Snoman R. Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques

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MOOG BASS

The Minimoog was one of the proprietary instruments in creating basses for

dance music and has been used in its various guises throughout big beat, trance,

hip-hop and house. Again this synthesizer is out of production and although

it’s unlikely that you’ll ﬁ nd one on the second-hand market as their highly

prized possessions, if you do they’ll demand an extraordinarily high price.

Nevertheless, this type of timbre can be constructed on most analogue-style

synthesizers (emulated or real) from either using a sine or triangle wave as the

initial oscillator depending on whether you want a clean rounded sound (sine)

or a more gritty timbre (triangle). On top of this, add a square wave and detune

it from the main oscillator by either ⫹ or ⫺3 and set the ampliﬁ er’s envelope

for both oscillators to its fastest attack, a medium decay, no sustain and no

release. The square wave helps to ‘thicken’ the sound and give it a more woody

character while the subsequent ampliﬁ er setting creates a timbre that starts on

key press. The decay setting acts as the release parameter for the timbre. The ﬁ l-

ter envelope to use will depend entirely on how you want the sound to appear,

but a good starting point is to set the low-pass ﬁ lter cut-off to medium with a

low resonance and use a fast attack with a medium decay. By then lengthen-

ing the attack or shortening the decay of the ﬁ lter’s envelope you can create a

timbre that ‘plucks’ or ‘growls ’. Depending on the type of sound you require

it may also beneﬁ t from ﬁ lter key follow, so the higher up the keyboard you

play the more the ﬁ lter opens. If you decide not to employ this, however, it is

worth modulating the pitch of one, or both, of the oscillators with an LFO set

to a sine wave running at slow rate and make sure that this restarts with every

key press. This will create the basic Moog bass patch but it should be noted

that the original Moog synthesizer employed convex slopes on the envelopes,

so if you want to emulate it exactly you will have to curve the attack, decay and

release parameters.

TB303

1: Acid House Bass

The acid house bass was a popular choice during the late 1980s but has been

making something of a comeback in-house, techno, drum ‘n’ bass and chill

out/ambient. Fundamentally, it was ﬁ rst created using the Roland TB303 Bass

Synthesizer which, like the accompanying TR909 and TR808, is now out of

production and, as such, demands a huge price on the second-hand market.

Similar to the 909 and 808, however, there are software emulations available,

with the most notable being Propellerhead’s ReBirth which includes two along

with the TR808 and 909. As usual, though, this timbre can be recreated in any

analogue synthesizer (emulated or real) but it should be noted that due to the

parameters offered by the original synthesizer, there are thousands of permu-

tations available. As a result, we’ll just concentrate on creating the two most

popular sounds and you can adjust the parameters of these basic patches to

suit your own music.

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The acid house ( ‘donk’) bass can be created using either a square or sawtooth

oscillator depending on whether you want it to sound ‘raspy ’ (saw) or more

‘ woody ’ and rounded (square). As with most bass timbres the sound should

start immediately on key press it requires the amp’s attack to be set to its fast-

est position but the decay can be set to suit the type of sound you require (as a

starting point try a medium decay and no sustain or release). Using a low-pass

ﬁ lter set the cut-off quite low and then slowly increase the resonance so that it

sits just below self-oscillation. This will create a quite bright ( ‘donky’) sound

that can be further modelled using the ﬁ lter’s envelope.

As with the amp settings, the ﬁ lter envelope should be set so that it ﬁ ts your

music, but as a general starting point, a zero attack, sustain and release with

a decay that’s slightly longer than the amp’s EG decay will produce the typical

house bass timbre. Filter key follow is often employed in these sounds to cre-

ate movement but it’s also prudent to modulate the ﬁ lter’s cut-off with velocity

so that the harder the key is struck the more it opens. Generally speaking, by

adopting this approach you’ll have to tune the subsequent harmonics into the

key of the song but this is not always necessary. In fact, many dance and drum

‘ n’ bass artists have used this timbre but made it deliberately dissonant to the

music to make it more interesting.

