Trying to find a similar sounding synth lead

[Starphoenix]

Hey, I've been trying to get back into music lately (trying to familiarize myself more with music theory), and one of the things I've been looking to find is a synth lead similar to games like Megaman Battle Network Transmission or Custom Robo 64.

Ultimately I'd like to try my hand at creating a remix for OCR in the future (when I'm much better) and have a concept in my mind that'd utilize a similar lead. If anyone knows of a good VST that can produce something similar I'd appreciate the help. Thanks!

 

[Meteo Xavier]

Yessir, that would be a particularly sharp/dirty sounding Saw Lead with some monophonic glide and vibrato modulation on it.

A lot of major synth VSTs will have something like it - Synth 1, Zebra 2, Omnisphere, z3ta 2... Particularly, I think you'll want to get Zebra 2 for that because someone here made some Zebra 2 presets that were based on some of the later Mega Man games and one was a particularly dirty bendy Saw Lead that sounded pretty close to what you're looking for there.

Not the pinpoint answer you deserve, but hopefully that will get you closer to what you seek.

[Starphoenix]

No, that actually helps. Thanks. I'm happy to have some feedback fairly quickly.

I kind of figured there'd be no silver bullet plugin since, as you said, it is a modularized saw lead. I just didn't know if there was a VST that would better produce that sound. Years ago I used Synth 1, so perhaps I will grab that again. Will look into Zebra as well.

[timaeus222]

If you know the principles behind how to make the lead, you should be able to make it. The main difference between synths is the approach to making certain sounds, except for sounds that are particularly complicated (such as some FM sounds, or metallic sounds).

Try going for a detuned saw lead with multiple voices, and a slight envelope depth on a low-pass filter's cutoff frequency. Further tweaking would be needed to get it exactly, but that should get you most of the way there.

[Starphoenix]

Thanks Timaeus for all your help before. I didn't respond at the time, but it did help me to create a similar sounding lead.

I'm bumping this again because I've been trying to replicate some sounds but cannot seem to get it right. Basically I'm trying to replicate the synth strings and bright key/bell sound beginning around 0:57.

I figure the strings are (I think) saw waves with multiple voices, but maybe someone has done something similar or has a better ear. The key I can tell has some heavy reverb, but I cannot seem to find a preset or sound that really matches the instrumentation in this song.

If anyone has any advice or sample recommendations it would be much appreciated.

[Julien Mulard]

Hi!

If by strings you meant the stab synth (which sound more like brass than strings IMHO), I think you have a good start by using a saw (not detuned) with an almost open filter, and maybe a really short enveloppe on the cutoff of a lowpass filter  (fast attack, from everything cut to almost nothing cut).

For the bells, try a square in high pitch with a "percussive" volume enveloppe (i.e. instant attack, long decay and release, no sustain). Add delay and/or reverb and play with the filters to adjust your sound (keep in mind you want a brillant sound so try not to touch the highs). You may or may not want to add a saw or a triangle in the mix to add some spectral information (but mixed lower).

You seem to struggle with sound design, which is a difficult and critical part of music creation (making the perfect sound from scratch, or just copying an existing sound). If you want to learn more about synth sound design, may I suggest you try Syntorial? The software itself is rather costly (around $130), but the free demo (including a lot of lessons) may give you some basic understanding of the key parts of a classic substractive synth (oscillators, filters, enveloppes, etc..). I found this software to be really interesting. I did not buy it though, so I don't know exactly how much you can learn if you do spend some money for it. 

I hope I could be of some help! And sorry for the bad english, it's not my mother tongue.

Edit: Typo

[Starphoenix]

3 hours ago, JulienMulard said:

Hi!

If by strings you meant the stab synth (which sound more like brass than strings IMHO), I think you have a good start by using a saw (not detuned) with an almost open filter, and maybe a really short enveloppe on the cutoff of a lowpass filter  (fast attack, from everything cut to almost nothing cut).

For the bells, try a square in high pitch with a "percussive" volume enveloppe (i.e. instant attack, long decay and release, no sustain). Add delay and/or reverb and play with the filters to adjust your sound (keep in mind you want a brillant sound so try not to touch the highs). You may or may not want to add a saw or a triangle in the mix to add some spectral information (but mixed lower).

You seem to struggle with sound design, which is a difficult and critical part of music creation (making the perfect sound from scratch, or just copying an existing sound). If you want to learn more about synth sound design, may I suggest you try Syntorial? The software itself is rather costly (around $130), but the free demo (including a lot of lessons) may give you some basic understanding of the key parts of a classic substractive synth (oscillators, filters, enveloppes, etc..). I found this software to be really interesting. I did not buy it though, so I don't know exactly how much you can learn if you do spend some money for it. 

I hope I could be of some help! And sorry for the bad english, it's not my mother tongue.

Edit: Typo

I appreciate your feedback! Believe it or not, in the absence of any feedback I actually played around with some settings and mimicked the sounds to the degree I was wanting. lol I'm still getting used to some of this since I'm still relatively wet-behind-the-ears (this thread was actually made the first week I started getting back into music), but I'm learning. I'll look into the Syntorial resource you provided. If nothing else I may find some other good, and cheaper, related courses.