00:00pre-made loops and presets have one big
00:02problem they never perfectly fit
00:03together so you end up mixing your track
00:05for hours and hours trying to give it
00:07that big powerful cohesive feel of your
00:09reference tracks only to find out that
00:11something's off in the original sound
00:13design of your Sy now here's where it
00:16gets interesting if you're then trying
00:17to fix that s preset and tweak it to fit
00:20your song you will be hopelessly lost
00:21because whoever created it in the first
00:23place they probably made it so complex
00:25and so overprocessed with effects so
00:28that it sounds impressive on its own but
00:30not in the context of your specific
00:32production and so what ends up happening
00:34is you try to tweak that sound but
00:36whatever you do you're just making it
00:37worse now I'm not saying that you should
00:39never use presets or that all presets
00:41are bad but I think you need to pair the
00:44power of presets with the knowledge and
00:46the skills of sound design of coming up
00:49with your own sounds and tweaking sounds
00:51to your liking and only once you combine
00:53those two worlds then you can make the
00:54most out of it and create songs that
00:56actually sound great so in this video
00:58I'm going to walk you through a simple
01:00five-step sound design framework you can
01:01use in any synth to take your tracks
01:04from good to great if you're new to this
01:05channel my name is Philip from pick
01:07yourself I've produced Mi and master
01:08music for almost two decades now I do it
01:10professionally in my studio in Berlin as
01:13well as now my remote setup in beautiful
01:15Valencia in Spain I'm there right now
01:17for a couple of months my goal for you
01:18is to make better music release it and
01:20get on that constant path of
01:22professional artistic growth and this is
01:25what I'm here for like I said this
01:26framework works for any syn so you can
01:28use it in serum you can use use it in
01:30vital you can use it in Diva whatever
01:32you may be using I'm going to be using
01:34the new Mel synthesizer and Aon life 12
01:36and the reason for this is a lot of
01:38people have trouble with this
01:39synthesizer like dialing in good sounds
01:41on their own and going Beyond presets
01:43now here's our lead Melody and I'm going
01:45to play it in Solo and then flip on the
01:47rest of the music for the context
02:03now most producers would jump straight
02:05in adjust the waveforms adjust the
02:07filter settings the envelopes and
02:09basically tweak the syn to Perfection to
02:11then at the very end of the process slap
02:13on something like a delay now this is
02:15where gets tricky I think this should be
02:18pulled to the very beginning of the
02:20process because delay is something that
02:22has a lot of musical information a lot
02:24of impact on how the final sound will be
02:26perceived it actually creates repetition
02:28of notes it has a rythmic component
02:30Sonic component and if you tweet the
02:32synth and make it super rich sounding
02:34and then slap on a delay at the end
02:36chances are you're just making
02:37everything super muddy and it's just not
02:39going to work so step one in my
02:41framework is to bring in delay and maybe
02:43even something like a Reverb early on to
02:45first of all give that musical context
02:47but also already helping it sound a bit
02:50better so you're listening to the sound
02:52design and massaging the synth preset or
02:55the synth patch in the way that it will
02:57in the end be perceived by The Listener
02:58so let's do that I'm going to use the
03:00Ableton Echo that's actually one of my
03:02favorite delays it's better than so many
03:16tools a big fan of dotted e delays so
03:19this is why I'm not changing the timing
03:21on this what you can sometimes do is to
03:23change the percentage here to
03:24differentiate left and right side even
03:26more that is quite nice
03:40like that a lot can also change the
03:41modulation settings and the character a
03:44little bit for example adding noise add
03:45a little bit of wobble to give it a
03:47little bit more of that retro sound but
03:48these are things that I would actually
03:50dial in in the synth patch first of all
03:52and then see later on if I actually need
03:54some more of that in the Echo so for the
03:57Reverb we're going to use the ablon
03:58hybrid Reverb I I like this one a lot
04:00because it has this combination between
04:02a convolution part so like a real
04:05impulse response from a room I've
04:06actually made a video about Reverb
04:08specifically so you know what I'm
04:09dialing in here and the other part of
04:11that Reverb is an algorithmic Reverb
04:13that is quite complex sounding quite
04:16rich and you can combine those two
04:17either in parallel or in serial one
04:19after the other and you can create
04:21really interesting Reverb textures with
04:23that now I'm going to not dial this into
04:25Perfection I'm going to use early
04:27Reflections Reverb here in space for
04:30example is a really good one and for the
04:32algorithm I'm just going to keep it in
04:33Dark Hall but blend them in parallel so
04:36that there's more of the early
04:37reflection part right now and not So
04:39Much from the Lush tail because I still