2: Resonant Bass

The resonant bass is similar in some respects to the tone produced by the acid bass

but has a much more resonant character that almost squeals. This, however, is a lit-

tle more difﬁ cult to accomplish on many synths as it relies heavily on the quality of

the ﬁ lters and ideally these should be modelled around analogue. Start with a saw-

tooth oscillator and set the ampliﬁ er’s EG to zero attack and sustain with a medium

release and a fast decay. This sets the timbre to start immediately on key press and

then quickly jump from a short decay into the release portion, in effect, producing

a bass with a quick pluck. Follow this by setting the ﬁ lter’s envelope to a zero attack

and sustain with a short release and a short decay (both shorter than the amp’s set-

tings), and set the low-pass ﬁ lter’s cut-off and resonance to halfway. These settings

on the ﬁ lter envelope introduce resonance to the decay’s ‘pluck’ at the beginning

of the note. This creates the basic timbre but it’s worth employing positive ﬁ lter key

follow so that the ﬁ lter’s action follows the pitch helping to maintain some interest

in the timbre. On the subject of pitch, modulating the sawtooth using a positive

or negative envelope set over a 2 semitone range can help to further enhance the

sound. Typically, if you want the timbre to ‘bow ’ and drop in pitch as it plays then

it’s best to use a positive envelope while if you want to create a timbre that exhibits

a ‘sucking’ motion with the pitch raising it’s best to use a negative envelope.

SWEEPING BASS (TYPICAL OF UK AND SPEED

GARAGE)

The sweeping bass is typical of UK garage and speed garage tracks and consists of

a tight yet deep bass that sweeps in pitch and/or frequencies. These are created

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with two oscillators, one set to a sine wave to add depth to the timbre while

the other is set to a sawtooth to introduce harmonics that can be swept with a

ﬁ lter. These are commonly detuned from one another but the amount varies

depending on the type of timbre required. Hence, it’s worth experimenting by

ﬁ rst setting them apart by 3 cents and increasing this gradually until the sound

becomes as thick as you need for the track.

As with all bass sounds, they should start the moment the key is depressed so

the amp EG’s attack is set to zero along with sustain but the release and decay

should initially be set midway. The decay setting provides the ‘pluck’ while the

release can be modiﬁ ed to suit the motif being played from the sequencer. The

ﬁ lter cut-off is set to a low-pass as you want to remove the higher harmon-

ics from the signal (opposed to removing the lower frequencies ﬁ rst) and this,

along with the resonance, is adjusted so that they both sit approximately half-

way between fully exposed and fully closed. Ideally, the ﬁ lter should be con-

trolled with a ﬁ lter envelope using the same settings as the amp EG but to

increase the ‘pluck’ of the sound it’s beneﬁ cial to adjust the attack and decay

so that they’re slightly longer than the ampliﬁ er’s settings. Finally, positive ﬁ l-

ter key follow should be employed so that the ﬁ lter will track the pitch of the

notes being played which helps to add more movement.

These settings will produce the basic timbre but it will beneﬁ t from pitch-shifting

and/or ﬁ lter movements. The pitch shifting is accomplished, somewhat unsur-

prisingly, by modulating both oscillators with a pitch envelope set to a fast attack

and medium decay but, if possible, the pitch bend range should be limited to

2 semitones to prevent it from going too wild. If you decide to modulate the ﬁ l-

ter then it’s best to use an LFO with a sawtooth that ramps upwards so that the

ﬁ lter opens, rather than decays, as the note plays. The depth of the LFO can be set

to maximum so that it’s applied fully to the waveform and the rate should be set

so that it sweeps the note quickly. What’s more, if the notes are being played in

succession it’s prudent to set the LFO to retrigger on key press, otherwise it will

only sweep properly on the ﬁ rst note and any successive notes will be treated

differently depending on where the LFO is in its current cycle.

