identify these synth leads?

[unsane]

hey guys, i'm pretty much a moron when it comes to synths and electronic music so if anyone could help me identify what's being used in these short excerpts it'd be great.

i'm looking to find out what kind of sound/patch, effects and general techniques used to get these sounds, as well as the type of keyboard/softsynth i could use..

techno warning :wink:

the mp3 medley can be downloaded here: http://users.tpg.com.au/unsane/synths.mp3

0:00-0:24 - (tatu - all the things she said) - i've been in love with this little lead break since i first heard the song..

0:24-0:51 - (cascada - miracle) - pretty much your bog standard beng techno lead,but i've always wondered how it was done.

0:52-1:22 - (cascada - everytime we touch) - similar to the above, but alot more gritty and in your face.

1:23-2:09 - (cascada - one more night) - i love that slinky smooth way the notes wobble between each other..pitch wheel? also, when the beat kicks in, is it the same sound as before but without a filter?

sorry for the slight techno overdose, its always been an indulgence of mine. appreciate the help y'all!

 

[Outatune]

Sounds like a plain vanilla VA ie nothing special in the hardware department. The Tatu lines have some portemento happening, the others seems to be using PB.

Stack and detune some saw waves... or look for a preset called "Supersaw."

On your AEG make sure your A and R are low for a short attack and fast release.

Drop some E, turn on the drum machine, and off you go.

 

[unsane]

uhm not trying to be spoonfed here but i'm really unfamiliar with these synth terms..whats VA and PB?

i get the attack/release bit, whats E?

 

[Outatune]

VA is Virtual Analog. Think Virus, Nord Lead, JP8080, etc. "Supersaw" is actually a JP8080 patch that was quite big in trance and techno in the day.

PB is pitchbend. It sounded like the synth player was using a hardware controller with pitchbend to good effect.

E is illegal, immoral, and wrecks lives. Disregard that line.

Do you have any software or hardware "VA"s? A great way to learn the basics of substractive synthesis is to start with a single oscilator patch, say a saw wave, and play with Amplitude Envelope Generator (AEG) Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release (ADSR) settings, then try the same for the Filter Envelope Generator (FEG). You might have a Pitch Envelope Generator (PEG) in there as well. You will also have a modulation matrix where certain controllers (velocity, aftertouch, the LFOs, etc) affect the sound ie pressing harder on the keys raises the filter cutoff frequency. Its easier to learn about substractive synthesis on a VA then your typical Triton/Fantom/Motif workstations because the parameters are right there in front of you.

Google "subtractive synthesis" and see what you come up with. The manual for the Access Virus used to have a pretty good tutorial IIRC.

Anyone have some good URLs for the budding VA synthesist?

 

[unsane]

ohhh E. didnt catch it the first time, you got me confused with the AEG bit hahaa. was never my thing..other letters of the alphabet however.. :wink:

thanks for the reply..some good info there i'll definately be looking into VAs and subtractive synthesis. i'll have a play around on softsynths for now, am a guitarist/vox so i dont own any hardware synths. have access to a triton LE and microkorg though, will either of those be able to acheive something similar?

 

[soft]

unsane

the sound you are looking for is a straight forward analog 'saw wave'. most synthesiser would have a similar patch.

you just got to edit the 'program' to what you like. add some noise and send these noise to another effect chain. add another oscillator to make it fatter.

ya, the last track used portamento.