# Synthesized Modern Sounding Sheen



## Daniel Petras (Jun 29, 2017)

Would anyone know how to make this. I made something in Massive, but wasn't too happy with it. Would appreciate any leads!


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## synthpunk (Jun 30, 2017)

Example please. But a funny story your request reminded me once of a producer who asked us to program the sound of snow hitting a tin roof


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## Daniel Petras (Jun 30, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> Example please. But a funny story your request reminded me once of a producer who asked us to program the sound of snow hitting a tin roof


Okay, have you seen this?



There are cool sounds throughout this that I'm seriously in love with, but I'll just link you to the one I'd consider a "sheen" sound. It happens in one instance at 1:47 and then again at 2:05 (the higher pitched thing). I'd like to create something like that but possible a little thicker sounding.

Also, that narly texture at 1:58 is really amazing and would love to learn out to create that.


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## Daniel Petras (Jun 30, 2017)

Also, 2:38 is really cool sounding.


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## Anders Bru (Jun 30, 2017)

Don't know how to make the "sheen" sound (took a while before I heard it in the video, but I understand what sound you're talking about). The sound at 1:58 is definitely made in Serum (if we're talking about the same sound. The vowel-y growl). It's a very typical EDM / Dubstep sound, and there's a lot of tutorials on YouTube on how to make those sounds  Hope that helps. And cool video! Hadn't seen it before.


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## Daniel Petras (Jun 30, 2017)

Anders Bru said:


> Don't know how to make the "sheen" sound (took a while before I heard it in the video, but I understand what sound you're talking about). The sound at 1:58 is definitely made in Serum (if we're talking about the same sound. The vowel-y growl). It's a very typical EDM / Dubstep sound, and there's a lot of tutorials on YouTube on how to make those sounds  Hope that helps. And cool video! Hadn't seen it before.



Cheers! Looking forward to learning Serum.


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## AdamAlake (Jun 30, 2017)

Sonorityscape said:


> Cheers! Looking forward to learning Serum.



You will have a good time with that, it is way more straightforward and transparent than Massive.


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## Daniel Petras (Jun 30, 2017)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/php3c8pdeuwvspd/Sheen (C8 - C9) - Sonorityscape.nmsv?dl=0

A quick sheen sound I created in Massive. Sounds best around C8 to C9. I used more filter, tremolo and pitch shift for better movement.

Edit: This type of sound really gives you a headache if you listen to it too much!


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## synthpunk (Jun 30, 2017)

Agreed, remember the Splice payment plan for Serum as well if you can't quite afford the full tilt.

The extreme sound design that you point out to me reminds me a lot of Kyma. You could probably get close to some of that with certain tools in Metasynth, Reaktor, and things like GRM Tools.



AdamAlake said:


> You will have a good time with that, it is way more straightforward and transparent than Massive.


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## Daniel Petras (Jun 30, 2017)

Hey guys, looking to reach out about another sound - "chugs". I wonder if someone with experience could enlighten me on creating these sounds. It seems, do to the limited number of shapes and after building many patches, that these sorts of sounds aren't ideal for creating in Massive. Would this be another Serum thing. Listen to this track at 1:17, 1:25, 1:45 and 2:59. Would these be considered chugs? Seriously some of the sickest sounds I've heard. I've listened to this track too many times...



Edit: I would assume that what creates these sounds would be the filter envelope shape which isn't so flexible in Massive.


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## andrelafosse (Jul 2, 2017)

The bits you highlighted sound to me like very staccato 16th/32nd notes, played in quick succession on a single note, while scanning through a wavetable. I would set up some fast notes in your piano roll, and truncate the lengths so that there's visible space between the end of each note and the beginning of the following one. And make sure your envelope release time is as short as possible.

Let us know if that gets you there...


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## Daniel Petras (Jul 2, 2017)

andrelafosse said:


> The bits you highlighted sound to me like very staccato 16th/32nd notes, played in quick succession on a single note, while scanning through a wavetable. I would set up some fast notes in your piano roll, and truncate the lengths so that there's visible space between the end of each note and the beginning of the following one. And make sure your envelope release time is as short as possible.
> 
> Let us know if that gets you there...


When you say scanning, do you mean modulating (?), and probably with a very precise envelope at that. I would've thought that it was just one long midi not ran through some sort of sequencer that has the envelope shape looped, but perhaps your way makes more sense. I guess I'm a little used to the performance tab in Massive which isn't the best due to the lack of shapes that you can use and no options to customize.


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## andrelafosse (Jul 2, 2017)

Yeah, "scanning" = scrolling through the wavetable, be it with an LFO, envelope, DAW automation, etc...

There are a few different ways I could see getting this effect - and I agree that a single held note with a gated/sequenced/automated thing could be it - but the approach I detailed would *probably* be the most universally-applicable to the most synths/DAWs. 

Could be wrong, though! Just going by ear on this one.


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## andrelafosse (Jul 2, 2017)

Just whipped this up for fun - is this the kind of thing you're talking about?

[AUDIOPLUS=http://vi-control.net/community/attachments/serum-chugz-mp3.8973/][/AUDIOPLUS]


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## Andrasia (Jul 2, 2017)

HI,
you should look outside the synth.
Like resynthesis and resampling.

Also export your sound to audio an apply effect directly to your clip/then resampling.

massive is fine and very capable! But when you go outside an threat the audio clip directly you'll find a lot of new possibility!


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## Daniel Petras (Jul 2, 2017)

Andrasia said:


> HI,
> you should look outside the synth.
> Like resynthesis and resampling.
> 
> ...


