Contemporary Lead Synth Sounds

[CaseyK]

Hey everyone!

I have been working on an instrumental cue and I want to have an energetic, exciting, hype sort of synth sound to play the main melody. I have tried a few different sounds and it all sounds corny and dated to me. I realized that I do not have much of a frame of reference for what a modern, contemporary lead synth should sound like. So I defer to you wiser and more experienced taxi members. How can I dial in a current-sounding lead synth sound? I am currently running Pro Tools 12 with my main instruments consisting of Xpand! 2 and the Komplete library (version 10 I believe). Any help you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated! Even general tips are very helpful. Thank you!

-Casey

[ResonantTone]

Hey Casey!

Best advice I can think of is simply immersing yourself in the sounds you are looking to re-create. Find a playlist of the genre that you're shooting for, and then just listen, listen, listen. Be sure to pay close attention to not just the patch itself, but things like how it's used, what sonic space it's takin up, how busy it is, reverb, delay, HPFs, LPFs, how it evolves, pitch bending... the whole enchilada.

Eventually, your ear will get really good at hearing all the nuances between something that's dated and something current... which results in being able to create your own sounds that sit alongside other current synths used in current music.

Hope that helps some! Good luck with the endeavor, and remember to not get discouraged. If I find I'm struggling too much with a current project, I try my best to wrap it up and move on. Coming back a few weeks later will a lot of times give me some new perspective on what was working and what wasn't, and it helps me to take those lessons with me in my future projects.

Andrew

[cosmicdolphin]

Try this..

1. Layer 2 or 3 sounds ( choose different things i.e. pluck + synth + vocal patch )..it may be easier done in one of those plugins that lets you stack sounds in one window

2. Strap Xfer's free OTT across them ..adjust % knob until it sounds good

3. add favourite sidechain plugin

4. Send to 8th note delay..maybe a ping pong or something with some movement

This should get you something interesting and modern sounding ..some sort of filter may be necessary

[andygabrys]

def agree with Andrew and Mark.

I would add:

if you can't find a Youtube video on how to program a synth sound like just about any modern tune - I would be surprised. Find a song in the same genre like yours and search.

Its unusual that any modern synth sound can't be found in presets either. Well maybe Massive as its older than dirt - so if that's the case then go to Sample Magic or other website and see if you can find some third party royalty free synth presets. Totally magic if EDM or Future Bass etc are your chosen genres.

[melodymessiah]

what about omnisphere?