Author Topic: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo  (Read 21545 times)

Amilu

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Hi, everybody!

I need some help. 

I've been listening to this song by our glorious founder and admin, Mat Zo.


The lead synth just baffles me to be honest.  I admit I suck at sound design but it's just such an interesting sound.  It' s incredibly bouncy but it has this sort of warmth to it I can't really describe.  Would someone be willing to help a brother out?

Rolypoly

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Re: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2016, 03:51:42 am »
I'd like to know specifics too; it sounds like some notes have vibrato(?) while others don't. It's a pretty sound.

Blakelight

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Re: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2016, 03:53:41 am »
By mind you can achieve it by taking a saw wave put some attack on , some glide on , some really fast reverb on and pitch the begining of the igh pass cut off on everynote , it will do the trick as well there some tremolo vibrato kind of thing wich you could do by putting an lfo wich trigger after a certains milisecond

acidalter

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Re: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2016, 04:34:28 am »
just going to guess an ms20.

polardubbear97

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Re: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2016, 04:57:27 am »
I think that a lot of the character from the synth comes from the filter and the way it's being played.

ocularedm

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Re: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2016, 05:02:02 am »
I think that a lot of the character from the synth comes from the filter and the way it's being played.
That was my guess.

I had a go at recreating it. Obviously it's not perfect but you can probably get it pretty close with a little tweaking. I made this in 4 minutes. Here's the Massive patch.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f4hbfwv2uvf0ff7/Mat%20Zo%20Lead.nmsv?dl=0

Mat_Zo

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Re: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2016, 05:25:46 am »
If I recall I think I just used sylenth. The whole movement of the sound comes from the modwheel vibrato and a simple envelope on the filter. Its an old track so i probably processed it very crudely with OTT and reverb. If I was at home I'd look at the project file, but I'm pretty sure thats how I did it

ocularedm

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Re: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2016, 05:33:17 am »
If I recall I think I just used sylenth. The whole movement of the sound comes from the modwheel vibrato and a simple envelope on the filter. Its an old track so i probably processed it very crudely with OTT and reverb. If I was at home I'd look at the project file, but I'm pretty sure thats how I did it

Haha, I basically did exactly this, but in Massive instead  :P

polardubbear97

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Re: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2016, 05:33:46 am »
I think that a lot of the character from the synth comes from the filter and the way it's being played.
That was my guess.

I had a go at recreating it. Obviously it's not perfect but you can probably get it pretty close with a little tweaking. I made this in 4 minutes. Here's the Massive patch.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f4hbfwv2uvf0ff7/Mat%20Zo%20Lead.nmsv?dl=0

Sound quite close, just a matter of nailing a good melody and you are good to go :)

phatscout

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Re: Trying to figure out the lead synth from "Like It Used to Be" by Mat Zo
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2016, 08:54:24 am »
It's pretty much your typical 80s style lead (either 1 or 2 octaves of saws + a lowpass with a longer than usual attack) with judicious use of vibrato

Frankly, when it comes down to it a lot of sounds that people seem to think are really complected are actually relatively simple sounds just used in an interesting or novel way from a compositional standpoint. There's a lot of nuance in how sound design and composition support and interact with one another that tends to be rather unfairly boiled down by some to "melodic synth lines vs. BANGING WUBS BRO" when the truth is neither of those two things are mutually exclusive to one another. Even the way different sounds are ordered has a huge effect on how a given listener would perceive a given sound. (I know this is going a bit off topic but it's something I had on I mind. I should probably start a topic on this idea later but it's like 4am right now so I gotta get some sleep)