As you might have noticed things have slowed down a bit for us at Ihavesynth during the summer. Good thing some of our readers are keeping it all busy. This is a guest article from swedish synthman Henrik Stolpe Aka The Void.

Reality Distorsion

I dont know about you, but I like contrasts!

The contrast betwen staropramen and heineken, a minimoog and a SIEL Cruise, a Fender and a Maelstrom. A beautyfull hard HPF lead is usually more effective on top of a warm bassline than a wash of white noise, even if that in itself is a nice variation to throw in now and again! With those words I have clearly strayed into subjective territory, and I have to admit, its almost impossible to write an article about music without getting at least a bit subjectiv. Im sure my sounds and musical examples wont appeal to everyone but thats not the goal of this article.

A common contrast in music is that between electronic sounds and acoustic or electro acoustic sounds. Not only in the sounds themselves but also, to a large degree, how the playing technique of these instruments add to the sound and the arrangement.

This article will take a look at ways to to make synthezisers sound rougher, more dynamic, more guitarlike if you will. I will not try to emulate guitars with synths,  that usually sounds cheezy anyway, I will make the distorted synthsounds speak for themselves.

Dont try to play a synth like a guitar, as they are very different and the different playing techniques is rather someting that is a nice contrast and result in different types of melodies.

I will also talk about how one can combine guitars and synthezisers. My aim is to always avoid thinking  “guitar” or “synth”, but to think sound, and more importantly, feeling

When appropiate, I will include some sounds examples from:Waldorf Blofeld, Minimoog, Nord Modular, Nord Wave, Nord lead 1, Alesis ION, Polivoks, Yamaha SY99, assorted aadvarks etc. But almost any hardware synth of for that matter VST synth can be used for nasty purposes!

So, “hi ho, lets go!”, or If you prefer “bind, torture, kill!”

Make it bark

First lets have a look at how we can make our synths sound more dynamic and/or meaner using only programming.

We can make a synth sound more like a distorted guitar or a distorted rhinosaurus for that matter,  in several different ways. Firstly, some syntheziser have an inherent character that lends it self to this type of sound, even with no added affects. The filter of synthezisers like the Korg MS-20 and the infamous russian Polivoks can generate distorsionlike sounds when using high resonance and specific detune settings that creates a beating that will help the filter scream. This concept can also be used on synths like the Blofeld, Nord Lead 2, Disco DSP discovery and many other synths and VST’s with “filter distorsion” or a synth that can overdrive the filter input, like the Moog Little Phatty for instance. Finding the exakt sweetspot with cutoff, resonance ,detuning and other parameters is critical with sounds that are on the edge, and a few millimeters mean the difference between atonal mush and beautyfull overtones and harmonics. This is true for all “breakup” sounds, so tweak those knobs and sliders very carefully

Here is an example of the Polivoks, using just its filter to generate an evil distorted sound:

Polivoks filter exampleApart from the filter, other techniques can also be used to add complex untamed harmonics.

Oscillator sync is a classic of course and it can often be used as a good base for a rougher sound.

Here is an example of the Nord Modular G1 doing a sync sound,adding a slight internal overdrive before the lowpass  filter:

Nord Modular sync example

Here is another sync example, an Arp Odyssey 2800, using sync with audio rate filter FM on a 12db filter:

Odyssey sync example

More complex synthezisers with filter or osc FM and more complex filters etc can also be used very effectively to create harder sounds. Morphing or affecting several parameters with one controller is a nice way to really tweak the sound while playing, making it seem like an untamed beast from the sci fi shooter of your choice! A favourite of mine is using comb filters, like the one in the Blofeld, which sounds especially nice using the different drive curves that overdrives the filter input.  The Nord wave also have some amazing possibilites and is much easier to tweak from its “one knob–one function” front panel.

Here is an example of the Blofelds combfilter wailing, only effect is a delay.

Blofeld combfilter lead

Here is an example from the Nord wave, LFO audiorate mod of combfilter:

Nord wave LFO audio rate example 1

Another Nord wave example, LFO audio rate of FM shape, trough multipeak filter:

Nord wave LFO audio rate example 2

Here are several sounds from the Nord lead 1, only FM and the lp+notch filter:

Nord lead 1 example

FM synthesis can generate very special distorted feedback sounds when the modulation operators amplitudes are set really high by envelopes, LFO’s or very effectively, using velocity.

