need advice on creating epic leads!

[Chimpazilla]

Hi all, so I have a decent arrangement made, and some fun backing grooves going, some nice pads, even got some fairly groovy drum patterns/fills/rolls done, but my leads (apparently, so I am told) suck badly, and they sound vanilla and preset-ish. The song has several leads, my plan was to change them up as the song progresses, some will have more attack and be more plucky, others have more sustain and/or more gliding legato. As it stands there is only one lead in my song that sounds dynamite... and I need about six of them. Each will have a different "voice" in the song, as they hand off the melody, one to the next.

What are your best words of wisdom for choosing and/or creating really great leads? Do you start with a preset, and change things in the synth? Do you layer? And if you layer, do you use just the portions of each sound that have the qualities that you want, so each instrument is playing a different frequency range? (or one more up front, with the other supporting it?) Do you bus and compress this layer together? Do you pan the instruments to the same place, or one slightly left and the other right? What is the best way to make two (or three?) instruments into one cohesive sound?

Also regarding leads, it is my understanding that a lead should always be the closest thing up front in the soundstage, but I've also heard great songs where the lead (clearly the lead as it is the loudest) has more reverb than the drier backing groove. Any thoughts on this?

I'm sort of stuck until I can get a better understanding of leads. Any advice you can offer will be appreciated!

[dannthr]

Really strong leads often employ Unison and Detuning effects--doubling oscillators but with minute tuning variations to create a strong almost chorus like effect.

[Chimpazilla]

That's a great tip, thank you, I'll check into that.

Just to clarify, I'm not looking for a typical "screaming saw" type of sound, I'm looking for many varied voices, but they've each got to be rich and full.

[dannthr]

Richness will come from strong harmonics.

Variety will emerge from exploration.

[ectogemia]

Getting a cohesive lead from many layers can require some experimentation with different ways of layering the leads if they're not being very tractable, but I've found that so long as you EQ them judiciously and level the volume as needed, layers tend to come together just fine.

A lead with lots of reverb will probably succeed in a more minimal soundscape as verbing the lead in a busy piece will push it far into the mix.

Try layering different patches or samples together, perhaps at different octaves or processed differently, to create a unique timbre. If the synth you're using is flexible enough, maybe throw in some oscillators + processing all on the same patch that all have very unique characteristics. I make pads this way. Just throw in some LFOs, filters, envelopes, etc. Twiddle knobs pretty much at random until it sounds good. Nice and simple.

And there's nothing wrong with using or adjusting presets for leads. If you think your leads sound "presettish" then fiddle with the preset more. Run the patch through a bitcrusher. Sample the lead and edit the audio (my new favorite technique for just about everything). Put an LFO on the filter. There's a lot of things you can do to take a stock sound and make it interesting.

[Yoozer]

but my leads (apparently, so I am told) suck badly, and they sound vanilla and preset-ish.

...

I'm sort of stuck until I can get a better understanding of leads. Any advice you can offer will be appreciated!

Can you post a few clips of what they sound like right now (both in context of the song and perhaps solo?)

What do you have at your disposal to create sounds with?

[Rozovian]

If the reverb is delayed far enough, it'll be distinct from the dry sound, thus not dragging it into the background. It may also need to be EQd out of the way of the dry sound, and a widened stereo reverb would separate them further.

Attack helps. If the attack is loud and clear, it'll clue ppl in on what frequencies to expect. It's like the arrow in the FedEx logo - once you know where it is, you can't help but see it. Something as simple as settings the volume envelope (ADSR) to D200ms S75% can make your lead stand out more than playing at 100% all the time (remember to adjust track level). Additional oscillators, filters, fm or whatever can also be used to make the attack stand out more.

What you want in a lead is a strong fundamental and some interesting harmonics. In simple terms, the fundamental is the lowest frequency in a sound, and the harmonics are frequencies that add up to the same length - making it a clear waveform rather than a wobbling mess. You get some control over this by using parallel filters and/or multiple oscillators tuned to different harmonics (+12, +19, +24 above the fundamental) to make the harmonics more interesting. Nothing says you can't tune them down, either, tho that effectively just shifts the fundamental. Different waveforms contain different amounts of different harmonics, sometimes a triangle works better than a saw, and vice versa.

A static (non-changing waveform) lead often works in chiptune-y tracks, but in other soundscapes you'll probably want to use multiple, slightly (or significantly) detuned oscillators, filter modulations and other motion in the sound.

Then there's a range of effects that can be used for a more interesting sound. Overdrive works well on filtered or triangle/sine-based sounds and brings out their harmonics (and interference from polyphony, which can be used to good effect). I'm not as fond of amp sims and/or regular distortion just to create leads, it mostly just muddies up the sound rather than make a clear, strong lead. Delay works well, as does the aforementioned reverb - when used to give it a stadium rock sound rather than a back-of-the-orchestra sound.

