Warmer Sounds From Digital Synths.

[3za]

I know many people on this board just use digital synths, but what to get more of a classic analogue sound from them.

Anyway i found this good article on SOS about just that;
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan10/a ... synths.htm

Feel free to add your own methods, and disscuss the tequnics in this article.

[hasezwei]

define 'warm' please. really, everyone keeps talking bout it but i don't really get why it's called 'warm'.
a lowpassed reese sounds warm to me, burials bass sounds warm. but that's all digital.
reading your article i'd go for "organic" as a term maybe, as it's about slight changes to the sound that keep it interesting in a way.

actually the synth i use the most (logic's es2) has in-built functions to emulate that analog randomness, but if yours doesn't have it, you could for example assign an lfo set to random (though not in steps) to the pitch, but modulate it only reeeeally slightly. maybe set another randomized lfo to modulate the first lfo's rate. of course that would mean 2 lfo's less to make teh wobble but it could be an option for pads and keys.

apart from that most practical options are already listed in the article, some nice ideas there!

[lowpass]

If somebody wanted warm I would think extra harmonic content in the midrange, boost in low mids. Maybe compression to achieve both of these, maybe saturation/distortion etc

[abZ]

The thing that analog synths have had until recently are those subtle changes. Every time you play something back it's just a little bit different. Hardly even noticeable but it is enough that throughout the track your ears don't get tired of it. It is an effect on the sub-conscience that effects you on the conscience level. That said, now they are building soft-synths with this in mind. I am using ACE atmo. It is a serious resource hog but fuckin hell the thing sounds good. I have seen even free synths that have these built in variances. Look into it. Creative effects can help to. I like using the wow and flutter really subtly in different parts of the effects chain. It can give it an effect like it was recorded on a tape that has been used a few times. I do hate when people use the term "warm" tho, it can mean anything really. Totally subjective.

[paradigm_x]

nebula is a great 'warmer'

theres a free version but the real sexy stuff requires a licence unfortunately. You can however buy a super basic version for 20euros. (nebula2). Nebula3 (80euro) has more detailed interface, nebula 3 pro is more cpu efficient. Still only 120euros and the upgrades are the difference so no loss.

http://www.acustica-audio.com/

Basically loads of samples of real hardware strung together cleverly. Tans your cpu tho.

Best option outside real hardware/UAD fatso.

But then a real tape deck is dirt cheap and effective, bit of a pita to resample it all tho.

[komanderkin]

indeed, sound 'warmth' is a that is mistakenly being associated to analog synthesizers. for example, i have a toy yamaha pss-390 and some of the patches i've made on it sound much 'warmer' than my analog solton project 100.

but still, 'warmth' is an important factor for me, and the techniques described in that article can be pretty useful. so thanks for the heads up!

[Sharmaji]

warmth: low passed, slightly saturated, reduced dynamic range.

[3za]

I have been using the adding little bits of randomness to synth parameters trick, for a few weeks now and have been getting some nice sound. I have also been getting some nice sounds using the amp sims in guitar rig, for all sorts of sounds (drums especially).

To day i dug up my old tape deck, and done a bit of resampling with it. It was very lo-fi sounding, even more than i expected. Im going to dig up my guitar amp, and see how that sounds tomorrow.

As for what warmth is i would go with something like this;

warmth: low passed, slightly saturated, reduced dynamic range.

I should of called this thread "Getting More Analogue Sounds From Digital Synths" but i just went with warmer because SOS did.

[legend4ry]

Amplitube.

I run it on a bus and have it on quite a generic setting but bleeding 20/30% signal into the bus creates amazing "warmth".. I prefer the term character.

[3za]

Amplitube.

I run it on a bus and have it on quite a generic setting but bleeding 20/30% signal into the bus creates amazing "warmth".. I prefer the term character.

Why have i never thought about putting Guitar Rig on a send

yeah character sounds better. Life sounds good aswell.

[legend4ry]

Amplitube.

I run it on a bus and have it on quite a generic setting but bleeding 20/30% signal into the bus creates amazing "warmth".. I prefer the term character.

Why have i never thought about putting Guitar Rig on a send

yeah character sounds better. Life sounds good aswell.

it works wonders and obviously gels everything together very subtle as (as at least on amplitube) there's always a bit of distortion or colourful compression going on (not always crunchy)

[hasezwei]

Amplitube.

I run it on a bus and have it on quite a generic setting but bleeding 20/30% signal into the bus creates amazing "warmth".. I prefer the term character.

Why have i never thought about putting Guitar Rig on a send

yeah character sounds better. Life sounds good aswell.

+1000
though i kinda like my ultra-distorted mega-reverbed drones, sounds like sunnO))) went mellow.

[slyman]

in fm8 theres diff amps u can use as effects too. they work pretty well. ive recently been doing what hasezwei said but to the amplitude rather than the pitch and i like to put a noise oscillator set to fm (in albino) too

[breakitdown]

Hey , interesting topic.
Although not specifically warmth here's a short tutorial on how to make Massive behave more like an analogue synth.

http://www.massivesynth.com/tutorials/n ... n-massive/

[logic pro]

warmth: low passed, slightly saturated, reduced dynamic range.

this and a lil second order harmonics (saturation doing this already, but try two or more subtle saturators) and more eq to taste.

[gnome]

The thing that analog synths have had until recently are those subtle changes. Every time you play something back it's just a little bit different. Hardly even noticeable but it is enough that throughout the track your ears don't get tired of it.

Yeah Ableton implemented this on "analog" Like you said barely noticeable

[whineo]

Best option outside real hardware/UAD fatso.

+1
hate to blow the UAD trumpet but..
fatso and dimension d on digital synth

[nowaysj]

I like using the wow and flutter really subtly in different parts of the effects chain.

What is your source of wow and flutter (my new band name )?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Have another vcr that I'm about to wire into my patch bay, see what type of sound I can get out of this thing...

[3za]

Have another vcr that I'm about to wire into my patch bay

Your not this guy, are you nowaysj?

"panasonic is best"

Noways, jokes aside I would love to hear some a/b's of the vcr.

I own a few more cheap cassette decks now, and use guitar rig for getting colour all the time now. Still ain't used my guitar amp, or pedels yet, might get on that later.

[fragments]

Question to the folks using hardware tape decks: I own two cassette duplicators, can I use these to add those variations via resampling? And would you recommend resampling the stems individually or the entire track after mixdown? (depends on what affect one wants to achieve?

Awesome thread.