Ableton Forum

Hey guys,

So, I'm new to all of this. I have NI Massive, but I need a synth that can produce really good house chord sounds. My undersanding is that Massive is for leads/basses mainly. I've heard about Sylenth1, but I need to pay in US dollars, and their website was showing Euros only. Any tips on this?

Does anyone have any tips on what synths can make great house chords?

Examples of the sound would be the chords from "Take Over Control" by Afrojack and maybe "The Veldt" by Deadmau5.

Sincerely,

Stephen Poole

Start here and save your money?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... use+chords

The presets are pretty crap but for beginners (myself included), you cant go wrong with Ableton's built in Analog synth.

You can get anything you want out of that, especially with some chained fx.

do you have reaktor? this ensemble has lots of chord voicing presets for house chords and the way the oscillators are laid out makes it easy to build up your own voicings: http://youtu.be/F2glt3AcXs4

Stephano wrote:My understanding is that Massive is *MARKETED* for leads/basses mainly.

Fixed!
Massive is definitely sold on its merits as a lead/bass synth, but you can just as easily make evolving pads, plucks, and the like with it, Sylenth is no more capable in this regard, so best to understand before you go out buying another synth that it's much better to learn synthesis, and what individual synths capabilities are, because right now you seem more compelled by marketing than by an understanding of synthesis types, because you can pull a house chord out of literally ANY synth with basic oscillator types (saw and pwm specifically) and a filter.

Stephano wrote:I've heard about Sylenth1, but I need to pay in US dollars, and their website was showing Euros only. Any tips on this?

It looks like as well as synthesis, your grasp of international banking is also rudimentary. If, after that last bit, you are still set on getting another softsynth rather than learning the basics, you should know that banks don't care about the format of your money, the conversion is automatic when you submit payment (be aware that after the currency conversion, this is $190 USD). So if you *DO* buy it, you don't need actual euros in your bank account to do so) You can just go to their site, click the buy button, submit your payment details, and the transaction will proceed like any other (just be aware, again, that the price will be different due to the currency valuation).

Stephano wrote:
P.S. I'm not very good at synthesizer programming. I only know the basics, so something for beginners (and with good presets) is preferable.

programming a patch for house chords is pretty basic, and a good step into synthesis for a beginner, so maybe use it as a learning opportunity?

slicedbread wrote:do you have reaktor? this ensemble has lots of chord voicing presets for house chords and the way the oscillators are laid out makes it easy to build up your own voicings: http://youtu.be/F2glt3AcXs4

I only purchased Massive, but I'll look into Reaktor. Perhaps I'll just buy NI Komplete when I get some money.

Stephano wrote: I only purchased Massive, but I'll look into Reaktor. Perhaps I'll just buy NI Komplete when I get some money.

if you look at the layout of that ensemble, you can probably build up a rack that does the same thing with simpler + single cycle waveform samples, the chord midi device and auto-filters. i think it's the chord choices that define the typical 'house' chord sound.

Stephano wrote:

slicedbread wrote:do you have reaktor? this ensemble has lots of chord voicing presets for house chords and the way the oscillators are laid out makes it easy to build up your own voicings: http://youtu.be/F2glt3AcXs4

I only purchased Massive, but I'll look into Reaktor. Perhaps I'll just buy NI Komplete when I get some money.

Yeah, you should defo buy Reaktor so you can download a basic subtractive synth (what that ensemble is) so you can finally crack the elusive house chords secret of basic oscillators fed through a modulated filter, followed by chorus and reverb.

(not saying you shouldn't get Reaktor, it's amazing, but if you're doing it for that super-basic subtractive synth, you're getting it for the wrong reason)

Yeah, you should defo buy Reaktor so you can download a basic subtractive synth (what that ensemble is) so you can finally crack the elusive house chords secret of basic oscillators fed through a modulated filter, followed by chorus and reverb.

(not saying you shouldn't get Reaktor, it's amazing, but if you're doing it for that super-basic subtractive synth, you're getting it for the wrong reason)

You're right, I need to learn synthesis. I'm in a class about it right now, but I'm still unsatisfied with the sounds I'm creating. Massive was a breath of fresh air for leads. I could definitely use some advice about creating chords in Massive. I've seen tutorials where the artist created a chord by setting OSC2 to pitch 3, OSC3 to pitch 7, but I'd rather not do it that way. I'm a pianist by training.

I'd suggest making the sounds using the tools you currently have.

If you can break Massive down to its most basic elements if can do almost everything a standard synth can do. Also using Simpler can give you great results.

Each time you build a better understanding of the tools you have, you'll be more informed on the tools you're attempting to acquire.

Actually, some of the fun things with Massive is using the FM function to get sharp timbral qualities to your stabs.

Much of the house chord thing has to do with envelopes.

well certainly you don't need to change the oscillator pitches if you know how to play chords, you just need to program the patch and play chords through it. Might help to be more specific about what strain of House you mean though, or post examples of the sounds you're after, since that could be anything from a bright M1 piano sound to a deep house stab kind of thing! Like Yur2die4 said though, a lot of the sound is based around the use of filter envelopes, which isn't something that's going to be solved by getting Sylenth, you'll still have to know how to use modulation sources (fortunately really simple drag-n-drop in Massive) and learn how to coax the sound you're looking for out of a filter with one.

antarktika wrote:well certainly you don't need to change the oscillator pitches if you know how to play chords, you just need to program the patch and play chords through it. Might help to be more specific about what strain of House you mean though, or post examples of the sounds you're after, since that could be anything from a bright M1 piano sound to a deep house stab kind of thing! Like Yur2die4 said though, a lot of the sound is based around the use of filter envelopes, which isn't something that's going to be solved by getting Sylenth, you'll still have to know how to use modulation sources (fortunately really simple drag-n-drop in Massive) and learn how to coax the sound you're looking for out of a filter with one.

I like deep house and progressive house. Examples include the sounds from "The Veldt" by Deadmau5 and the chords in "Take Over Control" by Afrojack. They have percussive elements, but also open up into brighter, warmer sounding chords.

Tympanic wrote:I used to be with it, but then they changed what "it" was. Now, what I'm with isn't it, and what's "it" seems weird and scary to me.

Yup!

3rd comment in:

slicedbread wrote:do you have reaktor? this ensemble has lots of chord voicing presets for house chords and the way the oscillators are laid out makes it easy to build up your own voicings: http://youtu.be/F2glt3AcXs4

but with the further info revealed in this statement:

Stephano wrote:I've seen tutorials where the artist created a chord by setting OSC2 to pitch 3, OSC3 to pitch 7, but I'd rather not do it that way. I'm a pianist by training.

I now think it is an even worse suggestion than I initially did! The only part of that ensemble that is not achievable in Massive is using 6 oscillators, but the only reason those extra oscillators exist in that ensemble is to pitch the voices to make chords, the same function can be achieved by actually playing in the chords, which seems to be the OP's preference anyway. This is like the whole "Dubstep Synth" thing, you can push a product as a "Dubstep Synth" but really, probably the only difference between it and any other synth is that you'll already have chained an lfo to a lowpass filter in the default patch. If you want ANY of the sounds you heard in that ensemble, all you have to do is look at the pitches to determine the chord, and copy the osc, adsr, lfo, and filter envelope settings that are all plainly visible in the youtube vid!

its all about getting the job done, no?
want house chord, do house chord.

i see absoluteley that this is musically simple.
but, music is music. it does not have to be
a 5 star technically perfect track to be a perfect track...