TECHNO ‘ KICK ’ BASS

Although a bass is not always used in techno, if it is, it’s usually kept short and

sharp so as not to get in the way of the various rhythms. That said, as there are

few leads employed the bass is programmed so that it’s quite deep and power-

ful as (if they’re used) they play a major role in the music.

To create this type of bass requires four oscillators stacked together, all using

the same waveform. Typically sawtooth waveforms are used but square, trian-

gle and sine waves can also work equally well so long as the oscillators used

are all of the same waveform. One waveform is kept at its original pitch while

the other three are detuned from this and each other as far as possible with-

out sounding like individual timbres (i.e. less than 20 Hz). Obviously, the

sound needs to begin the moment the key is struck, so the resulting timbre

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is sent to an amp EG with a zero attack along with a zero sustain and release

with a medium decay setting. Typically, a techno bass also exhibits a whump

at the decay stage, which can be introduced by modulating the pitch of all the

oscillators with an attack/decay envelope. Obviously this uses a fast attack so

that pitch begins at the start of the note but the decay setting should be set

just short of the decay used on the amp EG. Usually, the pitch modulation is

positive so that the ‘whump’ is created by moving the pitch downwards but

it’s worth experimenting by setting this to negative so that it sweeps upwards.

Additionally, if the synthesizer offers the option to adjust the slope of the enve-

lopes, a convex decay is used, but experimentation is the real key with this type

of bass and, in some cases, a concave envelope may produce more acceptable

results. Filter key follow is rarely used as the bass tends to remain at one key

but if your motif moves up or down in the range, it’s prudent to use a positive

key follow to introduce some movement into the riff.

TRANCE ‘ DIGITAL ’ BASS

This bass is typical of those used in many trance tracks, and while it doesn’t

exhibit a particularly powerful bottom end, it does provide enough of a bass

element without being too rich in harmonics so that it interferes with the

characteristic trance lead. It requires two oscillators, both set to square waves

and detuned from each other by 3 cents to produce the basic tone. A low-pass

ﬁ lter is used with the cut-off set so that it’s almost closed and the resonance

is pushed up so that it sits just below self-oscillation. The sound, as always,

needs to start immediately on key press, so the amp’s attack is set to zero along

with both the release and the sustain. The decay should be set about midway

between being fully exposed and fully closed. The ﬁ lter envelope emulates

these amp settings using a zero attack, sustain and release but the decay should

be set so that it’s slightly shorter than the amp’s decay so that it produces a

resonant pluck. Finally, the ﬁ lter key follow is applied so that the ﬁ lter follows

the pitch across the bass motif. Once constructed, if the bass is too resonant it

can be condensed by reducing the ﬁ lter’s decay to make the ‘pluck’ tighter, or

alternatively, you can lower the resonance and increase the ﬁ lter’s cut-off.

‘ POP ’ BASS

The pop bass is commonly used in many popular music tracks, hence the

name, but it is also useful for some house and trance mixes where you need

some ‘bottom-end’ presence but at the same time don’t want it to take up too

much of the frequencies available in the mix. These are easily created in most

synthesizers by using a sawtooth and a triangle oscillator, with the triangle

transposed up by an octave from the sawtooth. The amp envelope is set to an

on/off status whereby the attack, decay and release are all set to zero with the

sustain set just below maximum. This means that the sound almost immedi-

ately jumps into the sustain portion, which produces a constant bass tone for

as long as the key is depressed (remember that the sustain portion controls

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the volume level of sustain and not its length!). To add a ‘pluck’ to the sound,

a low-pass ﬁ lter is usually set very low to begin with while the resonance is

increased as high as possible without forcing the ﬁ lter into self-oscillation. The

ﬁ lter envelope is then set to a zero attack, release and sustain but the decay is

set quite long so that it encompasses the sustain portion of the amp’s EG, in

effect producing a resonant pluck to the bass. By then increasing the depth of

the ﬁ lter envelope along with increasing the ﬁ lter’s cut-off and resonance you

can control how resonant the bass becomes. Depending on the motif that this

bass plays it may also be worth employing some ﬁ lter key-tracking so that the

ﬁ lter follows the pitch of the bass.

