synth sound help

[ghiekorg]

Hi everyone.
This question is OT because not directly related to the Linnstrument. Hope it's ok
I am searching a sound like the synth sound present in this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TJVHHQW6aE
can someone help me achive something similar?
Thank you very very much

[John the Savage]

Well, if the kick drum would get out of the way for a second… (wink).

Anyway, I hear three different "synth" type ambient layers in this mix:

• The predominant underlying synth pad sounds like wavetable synthesis to me, so it's anyone's guess what waveforms were used specifically; but there are definitely some sine waves involved, a little pink noise perhaps, a few FM overtones, and a healthy dose of shimmer reverb.

• There's a Gregorian-style choir vocal that sounds to have been granularized to me.

• There's a tremolo-picked guitar part that has been extracted, lowpass filtered, granularized, and washed in tape echo and reverb.

Hopefully that helps get you pointed in the right direction…

Cheers!

[Roger_Linn]

Good ears, John.

[ghiekorg]

WOW 0_0
That's amazing. I could hear only a vuvuzela
Thank you very much. It was really helpful to understand that i will never be able to reproduce it

[BobDog]

All I could hear was someone shouting!

[John the Savage]

WOW 0_0
That's amazing. I could hear only a vuvuzela
Thank you very much. It was really helpful to understand that i will never be able to reproduce it

Ha... Never say never (wink).

In my opinion, the context of the pad sounds in this track is what matters most. They're going for that haunting Gregorian Chant vibe, so the details of the sounds themselves are probably less important than their overall essence. As such, if you wanted to emulate that sound, without looking too closely at the various layers, the shortest way to get there would probably be to use a granular synth, loaded with a droning vocal sample of some sort (ideally of Eastern origins), and play around with the grain parameters until you get an interesting texture; then feed that through a muddy tape-style echo and into a large, dark, modulated reverb with dampened "early reflections".

That said, you could also wade through the presets on any half-decent wavetable synth. I mean, there are bound to be dozens of ominous pads with a similar vibe to what you're hearing here.

As far as the composition is concerned, each of the three ambient tracks in this song are monophonic; but if you were to go with a single polyphonic pad instead, I would stick to playing only fourths, fifths, and octaves to achieve that hollow, somewhat ambiguous sound, and simply follow the root notes (i.e. the bass guitar in this case).

Cheers!

[John the Savage]

Good ears, John.

Thanks, Roger.

Actually, aside from playing, sound design accounts for a good portion of what I get hired to do (grin).

Cheers!

[Benedict]

The sounds are simple enough. The usage gives them their sense of majesty.

Yes the choir is most likely a Digital or FM synth at heart. FM8, Surum or free Surge could probably do any/all of this (with the right fx and mixing). So long as your musical purpose is right it is not hard.

Happy to Sound Design if you are in the middle of a track. I just made several of the sounds from Christmakeitstop Agonyera "Genie In A Bottle" for someone's cover.