,

i've been listening to LEPROUS a lot lately and these synth sounds got stuck in my head!
I am a complete noob when it comes to synth sounds but i'd like to play around a little bit.
Checked out some of the most used free synths but they do not seem to have that dark
melancholic sound on board. I guess most sounds can be tweaked with modern synths
but if you have no clue about synths it's rather better to have some good patches as a base.

Is there anything you can recommend?

I am looking for sounds like


(intro and 6:30)


(2:30)


(1:19 and 2:30)

 

[JoergieN]

I'm not typically a big fan of pure synths, but I do like to take acoustics and distorting them. Like I said on a recent thread, Omnisphere is the best that I have come across. It really is incredible and trying to achieve it's full potential is like trying to reach the end of the world wide web.

 

[nezvers]

well, if you want to get whatever is in your head then you have to learn how synths work and experiment A LOT to get around it, but if you aren't able to do it then you can use either some Kontakt library or Omnisphere stuff, but those will be pre-made and MAYBE hit the spot you need.

 

[FIXXXER]

I'm not typically a big fan of pure synths, but I do like to take acoustics and distorting them. Like I said on a recent thread, Omnisphere is the best that I have come across. It really is incredible and trying to achieve it's full potential is like trying to reach the end of the world wide web.

Do you mean acoustic guitars?
Omnisphere 2 looks nice but i am not sure if it's the right thing for me.
I also do not like the fact that's sample based.
I've watched a few videos about O2 on youtube showing the presets
etc. and it seems quite versatile but not what i am looking for.

well, if you want to get whatever is in your head then you have to learn how synths work and experiment A LOT to get around it, but if you aren't able to do it then you can use either some Kontakt library or Omnisphere stuff, but those will be pre-made and MAYBE hit the spot you need.

I have KONTAKT 5 and i absolutely hate it, both in terms of GUI and sound.
Maybe i am burned because of KONTAKT but i do not like anything that works with samples as it sounds
fake very quickly due to the lack of samples etc.

Over the last few days i've checked any known commercial and free synth that's available,
either by watching videos or by trying out the demo version but i still could not find anything
that comes close to the sounds i have in my head.

I would not be averse about learning about synths but i am not sure where to start.
Most videos i've seen so far are a lot of bla bla but contain very little useful information.

 

[JoergieN]

Do you mean acoustic guitars?
Omnisphere 2 looks nice but i am not sure if it's the right thing for me.
I also do not like the fact that's sample based.
I've watched a few videos about O2 on youtube showing the presets
etc. and it seems quite versatile but not what i am looking for.

No I mean acoustic sounds in general. Taking like a sitar or stings for example and adding synthetic distortions too it.

 

[Machinated]

if you're using logic, ES2/alchemy/retro synth can do those sounds easily. any of the obvious "famous" synths can do it like sylenth/massive/serum/omnisphere/diva etc. there's a ton of synth tutorials on youtube that you can apply to basically any plugin and you'll be able to get that sound pretty quick. Start with some sawtooth waves, one of them down and octave, possibly some slight detuning and then adjust the envelope and filter accordingly.

 

[nezvers]

I have KONTAKT 5 and i absolutely hate it, both in terms of GUI and sound.
Maybe i am burned because of KONTAKT but i do not like anything that works with samples as it sounds
fake very quickly due to the lack of samples etc.

Over the last few days i've checked any known commercial and free synth that's available,
either by watching videos or by trying out the demo version but i still could not find anything
that comes close to the sounds i have in my head.

I would not be averse about learning about synths but i am not sure where to start.
Most videos I've seen so far are a lot of bla bla but contain very little useful information.

Well, either you had crappy Kontakt instruments or that's your placebo effect against it because there is a no better sampler than it. Omnisphere/ Nexus and similar synths are ROMplers (meaning they have baked-in samples), so if you want to avoid "sampler feel" there's no other way than going with generator synths. In that case, there is a lot grate free but for commercial ones, Xfer Serum is best IMO.
But for sounds, you are probably going you could get away with free synths (synth1 is versatile but understanding is a bit hard even for advanced synthHeads; give first try to PG-8X tho and find some presets on google). But you'll have to use ear and imagination on post processing (distortion, filtering, reverb, delay, modulation FX are everything you need)

 

[chesterfieldblues]

Indeed, Omnisphere 2 allows you to achieve what you heard in your most crazy dreams

 

[FIXXXER]

if you're using logic, ES2/alchemy/retro synth can do those sounds easily. any of the obvious "famous" synths can do it like sylenth/massive/serum/omnisphere/diva etc. there's a ton of synth tutorials on youtube that you can apply to basically any plugin and you'll be able to get that sound pretty quick. Start with some sawtooth waves, one of them down and octave, possibly some slight detuning and then adjust the envelope and filter accordingly.

i've tried quite a few FREE synths and a few commercial synth demos but could not find a sound that i generally like,
be it within the presets or my own tweaking. generally i am looking into atmospheric, dark sounds, most synths have a ton of
funny sounding bass sounds afew leads and some pads that could be what i am looking for but most of the time these are so
FX overloaded that it's not possible to play them in a rythmical context.