GENERIC BASS GUIDELINES

Although here we’ve looked at the main properties that contribute towards the

creation of bass timbres and covered how to construct the most commonly

used basses throughout the dance genres, occasionally simply creating these

sounds will not always produce the right results. Indeed, much of the time you

ﬁ nd that the bass is too heavy without enough upper harmonics or that it’s too

light without the right amount of depth. In these cases it’s useful to use differ-

ent sonic elements from different synthesizers to construct a patch – a process

known as layering. Essentially this means that you construct a bass patch in

one synthesizer and then create one in another (and possibly another and so

forth) and then layer them altogether to produce a single patch.

It’s important to understand here, though, that these additional layers should not

be sourced from the same synthesizer and the ﬁ lter settings for each consecutive

layer should be different. The reason behind this is due to the fact that all synthe-

sizers sound tonally different from one another, even if they use the same param-

eter settings. For instance, if an analogue (or analogue emulated) synthesizer is

used to create the initial patch, using an analogue emulation from another manu-

facturer to create another bass (or using a digital synthesizer) will create a timbre

with an entirely different character. If these are layered on top of one another and

the respective volumes from each are adjusted you can create a more substantial

bass timbre. Ideally, to prevent the subsequent mixed timbres from becoming

too overpowering in the mix it’s quite usual to also employ different ﬁ lter types

on each synthesizer. For example, if the ﬁ rst synthesizer is producing the low-fre-

quency energy but it lacks any top end, the second synthesizer should use a high-

pass ﬁ lter. This allows you to remove the low-frequency elements from the second

synthesizer so that it’s less likely to interfere with the harmonics from the ﬁ rst.

This form of layering is often essential in producing a bass with the right amount

of character and is one of the reasons why many professional artists and studios

will have a number of synthesizers at their disposal.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that it’s inadvisable to apply any stereo-

widening effects to bass timbres. This is because the bass should sit in the cen-

tre of the mix (for reasons we’ll touch upon in the mixing chapter) but it’s

sometimes worthwhile applying controlled distortion to them to increase the

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harmonic content. As some basses are constructed from sine waves that con-

tain no harmonics, they can become lost in the mix but by applying distortion,

the upper harmonics introduced can help the bass cut through the mix. This

distortion can then be accurately controlled using ﬁ lters or EQ to mould the

bass to the timbre you require. What’s more, some effects such as ﬂ angers or

phasers require additional harmonics to make any noticeable difference to the

sound, something that can be accomplished by applying distortion before the

ﬂ anger or phaser. Of course, if these effects are applied it’s sensible to ensure

that they’re applied in mono, not stereo to prevent the bass becoming spread

across the stereo image.

Finally, as with the drum timbres if you have access to a synthesizer that allows

you to adjust the linearity of the envelope’s attack and decay stage you should

certainly experiment with this. In fact, a convex or concave decay on the ﬁ lter

and/or amp is commonly used to produce bass timbres with a harder pluck

allowing it to pull through a mix better than a linear envelope.

The data CD contains audio examples of these timbres being programmed.

PROGRAMMING LEADS

Saying that basses were difﬁ cult to encapsulate is only the tip of the sound

design iceberg since trying to deﬁ ne what makes a good lead is impossible.

Every track will use a different lead sound ranging from Daft Punk’s distorted or

phased leads to the various plucks used by artists such as Paul Van Dyk through

to the hundreds of variations on the euphoric trance leads. Consequently, there

are no deﬁ nitive methods to creating a lead timbre but it is important to take

plenty of time producing one that sounds right. The entire track rests on the

quality of the lead and it’s absolutely vital that this sounds precise. However,

while it’s impossible to suggest ways of creating new leads to suit any one par-

ticular track, there are some rough generalizations that can be applied.