Here is an FM example featuring the SY99, the sound only distorts when played agressively:

SY99 FM example

Very sophisticated synthesizers like the nord wave and SY99 can use samples to phase or frequency modulate simpler waveforms, this can result in extremly complex sounds, especially when using complete sampled loops as modulators.Here is an example from the Nord wave, using a Matrix 6 loop to FM modulate a pulse wave, through a mulitipeak filter:

Nord wave sample FM exampleMore often than not though, the synthezisers own character is too polite to really make your ears bleed. Or the voice acrhitecture is not complex enough to make it sound “alive”. This is when we turn to overdrive and distorsion effects to increases the gain of the sound and make it break up in a nice way, simulating the effect of hot preamp and powertubes in a guitar amplifier. Many synths have this effect allready onboard but we can also use external VST effects or guitar stompboxes. Each overdrive circuit or algorithm have its own unique character so you really want to experiment with this a lot!

A slight amount of overdrive can be added to just give a sound a rougher edge, make it sound more natural and not neccessarily like synth or guitar sound but something unique.

Here is an example of a plucked sound on the Nord Modular G1 going through a Digitech Bad Monkey overdrive pedal:

Nord Modular overdrive exampleAn example from the Nord wave, sampled pianos with some mild overdrive from the Nord wave’s “tube amp” section:

Nord wave overdrive exampleNot evil enough for you? well lets bring the comfy chair, and distorsion! (INFERNAL LAUGHTER)The main difference between overdrive and distorsion is the gain level and the complexity of the clipping.

With a mild overdrive, the patch it self will affect the sound a lot, and can be complex in its timbre. With all out distorsion, the effect it self can make a sweet sawtooth pad sound like a chainsaw. Its therefore better to use simpler waveforms with high gain levels, as in this case, the distorsion itself is what gives the sound its main character. Tweaking parameters that affect the frequency and level of the patch or the level of the oscillators feed into the filter works well with overdrive and distorsion as they are very sensitive to input volume.

Really nice lead sounds can be produced just by some detuned sawtooths and distorsion. Experiment with different detune settings as variation in the beating really works nicely with high gain distorsion. Btw, some unison doesnt hurt either!

Like in this example made on an Alesis ION using its onboard distorsion:

ION distorsion example

External filters,pedals and voltage controlled processors can also be used in a modular way, processing synths using external filters like the Sherman Filterbank, Jomox Resonator, etc.

Modular synthezisers can also be used to great effect. Here is something I bet you havent heard before! Brace yourself for a cold war battle!

A minimoog going through a Harvestman Polivoks LPF/BPF filter clone modulated by a Doepfer LFO, and overdriven pre filter using the Doepfer A119:

Minimoog through Polivoks filter example

Its important to realize that the sound it self doesnt make the performance, in order to really come alive it needs to be tweaked from the front panel or using modwheel, velocity etc.

Here is a very dynamic Yamaha SY99 FM example where velocity affect both operator volumes and FX distorsion gain:

SY99 velocity example

Using an arpeggiator is a nice way to play distorted sounds to make them not sound like guitars, the mechanic nature of the arpeggio it makes it very evident that it is a synth playing.

Here is an example of arpeggiating an overdriven sound on the Blofeld:

Blofeld arpeggio example

Will it blend?

Now lets talk a bit about integrating synthezisers in songs also featuring guitars.There are of course as many ways of doing this as there are songs that use botth these instruments.A major decision is of course if the track should be dominated by synthezisers with guitars adding some extra dynamics and feeling or if we want to make a rocksong, maybe with acoustic drums and heavy rythm guitar where the synths will be used to add dynamics and feeling, like Refused, A perfect circle, Static-X etc. Electronic songs with electronic drums and no distorted guitars are generally easier to mix and work with but they can often benefit from some added guitarmelodies or rythm.

Here is an example of a slow song that is completly electronic apart from the main melody which is a clean guitar. Minimoog is basspad and a nord modular G1 plays some bells.

Song example 1

If the synthsound is to be played on top of a distorted rythm guitar, be carefull not to use a sound that is too distorted , especially in the same frequency range as the guitar.

Distorted synths can of course be combined with distorted guitars even though its a bit harder to mix. I personally like simple distorted HPF pads, noisemodulated sounds or similar for this purpose.

