"Haunting" Pads

[cub005@yahoo.co.]

The first two sound like big poly analogs to me, possibly Oberheim, Yamaha CS or Sequential synths, or a combination of them, through various effects. The Oberheim OBXa will produce a comparable sound ; these are expensive synths for someone who's just starting out, however.

Oberheim OB-Xa Analog Synthesizer (1980) pt.1 - YouTube

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 video demo part 1 of 3 - YouTube

The third sounds digital, and it could be a software plug-in containing an analog emulation, a hardware digital synth playing an analog sample, or anything like that. You could achieve similar results with a software sampler or software analog emulator, nicely worked through effects.

Oberheim VSTi - Minimoog, Prophet, Jupiter - Youtube

[Mefistophelees]

Any synth should be able to do sounds like this.

Try using triangle waves.

Alternatively try saw waves and push the filter cutoff down low, also try putting the resonance up but not quite into self oscillation.

[madmaxmarchhare]

Originally Posted by Mefistophelees

Any synth should be able to do sounds like this.

Try using triangle waves.

Alternatively try saw waves and push the filter cutoff down low, also try putting the resonance up but not quite into self oscillation.

I appreciate the answer before, but this does give me some solid direction. I'll try these on my MicroKORG and go from there.

[Ghosted]

Try using Omnisphere...

[madmaxmarchhare]

Originally Posted by Ghosted

Try using Omnisphere...

Thank you for the suggestion. Is there something about this soft synth that would make it particularly good in this case? I don't have any experience with it, so if you could clarify why this would be a good one to try, I'd appreciate it.

[draven5]

Your virus will do it. Keep it simple, with reverb.

[madmaxmarchhare]

Originally Posted by draven5

Your virus will do it. Keep it simple, with reverb.

Thanks for that reco. It seems as if the Virus is certainly a player--it actually just sounds too smooth sometimes. But I can see what you're saying and I'll give that a try, as well.

[bytehoven]

I just picked up Oberheim SEM V and installed it into Logic Pro and it would do the job. The program already has some great pads that could be tweaked.

Hard to beat for just $70.

[cub005@yahoo.co.]

It's always a good suggestion to make more use of the equipment you have, and learning to make equivalent sounds with the synthesizers you already own is a good route to understanding more about synthesis.

However ; the sounds you've chosen all have a dark and warm, 'Oberheim'-ish quality that you may find it difficult to reproduce with typical VA and wavetable synths. To get closest to a starting point you like, Oberheim plug-ins such as the one mentioned above, and the OP-X, which is one of the best-sounding soft-synths I've ever used and could be the instrument used in example 3), may help you a lot without much expense. You can then go on to blend with your Virus, learning more about software and hardware synthesis as you go, the use of effects and much more.

[draven5]

May not sound analog or warm enough but if you work at it you can make what you have sound really good and what you're going for. Buying up more for the sake of an easy out is boring in my opinion and you'll lack the experience of learning by tweaking the synths you have.

[cub005@yahoo.co.]

It depends on the user. Many years ago I was recommended to stick with my Kurzweil, rather than buy the analog or VA closest to the sound I was looking for. It was an excellent answer in terms of learning more about synthesis, with the VAST engine being amongst the most powerful of any digital synth, but a poor answer in terms of music-making, and motivating a young musician desperate to locate a particular tone and sound character. Many years later, I own both the Kurzweil and the analog synth.

[draven5]

Sorry I realized you asked how to make the sounds. It's a bit more involved but a quick thing I can tell you to get that foreigner sound is two saw waves one and octave lower, cutoff down enough to make it subdued, add reverb in your chain. Add slow pitch modulation with an lfo. Possibly delay too before the verb. That's general but a starting point.

[fingerbib2000]

any/all of those fine synths will give you those pads, and if you spend the time, you will create sounds that are much better and unique to you.

try staring off with a nice preset and tweaking the parameters until it sounds good to you and you get close to what you want, it's all about trial and error until you learn how each parameter affects the sound.

what is most likely interesting about these pads ('haunting' quality), is the modulation.

so try increasing the depth of the filter cutoff LFO, and playing with the speed/depth params until you get nice movement. you could also try adding a Square/Pulse wave for one of your oscillators and playing with the PWM (pulsewidth modulation).

add a long release time to your amplitude envelope and drench it all in reverb

before long, you'll have amazing pads and will have lost an evening to your synth without even noticing!

[cub005@yahoo.co.]

It's also an important point that, for many but not all people starting out, a large part of the fun of synthesizers is in the mastery of programming, and both learning to approximate the sounds you hear and creating sounds unique to you. If that's more important to you than very closely duplicating the sounds you posted, and it sounds from your post as if your own learning of programming skills is an important part of it for you, the two posts here on the specifics are excellent advice.

[Hypnocil]

Originally Posted by cub005@yahoo.co.

It depends on the user. Many years ago I was recommended to stick with my Kurzweil, rather than buy the analog or VA closest to the sound I was looking for. It was an excellent answer in terms of learning more about synthesis, with the VAST engine being amongst the most powerful of any digital synth, but a poor answer in terms of music-making, and motivating a young musician desperate to locate a particular tone and sound character. Many years later, I own both the Kurzweil and the analog synth.

I think you received good advice

To the OP:

It is always tempting to want something new to fill a perceived gap in your arsenal (and I have succumbed to this temptation - the K5000R i lusted for for years sits on a table waiting to be explored, a couple of months after I finally got it). Relative to making music/learning to program it is both easy and fun to go shopping. However, a new synth is a new synth to learn, which in fact only increases the distance between you and the production of some music.

