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Okay so ironically the element of EDM that I tend to struggle with is the big synth chords that you find in tracks by people like Kill The Noise, Skrillex, Zomboy, xKore, etc. use. I call them big synth chords because that's all I really know what to call them. They are often used as like fills at the end of a bassline.

I'll use this recent KTN track as an example. At 1:13 he uses them as like a fill.
Soundcloud

I understand that to get these sounds to sound full theres gonna be a bass layer playing the root note of the chords. But it's the high end I struggle with. I understand that a lot of it is just using the right notes for the chords in the first place to achieve the tone you want, but what about the synthesis? I know that lots of voicing is used and theres fast attack thats about it..

And whats a better term to use to call these sounds?

I can't listen to this track right now, but I think I know what are you talking about.

Most basic EDM chords are high passed high pitched chorused reverbed detuned saws layered with other mid-range synths.

YouTube supersaws, can be done in the most basic of synths - layering/panning/fx help them sound big.

Ahh yes supersaws that's it. Thank you very much, i'm gonna look into. How many notes are generally make up the chords in these kinds of sounds? like 5?

chords like this usually have 3 or 4 notes in 'em. can be 2...can be as many as you want. but typically 3 or 4.

I like to do 3 notes in most cases. the root, the chord note, then the root again an octave up. this is basically mimicking how you'd play a guitar, but hey, I am a guitar player haha. It always sounds nice though

Dankstep wrote:Ahh yes supersaws that's it. Thank you very much, i'm gonna look into. How many notes are generally make up the chords in these kinds of sounds? like 5?

I normally have a standard 3/4 note chord, then maybe add in another root note an octave lower. Sometimes I layer in more notes at higher octaves with lower velocities if needed.

Another good tip not related to the chord thing is to duplicate your synth and pan one hard right, one hard left - makes stuff sound bigger.

Thanks for this tip mthrfnk, I've heard about this but keep forgetting to try it out. Gonna do it tonight

mthrfnk wrote: Another good tip not related to the chord thing is to duplicate your synth and pan one hard right, one hard left - makes stuff sound bigger.

A tip on this tip is to make 2 sends panned like this, and you can send more synths to it without having to worry about CPU problems, as you would have with more instances of a synth

Is there a way to do this without cloning the synth?

blinkesko wrote:

mthrfnk wrote: Another good tip not related to the chord thing is to duplicate your synth and pan one hard right, one hard left - makes stuff sound bigger.

A tip on this tip is to make 2 sends panned like this, and you can send more synths to it without having to worry about CPU problems, as you would have with more instances of a synth

Nice idea, but I'd worry about them becoming "mono", as in some cases wouldn't the panned L + R instances of one synth just sum back to give you the original stereo information? Although with FX this would probably change, idk...

mthrfnk wrote:

blinkesko wrote:

mthrfnk wrote: Another good tip not related to the chord thing is to duplicate your synth and pan one hard right, one hard left - makes stuff sound bigger.

A tip on this tip is to make 2 sends panned like this, and you can send more synths to it without having to worry about CPU problems, as you would have with more instances of a synth

Nice idea, but I'd worry about them becoming "mono", as in some cases wouldn't the panned L + R instances of one synth just sum back to give you the original stereo information? Although with FX this would probably change, idk...

Yeah 100% each side f ex with no effects would basically be a waste of time, as all you'd get is increased volume. Some effects tho, and it'll work. Atleast I think so, haven't tried this, nor do I have much knowledge about stereo shit

with chords, you can use as many notes as you want. for a simple C major: c4 e4 g4 c5 e5 g5 c6 e6 g6 c7 e7 g7 c8 e8 g8.... and add a c2 or c3 by itself for a bass part. phatmatic. start off with a few notes and keeping adding higher or lower notes or try certain combinations of the notes in each octave to experiment with the sound.

Like people have been saying in this thread, layer 3-5 synths on top of each other. Pan some of them hard left or right and some of them just off center. Then create harmonies with the note to make it into that massive chord. Ultimately it is going to come down to lots of practice and attempts at getting it right! Good luck.

O Captain wrote: layer 3-5 synths on top of each other.

For the sake of your CPU figure out how to turn on unison in your synths bro.

didge wrote:

O Captain wrote: layer 3-5 synths on top of each other.

For the sake of your CPU figure out how to turn on unison in your synths bro.

What if you're layering different synths....

mthrfnk wrote:

didge wrote:

O Captain wrote: layer 3-5 synths on top of each other.

For the sake of your CPU figure out how to turn on unison in your synths bro.

What if you're layering different synths....

Exactly what I meant to say- it SHOULD NOT be the same tone synth that's just a different note. It should be 3-5 independent synths, and if my CPU starts lagging I usually just bounce the track to audio and deactivate the plugin.