Making synth stabs

[JesseC]

Hey hey. So I've been sitting around all day trying to program nice deep synth stabs, and have had little to no success. Some examples of the sound I'm looking for are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4XAy83ScfI
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ3xIsSngAY
or the real nice big ones that start at 0:33 in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcxxtoR5omY

I've been trying mixes between sawtooth and square wave, but I can't get the filter movement right. Anyone have any tips on how to make these lovely stabs? Thanks!

[JesseC]

Okay so I've been keeping at it. I think I've got the style figured out for the most part, I recreated the opening stabs in Jimpster's Jus' Wanna Feel (first link) pretty well. I'm working in Ableton Live with Reason rewired in. I made a Thor synth with a sine wave and a saw wave going through a low pass filter. I set the amp with a low attack but not zero, because the attack is a little harsh, so at about 11 ms. Then a decay of about 1s, a sustain of about -32db, and a release of about 315 ms. I set the amount of filter envelope applied to almost full, and then for the actual envelope I had the attack all the way down, the decay to about 552 ms, and then the sustain and release all the way down. The low pass freq is set to about 130 hz and resonance is at 0. So that's the sound basically, of course flavored to taste with chorus, EQ, and reverb. As for the cool chords and groove, the notes in the first chord are F# A C#, then the second chord is E B C#. I put a simple delay on the track in Ableton where I linked the L and R together and set it to beat 3 offset by -17.7%, the dry/wet at 50% and no feedback. Then just play around with timing of when to hit the notes to get that cool groove he's got going, you can get the same groove without any tricky delay programming. So that's about it. I dunno why I just typed all that up lol, I think I'm just excited I finally figured it out. Anywho, if anyone else wants to talk some more about synth stabs feel free!

[Matt Hughes]

JesseC- I am just getting into subtractive synthesis so I found this very interesting. I will also be working on some synth stabs of my own on the weekend and will try to get a post up also.

Thanks, Matt

[mocilo74]

Hi Jesse,

good to hear you´ve figured it out. Right after your post I tried in on my own. I had some nice stabs but not comparable to the posted ones. And working out sounds is so satisfying. :) And frustrating. Thor is so huge. The whole routing/programming is so complicated. I´m still playing around with the subtractor and I made a few steps in the right direction. I´m still learning but it´s not so mysterious anymore. I´m still playing around with the whole CV thing. I´m trying to find some more uses for the Malström LFO only. You can do funny things with it.

Btw what happened to your 2nd finished track? Did you find a solution?

Ciao,
Sebastian

[djfunq]

Hey hey. So I've been sitting around all day trying to program nice deep synth stabs, and have had little to no success. Some examples of the sound I'm looking for are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4XAy83ScfI
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ3xIsSngAY
or the real nice big ones that start at 0:33 in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcxxtoR5omY

I've been trying mixes between sawtooth and square wave, but I can't get the filter movement right. Anyone have any tips on how to make these lovely stabs? Thanks!
Not specifically but I know a good trick with "recycle"
Take a loop , chop it, paste it in your midi window, then bring every midi note to one/first note.
So basicly what you do is layer multiple harmonic sounds on top of each other which gives you a fat stab. sidenote, it's impossible to determine the actual sound of it, you have to listen/determine if it fits.

[martino]

typically they are inverted minor 7 chords in deep house.

Find a nice patch, (some of the examples you linked to are just some type of electric piano presets). Make sure they have a short attack and release time. Eq them however you want. Add delay.

The manuel Tur is dope! There is filtering on the stabs, so the filter opens up and closes to make the patch sound bigger and smaller with the resonance vs cutoff ratio changing. In those cases - you can use simple patches to begin with. Works good for more of a techy style. Saw tooth, square or whatever type wave. Make sure the synth is in polyphonic mode so you can play chords with them. Then tweak the cutoff filter (hipass for example)

[mocilo74]

@ djfunq & martino: thanks for the input. I appreciate it. Very nice thoughts.

But the main problem with my stabs is that they are sounding always very muddy or dull. I´m still working on some satisfying eq & filter settings. I think I should add some additional sound which actually sounds a little bit brighter than the other ones. I´m not a pro and I´m still trying to understand the technique of sound layering. Playing around with waveforms and volume. Working on attack & decay, sustain and release.

What would you guys prefer? A stab which is played in mono or a more wider version like a stereo played one?

[ebot9000]

@ djfunq & martino: thanks for the input. I appreciate it. Very nice thoughts.

But the main problem with my stabs is that they are sounding always very muddy or dull. I´m still working on some satisfying eq & filter settings. I think I should add some additional sound which actually sounds a little bit brighter than the other ones. I´m not a pro and I´m still trying to understand the technique of sound layering. Playing around with waveforms and volume. Working on attack & decay, sustain and release.

What would you guys prefer? A stab which is played in mono or a more wider version like a stereo played one?

Hey, the first and third examples you posted sound like electric piano sounds with a low pass filter engaged. (one sounds like a cheap wurly sample or imitation).

In addition to a low-pass filter, you may need to EQ out the lows and low-mids to make it less muddy.

If the instrument you're using doesn't have a low-pass filter, take an EQ and and use a high cut (aka low-pass) until it gets the right sound. Put a little notch to boost the frequencies right where you cut it, and you've got the same thing as a low-pass filter with resonance.

The second example is a very bright saw-toothy synth being put through a low-pass filter with resonance. It also has a little bit of an envelope on it. This should be in any soft synth you have. You need to turn on the -24 low-pass filter with resonance and give it some envelope. The envelope may be called ADSR, but you need the one specifically for the filter. Pull the Sustain down a bit and adjust the Attack, Delay and Release until is sounds right.

Then you need to automate the filter throughout the track. Thor starts out with it pulled way down and automates it up until the full brightness is hitting.

[mocilo74]

Thx ebot9000.


In addition to a low-pass filter, you may need to EQ out the lows and low-mids to make it less muddy.

That makes sense. Sometimes I need other people pushing me into the right direction.

I´m working with reason 4 only. I like it to have only a few synths and effects and I try to understand the function from each of them. At the moment I´m working heavily with the subtractor synth. I think the subtractor has most of the things you mentioned.

Thanks for the input.

And btw JesseC was the original thread starter and he linked to all the soundexamples. :)