Here is an example of an Alesis ION adding some simple distorted lines:

Song example 2Sometimes you want the synth to play a major role in the song, on top of guitar rythms or it self beeing the rythm. One way to integrate syntheziser into more standard type guitarsongs is of course to let them play the leadline after a chorus. Another is to let them come into focus during a certain phase of the song, intro, stick, outro etc. Maybe it should even be the part that the listener should wait for and the rest of the song should build towards the synth part!Lets look at some examples.

This is an example of a nord modular G1 playing an overdriven velocity bass type sound in the stick:

Song example 3

This is an example of a Yamaha SY99 playing a melody during the stick, before the outro, there is also a Yamaha DX7 and Roland SH101, lets see if you can spot them!:

Song example 4

This is an example of adding synths on the last chorus, SY99, minimoog is basspad:

Song example 5

The above examples uses synthsounds to add to a guitarbased song, in a more classical pop/rock sense.To build the song on a synthetic rythm is also a good idea of course!

A distorted guitar can add drive and roughness to an electronic bass sequence.Here is a small more experimental example, DX7 on bass, Minimoog on lead and noise:

Experimental example 1

Also remember that the guitar can be treated in various way using classic guitar effects like flangers and wah filters, adding reverb etc to make it sound very synthetic.

Here is another experimental example, bass is a velocity controlled minimoog using FM,:

Experimental example 2

This is how a clean guitar can sound through the Polivoks filter module we used before on the minimoog:

Guitar through polivoks filter with doepfer LFO

Another way to make synthlike rythms, is filtering guitars using synth filters to transform the sound into a more electronic sounding rythm that plays in time with the sequencer. You can use HW synths with inputs like the DSI Evolver or MOPHO, special boxes like the Adrenalinn or something as simple as Cubase step filter to generate these very cool effects!

Here is an example using the cubase step filter on a guitar rythm part:

Song example 6

Mixing it up!

It is very important to realize that combining guitars and synthezisers isnt always easy mixwise, both instruments can easily cover the entire frequency spectrum, especially when using distorsion! Distorted sounds NEED EQ, there is no way around it! What sounds BEST in isolation WILL sound BAD in a mix, when it comes to mixing distorted sounds.

Using EQ with spectrum analyzers, panning and phase reversal on doubled parts is part of the solution but the sound programming it self is also important.I have found that using a HPF after the LPF or just using HPF filters makes synths float on top of guitars in a nice way, and avoid lower frequencies that steal a lot of energy. Be very carefull with onboard effects, they tend to throw weird frequencies all over the place and are often made more for demo than production. Start fairly dry and add effects as need during mixing.The modulation and movement in the sounds also needs to be somewhat synchronized with the tempo of the song, or maybe in some interesting syncopated pattern, this includes detune beating which can sometimes disturb a songs rythm if being too much out of sync.

Guitars, me?

So, you are thinking about adding guitars to you electronic songs now? Well, it might seem a high mountain to climb but it doesnt need to be. If you can just hold down one or two strings and pick them, you ARE playing guitar. So, you cant play Sweet home alabama, but do you really want to..?

I wrote songs on guitar even when I could barely hold two strings down, by doing cut, copy and paste..

If you want to be a harder boy or girl,  simple distorted rythm guitar is actually the easiest thing you can learn on a guitar!  OK, people will hate me for bringing more powerchords to the world... but there is a reason why all kids start out with them and play metal for a while.

You need a simple guitar with a humbucker, like an epiphone les paul, and a VST effect like Amplitube. If  you put in just a few hours a day, you will sound decent in a week or so! Or you can start with basic chords and clean play, which is often the most rewarding way if you really want to get one with your guitar.

If you dont want to play guitar that much but still want to have that sound, you can sample a chord on a guitar and then play it using a sampler VST. Sample one chord, and play on the keyboard,  depending on the sampler, you can get really cool transposition effects.

Here is an example of a Gibson les Paul through a vintage Big Muff version 4, played on the Nord wave while tweaking the multi filter:

Sampled guitar example

The transposition character sounds much cooler on the old Emax btw!

Thats all from me. I wish you luck and I wish you FUZZ!

Henrik Stolpe - The Void

The rights to all the music and melodies in the sound and arrangement examples above belong to Henrik Stolpe except “Higher and numb” and “Part of me” which belongs to Henrik Stolpe and Cowbell Digital Music.