Need Help Finding CURRENT Synth Sounds.......!!!!!!

[piwacquet]

I guess I'm just ignorant when it comes to synth sounds. I am using several synths that I see others using, like Sylenth, Omnisphere 2, Serum, Alchemy. But I have gotten a few comments about needing to use more current sounds. How can I tell if a sound is current or not. There are so many, and varied, and so many sound like others. Which synths will give me sounds that I won't have to worry whether they are current enough or not? I really need to understand this better but I may need a hammer to get it thru my thick skull.

Any and all help and advice will be tremendously appreciated.

Thank you Taxi folks for 'cluing me in'.
Mike

[hummingbird]

I think one of the main things is to disguise the sounds you are using. Like Omnisphere 2 is pretty current, one would suppose. But if a screener knows Om2 he or she is going to recognize some of the patches and say, "Heard that before." So the key is to layer the sounds so that they sound different and 'new'. IE, never use a 'naked patch'.

The other thing is the genre and the listing, and the a la's concerned. Ask yourself, what is 'current' in the genre if that's what they are looking for? What makes it 'contemporary'? Are the sounds I am using in the ballpark, and, am I using them in a 'current sounding' way.

One thing that might help is to post up one or two of the returns, the listing, and the comments, and ask if we can help you figure out how to produce the track(s) in a more contemporary way.... or, how you can target them more effectively in submitting.

[Paulie]

I got a return partially for the same reason. Funny part is that it was a brand new synth, Lethal, that I was using. Part of it is how you use the patch.

Best thing to do is listen to as much of the genre you are submitting for, listen to current examples, and then compare your patches to those. Listen for brightness, attack/decay, any modulation or EQ that stands out, etc.

Paul

[orest]

I guess I'm just ignorant when it comes to synth sounds. I am using several synths that I see others using, like Sylenth, Omnisphere 2, Serum, Alchemy. But I have gotten a few comments about needing to use more current sounds. How can I tell if a sound is current or not. There are so many, and varied, and so many sound like others. Which synths will give me sounds that I won't have to worry whether they are current enough or not? I really need to understand this better but I may need a hammer to get it thru my thick skull.

Any and all help and advice will be tremendously appreciated.

Thank you Taxi folks for 'cluing me in'.
Mike

Hi there!
You can pretty much use any synth VI and apply different effects (like delay, distortion and so on) to create more contemporary sounds.
I'm currently using:
Omnisphere 2
Alchemy

for my EDM stuff.

But, I will soon buy this beast (think this one really is the best contemporary synth VI out there):
https://refx.com/nexus/

[VanderBoegh]

There is no such thing as a "current" sound. Anotherr example is remake of songs. The reason I bring that up is melody is the key to music, not "current" sounds

I have to disagree wholeheartedly with you there, Gabgar. Current sounds are absolutely essential to any producer who is trying to be competitive in any field involving modern - not throwback or retro - music. Hearing the difference in "current" vs. "dated" can be heard quite clearly in these examples:

Warning, these are gonna have some rough language...

Here's Fetty Wap's breakout single "Trap Queen", released in 2014. Maybe even this one is a bit dated now too... but have a listen to this time-stamped YouTube video (it should start right on the chorus): https://youtu.be/i_kF4zLNKio?t=59s
Listen to that synth whine lead that's playing lightly in the background. Hear it?

Now compare that whine to this one from Eazy E's "Real Muthaphukin' G's" from 1993: https://youtu.be/fJuapp9SORA?t=14s Hear the difference in the lead? That's the difference between "dated" and "current". Also, note the differences in drum sounds too... from the snare, to the kick, to the hats. Not to mention the resonating bass sounds from the 90's as compared to saw stacks and 808's in modern hip hop.

This is just one easy quick example. I could find other comparisons across all genres of music too, but maybe this one spotlight will prove the point that the sounds you use in a production are a major factor in making your music sound current.

P.S. Mike, not to derail too much from your original post! But like Orest said, you can contemporize many VST's just by using inventive delays, reverbs, EQ's, distortions, etc.

~~Matt

[annayarbrough]

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was to never use anything "outright". For example, find a synth sound you love (and you think is "current", if that's what you're going for), but really get to know its parameters and start tweaking things until you've really nailed the sound you want.

It's not gospel, but personally it has often given my sounds an edge. If nothing else, it does help avoid the scenario where screeners/whoever else is overly familiar with a common patch.

I'm a big fan of Omnisphere, myself

[annayarbrough]

Oh and one little thing I forgot to mention - sometimes it's the way you use the sound that makes the difference between current and not. Texture and register have so many variables!

[waveheavy]

I took Hans Zimmer's MasterClass and even he recommended never to use a patch preset out of the box, and do your own sampling. Deadmau5 recommended the same things. Pop Grammy award winner Dave Pensado rebutted a negative remark in the studio once about some new off-the-wall sound someone was mocking. Dave instead said it was 'cool', simply because it was 'new', never heard before. That's pretty much how things are in the electronic music world to my ears.

I don't like a lot of the sounds they come up with. But new sounds in that world is about what's 'new', what's 'current', what's 'hot', etc. If you listen to those kind of producers talk about sounds, they can recognize what's been used all the way back to the 8 bit days. And that kind of disturbs me, because I've never been into the use of synths much, so now with trying to write with synths, short of sounding '80s-ish, I really don't know much on how to make them sound 'current' either.

[Kolstad]

Great thread!

One thing that could be added is that in the early days, bands just had one synth as they were expensive. It was hardware, and you had to get two mono synths to achieve a fat sound. So retro synths could sound thin and less complex.

Now, soft synths are much more affordable, and with digital daws you can layer as much as you want, so synth sounds are now fatter, and more complex sounding, due to many more creative possibilities like sidechaining, IRs, distortion ect.

What is modern depends on both cultural and technological circumtances, so it makes sense to tweak patches more now, when everybody gets the same sounds out of the box - you need to put in more effort to stand out. It makes sense to create unique layers, it makes sense to find creative production techniques to find a sound ect.

Bigger, wetter, dirtier could be the storyline for modern synth sounds.

So, not sure if you need new synths (jury is still out), you may succeed by working with layers, fx, compression, distortion ect.

Not sure if Im helping here, as Im surely not a synth guy, but I do use them frequently and interested in the musicology of things.

[mojobone]

I would focus on the recurring sounds that you hear again and again and study how they've been refreshed over time. There are only so many categories; leads, pads, basses and FX. Invest in a basic analog modeled synth and break down the presets, learn to understand the categories of synth sounds; sine, saw and square waves, what differentiates a string patch from a horn patch, (hint, it's not the wave; it's the envelope) learn about ADSR envelopes and modulation. I mention, cuz styles are subject to changing faster than hardware developers can keep up, and if you're handy with a filter cutoff knob, you can roll your own sounds from basic materials and never be stuck waiting 'til you can afford an upgrade.