Ableton Forum

Trying to re-create the simple pad sound in the first five seconds of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5lZ2XLmyIY
What strategies do you all have when it comes to re-creating sounds you hear on records?

Here's what I have so far:
-I converted the audio to MIDI harmony, and it appears as though the chord played is a Dmin-type chord
-Spectrum analysis shows peaks at frequencies D2, F2, A2, D3, F3, A3, C4, D4, E4, F4, A4... so I think it's a Dmin9

My next biggest hurdle is the figuring out the waveform for the timbre... I don't see a lot of overtones in the spectrum, so I'm thinking it's a simple waveform... maybe even some sines...

I went through presets in Z3TA last night without finding a good match, and will go through some Massive patches today... is that a waste of time? VST presets seem to be far more complicated than what is often used on the records I like... I'm guessing that's to showcase the VST's functionality?

The one thing that I did seem to gleen is that there is some kind of modulation FX (chorus, flanging, phasing) that's rounding out the stereo presence, and giving the perception of a warm, bassy, bottom end fullness...

But again... the waveform??? All the presets I tried had too many mid and high-end overtones/partials... even with the filter down...

So the big question is, how are you all going about solving such problems? Would it help if I zoomed in on the audio Waveform and looked at the wave up close? Do you get much from using oscilloscopes? Are there other techniques?

Many thanks,
Andy

mylkoa wrote:Spectrum analysis shows peaks at frequencies D2, F2, A2, D3, F3, A3, C4, D4, F4, A4... so I think it's a Dmin9

There would need to be an E in there for it to be a 9th chord. The notes you have there spell a vanilla Dm7.

EDIT: it's there now so I guess you edited it.

stringtapper wrote: EDIT: it's there now so I guess you edited it.

Another eye-catcher is that I couldn't identify the "E" in the freq spectrum until it was much higher in the register... with the lowest note appearing to be a D2... and the E appearing at E4... so I'm guessing the chord was made with depressions on the keyboard, rather than having intervals of various oscillators at the synthesis stage... aka, it looks like he's holding multiple notes on the keyboard, rather than holding one note with several oscillators tuned to different pitches... unless he's using a complex chord-type midi effect, which I doubt... in any case, to recreate the sound I will try triggering several pitches with MIDI...

The trailing off of the partials in the freq analysis also seems to hint to me that filter is operating on all voices, rather than a per-voice manner, or with any kind of key follow... so it might be set to a certain frequency and stays there while he's playing various chords...

If I were trying to analyze this sound in depth I would bring it into iZotope RX so I could really isolate things, both visually and sonically.

If you have access to an app that can show a sonogram then that is going to give you the most detail.

stringtapper wrote:If I were trying to analyze this sound in depth I would bring it into iZotope RX so I could really isolate things, both visually and sonically.If you have access to an app that can show a sonogram then that is going to give you the most detail.

Thanks, I was looking up some analyzers, and will check that one out.

I've been playing with some of the Z3TA and Massive, waveforms and running their signals through Spectrum, and it looks to me as if some of the overtones might be caused by the use of complex waveforms, rather than notes played on the keyboard. It looks like he just played a root Dmin chord and let the waveforms provide the 7 and 9 overtones...

At least examining the spectrograph helped me figure out he was using a -24db/octave filter...

It's gonna be a long road...

If you're on facebook just look Shawn up and send him a message. He's pretty responsive to these kinds of questions. But, he's a hardware lover for sure so I don't think you'll be able to exactly replicate what he's doing with VSTs.

foxymethoxy wrote:If you're on facebook just look Shawn up and send him a message. He's pretty responsive to these kinds of questions. But, he's a hardware lover for sure so I don't think you'll be able to exactly replicate what he's doing with VSTs.

Thanks, I will!