I would advise you to try some of the suggestions on this page (it sounds like you have already started), along with your own ideas, on your existing synths. Irrespective of how close you come to your original target sound, you will learn something and be able to get more out of them in future. If you find yourself frustrated and still far away from where you want to be, why not post clips of what you do have so that people can continue to help?

[cub005@yahoo.co.]

Originally Posted by Hypnocil

I think you received good advice

It was good advice in terms of helping me to learn synthesis and programming, and how to shape sounds, with few digital synths as powerful as my Kurzweil. It was less good in helping me to understand that sound character and tonality, and sound shaping, are not the same thing. Hence I now have both.

[ozy]

LFO is the operative word here, as much as "resonance"

Operate on closed filter, relatively high resonance, triangle or sine waves,

and modulate everything and its dog [basically: pitch, but resonance as well] with slow and heavy LFOs

modulate the LFOs with envelopes, so that their amplitude changes in time

try different LFOs' waveforms: sine is obvious, but try also ramp (pitch getting more and more away from tonality)

much of what is perceived as "echo" or "delay", is modulation

slow, slow, slow

[madmaxmarchhare]

Originally Posted by draven5

Sorry I realized you asked how to make the sounds. It's a bit more involved but a quick thing I can tell you to get that foreigner sound is two saw waves one and octave lower, cutoff down enough to make it subdued, add reverb in your chain. Add slow pitch modulation with an lfo. Possibly delay too before the verb. That's general but a starting point.

Yes.. thank you... I was looking for a recipe, of sorts, but I honestly appreciate everyone who's weighed in on this as everything is new and a learning experience to me. I can certainly understand these instructions, at least as far as my MicroKORG is concerned... I think I'd be able to get these to work on my other two after some more time with the manuals..), which brings me to this post:

It is always tempting to want something new to fill a perceived gap in your arsenal (and I have succumbed to this temptation - the K5000R i lusted for for years sits on a table waiting to be explored, a couple of months after I finally got it). Relative to making music/learning to program it is both easy and fun to go shopping. However, a new synth is a new synth to learn, which in fact only increases the distance between you and the production of some music.

This is something I completely agree with.. also, someone mentioned using presets as a starting point--I appreciate that advice, and I can see where that tactic will be very, very helpful.

So, I chose the three synths I thought would work for me--all are from about the same time period since I like the synth music being produced during this time and all were affordable for me enough to horde without having the wife stab me with a butcher's knife. But, yes... the MK, as simple and as clear-cut as it is, is taking up quite a bit of my time. It seems as if the Virus is kindof similar, while the SNII is a bit different. Either way, I'll be learning these for at least the next three to four hundred years. I've been aghast at how many awful sounds I seem to come up with, so I'm chomping on the bit to learn more about how these all work.

Also, thank you, to the original authors, for these suggestions, as well. I understand from a conceptual point of view of resonance and modulation is, but I can't "hear" how these work in my head, quite yet. I'm sure it will take some time (again, a few hundred years?).

LFO is the operative word here, as much as "resonance"

Operate on closed filter, relatively high resonance, triangle or sine waves,

and modulate everything and its dog [basically: pitch, but resonance as well] with slow and heavy LFOs

modulate the LFOs with envelopes, so that their amplitude changes in time

try different LFOs' waveforms: sine is obvious, but try also ramp (pitch getting more and more away from tonality)

much of what is perceived as "echo" or "delay", is modulation

what is most likely interesting about these pads ('haunting' quality), is the modulation.

so try increasing the depth of the filter cutoff LFO, and playing with the speed/depth params until you get nice movement. you could also try adding a Square/Pulse wave for one of your oscillators and playing with the PWM (pulsewidth modulation).

add a long release time to your amplitude envelope and drench it all in rever

Just as an aside...someone mentioned a "sampling synth." Is that, essentially, where one samples a sound and that becomes the modulated sound? In other words, the synth sounds in "Almost Paradise" sound a bit like horns... is is possible to sample, say a horn from my keyboard, and tweak with that? I don't know anything about sampling synths, how to use them, or which one I should use (I'm guessing a software synth would be easier in this case???).

[alexp]

For haunting pads I tend to use a combination of Oberheim Matrix 6, Ensoniq ESQ1 and a lot of outboard.



alexP

[ozy]

Originally Posted by madmaxmarchhare

Also, thank you, to the original authors, for these suggestions, as well. I understand from a conceptual point of view of resonance and modulation is, but I can't "hear" how these work in my head, quite yet. I'm sure it will take some time (again, a few hundred years?).

It is not easy to "ear sounds in your head" if you are not experienced, but...

.... why don'y just take a synth (the basic polyphonic analogue, basic configuration. Or any VA or VST emulating a OB8, matrix, prophet, jupiter, whatever) and try?

Take a basic string pad patch, long release in the EGs, close the filter cutoff a bit, hike the resonance, and start fiddling with a slow LFO routed to "OSC pitch/freq"?

You should start "earing" something very similar to the examples you posted.

Those are frankly easy sounds. There's no" right synth" for them, just the right programming.

[madmaxmarchhare]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their time and to let you know that I all appreciate your willingness to help a newb!

[ozy]

Originally Posted by madmaxmarchhare

I just wanted to thank everyone for their time and to let you know that I all appreciate your willingness to help a newb!

no problem. "Helping a noob" is a ego-aggrandizing task and everybody is happy to do it.

For the real fun, wait until YOU know something, and come back here, and tell YOUR opinion on anything.

THAT's when you'll treated like shit!