Help - Re-creating a synth

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 3:25 pm

I need some help and hoping some one could help show me how you would approach this.

I am trying to re-create a song I have from complete scratch with all instruments... now theres an underlying synth in the song of which I have no idea how to replicate as theres so many settings on my Vsti's that I don't know what I am doing here...

Is there some way some one could help show me how you would attempt to re-create the synth as identical to the original as possible from scratch....?

Hope you can help, thanks ! Smile

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 3:54 pm

Seriously, even if you gave more info I wouldn't be able to help. But yeah, example or something?

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 4:15 pm

http://youtube.com/watch?v=m-f7KNB5PYE

Once the drums kick in, you can hear a underlying synth....through the whole song, its just noticeable but even more so when you take it away... I have done the drums but struggling to re-create the synth.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 4:22 pm

Good luck dude.
Sounds to me like a cross between a DJ and a Theremin.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 4:25 pm

Are they plugin types? =/

Hmm god knows how the other guy did it then he seemed to know what direction to head in.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 4:28 pm

Not that I know of.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 5:22 pm

Well its deffinately created via a synth in midi for sure... theres no way it would be an instrument making the sound.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 6:29 pm

lol @ sirchick - "created via a synth in midi". Take a hammond organ, run it through some effects and some verb and you would be damn close.

This isn't that hard. You can hear the sound the best at the end of the song.

This kind of sound is what commonly falls under a synth category called a "pad". If you've got a VSTi that has sounds stored in categories scroll through the pads and find something that tickles your fancy. This particular one has an organ tone to it...like a B3 type of sound with a low pass filter on it.

I don't know what sort of VSTis you have, so telling you what to do next is pritnear impossible. But, if you have one that has something like a hammond organ sound that would be the place to start.

You may want to run it through a low pass filter if it's too bright and change the envelope on the sounds to have a mediumish release time. That's about as far as I can go with an explanation on what to do with the sound. If you are creating from scratch you are on your own.

Add some reverb and it sounds like there's a little flanging in the sound as well and you may get something that'll pass.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 6:39 pm

Thankyou pr0gr4m that was the kind of help I was hoping for. I am using Absynth's Vsti. Do you know where I can read up about "low pass filters" so I can understand what you mean.

And what do you mean by B3 type of sound? Are you relating to the note pitch ?

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 7:38 pm

Hammond B3 is an organ
http://www.theatreorgans.com/grounds/docs/history.html

a Drawbar Organ that often had a Leslie Cabinet near by
(rotating speaker/horn)

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 1:45 am

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the pad were a guitar. Fade it in slowly with a good amount of verb and delay. Sounds like it too me.

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 3:08 am

It's not a guitar. Maybe a midi guitar controlling a synth but I doubt even that. I don't ever remember Joe using a MIDI guitar. It's not out of the realm of possibility though.

Anyway, back here on Earth...
The Absynth is very good for making this kind of sound. I have the first version but haven't used it in several years. I'd recommend creating a two chord loop, and have it play back through absynth and just cycle through the differnet sounds until you find something close. Then you can start working it from there. I may be able to find a couple patches that could be useful sometime this weekend.

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 7:39 am

Thanks guys for the help.

Yes, Joe has used a midi guitar before now for organ sounds on a song in Super Collossal on a song called Crowd Chant, but Tumble is slightly older possibly made back in the days of tape recordings.

But I will have a tinker on Abysnth, thanks for the help guys. Pr0gr4m if you do have them patches I would like to try them, so let me know.. thanks Smile

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 12:59 pm

It sounds like a three or four drawbar Hammond patch; on a real Hammond you would pull out the first three or four drawbars, probably with the second drawbar pulled out about half way, the other two or three all the way. This is a standard patch even in general MIDI, and most synths will have it.

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 5:58 pm

Thanks guys for the help!

This is what I have so far,

http://h1.ripway.com/sirchick/Sofar.mp3

I think it is pretty close, though was wondering if you guys know what could be causing the original synth (to my ears anyway) have a sorta polished tone to it, as mine sounds a bit harsh and "in your face" to my ears.

Also is there a way to allow midi to start softly rather than suddenly, or will I have to export the midi to audio, import the audio and put a fade in on the sound to soften it ?

p.s the original track is very quietly playing at same time just to compare and helps me know what part of the song im at in the recording, hard to know where in the song you are if you only have drums sorted Razz

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