How to "polish" dirty leads/synthesizers

[Pinkfloydian5]

Hi, everyone
I would like to ask you your mixing technique for polishing leads and any keyboard sounds. What is your vst chain and any tips to achieve cleaner sounds. Thank you so much!

[osiris]

You want to put an analyzer on it (think SPAN) and see where there's any horrible spikes, then use a Peak filter to notch it down to what you want.

[i need Help]

Using a notch EQ like described above can be thought of as a “rag” that is brushing away any dirt and debris from the car (your sound).

Next you wanna get a “wax” type effect and use enough to get a nice buff and shine on the lead.

Don’t go too heavy-handed though, or the lead will get dull and cloudy instead of having a nice mirror sheen.

Your synth is now clean and polished and ready for a drive around town!

Edit:
I got to say, I like this car analogy way more than the whole “cooking” analogy lol (i.e. “I’m cooking up some beatz, how can I make my synth lead saucy??”)

[osiris]

You'll find dirt and distortion and saturation are your friends.

[i need Help]

You'll find dirt and distortion and saturation are your friends.

Hmm, yeah I shoulda thought of that lol. Maybe that’s for a dirty, muddy off-road 4x4 synth instead of a “clean and polished” one? Idk I’ll have to keep working on the “music is like a car” analogy. Anything to upend the “music is like cooking” one lol.

[funky lime]

fix (i.e. "clean up") the synth patch at the source. sure you can pile on effects/auto-eq/whatever, but... garbage in, garbage out.

[Benedict]

This is not the right approach. While you do work on the individual sounds, you must focus on the Song as a whole. Asking how to make a sound "perfect" might get you lots of shiny (or whatever) sounds but the mix will not deliver the feel of particular sounds leading the listener to feel certain things.
Examples:

While some people complain about the "lack of bass" in Metallica's Justice album, it is the uncompromising feel of that album's mix that is a great part of its success

Right here at KVR I got told off for doing this mix wrong, but all the reasons given for the mix being "wrong" (screechy, overcompressed) were the very messages of the piece. BTW there is very little compression in here, it is mixed to feel overbearing.
https://youtu.be/nnIWUnypSNk?si=FEjwI5G8-FlE8km-