Firstly, most lead instruments will utilize a fast attack on the amp and ﬁ lter envelope

so that it starts immediately on key press with the ﬁ lter introducing the harmonics

to help it to pull through a mix. The decay, sustain and release parameters, though,

will depend entirely on the type of lead and sound you want to accomplish.

For example, if the sound has a ‘pluck’ associated with it then the sustain

parameter, if used, will have to be set quite low on both amp and ﬁ lter EGs so

that the decay parameter can drop down to it to create the pluck. Additionally,

the release parameter of the amp can be used to determine whether the notes

of the lead motif ﬂ ow together, or are more staccato (keep in mind that stac-

cato notes appear louder than those that are drawn out). If the release is set so

that the notes ﬂ ow together it isn’t unusual to employ portamento on the syn-

thesizer so that notes rise or fall into the successive ones.

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As the lead is the most prominent part of the track it’s usually sits in the

mid-range, and is often bursting with harmonics that occupy this area. The

best approach to accomplish this is to build a harmonically rich sound by

using sawtooth, square waves, triangle and noise waveforms stacked together

and make use of the unison feature (if the synthesizer has it available). This

is a form of stacking a number of the synthesizer’s voices together to produce

thicker and wider tones but it also reduces the polyphony available to the syn-

thesizer, so you have to exercise caution as to the polyphony available to the

synthesizer. Once a harmonically rich voice is created it can then be thinned,

if required, with the ﬁ lters or EQ and modulated with the envelopes and LFOs.

These latter modulation options play a vital role in producing leads as they

need some sonic movement to maintain interest.

Typically, these methods alone will not always provide a lead sound that is

rich or deep enough; it’s worth employing a number of methods to make it

‘ bigger’ such as layering, doubling, splitting, hocketing or residual synthesis.

We’ve already looked at some of the principles behind layering when looking

at basses but with leads this can be stretched further as there is little need to

keep the lead under any real control – its whole purpose is to sit above every

other element in the mix! Alongside layering the sounds in other synthesizers,

it’s often worth using different amp and/or ﬁ lter envelopes in each synthesizer.

For example, one timbre could utilize a fast attack but a slow release or decay

parameter, while the second layered sound could utilize a slow attack and a

fast decay or release. When the two are layered together, the harmonic interac-

tion between the two sounds produces very complex timbres that can then be

mixed together in a desk and EQ’d or ﬁ ltered externally to suit.

Doubling is similar to layering, but the two should not be confused as doubling

does not use any additional synthesizer but the one you’re using to programme

the sounds. This involves copying the MIDI information of the lead motif to

another track in the MIDI sequencer and transposing this up to produce a much

richer sound. Usually transposing this copy up by a ﬁ fth or an octave will pro-

duce musically harmonious results, but it is worth experimenting by transpos-

ing it further and examining the effects it has on the sound. A variation on this

theme is to make a copy of the original lead and then only transpose some notes

of the copy rather than all of them so that some notes are accented.

Hocketing consists of sending the successive notes from the same musical

phrase to different synthesizers or patches within the same module to give

the impression of a complex lead. Usually, you determine which synthesizer

receives the resulting note through velocity by setting one synthesizer or patch

to not accept velocity values below, say, 64 while the second synthesizer or

patch will only accept velocity values above 64. If this is not possible, then sim-

ply copying the MIDI ﬁ le onto different tracks and deleting notes that should

not be sent to the synthesizer will produce the same results.

Splitting and residual synthesis are the most difﬁ cult to implement but often

produce the best results. Fundamentally, splitting is similar in some respects to

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layering but rather than produce the same timbre on two different synthesizers,

a timbre is broken into its individual components which are then sent to dif-

ferent synthesizers. For example, you may have a sound that’s constructed from

a sine, sawtooth and triangle wave but rather than have one synthesizer do this,

the sine may come from one synthesizer, the triangle from another and the saw

from yet another. These are all modulated in different ways using the respec-

tive synthesis engines, but by listening carefully to the overall sound through

a mixing desk, the sound is constructed and manipulated through the synthe-

sizer’s parameters and mixing desk as if it were from one synthesizer. Residual

synthesis, on the other hand, involves creating a sound in one synthesizer and

then using a band-pass or notch ﬁ lter to remove some of the central harmonics

from the timbre. These are then replaced using a different synthesizer or syn-

thesis engine and recombined at the mixer.

