How to make a rising synth

[Seanol]

I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a rising synth sound such as this one

‪Pondo (Chuckie & Silvio Ecomo Mix)‬‏ - YouTube

it starts at exactly 2:45 in the video. Im not a huge fan of the song bu the synth idea i like. This is more so a general understanding, rather than how do i make that exact synth.

Any help is great

[Yoozer]

Automate pitch, use slow portamento, record pitch bending.

[Simonator]

Not sure if that is a Sheperd Tone, or just a simple pitch modulation.

For the former, check out the Oli Larkin Endless Series., for the latter, assign an lfo to your synth's pitch.

[Simonator]

If you like that, you'll probably be interested in reading this:
How do you create the endless riser?

[sammytaters]

Yea, just use a synth with a master pitch automation or a long portamento.

[Yoozer]

It's not a Shepard tone, but what I'm puzzled about is that these sounds are apparently rocket science to make (along with "how do I do this noise sound"). They're not; it's a single saw wave.

The controlled approach is to simply play a rising sequence of semitones with portamento rate cranked up to the maximum. That way you get the most control over where the sound should start/end, and the slow portamento smooths out the transition from key to key.

Pitch automation works too - but best if you use a plugin that allows you to set the oscillator pitch from say, -48 semitones to +48. Then it's simply a matter of drawing a line from bottom to top.

[Seanol]

K bro, I'll post in the newbie forum next time

[Jet]

First you take one oscillator, then you detune it.

[Sleazebag]

Or, if you're lazy, and your synth has one, you can assign a modulation envelope to the pitch with a high decay.

[Teknobeam]

Originally Posted by Jet

First you take one oscillator, then you detune it.

then add yeast

[kreeper_6]

crossbreed it with a phoenix.

[atma]

i have to postulate that synth sound was created some time in the future. it's not possible with today's technology.

[Beermaster]

Stick it on an elevator..... but it does have some down sides too.

[offki]

Originally Posted by kreeper_6

crossbreed it with a phoenix.

and then sidechain.

Newer people tend to gut hung up on oscillators themselves, thinking you have to use a fantastical selection to get the sound. It's more about ADSR and what you do with it.

[Yoozer]

Originally Posted by Seanol

K bro, I'll post in the newbie forum next time

You'll go far, bro, one of the few people that help you in this thread instead of making fun of you and you can't even be bothered to say thanks. Or to any of the others. You go bro!

No, it's not like that.

But I mean - you hear the sound. You hear what's happening to the sound, since you're capable of describing the phenomenon correctly. Then next step is to ask yourself: "how do I emulate this?"

Is your first thought to ask it instead of making an attempt to find it out yourself?

If you would've posted "well, I have plugin X and I've tried it like this, but it's not working like I expected" then you've shown that you're capable of at least a little bit of initiative and logical thought. You didn't. Next time, do, and people will give you better replies. We're not asking for much, just a little show of you doing some of the effort.

It's an arguably pretty simple effect. You take any somewhat capable synth, it's got an oscillator pitch knob. You turn that up. Now you can run into two things:

- manually turning this sucks since you can't do it evenly and accurately using the mouse or your controller
- it only goes to 12, while you need more than that.

The first can be solved. That's what automation is for, and Refer to The Fine Manual on how that works. DAWs can turn the knobs for you, which is really awesome. The second is harder.

Now, what if you ask yourself - "Okay, besides +12, it also goes to -12! What if I start at that point, play a higher note to compensate for that, and then turn it up gradually?"

Great - now you've figured out how to effectively double the range of the knob. But, 24 semitones is still not enough - some of these scale the dizzying heights of 48 semitones.

Then an option is - if your synth won't do more than -12 and +12 - to try to break down the problem. As mentioned, portamento is an option - but portamento rate is usually not synchronized to the beat, and on distances like that, it might get at the high note too fast. So, you break the problem down into bits - and you could think of the concept of a relay race. One note starts at -12, goes to 0, up to +12 - and then the next note kicks in and goes from -12 (but since it's played two octaves higher, it sounds at exactly the same pitch at -12 as the other note does at +12) - and repeat it. Use crossfading to mask the transition, but the sound is buried in the rest of the mix anyway so you're not going to hear much.

The portamento option is also a relay race of sorts. You can now control (and sufficiently slow down) the transition from one semitone to another, so you create a bucket brigade of notes and the portamento happily lags after each note, taking its time to smoothly transition to the next.

Using the relay race concept also works for various other things. If you have a loop that you want to apply reverb or delay to, the problem is that the reverb/delay effect kicks in after the initial notes. This means that applying reverb to the loop and then copying the loop a few times causes the effect to "restart" - the reverb tail of the previous does not run into the next. So, you copy the loop, add reverb, render/print that track, and then cut out the last half, which still has the reverb tail from the previous loop, so now it's seamless.

So next time, don't post in the newbie forum, but give your brain a small workout first - and tell us what it came up with.

[PeteJames]

Practice levitation