What Synths / VSTs / techniques make the best Trance Leads?

Affiliation · Post by **Affiliation** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:30 am

just seems like so much more could be done. don't make your neighbour think ur crazy. mine already knows.

e-theory · Post by **e-theory** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:13 pm

OK, I haven't gotten round to the THX ripoff yet, but here is a Trance Lead I made especially for you anyway!

Enjoy! This just uses Operator and the some of the basic Live bits. This may help in in the right direction for your trance leads?

http://evolutionary-theory.com/temp/e-t ... d%2001.als

Lemme know if it helps!

e-theory · Post by **e-theory** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:32 pm

Actually I always wanted to keep this other patch to myself but I am feeling like sharing for some reason, maybe because it is 2:30am?

Anyway, this, imo, is the best pad ever made for Operator. It took some extremely fine tuning to get it to sound this good, and was made, to prove to myself, that luscious and evolving sounds could come from vanilla Ableton Live. Enjoy!

http://evolutionary-theory.com/temp/e-t ... d%2001.adg

Affiliation · Post by **Affiliation** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:29 pm

very nice pad indeed. what kind of machine are you running this on? my little 2.4g pentium is crying right now. actually its doesn't even know how to cry; its just breaking down and puking. I have to kill the # of voices and the spread just to make it work with anything else.

I'm getting a new computer soon.

love the .adg, nice work. I'll let you know when it makes it into a track.

e-theory · Post by **e-theory** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:03 pm

I'm on an Intel Core Duo Dell XPS1710, 2.16GHz with 2GB RAM, NVidia 7950Go Graphics Card, so not that high spec a machine these days really.

My CPU meter stays at the 60% mark for that Operator pad with about 4-5 notes held. I would say that if Ableton should do only one thing with Live 8 it is make their own softsynths more efficient. I would say that on a quality to CPU hit ratio Operator is one of the worst synths there is - it just eats cycles with not a great deal of return for its hunger.

However, I am running a very very cut down version of Windows XP SP2 - with nothing enabled that does not need to be turned on ( i.e. take a look at your processes when you load iTunes for instance, it loads a number of processes that don't need to be there - disable them all ) - which makes a huge difference.

I also use an MAudio card that has been tuned rather closely with the rest of the hardware, as I know how troublesome the MAudio cards can be to get stable and generally I run everything with a fairly high latency when making sounds etc I find fast feedback unnecessary at that stage. Generally when composing the sequences I make a new set with just that particular sound, create the MIDI clip, and then export the result to the main set. This way I can play the single sound with a very low latency to get the notes just right, and run the main set with a higher latency to get the polyphony.

Hopefully the trance lead was a good example of how to use multiple detuned saws for a thick lead with some movement in it.

I very much look forward to anything you make with these bits and pieces, please forward them on to my e-mail address whenever you like.

techitch91 · Post by **techitch91** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:07 pm

big up reFX Vanguard!