Stereo effects can do a lot, too. If you can pan your oscillators (or use layers), try making (slight detuning) two slightly different sounds and hardpanning them opposite each other. This is used to make electric guitars big and wide, but the principle works the same with synths and sampled instruments. You can even use a third, center-panned one, as long as the three are all different. If they're not different, there won't be any wide stereo effect, just a louder center-panned thing.

There's some thoughts worth trying out.

[dannthr]

If the reverb is delayed far enough, it'll be distinct from the dry sound, thus not dragging it into the background. It may also need to be EQd out of the way of the dry sound, and a widened stereo reverb would separate them further.

Attack helps. If the attack is loud and clear, it'll clue ppl in on what frequencies to expect. It's like the arrow in the FedEx logo - once you know where it is, you can't help but see it. Something as simple as settings the volume envelope (ADSR) to D200ms S75% can make your lead stand out more than playing at 100% all the time (remember to adjust track level). Additional oscillators, filters, fm or whatever can also be used to make the attack stand out more.

What you want in a lead is a strong fundamental and some interesting harmonics. In simple terms, the fundamental is the lowest frequency in a sound, and the harmonics are frequencies that add up to the same length - making it a clear waveform rather than a wobbling mess. You get some control over this by using parallel filters and/or multiple oscillators tuned to different harmonics (+12, +19, +24 above the fundamental) to make the harmonics more interesting. Nothing says you can't tune them down, either, tho that effectively just shifts the fundamental. Different waveforms contain different amounts of different harmonics, sometimes a triangle works better than a saw, and vice versa.

A static (non-changing waveform) lead often works in chiptune-y tracks, but in other soundscapes you'll probably want to use multiple, slightly (or significantly) detuned oscillators, filter modulations and other motion in the sound.

Then there's a range of effects that can be used for a more interesting sound. Overdrive works well on filtered or triangle/sine-based sounds and brings out their harmonics (and interference from polyphony, which can be used to good effect). I'm not as fond of amp sims and/or regular distortion just to create leads, it mostly just muddies up the sound rather than make a clear, strong lead. Delay works well, as does the aforementioned reverb - when used to give it a stadium rock sound rather than a back-of-the-orchestra sound.

Stereo effects can do a lot, too. If you can pan your oscillators (or use layers), try making (slight detuning) two slightly different sounds and hardpanning them opposite each other. This is used to make electric guitars big and wide, but the principle works the same with synths and sampled instruments. You can even use a third, center-panned one, as long as the three are all different. If they're not different, there won't be any wide stereo effect, just a louder center-panned thing.

There's some thoughts worth trying out.

Excellent information here.

Oscillator Unison will bring out the fundamental, detune will make it sound thick, but the original sound has to have a richness in timbre from its overtones.

[BlackPanther]

This is why I love OCR. A place where I can get some good info and I don't have to look around on the big ol internet much. Thanks for the info guys this helped me out as well xD.

[Chimpazilla]

Excellent advice guys... all worth trying out. Awesome posts.

How wide is too wide for a lead? I have some presets I've used where I actually have to rein it back in with a stereo shaper (cuz I don't understand the synth well enough to fix it there)... when is a lead too wide? I mean, a lead should be kinda centered and not "everywhere" am I right? Or... (idea brewing) would it be cool to have a way wide lead, followed by a more focused one? Hhhmmmm ideas...

[Chimpazilla]

Can you post a few clips of what they sound like right now (both in context of the song and perhaps solo?)

What do you have at your disposal to create sounds with?

I'd like to post my wip in the forum, I just want to give it my best shot first, then you guys can listen to all the leads and make some suggestions. I'm not quite ready for all the tomato throwing just yet.

I have FL Studio so I'm using Sytrus, Harmor and Toxic Biohazard primarily. Of these three I like Toxic the best so far, as it is easy to use and understand the parameters. (a good friend referred to Toxic as the "perfect noob tool," haha!) I also sometimes use Tal Noizemaker and/or Elektro.

[Yoozer]

How wide is too wide for a lead?

This depends entirely on the rest of the mix and how much room it takes up in the frequency spectrum.

See this as a moving van. You have to cram your furniture in there. The couch is low, but wide (the volume is low, but it takes up a wide swath of the frequency spectrum). Grandma's heirloom cupboard is high, but narrow (the sound is loud, but it only occupies a narrow range).

They can't occupy the same space at once. You've got powertools - a saw to reduce the width (equalizer), a saw to reduce the height (volume fader), and a clamp to squeeze a stack of furniture to a height so it fits in the truck (compressor/limiter).

The rules are: if two pieces of furniture overlap they pile on top of eachother, and you can't hit the ceiling of the truck because that'll cause clipping. This means that two sounds occupying the same range won't hit the ceiling if they're quiet enough, or if you use the clamp to squeeze 'm down.