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I know this sound has been asked about a few times, but this is a bit more technical.

So the main synth, probably pretty familiar with it by now, the main lead bass in Pressure Cooker



I've got something pretty close, but my main problem is that it sounds so incredibly thin and without any sort of substance, it's the same general idea, but it lacks the impactful, screaming nature it would need to sound good.

I've tried EQing, multi band distortion/compression, fiddling with mid/side, but most of the time the sound gets thinner and white noisy, and overall shite.

Here is my attempt: Soundcloud



Also, another question that is probably more subjective, in Pressure Cooker, is the squelchy growl heard throughout the same patch as the lead sound? It sounds so, cohesive that ti could be, but I can't imagine how one could modulate a synth to do those two very different things.

I did a tute for this kinda synth, look up photon man on youtube (on my phone right now so cant link it), chuck in hard synth tutorial if u can find my channel

To get it wider, try putting a stereo delay and delaying only 1 side by a few MS, then using an Mono/Stereo EQ to filter everything below like, I dunno 2K (I'm pulling this number out of my ass FYI) in the Stereo part.

For a more aggressive sound, try using a tape saturation plugin (iZotope Trash 2 has a good tape-distort thing, but if you can't buy that try TesslaSE by Variety of Sound, hell I might like Tessla better than Trash for this). Another good thing would be to highpass the uber low-end (like 70hz down) of the lead and replace with a sine-wave sub for more power.

Hell, you could just clip the entire sound just a bit or use a parabolic shaper. I recreated the lead from lead from Knife Party's Internet Friends (which sounds fairly similar to the sound you want) fairly closely in a Massive patch and I just used the hard-clipper and the parabolic shaper to get that aggressive sound. Again, you should be able to get both these as freeware plugin's somewhere.

FatScout wrote:To get it wider, try putting a stereo delay and delaying only 1 side by a few MS, then using an Mono/Stereo EQ to filter everything below like, I dunno 2K (I'm pulling this number out of my ass FYI) in the Stereo part.

For a more aggressive sound, try using a tape saturation plugin (iZotope Trash 2 has a good tape-distort thing, but if you can't buy that try TesslaSE by Variety of Sound, hell I might like Tessla better than Trash for this). Another good thing would be to highpass the uber low-end (like 70hz down) of the lead and replace with a sine-wave sub for more power.

Hell, you could just clip the entire sound just a bit or use a parabolic shaper. I recreated the lead from lead from Knife Party's Internet Friends (which sounds fairly similar to the sound you want) fairly closely in a Massive patch and I just used the hard-clipper and the parabolic shaper to get that aggressive sound. Again, you should be able to get both these as freeware plugin's somewhere.

setting everything below 2khz to mono isn't gonna help much, you'll lose the entire lower root harmonic, and since these type of synths tend to have a massive low-mid gap you'll just end up with a thin sounding synth. I use ozone 5's imager for this kinkd of synth since it's multiband, no need for mid/side eq, and that's only good if there is stereo information anyway. I'd highpass at about 50hz, don't go crazy with the slpoe though, keep it on a generous slant. Mono-ise everything under about 100hz.

Also, since there are limited harmonics in these kinda synths some overdrive/saturation should help to fill out those mid frequencies.

Oh I forgot one major part of my problem...

This synth, there is VERY little activity below say about 600hz, besides the sub.

I think this might have to do with how thin it sounds, I can't manage to get much activity down there, I've tried distorting it but that does more harm than good. I've tried layering with another sound that has more going on in that range, but it still doesn't work out.

This isn't a single sound.
It's a sine/square squeel, a midrange reese style layer and a sub (imo).

I did kind of a similar thing ages ago, just with less scream/vibrato on the lead:
Soundcloud

mthrfnk wrote:This isn't a single sound.
It's a sine/square squeel, a midrange reese style layer and a sub (imo).

I did kind of a similar thing ages ago, just with less scream/vibrato on the lead:
Soundcloud

I think you're right, cause that huge frequency gap could fit a reese perfectly. Gonna go hit the reese basss thread now...

Oi, any pointers on that vocally bass you got going in that tune? And is that the same patch running beneath the lead?

I just recreated this sound today. I can give you more information on the patch if you want it. Though what was said previously is literally how I made it. Hard Sync and Sine waves with any filter type of your choosing is good for this sound. Basically the key to it is the filtering opening from the 2K are to about 10K (random numbers, but in that direction) you can use LPs/Daft/Scream filters to do this if you want. Not really required though to do it. Use the P and S shaper for that extra chrisp with some C tube and delay or reverb. But this sound is literally just one OSC and a sub layer.