Nord User Forum

Hello! First post on the forum; hopefully I'm in the right place.

I am looking for some help modeling the synth on this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xSKlBq ... rt_radio=1

I haven't spent a ton of time customizing the synth section of the NS3. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

This is 2 sounds layered. You need 2 synth sections. The background is a "light/airy" and soft pad with slow attack and release, you might already find one in stock sounds. Or program one on your own. You might use one of the supersaw or superstring VA waves as starting point. Maybe use the high pass filter to take away punch from the waveforms. Apply generous amount of pingpong delay and reverb to make it nice and spacey.
The plucky sound is a synth sawtooth blip with 24db filter turned down pretty low, to take away high frequencies. Play around with mixing waveforms or different octave-mixes. Adjust filter and decay, and also velocity according to how it should sound, and also to feel good while you play it. Add reverb.
Have fun!

EDIT: I have to change my judgement for the pad. Still use one of the supersaw waveforms, but use a lo pass filter, maybe not the hard 24db, but the softer one, and turn it down until it comes close to the sound. You may have to use the EQ in the FX section to take away low frequencies and make it a bit lighter.

Later in the song, there is a piano coming in. Put this to the same section as the synth blip. Then you can mix or blend them on the fly, while the pad is still running in the other section.

Thanks, Kaffimusic! Dialing it in now...

Speaking of heavy synth this just dropped today.. I can't even process all that is going on here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8AEVkvUiWs

'Hi there, I don´t know how far you came yet. But I want to give you a general hint to make VA sounds feel better by playing them piano-like and reacting to velocity more pleasant.
The trick is not to rely on velocity that is linked to the amp (volume) of the notes, instead it is way more expressive to link that to the filter (more precise: The ENV) with a generous amount. To your ears, as well as playing together with a band, it is more pleasant to experience "feel" in the performance, when the filter of each note varies with every strike dependent on the velocity. You can add a slight amount of volume velocity, too, but the main part of expression is done with that more effectively.
To be more precise, velocity is linked to the amount how strong the ENV (envelope) modulates the filter. This means varying peaks of the initial transient, when striking the note harder are higher, followed by the downfall of the decayphase, while falling slowly back to zero, or the predetermined sustain.
The reason for that is what you are used to hear - it acts more like you are used to a piano, when harder strikes open up more high frequencies, and softer ones in darker, duller tones.

Kaffimusic wrote:The trick is not to rely on velocity that is...

Excellent advice, to put it simply.

pianoworship wrote:Thanks, Kaffimusic! Dialing it in now...

Speaking of heavy synth this just dropped today.. I can't even process all that is going on here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8AEVkvUiWs

At least two keyboard players — one with piano (sounds like one of those digital layer pianos) and possibly an Oberheim-like synth patch layered, and the other with that bright, brassy sawtooth pad that comes in halfway through the verse, i believe.

Haven’t listened to the whole thing, but the intro also has a hammond layered. Probably with the brassy synth. I love layering Hammond and dialling it in with the expression pedal for extra butter in Choruses.