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Ableton Analog Tips

Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 6:28 am
by Airyck
Sometimes I like to go back to the basics and only use Ableton Plugins for a track.
When I need some "Analog" synth sounds Analog would seem to be the first choice right?

I usually struggle a little getting it to sound good and then I remember a couple of important things about Analog which I could see people not figuring out and turning to some other VST or something to get an Analog sounding bass or lead.

Gains throughout the synth affect the sound greatly.
For those of you that think Analog sounds like crap (I've seen plenty of times where people say it does), here are a couple of tips to get it sounding much better.

1) Lower your Oscillator Volumes down to around -20dB.
The Oscillators drive the filters and the "Drive" algorithms very easily. It's really easy to push them to where you're mostly hearing the drive algorithm. This leads to the oscillators sounding flat squashed and smeared. If you drop the volumes back to -20dB or so you'll hear the pure oscillators and their interactions with each other.

2) Amp volumes can drive the sounds too although not as extreme as the oscillator volumes.
Once again try to lower the Amp volumes a bit and see how it sounds. You can turn the master volume up on the synth to compensate.
These don't need to be brought down nearly as much but still experiment with them after turning the oscillators down.

3) Use shift when adjusting the Env Amounts.
The envelope amounts move much too fast and affect the sound too quickly if you adjust them at normal speed. Hold the shift key while adjusting them (or shift on Push) to "fine tune" them. In this case I think it's necessary to have anything but an extreme change up to the point of clicking sounds happing when you adjust them.

4) Use the Quick routing schemes that show up in the master volume section
The quick routing schemes can help you to quickly affect the sound too. By running Filter 1 through Filter 2 and both through Amp 1 for example can help to give some cohesion to the sound. Also once again the input to the filters can affect the sound so by running them in series you get a different sound. You can also run a bit of each filter through each amp and pan the amps for a wider sound.

The volume thing alone makes such a huge difference. If you haven't had great experiences with it in the past and you're not sure if you've tried running the Oscillators at a lower volume, give it a try again, you might be surprised.

Have any tips for Analog to share?

Re: Ableton Analog Tips

Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 7:33 pm
by learn
Excellent ideas!