Achieving a synth

[Chiwalker]

So I'm trying to create a similar synth as in this song:

Comes in at :56, fully introduces itself at 2:21 and is abused for the rest of the song...

As far as I can tell it's multiple saw's in unison w/pretty low attack. I just can't seem to get it right - for instance I suck at hearing detunage and # of waves in unison. Also, I've been failing to create it in Synth1 so if anyone has another way (or a way to create in sytnh1) that is what I'm lookin for. Thanks!

[Zephyr]

This question is completely unrelated to FL Studio,

Sounds like a supersaw, you'll either have to spend a good amount of time perfecting the unison effect on Synth1, or you could try Superwave P8, which is a very good free plugin like Synth1 that's good with fat sounds like that.

[Chiwalker]

I got much closer with Superwave P8...but it's also once frozen FL and some aspects of it are crazy bad (but I guess I should expect that with a free plugin)

[analoq]

Not a supersaw.

It's pulse width modulation, like most trance leads.

[zircon]

This doesn't sound like PWM... it's a pretty dense supersaw, like most poly trance leads Just use two saw oscillators, 50:50 mix, lowpass filter with cutoff high, unison/chorus/delay. Play big block chords. Synth1's saw unison is OK - there are better synths for that, but not for free. Supersaws are hard to match exactly because almost every synth does it differently. The best ones have free-running phase per osc as opposed to phase reset per note (which sounds.. bad, like all the FL default synths.) However, the type of verb, chorus and delay all impact things too.

[Chiwalker]

This doesn't sound like PWM... it's a pretty dense supersaw, like most poly trance leads Just use two saw oscillators, 50:50 mix, lowpass filter with cutoff high, unison/chorus/delay. Play big block chords. Synth1's saw unison is OK - there are better synths for that, but not for free. Supersaws are hard to match exactly because almost every synth does it differently. The best ones have free-running phase per osc as opposed to phase reset per note (which sounds.. bad, like all the FL default synths.) However, the type of verb, chorus and delay all impact things too.

How do I be like ewe?

[analoq]

This doesn't sound like PWM... it's a pretty dense supersaw, like most poly trance leads

Okay, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and not say you're wrong. What I will say, though, is that when dealing with unisons, detuned-sawtooths and PWM sound very similar because they produce many of the same overtones. If you're stuck in the mindset that the "supersaw" reigns trance then that's not going to do your ears any favors because PWM leads are very, very popular in trance music.

I don't claim to have any intimate knowledge about how this particular sound was designed, but I've made my call and I stick by it -- I'm usually right about these things.

cheers.

[zircon]

I definitely agree with you that after a certain point it's hard to tell the difference between a super-PWM and supersaw. I also admit I could be wrong on this, but I'm basing it off the fact that for my Zebra 2 patch library I spent a long time making various patches based on supersaws and super-PWM oscs, and my ear just leaned towards the former for this one.

Anyway, for practical purposes, the latter is made basically the same way... except set your oscs to pulse and then an LFO to their pulse width. LFO depth should be pretty intense and the rate can be fairly high too. It's impossible to give specific numbers because many synths have synced LFOs or LFO timing based on beats rather than seconds, so you just have to play it by ear. Zebra also has a really weird PWM implementation where you can simply take a saw osc, invert its phase (there's a button for that) and then modulate the phase knob of the osc.

[Chiwalker]

Anyway, for practical purposes, the latter is made basically the same way... except set your oscs to pulse and then an LFO to their pulse width. LFO depth should be pretty intense and the rate can be fairly high too. It's impossible to give specific numbers because many synths have synced LFOs or LFO timing based on beats rather than seconds, so you just have to play it by ear. Zebra also has a really weird PWM implementation where you can simply take a saw osc, invert its phase (there's a button for that) and then modulate the phase knob of the osc.

I agree that they sound very similar, and although I can't exactly get the sound I'm looking for I am having a lot of fun with the pulse oscs and pwm.

So thanks both of you!