some wavetable presets i made (patreon): / you-dont-need-1-77394184 check out my other stuff: phritzmusic.com the reddit thread in discussion: / ableton_95_analog_filters #ableton #wavetable #musicproducer
this tutorial is missing one key component, Digital synths by its nature don't come in BOXES. Dave Pensado once told me that the bigger the box, the bigger the sound. I bought a Moog Modular and they had to helicopter that shit to my home just because the box was so big. But it was worth it. You can't compare the sound of the analog because your computer doesn't come in a real, analog box, it's a digital box. Even if the box is a big digital box, it's still just a digital box. You need a real, cardboard, locally wrapped and handled Cuboid
Hmmm....That explains why I never did like the sound of the Prophet 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10 on TH-cam enough to buy one. Same with the OB X ,Y and Z.... wait your trying to trick me...I didn't buy any of those because they sounded dated.
For those who are interested about the wavetable synth and maybe don't know much about it i've got a little tip to have a huge variety of wavetables. Load a sample (let's say we've got a chord stab but it could be anything even something sampled from a record or a simple kickdrum) in the timeline and zoom until you can see the single sinusoidal cycle of the sample's waveform, cut the single cycle and consolidate it, so drag it and drop it into the wavetable osc. In this way every note you play will sound with the characteristics of the sample and you'll have a completely unique, inspiring and interesting sound from the start.
i really hope this is the future of tutorials. couldn’t have made it more simple. in 6 mins you gave me a clearer understanding of creating synths to your liking. thank you for this video.
Finally somewhere where I can say screw those analog purists, bunch of carpet baggers if you ask me. But now joking aside. I really believe that you don't need analog at all anymore, at this point you can almost identically create any sounds off any of those machines, and do way more with them, not to mention you can save the setting lol. I think the future of performance and production will be multiple touch screens with your synths open on each, a couple MIDI controllers, a mixer and boom, $20,000 setup for 500 bucks
@@LoserDub I still like my analogue toys, but arguably all your getting for the price these days is improved workflow. its still quicker for me to run everything I record through a channel strip with a bit of light dynamics processing on the inserts than it is to make that channel strip in the daw. but here's what catches me out and why you're right. what if that day I don't want the ssl pre and eq, maybe the artist im working with prefers the Neve sound. im still gonna bringup a 1073 plugin to get that in my workflow. granted on the was 900 I can record 24 channels with zero patch baying and have that set up in the control room in less than ten minutes. which is beneficial. but theses days were mostly dubbing in the studio, giving us the time to be flexible with our sounds. which is what's better about how many great digital plugins there are these days. just cause my studio runs ssl I can still bring up like a century channel strip or something inprotools and basically have emulated versions of like six different studios in my daw. digital is amazing now. still love analogue but honestly I think its less and less useful. I have a real teletronix la2a in the studio at college. but sometimes I pull up the plugin version of the silver one or whatever because it sounds different, and I didn't have to spend another 3k on a compressor.
@@C1c4daI've tried creating the same patches in Serum & Vital. And I gotta tell ya, Serum has a warmer tone than Vital. I usually create simple analog synth inspired patches. For other sounds like growls and stuff, it didn't matter much. But recently bought Diva (blackfriday sale) and now I primarily use Diva for analogue inspired patches. It's beautiful. Anyways everything has its own strengths and weaknesses, I guess.
I grew up using digital synths. Today I am designing both analog and digital synth circuits/code for hardware mostly. The key difference between digital and analog in terms of sound becomes ever smaller (unless we are talking about wild feedback-patches on a modular synthesizer). What is a difference tho, is the one between a plugin and dedicated hardware synths - regardless if analog or digital - on hardware you have the advantage that you usually have knobs that allow you to directly interface with a parameter and they are right there without you having to set anything up. This can change how you interact with the thing and therefore change what you make with it (not automatically leading to better results, but it is a different experience and that can have an impact on how you do music). I still use a lot of software synths if I am working on a sound design, but hardware can be more in the moment if you are in the rehearsal room with other musicians. Ah yeah, and certain filters still sound better in analog, e.g. I have yet to hear a convincing emulation of the Wasp Filter - but there are also digital things I have never heard in the analog world and would not like to miss.
Same point on my comment, and this vid is a good example, it's fulll of digital clickz lol. And just to say, if they decided to leave the new synclavier regen at 50hz max, it's for a reason and i love it, it's not about analog and digital, each is usefull, it's about good hardware, real instruments on one side (and i wont go about the ethical part of the buisness huh), and crappy plastic, not durable, not reparable, or digital clicks and/or a dehumanizing relationship with a computer, wich is the less intuitive way to make music whatever genre....