04:41don't know how I will set up the
04:43synthesizer itself if I use a
04:45synthesizer setting that has like a long
04:47release time where the synth rings out
04:49and I also have a super Lush Reverb then
04:51it's probably going to end up super
05:02so that's really nice and we already
05:05have some more context some more wish
05:08around the sound and we know exactly
05:09what notes are going to be playing now
05:11if you got some value out of this video
05:12so far consider liking this video
05:14consider subscribing through the channel
05:16this really helps me it also helps you
05:18because the algorithm will put better
05:20content in your feet and not just latest
05:22strategy or cat video now it's time to
05:25actually dial in the S sounds now the
05:27second big issue I see again and again
05:29no no matter what synthesizer you're
05:31using is that people who are less
05:32experienced with sound design try to
05:35dial in everything all at once using all
05:37the oscillators using all the filters
05:39all the envelopes and basically getting
05:41confused and overwhelmed during that
05:43process my recommendation for you and
05:45this is step two of my process is to
05:47mute everything but the original
05:49oscillator like the first oscillator you
05:51have and dialing this in first of all
05:53with a setting that provides a stability
05:56and like a core sound that you can then
05:58build on top of and di in the rest of
06:00the sounds to complement this original
06:02sound so that's exactly what we're doing
06:04we've muted the second oscillator and we
06:06basically try to find a shape that we
06:09like I'm just going to flip through a
06:19them I like this one this swarm sign
06:22quite a bit I'm going to show you why
06:23because these are kind of macro settings
06:25for that specific oscillator would be
06:27the same something like vital or
06:29something something like serum you
06:30basically sweep through the wave table
06:32and see how different parts of it sound
06:34that's just something that is specific
06:35to melt but in another Sy you would just
06:38see like okay which part of the wave
06:55use now this is also creating some type
06:57of a Super S sound in other
07:00of other synthesises that would be the
07:02spread like how stuff is spread out how
07:04much of the Unison you would be using
07:20basically was tianic context
07:39it's already giving us a nice texture
07:41some richness but still has that Clarity
07:43that I actually quite liked about the
07:44original kind of sign sound and we can
07:47challenge this with for example a more
07:49gritty tone so instead of swarm sign we
07:51could use like swarm saw for example
07:53which has more overtones and this is a
07:55decision that you have to make like how
07:57rich do you want your sound to be or how
07:59prec size and sparse so everything
08:01that's more like a sine wave or triangle
08:03wave is much more sparse and well
08:05defined something like a square or a
08:07Sawtooth has more overtones that means
08:10it just sounds richer but also like a
08:13little bit less clear
08:29also quite cool I must say like for this
08:31video I actually like this one sign
08:49triangle let's use theform sign because
08:51too many people are using just hypersol
08:54sounds and this time I want something a
08:56bit more defined and clear so in 90% off
08:58classic Sy syis and patches you will
09:01make the final sound out of a
09:02combination of whatever oscillator you
09:04chose in combination with what filter
09:07you chose and then which types of
09:08envelopes you map to those kind of
09:11control how they're opening up here we
09:13will use the filter for oscillator a
09:16right now this is a really relaxed 12tb
09:18Pro octave filter which means it's like
09:20cutting off not too steep just very
09:26gentle to use something more extreme
09:33beam it cuts off a bit more steep so
09:36that's definitely like a difference here
09:38you could also try some of the more
09:39complex filters here but in my opinion
09:42with the more stable sound of the first
09:45ulate that you definitely want to also
09:47go for a filter setting that is not too
09:49crazy because otherwise you will end up
09:50with a sound that just lacks that
09:52richness and stability at least if we're
09:53talking about stuff like lead sounds and
09:56base sounds so I'll actually keep this
09:57first foot I like it quite a lot
10:05and now this is the part that is most
10:07often underrated whatever you dial in
10:10for the amp envelope which is basically
10:13how the shape of the overall envelope of
10:16that sound fades in how it stays there
10:19how it fades out and the modulation
10:21envelope that you can map for example to
10:23the filter so when does the filter close
10:25and open these are the things you really
10:28have to get good at if you want to get
10:29better at synthesis if you don't know
10:31how to create envelopes that make sense
10:34and you don't know what they do you
10:36really have an issue so let me give you
10:37the quick and dirty explanation here
10:39let's focus on the amp envelope so the
10:41overall output amp of that oscillator
10:45here we have the different phases here
10:47attack Decay sustain and release and
10:50these stages all have a different
10:52purpose here so for the attack this