Yes, but a lot of synths are where you modulate specific parameters which can't be found outside the synth itself. I love resynthesis, but you can't modulate things like wave table positions once the sound is outside the synth.


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## Daniel Petras (Jul 2, 2017)

andrelafosse said:


> Just whipped this up for fun - is this the kind of thing you're talking about?
> 
> [AUDIOPLUS=http://vi-control.net/community/attachments/serum-chugz-mp3.8973/][/AUDIOPLUS]


I would describe that more as a pulse. What I really I like about those sounds in Cryogenesis is that it's more of "chugging" type of sound. I'm going to get into Serum this summer and really look into this.

Edit: to get the "chug" sound I think quicker movement of the envelopes is needed.


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## Chandler (Jul 3, 2017)

I'm pretty sure that's a trance gate or a filter plugin. Of course it could be done it the synth, but many times its not. Its easier to to outside of the synth and there are tools that a made to just do that sound. The basic sound I'm not sure about, it sounds very distorted and maybe some FM or AM is going on by I can't tell for sure. 

Here are some examples of plugins that can make that sound.


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## Living Fossil (Jul 3, 2017)

If your DAW has the possiblity to cut audio regions (of course, it has), you can bounce a drone/convenient sound and then cut the desired shape. Apply very small fade-ins and outs.
Allthough i have lots of gating tools etc. i still think this is the way that gives you most flexibility.


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## Daniel Petras (Jul 3, 2017)

It really depends on what you're trying to modulation. If you're trying do modulation or automate things like level, filter, pan, etc. then inside the DAW will be flexible. But certain parameters are only specific to synth engines such as wave table or fm shaping.


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## kavinsky (Jul 3, 2017)

All the examples you provided are most certainly made with massive/serum/fm8 and the likes. And distortion, lots of it.
Very little percentage of those producers really dive deep into synthesis and sounddesign, there's a huge market with literally thousands of presets and sounds that cover this ground. Check cymatics and vengeance for instance.

It's a very typical sound that was popular during the late 00's in the drum and bass genre and was referred to as "reese bass" and gained its peak popularity during the dubstep/edm years in the early 2010s.

google noisia, google reese bass, serum tutorials or presets and whatnot.

if you're serious about it, then yes, resampling and putting resampled/fx-printed wavs into the sampler and doing it all over again till you're satisfied with the noise is a must for this kind of medium.

personally I think the days when this was "cool" are long gone, could be just my personal taste thing.
I'd much prefer something more creative, sound-designey, merged with foley - like Amon Tobin


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## Daniel Petras (Jul 3, 2017)

kavinsky said:


> I'd much prefer something more creative, sound-designey, merged with foley - like Amon Tobin


I don't understand why creating sounds in a synth is not considered creative? I've created about 100 of my own presets in Massive to date. When I started it took me about an hour per patch and now I can create a decent patch within 20 to 30 minutes. It took up a lot of my creative energy trying to make interesting patches, one after another. To me it seems a lot harder to control a synth to make it sound the way you want it to than to take a real world object and record it. They are both creative processes in their own right. Obviously taking a present and using it is not creative.

Do you know other records of this specific sound because I had not heard anything like it until I listened to this recording?


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## kavinsky (Jul 3, 2017)

Sonorityscape said:


> I don't understand why creating sounds in a synth is not considered creative? Obviously taking a present and using it is not creative.
> 
> Do you know other records of this specific sound because I had not heard anything like it until I listened to this recording?



Of course creating sounds from a ground up is obviously more creative than using presets, isn't it obvious?
I was referring to the abrasive modulated wavetable/fm style in sound design in general. Just got a bit tiresome for me personally when it was beaten to death by EDM producers of all sorts.

It's one of those cases when complexity and layering doesn't add anything to the table after some point, that's why those genres are not popular anymore.
The sounds got extremely crazy with all the modulations and fx, but at the end of the day it still sounds like an aggressive noise isn't it?


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## Daniel Petras (Jul 3, 2017)

kavinsky said:


> Of course creating sounds from a ground up is obviously more creative than using presets, isn't it obvious?
> I was referring to the abrasive modulated wavetable/fm style in sound design in general. Just got a bit tiresome for me personally when it was beaten to death by EDM producers of all sorts


I know what you mean. I studied jazz and to be honest, after many hours of it, it's gotten tiresome for me. I guess it's how I got into this sort of stuff. I've never really listened to a lot of EDM, so maybe a point will come where I'm in your position as well...


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## kavinsky (Jul 3, 2017)

Sonorityscape said:


> I know what you mean. I studied jazz and to be honest, after many hours of it, it's gotten tiresome for me. I guess it's how I got into this sort of stuff. I've never really listened to a lot of EDM, so maybe a point will come where I'm in your position as well...


Sure, it was really fresh in the beginning so I suspect its the nature of dubstep that discredited the sound for me.
It has a very predictable and repetitive form and you can't really differentiate one track from another cause the rules are so strict:
16 bar buildup/16 bar drop.
But do look up for Knife Party(Pendulum) and Noisia. Those guys definitely know what they are doing, the production values in the drum'n'bass world are insanely high


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## Chandler (Jul 3, 2017)

I like those types of sounds personally, but they're a bit old now. If you are interested in them there is a guy on youtube called SeemlessR that has great sound design tutorials. He has over 100 videos on that type of aggressive distirted bass.


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## Daniel Petras (Jul 3, 2017)

I love Seamless


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