LEADS | General, Troubleshooting, etc

[ljk32]

If you're having trouble with any aspects of lead creation, processing or mixing, here's where to post. Show that you've put in a bit of effort yourself before asking for help - it will benefit you in the long run. Getting spoon-fed is not what this topic's here for.

[Lifterz]

Id like to know more about -
Mixing - Enhancing ;

EQ - Where to cut frequencies .

FX/Layer- Making the lead sounding bigger and wider .

my latest synth i made in sylenth1, a pretty simple distorted square with 2 lfo

[Astroshade]

EQ - Yeah, it has come to my knowledge that cutting in the oppinion of most producers/mixing engineers works better than boosting. They prefer notches over peaks and dipping over boosts.
So when you have an instrument playing, a nice lead, you can hear where in the spectrum (and also sometimes see) it sounds the best, where the timbre has it's specific sound. You can also check if you like the sound by peaking that freq. by a couple of dB, end then just put it back at 0. Then you cut that freq. down by a couple of dB from another sound that's masking it (it = the sound you want to emphasize).
And ofc, some sounds, if you've designed them well, don't need to be too much tampered with. Like hihats n stuff, just cut out the lows on them, maybe enhance a bit with Eq, otherwise just change the volume-fader.
Snares and kicks can IMO be good to boost, aside from compression.

FX/Layer - This is new to me, but I start to understand it better. But when it comes to instruments (leads, pads, kicks) u want them to actually cover a big part of the spectrum. So "warm/big" often comes from bassy/low mid parts in the ~250-400Hz part, whereas presence around 2-5 kHz and air at higher, 7-16 kHz perhaps. So when u make a lead, you make copies from it (or new similar leads) and cut out, and boost different frequencies. Ofc, when you gotta fit everything into the track, u'll have to let the kick take it's own room and lead another part of the spectrum etc... But still, the wider and bigger and better it is from the begginning, the better it'll be later on.
That's why a lot of ppl put a lot of time and effort into making sounds/kicks for later use - that which I've just now started doing.
Also, Rev/Del/Chorus makes stuff sound wide/big/spacy (except for stereo/surround). And is a form of art in it's own. I can't give ya much advice there... I hope someone else will come with good info. All I know is that Audiofreq recently said that you should not go 33% 33% 33% or 50-50 with these effects, rather one should be more predominant than the other.

And remember, the better a sound sounds when it's dry as f** the better it'll sound when u mix it and later on master it. The further down the chain, the harder it is t correct mistakes... trust me, I have years of knowledge of that unfortunately

Also... as anyone will tell ya, "use your ears"

[Digital Shifter]

You just need to keep working on those synths. When you try to improve your synth, you will learn more.
But in my opinion when it comes to eqing the synth, the best you can do is EQ down then boost it with the gain in the EQ. In that way problems can be easier to fix. Sometime's an FX can do some tricks even when you didn't know it.
Best quote about production is (i don't know who said it): It's not your daw, it's not your EQ, it's YOU who is in control of your sound design.

[Astroshade]

I for one would really love to know more about Reverbs, I find 'em pretty hard to master, even though they're an "easy" effect to attain.

For years, all I've done is to add this effect as an insert on most lead channels.
Then I started using it as send.
Nowadays, I don't really care which way I choose since I'm still not so fond of my result.

Please, enlighten me (not spoon feed ) about some general stuff to htink about when addin reverb to SAWS mainly (supersaws).
Like, do you have a high pre-delay (i know what that does in theory) or is that a big no-no?
I usually hi-cut the reverb... don't like it when it gets too high up in the freq.
Have a fair amount of Decay and that's about all...
Is mono or stereo better for reverbs?

You see?
A lot of stuff, not so sure about it, tried and tried to make them sound good but can't, so that's why I'm asking here.

BTW - is a slow Rel. (up to 0,5 sec) something you want to have on a lead?

[Digital Shifter]

It's really painfull to see that you cannot create the synth that you wan't. Today i spend the whole afternoon on creating a synth and need to say this.
It's not easy, i took 2 synths from other producers as example to see and listen how they are created. But i need to tell you something. A few months back ago i posted a Synth remake from the track Code Black - Can't Hold Me Back.
I now remember that i actually didn't put that much EQ and FX on the lead. Just some Reverb and Deelay.
With the knowlegde i have right now i could easily improve that sound to make it really good.
With other words. You can EQ the shit out of your synth. But it's really about what comes from the synthesizer itself.
Remember this mate. EQ and reeverb can improve the sound. Not repair it

And you are saying like: Deelay on this and stuff. Reverb mono or stereo. That is just trying out and see what is best.

[ljk32]

Asking people for their settings will achieve nothing. It's up to you how you approach it. You'll find that everybody has their preferences and so it may not be ideal for what you want. Generally people will low-cut their reverbs, have a fairly long decay (but the length really depends on the track) and keep the reverb in stereo. I'm really not sure about pre-delay, though. I've always tried varying the lengths quite significantly to hear the different results, but even then I can never decide. I figured that quite a long pre-delay could be useful so that the reverb comes in after the source sound plays and makes things sound a little less messy. The problem in that case, though, is that since the reverb tails have a long decay, there'll still be a blending between the reverb and source sound anyway (maybe just after the first note or so - depending on the length of your pre-delay). And since reverb settings are so subtle to me, I'm never sure what to do. I only hear differences in sound when I make significant changes to the point where it's gone overboard (like moving the decay from 5 - 10 seconds, for example). What's good though, is that reverb seems to be fairly lenient and will generally sound nice under a number of different settings.

[SCH]

Stickifying this

[Digital Shifter]

Asking people for their settings will achieve nothing. It's up to you how you approach it. You'll find that everybody has their preferences and so it may not be ideal for what you want. Generally people will low-cut their reverbs, have a fairly long decay (but the length really depends on the track) and keep the reverb in stereo. I'm really not sure about pre-delay, though. I've always tried varying the lengths quite significantly to hear the different results, but even then I can never decide. I figured that quite a long pre-delay could be useful so that the reverb comes in after the source sound plays and makes things sound a little less messy. The problem in that case, though, is that since the reverb tails have a long decay, there'll still be a blending between the reverb and source sound anyway (maybe just after the first note or so - depending on the length of your pre-delay). And since reverb settings are so subtle to me, I'm never sure what to do. I only hear differences in sound when I make significant changes to the point where it's gone overboard (like moving the decay from 5 - 10 seconds, for example). What's good though, is that reverb seems to be fairly lenient and will generally sound nice under a number of different settings.

So you tell me? That you have multiple reverbs on a synth?

[SCH]

Nah just one, with some predelay. I ususally go with 20-50ms-ish. Then throw some delay and stereo separation and you got a basic setup

Edit: Ljk have you tried to sidechain the reverb to the synth? It works really good as long as you have some space between the notes