I apologize if I’ve caused some discomfort for using the word analog too lightly, I should have phrased it ‘making it sound less digital’ or smth idk, I still like how it sounds tho
@@GuitarsAndSynths I own a virus ti2. you really gotta milk the eq and distortion, analog character level and saturation to get it even remotely analog. then i flip on my dreadbox murmux v2 and am instantly reminded that the virus is digital. virus is irreplaceable for its versatility imo though.
This was delightful, seeing the thought process behind it, all the individual steps explained and to top it all of this clean look that just makes it easier to follow. What a treat, thank you very much for sharing. I would love more of this pls.
Something I do with all of my patches by default is to assign a value between 0.1-0.5 to the random column on the matrix for filter cutoff, oscillator fine tune, oscillator position, envelope attack and decay times, and amplitude. This means that every time you hit a key, you get a slight variation in the sound. I based on this on how the vintage knob on the P6 / OB6 works. The major limitation is that each parameter is taking the same random value on each key press, but I find if I vary the modulation amount from -0.5 - +0.5, it adds a certain something. Then you just need to add some saturation and/or tape emulation down the chain, and it usually sounds pretty good. I don't most people could tell the difference on a recording between a well-made VST patch and an analogue synth. I use analogue gear myself and I mostly keep it around because I like the device, more than because the sound is inherently better.
For me, using hardware (analogue or digital) is not necessarily all about the sound, but the immediate access to ways to edit it. Clicking around on a screen VS just moving your hands and adjusting physical dials and switches, is two very different ways of working.
@@KimStennabbCaesar For me it's about the specific synth itself. Just like Serum doesn't sound like Omnisphere, a JD-990 doesn't sound like an OB-X. They just all lean towards different characteristics because of their capabilities, limitations, workflow, as well as type of synthesis.
@fisle that's what I do on most patches - there's almost always slight movement of the filter, and tuning, and pitch, and those are modulated with separate things (different LFOs, cycling envelopes) minifreak makes this easy
Absolutely true, those old 80’s analog synths actually sound much cleaner than what was done here, they sound dirty like that when theyre played on a cassette tape, but thats cause theyre on tape being played thru a cheap walkman. Theres gunna be noise and pitch warble with that. Analog can be extremely stable and clean, actually, my analog electrosmith 3340 oscillator is much more clean sounding and tracks pitch significantly better than my digital 2hp sine oscillator. Production quality is probably the biggest factor there
even with the raw signal, if you're decent at sound design and aim for a "analog sound", no one can tell a high quality digital synth setup from an analog one. modern digital synths can sound really "analog" and modern analog synths can sound really "digital".
I just got into EDM making and was a bit puzzled that I heard people talk about synths being somewhat complicated. Then I realized that my degrees in engineering of course made everything almost "intuitive", but if you haven't taken x classes in signal processing, filtering and mathematics, it might feel at bit more mysterious at the start...
I most make music in the DAW, but I enjoy playing with my analog toys sometimes. I think they do sound just a little better than my plugs, but I cant usually be bothered recording them. Vintage synths evoke a strong feeling if nostalgia too, for those of us old enough to remember when they were new.
I finally learned how to make one of the osc’s in wavetable actually sound like noise instead of a single cycle wave from the noise. Very helpful, thank you.
i highly recommend taking some stereo pink noise and slowing it down until it’s completely inaudible, layering whatever sound with that, running that thru distortion, and then highpassing it
Great video, great patches! - With regards to the SMP filter: Andrew Simper of Cytomic created these filters (for The Drop) and licensed the (custom) MD versions to Ableton + he said this about the SMP filter on KVR: "SMP = Custom MS20 Rev. 2 / OSCar"
easily the best tutorial i've seen (about pretty much anything) and i don't even use ableton. if only all tutorials could be as clear and helpful as this one
been using ableton for 8 years and had no idea there were different filters in the stock plug-ins, i was freaked out by the acronyms so always left it😭 great vid, awesome sounding presets too 🤩
ever since I started "making music" and designing sounds I was fascinated by the amount of things you can do with Wavetable, and as I became more and more invested in the hobby I started to move away from basic Ableton devices thinking they were "too simple" or "too default-sounding" and that I needed to buy expensive shit just to achieve decent sounds, but this video has reminded me why I love stock plugins so much :) thank you!
I use mostly hardware due to IT being my day job. I cannot click 1000 times like i used to. Started getting into Ableton more. Hybrid is where it's at for me. For edge and grit... unstable sounds it would not hurt to just buy a single analog filter or module to run sounds through. Get the best of both worlds. Looking forward to more videos!
same and I started with Ableton and a laptop and got tired of working ITB all the time as it felt like my day computer job. Playing with hardware is more enjoyable and feels like instrument versus computer programming. Mixer recorders make life easier now to dump audio to an SDCard and import to your DAW as well.
