Bright sounding chords

seannash · 29-09-2011 8:56pm #1

I know this would be more at home in the dance music production forum but i figure you guys might be able to help.
Anytme i do some sort of chord sound on a synth,to get rid of the buzzy sound of the wave forms i generally filter off the high end.
This generally gives me the results i want when solod but in the mix it make them sound dull.
How would i go about making soft chords push through a mix?
Anybody got any tips

DamagedTrax · 29-09-2011 10:09pm

a little harmonic exciting should do the trick. spl twin tube is great for this kinda thing.

seannash · 29-09-2011 10:44pm

DamagedTrax wrote: »

a little harmonic exciting should do the trick. spl twin tube is great for this kinda thing.

Does this just add some artificial high end to it?
any mac friendly freebies out there that do the job

DamagedTrax · 29-09-2011 10:54pm

it excites the harmonics of the source in different ways depending on the order you choose.

no idea about macs.. ill never sell my soul to the white plastic devil

krd · 30-09-2011 1:24am

Instead of heavily filtering out the hi's to get rid of the buzz - try smoothing the buzz with some reverb. You can experiment - use multiband etc.

seannash · 30-09-2011 8:29am

DamagedTrax wrote: »

no idea about macs.. ill never sell my soul to the white plastic devil

:eek: Shun the non believer, shuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnn................na

splitrmx · 30-09-2011 11:27am

Fix the problem at its source. What synths are you using that are giving you a buzzy sound?

seannash · 30-09-2011 11:35am

well its any synth really,Lets say for example i have two sawtooth waves.If the cutoff is up full there quite buzzy.
but if i filter them down to where the sound good and not buzzy its tough to get them to cut through a mix.

Not really sure how i can fix it at the source as i do get the sound i want just it cant push through

madtheory · 30-09-2011 12:43pm

Post an audio example.

But using an LPF to get rid of highs, and then an exciter to replace them, seems nuts. Surely it would be easier to NOT solo the chords, and adjust the filter so they sit in the track in the way you like?

Or maybe there's other stuff in the mix that's causing a problem?

Impossible to say without something we can hear!

DamagedTrax · 30-09-2011 2:09pm

madtheory wrote: »

But using an LPF to get rid of highs, and then an exciter to replace them, seems nuts. Surely it would be easier to NOT solo the chords, and adjust the filter so they sit in the track in the way you like?

totally, if the sound isnt working in the highs but you want high end in it then you need to look at the source. exciting the harmonics will work, but only in taking you back to a similiar place. its the added tube distortion in the spl plugin that will help the sound cut thru but its not ideal.

seannash · 30-09-2011 2:33pm

I understand its made to add back in artificial high end(wasn't sure if the SPL did this or not)

The reason i said solo'd was because i dont "create" the sound as the track is playing.I generally have a sound in my head,make it and then work it into a mix.
thats where i have difficulty,working it in.
Ill grab a few examples later on

madtheory · 30-09-2011 6:30pm

I dunno, 99% of the time you should be able to get pretty much any sound you want with synth/sampler, if you're finding that you have to do a lot of processing all of the time, there's something wrong. Certainly, with something like this where you want it brighter/ softer, that can all be done on the synth.

seannash · 30-09-2011 6:50pm

madtheory wrote: »

I dunno, 99% of the time you should be able to get pretty much any sound you want with synth/sampler, if you're finding that you have to do a lot of processing all of the time, there's something wrong. Certainly, with something like this where you want it brighter/ softer, that can all be done on the synth.

I Think your gettng thrown but the thread title,probably doesnt lend itself to what im trying to achieve

So i can make the sound,no problem.there nice and soft keys.the problem is gettng them to poke through on a mix because there so soft.

Anima · 30-09-2011 8:19pm

Then you need to reduce everything else around it so that it can get through. Loud high frequencies will cause masking of other frequencies.

Try muting other tracks and see what causes the keys to fade away. Then you can EQ similar timbre sounds to make room for it so that it's clearer in the mix.

madtheory · 30-09-2011 10:26pm

madtheory wrote: »

Or maybe there's other stuff in the mix that's causing a problem?

Impossible to say without something we can hear!

As I said...

seannash · 01-10-2011 1:19pm

Thanks for th suggestions lads,Ill come back with some examples.I think you might have the right idea with eq'ing outs some of the similar timbre sounds

studiorat · 03-10-2011 10:30am

seannash wrote: »

I Think your gettng thrown but the thread title,probably doesnt lend itself to what im trying to achieve

So i can make the sound,no problem.there nice and soft keys.the problem is gettng them to poke through on a mix because there so soft.

Perhaps come at it from another angle. What can you change in the rest of the mix to get the soft keys to fit it. Like so someone said already a reverb or delay might make give it a bit of it's own space and make it a bit more noticeable. Ask yourself what's in it's way?

I think you could try moving some of the other furniture to get your new soft sounding synth in.

Bright sounding chords

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