Well, either you had crappy Kontakt instruments or that's your placebo effect against it because there is a no better sampler than it. Omnisphere/ Nexus and similar synths are ROMplers (meaning they have baked-in samples), so if you want to avoid "sampler feel" there's no other way than going with generator synths. In that case, there is a lot grate free but for commercial ones, Xfer Serum is best IMO.
But for sounds, you are probably going you could get away with free synths (synth1 is versatile but understanding is a bit hard even for advanced synthHeads; give first try to PG-8X tho and find some presets on google). But you'll have to use ear and imagination on post processing (distortion, filtering, reverb, delay, modulation FX are everything you need)

i think KONTAKT is not easy to work with in general, it's buggy and slow. The KONTAKT main library is absolute crap to be honest, well the synths and keys are OK but not what i am looking for. in general all the other instruments sound extremely bad in terms of realism.
the quality of the samples si nice but that does nothing if everything sounds fake.

ROMpler means that you can not load external libraries/sounds right?

I've also tried serum and skipped throug the presets, i think it is quite an
alaborate synth but at least the presets had all the same boring/cold character.

diealing in own sounds seems not easy with serum even for synth experts i guess

Indeed, Omnisphere 2 allows you to achieve what you heard in your most crazy dreams

i've watched quite a few videos and demos about O2 but never heard any similar sound i am looking for and 400 bucks is jsut too
expensive to give it a try. if it was 100-200 i'd just biy it blindly and see if it fits but 400 damn...

 

[TRUIE]

Have you ever tried Synplant ?
Love the sound of that synth, I believe it's FM synthesis, some of your examples reminded me of this.

Also, the approach is original and very user friendly, especially if you're not used/don't want to tweak complex stuff (but you still can if you really want to).

Here is a video :

(presets demo at 1'54 if you want to skip the part on how to use it)

 

[nezvers]

I've also tried serum and skipped throug the presets, i think it is quite an
alaborate synth but at least the presets had all the same boring/cold character.

diealing in own sounds seems not easy with serum even for synth experts i guess

Well, default presets are generally for EDM music, so that's why they sound like they sound.
Sounds you are searching are too niche to be found in preset packs and even less in default presets.

I probably could get all needed sounds with Serum without a problem, because it was made for an advanced sound design where your sounds are not that complicated.

Before Serum came to be, the best synth was NI Massive and I remember there was a pack that's probably in your direction - Analog factory Rotten Ghetto Attack, but dunno where to get it nowadays.

Gave bit more listen to those tracks I can tell that Port Noir track is most basic 80s styled dry brass pad; Leprous - the price has basic supersaw (~4 to 8 voices of detuned saw), The Valley - intro first can't tell without experimentation but 2nd sound is strongly detuned supersaw with LP filter, pads around 2:30 could be triangles with LP and saturation, 6:30 simple detuned supersaw.
All those sounds can be easily recreated with most decent free synths.

 

[Machinated]

i've tried quite a few FREE synths and a few commercial synth demos but could not find a sound that i generally like,
be it within the presets or my own tweaking. generally i am looking into atmospheric, dark sounds, most synths have a ton of
funny sounding bass sounds afew leads and some pads that could be what i am looking for but most of the time these are so
FX overloaded that it's not possible to play them in a rythmical context.

the sounds in those video examples are pretty straightforward to make from scratch - in the most simple sense, all you need to do is blend the oscillators that sounds closest, filter off any top end you don't want in there and then adjust the envelope....... Can always modulate parameters/add FX after that but even just adjusting a few parameters should get you close.

 

[FIXXXER]

Have you ever tried Synplant ?
Love the sound of that synth, I believe it's FM synthesis, some of your examples reminded me of this.

Also, the approach is original and very user friendly, especially if you're not used/don't want to tweak complex stuff (but you still can if you really want to).