Finally, effects also play a large part in creating a lead timbre. The most typical

of these that are used on leads are reverb, delay, phasers, ﬂ angers, distortion

and chorus, but experimentation with different effects and even the order of

the effects can all produce great results.

As always the key to producing great leads, as with all other sounds, is through

experimentation and familiarization with effects and the synthesis engines you use.

EUPHORIC TRANCE LEAD

The euphoria trance lead is probably the most elusive lead to programme properly

but, in many cases, this is simply because it cannot be recreated on any synthe-

sizer. To capture the sound properly requires an analogue synthesizer (emulated

or real) with oscillators that have the right character for the genre. This means that

you should use a synthesizer that employs methods to dynamically alter both the

tone and the pitch of the oscillators in a slightly different manner every time you

hit a key. This method, often referred to as phase initialization, produces the char-

acteristics distinctive of any good analogue synthesizer. Most software or hardware

analogue emulations will, or should, employ this but the amount of initializa-

tion depends entirely on the synthesizer and for trance leads, the higher this is,

the better the results will be. As a side note, the most commonly used synthesizer

to create the trance lead is the access virus (in fact, nearly all professional trance

musicians will use the virus!) but the Novation SuperNova, Novation A station,

Novation K station or the Novation V station (the software VST Instrument of the

K station) can also produce the requisite timbres with a little extra work.

Alongside the ‘unreliable’ feature of analogue oscillators, the real secret behind

creating any good trance lead is through clever use of effects and noise, not

the bad type of noise, of course, but the noise produced by an oscillator in the

synthesizer. As we’ve already touched upon, noise produces a vast number of

harmonics, which is essential to creating the hands in the air vibe.

A basic trance lead timbre can be constructed with four oscillators. Two are

set to pulse and detuned to produce a wide hollow sound while the third is a

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sawtooth to add further harmonics, and the fourth is set to create noise to add

some ‘top end ’ ﬁ zzy harmonics to the sound. The two pulse waves are detuned

from one another by detuning one to ⫺5 cents and the other to ⫹5 cents to pro-

duce a wide sound while the saw is detuned from these by a full octave to add

some bottom-end harmonics to the timbre. The ﬁ nal oscillator is left as it is

but can use either pink or white noise depending on how ﬁ zzy you want the

harmonics it produces to be. Generally, pink noise is the best choice since it

contains a huge range of harmonics from low to high while white noise is more

like radio static and tends to be a little too light and ﬁ zzy for trance leads.

Obviously the note needs to start as soon as the MIDI note is received so the

amp’s attack is set to zero but to create a small pluck use a medium decay with

a small sustain and a fairly short release. This release can be lengthened or

shortened further depending on the trance riff you’ve programmed. The ﬁ lter

envelope can use the same settings as the ampliﬁ er, although in some cases it

may be worth shortening the decay to produce a better ‘plucking’ sound. This

envelope should be applied from ¾ to full as positive modulation to the ﬁ lters

and the ﬁ lter key follow should be on so that they track the pitch of the notes

being played. The ﬁ lter itself is set to a low-pass with a high cut-off but a low

resonance to prevent the timbre from squealing and it should use a 4-pole ﬁ l-

ter rather than the usual 2-pole, so that the ﬁ lter sweeps sharply, helping the

lead become more prominent and allowing it to cut through the mix .

