dialing in synth pads for modern rock - help!

[andygabrys]

Spending some time over the weeked fooling around with a lot of the under the hood synt possibilities in Omnisphere. Seems though that te more possibilites there are, the less clear things become. For example, just the oscillator iteseld becomes mind boggling when you consider the possibilites. SO where would be a good jumping off point - again since this is a general synth thread doesn't (shouldn?t) be Omnisphere specific.

My2C:

just start where you are. all of this stuff is so deep, synths, mix, composition etc.

so just start where you are. If the oscillator has got your fancy, try the different waveshapes / wave forms / styles of oscillators. I don't have Omnisphere, but even Massive probably has 30 different types - then there are three oscillators, and you can transpose every one of them. Right there, that is just an amazing amount of stuff, thousands of combinations probably. Add that to parts that actually make sense in your piece, and some effects either within the plugin or as mix effects and you have something.

then save your favorites as presets and use them as jumping off points for further explorations.

it doesn't really matter if you attack the stuff that other people do - you will eventually get there.

[beesea]

....the preset pads in the Cubase synths...sound even more lame than before when mixed in with the better piano sounds.

Which version of Cubase are you using? C7 comes with Retrologue & Padshop Pro both of which are excellent synths capable of providing sounds in the Muse ballpark.

I am using Cubase 5; Prologue is the synth it comes with. Nothing fancy, but as I'm learning the basics (different wave types, shaping envelopes, what to do with different oscillators, etc) it seems to make sense (mostly) and give me some options. I feel like I at least know where to start tweaking, which is a way better place than I was a week ago.

That said, I will definitely do a search for Retrologue & Padshop and check those out - thanks!

[beesea]

Spending some time over the weeked fooling around with a lot of the under the hood synt possibilities in Omnisphere. Seems though that te more possibilites there are, the less clear things become. For example, just the oscillator iteseld becomes mind boggling when you consider the possibilites. SO where would be a good jumping off point - again since this is a general synth thread doesn't (shouldn?t) be Omnisphere specific.

...so just start where you are. If the oscillator has got your fancy, try the different waveshapes / wave forms / styles of oscillators. I don't have Omnisphere, but even Massive probably has 30 different types - then there are three oscillators, and you can transpose every one of them. Right there, that is just an amazing amount of stuff, thousands of combinations probably.

Yes, great advice. I spent a good couple hours the other night with just two oscillators turned on, messing with the envelopes and different waveshapes, and taking notes. Lots to learn, but I can already tell that experimentation is what it's all about.

[coolhouse912]

I work primarily in synth based music. Pulled up a tutorial vid the other night that was 30+ minutes on programming Absynth. I never got past the 11 minute mark. I was so knocked out by what could be done with just one oscillator, one waveform, & a few variations of filter envelopes that I came up with four useful patches.

Remember when you're experimenting & come up with something you like in Prologue, go to file>save as. When the window opens it will give you the option of creating a folder. Do that, name it something like "my patches" then name the patch you came up with & save it. That way you won't lose anything cool you create.

I would recommend that you look into upgrading to Cubase 7. You'll get the synths I mentioned plus a new mixer that's turned the DAW world on it's ear.

Happy tweaking,
Mike

[Cruciform]

There are some great tutes here for the NI synths and Kontakt (free and paid).

http://www.massivesynth.com/category/tutorials/
http://www.reaktortutorials.com/
http://www.fm8tutorials.com/
http://www.absynthtutorials.com/
http://www.kontakttutorials.com/