Here is a video :

(presets demo at 1'54 if you want to skip the part on how to use it)

I'll check it out thanks!

Well, default presets are generally for EDM music, so that's why they sound like they sound.
Sounds you are searching are too niche to be found in preset packs and even less in default presets.

I probably could get all needed sounds with Serum without a problem, because it was made for an advanced sound design where your sounds are not that complicated.

Before Serum came to be, the best synth was NI Massive and I remember there was a pack that's probably in your direction - Analog factory Rotten Ghetto Attack, but dunno where to get it nowadays.

Gave bit more listen to those tracks I can tell that Port Noir track is most basic 80s styled dry brass pad; Leprous - the price has basic supersaw (~4 to 8 voices of detuned saw), The Valley - intro first can't tell without experimentation but 2nd sound is strongly detuned supersaw with LP filter, pads around 2:30 could be triangles with LP and saturation, 6:30 simple detuned supersaw.
All those sounds can be easily recreated with most decent free synths.

that's nice now i have at least some tags, i could figure out the "brass" on my own but never heard the term "supersaw"
i am only familiar with "saw" as a setting for an oscillator.

I've tried the serum demo but could not get anything good out of it, but yeah i understand that this synth is a bit more advanced
so it's surely my fault it sounded crappy

the sounds in those video examples are pretty straightforward to make from scratch - in the most simple sense, all you need to do is blend the oscillators that sounds closest, filter off any top end you don't want in there and then adjust the envelope....... Can always modulate parameters/add FX after that but even just adjusting a few parameters should get you close.

what i do not understand is, for example "The Legend" has 3 OSC
and when i set two of them to the same settings they should sound identical
but that's not the case and this is where it gets complicated for a noob like me.

Also the plugin does not have that many parameteres and even when i play around a lot
the sounds i get sound all the same but when i load up some patches the sounds are pretty
different and now i am confused how the pat ches are made.

Wish i could find a tutorial on this exact plugin as i really like the general sound of it.

 

[nezvers]

"The Legend" is nothing special, just like every Moog/ Minimoog type synth (plenty of free and paid ones).
If you set 2x oscillators on same waveform and octave then you need to have them not in tune with each other (fine tune or detune knobs).

Dude, get a synth that is enough popular and have plenty tutorials on youtube. And you need to get to the basics of synthesis - WHAT does WHAT.

 

[RiF]

I've used Native Instruments Massive to re-create the feedback'y intro and the following pad from The Valley (see MP3 for demo).
The intro synth lives from some distortion, a screaming filter (depends on the filter. Korg MS-20 can squeal like a pig and Massive's Scream filter in combination with a lowpass can scream, too) plus some feedback. Using a digital wavetable waveform to start seemed to be a good idea to get that drone'y type of sound.
The following pad is just a set of oscillators, slightly detuned and an octave apart, saw-tooth waveform, half-closed filter (no resonance), a little distortion and an LFO modulating the filter cutoff frequency slowly.

 

[FIXXXER]

"The Legend" is nothing special, just like every Moog/ Minimoog type synth (plenty of free and paid ones).
If you set 2x oscillators on same waveform and octave then you need to have them not in tune with each other (fine tune or detune knobs).

Dude, get a synth that is enough popular and have plenty tutorials on youtube. And you need to get to the basics of synthesis - WHAT does WHAT.

yeah but for some reason i think that it sounds more "organic" or "analog" than other moog plugins i've tried, maybe i am just biased, i read quite a few reviews before i purchased it and everyone so far loved it.

good hint with the tuning,of course if the settings are the3 same it will only get louder right.

going to search youtube for some basic synth tutorials, the ones i've seen so far are either too unfocused or
was to elaborate for a noob to understand

I've used Native Instruments Massive to re-create the feedback'y intro and the following pad from The Valley (see MP3 for demo).
The intro synth lives from some distortion, a screaming filter (depends on the filter. Korg MS-20 can squeal like a pig and Massive's Scream filter in combination with a lowpass can scream, too) plus some feedback. Using a digital wavetable waveform to start seemed to be a good idea to get that drone'y type of sound.
The following pad is just a set of oscillators, slightly detuned and an octave apart, saw-tooth waveform, half-closed filter (no resonance), a little distortion and an LFO modulating the filter cutoff frequency slowly.

sounds good man, i realy need to try some detuning but only slightly of course. i find most heavily detuned sounds absolutely
not useful in a musical context but yeah a slight detune would do no ahrm i guess

 

[kaomao]

https://tal-software.com/products/tal-u-no-lx