To add some energy and interest to the timbre, it’s an idea to modulate the

pulse width of both pulse oscillators and, if at all possible, you should use two

LFOs so that each pulse can be modulated differently. The ﬁ rst LFO modulates

the pulse width of the ﬁ rst oscillator with a sine wave set to a slow-to-medium

rate and full depth, while the second modulates the pulse width of the

second oscillator. This, however, is set to a triangle wave with a faster rate than

the ﬁ rst LFO and at a full depth. The resulting effect is that both pulse waves

beat against each other creating a more interesting timbre. Finally, the timbre

will need to be washed in both reverb and delay to provide the required sound.

The reverb should be applied quite heavily as a send effect but with 50 ms of

pre-delay so that the transient pulls through undisturbed and the tail set quite

short to prevent it from washing over the successive notes . It’s also prudent

to set a noise gate to remove the subsequent reverb tail as this will produce

a heavier timbre which cuts through the mix and prevents it from becoming

pushed into the background (an effect known as Gate-Tailing). Decay should

also be applied but again this is best used as a send effect so that only a part of

the timbre is sent to the delay unit. The settings to use will depend on the type

of sound you require but the delays should be set to less than 30 ms to produce

the granular delay effect to make the timbre appear big in the mix.

PLUCKED LEADS

Plucked leads are often used in most genres of music from house through

trance but can be typiﬁ ed in most of Paul Van Dyk’s work. This is not to say

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that they will all sound like Paul Van Dyk, however, as they can be constructed

in numerous ways depending on the type of sound you want to accomplish

and the genre of music you write. Thus, what follows are two of the most com-

monly used basic patches for plucked leads in dance which, as always, you

should manipulate further to suit your own music.

Plucked Lead 1

The ﬁ rst plucked lead consists of three oscillators, two of which are set to saw-

tooths to add plenty of harmonics and the third set to either a sine or triangle

wave to add some bottom-end weight. The choice between whether to use a

sine or triangle is up to you, but using a sine will add more bottom end and is

useful if the bass used in the track is rather thin while if the bass is quite heavy,

a triangle may be better as this will add less of a bottom end and introduce

more harmonics. The sawtooth waves are detuned from each other by 3 cents

(or further if you want a richer sound) and the third oscillator is transposed

down by an octave to introduce some bottom-end weight into the timbre.

Obviously, the amp’s attack is set to zero as is the sustain portion but both

decay and release are set to a medium depth depending on the amount of

pluck you require and the motif playing the timbre. A low-pass ﬁ lter is used

to remove the higher harmonics of the sound and this should be set initially

at midway while the resonance should be set quite low. This is controlled with

a ﬁ lter envelope set to a zero attack and sustain but the decay and release are

set just short of the ampliﬁ er’s decay and release settings so if you adjust the

amp’s decay and release, you’ll also need to reduce the ﬁ lter’s decay and release.

Finally, it’s worthwhile applying some reverb to the timbre to help widen it a

little further but if you take this approach you’ll also have to employ a tailing

gate to prevent the lead from being pushed too far back into the mix.

Plucked Lead 2

The second plucked lead is a little easier to assemble and consists of just two

oscillators, a saw and a triangle. The saw wave is pitched down to produce a low

end while the triangle wave is pitched up to produce a slight glistening effect.

The amount that these are detuned by depends on the timbre you require so

you’ll need to experiment through detuning them by different amounts until

the frequencies sit into the mix you have so far. As a general starting point,

detune them from one another as far as you can without the sounding as two

different timbres and then reduce this tuning until the timbre ﬁ ts to the music.

Due to the extremities of this detuning sync both oscillators together to prevent

the two from beating too much and then apply a positive pitch envelope to the

saw wave with a fast attack and medium decay so that it pitches up as it plays.

The sound needs to start on key press so set the attack to zero with no attack,

sustain or release and set the decay to halfway. This envelope is copied to the

ﬁ lter envelope but set the decay to zero and increase the sustain parameter to

about halfway. Finally, using a low-pass ﬁ lter set the cut-off to around three-

quarters open and set the resonance to about a quarter. This will produce the