Composing Gloves here, and today, we are looking at five ways to make synths sound bigger.
The first one is, “write musically.”
I know, I know, I know, the first one is kind of a gotcha, but often, people have the synth
sound they need, but they don't have the notes they need, and this is a way bigger problem
for getting a big sound than actually changing your sound.
There's a lot of room for direction when it comes to the right notes to play, but in general,
you can be sure that taking care of your tendency tones and having clear cadences can nearly
always establish an agreeable melodic line.
When we aim for big, we aim for a clear cut, large sound.
Not a mushy pile of misdirected sounds that frustrate each other harmonically.
[music]
Here are two action steps you can do to ensure your parts work together.
The first one is write all the parts in a piano or a basic waveform sound first.
This strips off all of the sound factors that you might be relying on.
[piano]
Then, you can color in this sketch you made with much better sounds after.
[synth music]
If the sound is unique to the style you're writing, then identify what it is you like
about that sound.
It could be the way the sound has a particular glide, or the distortion that occurs on a
specific note.
Then prioritize these features of your sound in your melody.
As you write in other parts, be sure they reinforce your main line, and highlight those
special things that you really like about the sound that you have.
This will cause it to sound bigger, because you're highlighting strong points of your
sound.
[music]
Up next is the effective use of layers.
Everyone these days is saying this.
It's practically a requirement to say this for getting thick sounds.
Here are two action steps that can bring this into context for you.
First, consider the sound qualities you want, and then produce layers that specifically
address these qualities, which can often times be more effective than trying to do it all
with just one sound on one synth.
There could be layers to reinforce an attack, or layers to have a certain texture you want
to show up, and of course, you could have a base sound, and then you could add in layers
to reinforce these aspects that you want.
Sometimes, making a list of these could help clarify what you're aiming for.
[base sound, attack support, filler, and base support]
The second method is to consider adding in layers over time as a kind of spectral filter,
each layer making this sound more full.
This can add depth, and adds the ability to split the layers up to do interesting things
later.
[music]
Up next, we have creative automation, and it's one that I really like to use.
Now, when I say creative automation, there's a lot of things I could say about this, but
the big one is related to thinking musically, not sonically.
There are lots of sounds that are very static when it comes to synthesis, and in real life,
if you had a performer play the same melodic lines, they would vary and change, despite
playing the same lines.
They would have slight pitch bends, changes in tone, and add dynamics, and all those things
would be changing over time.
In a similar way, we can automate filters and distortions, along with dynamics and vibrato
to get similar musical lines.
Ones that have that special human touch.
[synth, no automated filter, then with filter]
As for action steps in getting the feel for this, because it can be kind of overwhelming,
because there can be so many things that you can automate, I recommend just starting out
by writing a line, and then automating a filter along with it.
Now, you may have music that may not be suited to this, so you're going to have to come up
with your own, but this is a good exercise to do.
Another option you could do is to bring in a distortion at a particularly musical moment,
or maybe mess with bringing a verb on and off.
There's lots of options, just pick one, and just get a feel for it.
Doing it will help you sort of see where it will be useful to you and where it won't.
Next, we have resampling, and this is a very excellent way to beef up a sound.
So the way this works is you write in a musical line, and you create an interesting sound,
but one that's not too crazy yet, because as you do this, the effects are going to stack
on each other.
Then, you record that sound, and process it again, and you do that again, and at some
point, you're going to stop, but you can do it as many times as you like, and this can
lead to some pretty wild results.
[music]
The action step on this one is again, very easy.
Just record a synth line you've got already, and just try reprocessing it a couple of times.
Try out different things, try adding a chorus repeatedly, or maybe a chorus on the first
layer, then distortion.
Maybe you find that distortion going first works better.
Every sound is going to have its own unique twist to it, and just experimenting with these
things will help you see where you can get some cool sounds, and other methods that might
not be as useful to you.
Now, the last one we have here is a mixing move, and it is multiple channel mixing, which
can open a lot of doors when it comes to getting a bigger sound.
So if you've done the things that I've already mentioned before, a lot of times, this can
take your sound to the next level.
It can be as simple as a mid/side, with a bit of extra verb or distortion on the side
channels, it could be a slight Haas effect, or any number of methods.
There's a lot of choices out here.
You could even use a special stereo imaging plugin that can often open up a lot of doors
very quickly, such as X by TypeWriter Audio.
Some equalizers, such as the Pro-Q 3, even support EQing in this way, which is pretty
wild, because you can do it per band, so if you have the Pro-Q 3, there's a couple others
out there that do similar things.
That can be a really, really cool method to getting a bigger sound just through an EQ.
The action step for this one again is to just give it a go.
This is a very general technique, and it works on a lot of things.
Try out a Haas effect, maybe put a Haas effect on a left/right channel, then also have the
sound coming out in mid/side, and just give it a whirl.
See how clear you can get this thing — how interesting of a space you can conjure up.
[music]
If you have any questions about these methods, be sure to ask.
Leave a comment on your favorite method, and if you produce a track that uses one of the
methods mentioned here, be sure to share it.
I'd be interested.
I'm also learning all the time.
Subscribe and have a blessed day.