10:54means how does the sound start does it
10:56fade in gradually like this
11:00or does it start immediately like
11:04this then DEC is basically how quickly
11:07is that sound dropping off sustain is
11:10how long is it then being held on that
11:13level and release is how does it ring
11:15out and attack and release are actually
11:16the parameters that make the most
11:18difference so attack I've already shown
11:19and release I have a direct kind of
11:21release is like pressing a piano key and
11:23if you then take your finger off that
11:25key the sound stops immediately
11:30now we have an echo which is why I said
11:32put this before because otherwise it
11:33gets messy when you then try to play
11:35with the other parameters but that's for
11:37example take that Echo and Reverb off
11:40for a moment to show you what the
11:51does and I will keep them on because
11:53they're part of the music themselves and
11:55I will just dial in a shape that
11:57actually makes sense for the sound
12:14so I want some of the Plucky quality I
12:17want it to ring out a little bit but I
12:18don't want it to flood everything so
12:20this is why I dialed it in this way now
12:22the second envelope is this is the same
12:24in every synthesizer you can map
12:26envelopes to pretty much everything this
12:28just happen be the envelope that is
12:30mapped to the amp to the final
12:32amplification stage but obviously you
12:33can also use an envelope to tell the
12:35filter when it's supposed to open up and
12:37that down so let's try this out we're
12:39going to the modulation Matrix and map
12:42that envelope the modulation envelope to
12:44the filter frequency you have to close
12:46the filter down first of
12:52all go to the envelopes
13:21so you can dial in exactly the type of
13:23shape that you want how is that sound
13:25getting brighter or not how's the
13:26overall sound fading in and ringing out
13:29all of this can be done inside this
13:31envelope modulation now I have one word
13:33of warning for you there is this urge
13:36that you have to resist this urge to use
13:38like a ton of immersive Unison spread in
13:40your synth and to stack them I will just
13:43show you what that does so I could use
13:56here and stack ton of voices so s gets
13:59richer and richer and richer the issue
14:01is if you do this too early in your
14:03process you're probably doing a sale of
14:05the service and you're doing you're May
14:06basically making the same mistakes that
14:07all of the preset manufacturers do
14:09because they create a sound that sounds
14:11super great and immersive on its own but
14:13actually in the context of a whole song
14:15it just muddies everything up so I would
14:17do this relatively late in the process
14:20now obviously I've chosen a standard
14:23swarm sign here which and swarm means
14:25just there's like a ton of sine waves
14:27stacked here and I put some of them in
14:29but I did it relatively carefully I
14:31would not like combine this with even
14:33more stacked spread and Unison sounds
14:35and here's also a video that explains
14:37why this messes up your mono
14:39compatibility of the sound in case you
14:40want to find out more about the
14:42background of this by the way if you
14:43need help with finishing songs and not
14:45just the sound design portion of it I
14:47have a free gift for you it's called The
14:48Finisher framework my three simple steps
14:50that you can use to finish at least one
14:52great sounding song per month this is
14:54the goal that I have for you and you can
14:55get it for free at picky yourself.com
14:57srw workk the the link is also in the
15:00description now at this point in the
15:02process this is where you would bring in
15:04other oscillators if you even need to
15:06and the second oscillator would
15:07basically serve the function of
15:09providing some more Edge some unique
15:11character some additional modulation to
15:13the sound that just gives it a certain
15:15unique quality and texture that you
15:17don't find anywhere else so how do you
15:19do that well one of the strategies is to
15:21use a little bit more weird wave shape
15:23for that here we have this thing that's
15:25called tarp just going to show you just
15:39oater so it's a little bit like a laser
15:41sound I find it quite cool and you can
15:43also for example push this up an octave
15:46to then combine it with the original
15:47sound let's just play both of them
15:49together and just dial in a setting
15:50where the second one complements the
15:52first one and this is also where you
15:53need to pay attention to the levels
15:55sometimes you just have to use a little
15:57bit less of the second oscillator so
15:59that it doesn't become the like first
16:21passion now here you can also play with
16:23very interesting filter settings that
16:25might give this a unique character so
16:27let's try that out I I'll just use for
16:29example this like membrane resonator
16:31which is a very weird sounding
16:55one and other synthesizers you can try
16:57out something like V
16:59resonators for example comp filters all
17:02these different more unique sounding
17:03filter shapes make sense in that context
17:05at this point you can also go beyond the
17:07traditional envelope shapes so for
17:10example if I use that modulation
17:11envelope and I put it into Loop mode
17:14which means this will be played again
17:16and again we'll go to the Matrix and
17:19then map this modulation envelope to for
17:22example the filter this like membrane
17:37as you can see this is looping very very
17:39fast put down the Decay for example even
17:42more the sustain also
17:54more notice how this creates overtones
17:56on its own you don't really have to to
17:59do it in this way if it doesn't make
18:01sense this was just to show you but
18:02another thing you can do is you use an
18:05LFO instead for the modulation so for
18:08the LFO that's low frequency oscillate
18:10that means it just sweeps between
18:13different settings of parameters starts
18:15at a very negative value and then goes
18:16to a very positive value and so it
18:18Cycles between this for example filter
18:20opening up closing down and always the
18:23same Rhythm and obviously you can also
18:25adjust the shape of this LFO to be like
18:27a little bit different so here for
18:28example we this Wonder phase which is
18:30slightly more relaxed
18:45LFO so you hear that sometimes it just
18:47gives it that nice little Notch where
18:49the filter is approaching a certain
18:51Sweet Spot which is really really nice
18:53these are just some of the tools that
18:55you can use you can go many more levels
18:58complex I will show you this in the next
19:00steps don't worry this is not too
19:02complicated it's just a level deeper
19:04that gives you more capabilities but
19:05we're basically building on the same
19:07skills and knowledge that we already
19:08have at this point now as you can see we
19:10already have put this one one octave
19:12higher than the original s now a lot of
19:14people Dune those two synthesizers
19:17against each other so the sent setting
19:19here is just different percentages of a
19:21semitone so this is the AR have this is
19:23the semitone and this is the percentage
19:25within one semmit tone of the tuning you
19:28can tune for example one up and the
19:29other one down a little bit to create
19:34sounds or what I like to do is I keep
19:38the first one stable so this is my
19:40stable foundation and then the second
19:41one I actually modulate the duning so I
19:44can go for example to the envelopes use
19:45envelope 2 here just use a triangle
19:48shape use a musical value so we will put
19:51this into something a bit weird
19:53something like three bars and we will
19:55then use the second LFO to Dune over the
19:59course of three bars this will cycle
20:01between different values of the duning
20:17oscillator and you notice that some of
20:20these like slight changes here start to
20:23make a huge impact on the overall
20:25uniqueness of that sound now that leads
20:27to step number four in my fros and that
20:29is you have to modulate much more than
20:32you actually think you need to in a s
20:34patch to make it interesting to make it
20:36evolve and stand out from all the other
20:38patches out there one cool way you can
20:40use to modulate things even more is to
20:44use lfos I will now choose the second
20:46LFO of the first oscillator and use some
20:49random shapes so here for example I have
20:51this random sample and hold which just
20:53means different values are randomly
20:55assigned I will not put it in some
20:57musical note and I will we use this to
20:59modulate a modulator so for example this
21:02random LFO can now influence the speed
21:06of for example another LFO so let's say
21:09I use this LFO here this LFO rate you
21:12can use the random sample and hold
21:14function to modulate the other modulator
21:17now one LFO is influencing the other LFO
21:20so more random stuff starts to happen
21:22I've actually made a video specifically
21:24on that technique you can watch it here
21:25but this is the essence of what I'm
21:33now here that first envelope is so far
21:36not doing anything which is why it's
21:38like not too much of you don't hear
21:40anything but I can now take this first
21:41LFO and for example map it to yeah let's
21:44say the filter of that first synthesizer
21:46and just see what happens so this is the
21:48fun part you start to explore the synth
21:51patch and see what happens if you throw
21:53an elbow to this what happens if you
21:54throw an envelope to that which is why I
21:56like these like modulation matrixes
21:58quite a bit almost any synthesizer has
22:01this and if it doesn't you just have to
22:02go directly to the parameters but if it
22:04has a modulation Matrix and it's hidden
22:06in some menu somewhere make sure to go
22:08there more often than you're doing right
22:10now so lfo1 I can map it to the filter
22:24frequency BR the we down make a slower
22:33so this is randomly making this LFO
22:36faster or slower and this is quite
22:38interesting and unique way of
22:40approaching this modulating the
22:42modulator type of experience I actually
22:44learned this with modular synthesizers
22:46which is very nice because you have this
22:47hands-on experience of connecting one
22:49thing to the other thing to modulate the
22:51modulator and it starts to become more
22:53real than just seeing it hidden on a
22:55screen somewhere but I want you to get
22:57the benefits of all this learning
22:59already in the digital form now for the
23:00final step in my process let's first of
23:02all listen to this in
23:19context you're probably wondering where
23:21are the effects now I'm going to put my
23:23flag in the ground and say that most of
23:26the built-in effects in most of the
23:28synthesizers out there aren't that great
23:31and the user interface is kind of not
23:33ideal because it's hidden somewhere in
23:34the menus it's very fitly typically it's
23:37very hard to play with and you cannot
23:39really precisely dial in the parameters
23:41in a way you want some synthesizes like
23:42serum are a little bit better in that
23:44regard they give you a bit more control
23:46but still I find it quite fiddly to give
23:48you an example here we have actually a
23:50drive parameter and the drive parameter
23:52allows us to add saturation
24:01but there's like no way to dial in what
24:02type of saturation how the transfer
24:04curve actually works and it either works
24:07or doesn't and there's not too much
24:08control on top of that so let's say I
24:10wanted to add some more Overton some
24:12saturation which I think this sound
24:14would definitely benefit from because we
24:16chose relatively clean shapes to begin
24:19with and we want to maintain some of
24:20that Clarity but also we want to give it
24:22a bit more Edge and make it cut through
24:23the mix a bit more this is where you
24:25would use an external effect and this is
24:27my recommendation to you always
24:29Outsource the effect because then it's
24:31also easier to keep an overview of
24:33what's happening in your C patches so
24:34I'm going to choose Roar and to be
24:37honest with you it's insane that this is
24:38like a stock tool Roar is such a great
24:41Distortion tool I fell in love with it
24:43since version 12 of abl and I've used
24:46many different Distortion tools but this
24:47one is outstanding in the usability in
24:50its depth and in its sound I really like
24:53this one so I've put Roar right after
24:56melt and I put it before the other
24:58effects because I don't want my echo and
25:00my Reverb to be distorted like after the
25:03effect I want the distorted version run
25:05into the effects now there is no right
25:08or wrong you can obviously also do it
25:09the other way around but this to me
25:11gives a bit more control over the
25:13original sound and the end result just
25:15in my opinion makes more sense because
25:17the Reverb and the echo they wash out
25:19the sound and if you then distort the
25:21washed out sound in the end it just
25:23makes it mixes a bit more money so let's
25:25see what we can do here there is for
25:26example the option to use it in mid side
25:28mode which I like quite a bit so we have
25:30two different Distortion stages a mid
25:32Distortion stages for the center channel
25:34and a side Distortion channel for the
25:35rest and by the way if you're not sure
25:37about midside processing there's
25:39actually a couple of deep
25:41misunderstandings on how this actually
25:42works and I've made a video specifically
25:44about that which you can watch here here
25:45in this midside mode we could for
25:47example decide to keep the mids a bit
25:49more focused a bit more clear sounding
25:52and distort the sides in a more
25:54interesting way let's try that out so be
25:56in the mid mode first of all
26:59now Ro has this interesting setting
27:00where you can actually make up for the
27:02type of distortion so that the low end
27:27affected so I have just a slight tiny
27:29crunch on the overtones now on the side
27:32Channel we will go a bit more extreme
27:34and we dial in a setting that just
27:36crunches the Sid in a really interesting
27:37way so the type of wave shaping we're
27:39going to use here is going to be a bit
28:42so we've now used a bit Crusher which is
28:44a relatively Extreme Digital Distortion
28:47effect or reducing the bit rate
28:49intentionally we've used this on the
28:51sides and on the mids we've just used
28:53standard soft clipping this is a very
28:55nice combination let's see how the s and
29:12context I have one more bonus trick for
29:15you and that is if you're at this point
29:17on the production you feel like your
29:18overall synth sound is great it's Unique
29:21sound and it has something but for
29:23whatever reason you're running out of
29:24oscillators so this one just has two
29:26oscillators and you would like to have a
29:29little bit more stability below what
29:32you're actually creating here and what a
29:34little bit more strength my
29:35recommendation is to do the following
29:37you actually just duplicate the track
29:39you get rid of the effects and then just
29:43use a very simple wave form or just go
29:46into the basic shapes here and sweep
29:48through them and see what works and make
29:50this an octave lower so you create a
29:52subance oscillator below what you have
30:02this is something between the square and
30:05the saw wave so here's what it sounds
30:06like after taking off some of the
30:09modulation and also I've adjusted the
30:11envelope so that it sounds like a bit
30:13more stable a bit more fat and not as
30:15Plucky as the original one and yeah this
30:17is how I would do it
30:32leave a comment below let me know what
30:34you want to learn next thanks for your
30:35time I'll see you in the next video