@@GuitarsAndSynths I hit legit burnout around 2020. I am self employed which means lots of overtime with no overtime pay. Between that and events in my life something just snapped. I can no longer retain information from a screen. I feel sick at my desk. I look at code i have written and emails and it looks like it was written by another person. The burnout is a legit concern for anyone. DAWs can do so many amazing things i feel i am missing out. Hopefully i come out the other side of this and can leverage these tools better.
While most of this I knew, some details were made clearer and a few things were new to me. Having said that, this video made me look at some of your other videos and I enjoyed them so much, I made a Patreon account just to subscribe to you! Great stuff. I can’t wait to explore all you have there.
Really well done video! I think a lot of producers (myself included) see hardware synths and think "I need that to get (xyz) sound," but lately I've been a huge fan of trying to recreate sounds through synths, and that reverse engineering is a priceless experience. Likewise, the knowledge of making beautiful textures only helps when you get your hands on that hardware piece in the future. Thank you for sharing this :)
Interesting video, thank you. I agree, many digital synths and VSTs or AUs can be used to create lovely analog-sounding sounds. And people don’t necessarily need an analog synth. The difference with analog synths is that the “warmth” happens more or less by itself. (If the synth has been designed to have “warmth” at all, that is.) It is possible to add lots of analog-y quirks to a digital synth. But it is really hard to replicate the ease and directness with which an analog synth can produce them. Yes, analog quirks are instabilities and noise … and distortions. But there are also other subtle effects. Such as the subtle beating that multiple voices can have, which can be very characteristic for a synth. Or the subtle idiosyncrasies in oscillator waveforms, that end up in the overtone spectrum. And because everything is based on voltages and currents, there can be cross-influences across components. Something can change subtly when a key is pressed, for example. Everything is somewhat connected (although designers tend to try to isolate the components, but there is always a bit of a remaining influence between them). So, the artifacts can also synchronize in analog-typical ways. - And the typical analog artifacts appear by themselves. I believe that all of these idiosyncrasies can in principle be replicated with digital synths. But it is not easy. And the digital synth needs to be able to support all these. And the sound designer needs to try to avoid the digital artifacts as well. Analog artifacts can depend on lots of different things. But analog equipment typically behaves “smoothly” … and that usually means that the artifacts sound “warm”. Digital synths have long learned to simulate analog distortions, where they are prominent enough. (Digital artifacts, if not created intentionally, tend to behave “abruptly” … and that typically sounds “harsh”. But digital synths have learned to avoid these in many places, except when desired.) The remaining difference is that analog synths have smooth / warm artifacts even where digital synths do not simulate them. The sound designer can try to put them in, with some success … but it is really hard to do it in exactly the way analog equipment would do it … because it varies in idiosyncratic ways, and everything is somewhat connected. I have many plugins for my DAWs. But whatever I use, I find it really hard to replicate the sounds that people create on analog synths. (It doesn’t matter whether I use many parameters on a capable digital synth, or if I use a digital “clone” of the synth.) The differences are clearly audible even on youtube videos, and the sound has a different character. So, yes, it is easily possible to create analog sounding sounds. But the sheer emotion that a beautiful analog synth sound can evoke is hard to replicate. And no, I don’t own any analog synths … I cannot afford them, nor do I have enough space. But the cravings are there. Some people experience the character of a sound very consciously, even the more subtle parts. Others may not hear the character as clearly. But however much we hear it, it still influences us. The character of a sound makes us feel a certain way. All that being said, there are a few VSTs that go a long way to simulate analog sound. For example, the U-He synths: Diva in particular. The approach is to simulate the voltages and currents in the analog circuits of a synth. Thereby simulating all the analog artifacts along the way. And it sounds amazing. - Note that Diva is still limited, because as far as I understand, it uses shortcuts to simulate the circuits, to cut down on the enormous CPU processing costs of a full simulation. Some others use similar approaches: for example, the Yamaha AN technology is modeling analog circuits. All in all, I believe the main message of the video is fair: creating analog sounding sounds on digital synths is possible, and those sounds can be lovely. But I think it is also fair to say that analog synths are valuable for their effortless yet subtly complex analog character. - Would I pay 10k+ for them? Nope. Not unless I was super rich. But I do value them.
Great tutorial, I’ve never used Ableton or bought a software instrument but have owned lots of vintage synths and samplers. Really interested in Ableton but also looking at arturia v colection that I can use with logic which I have used for many years. The sounds you created, sound much like my old ensoniqs. Thank you, feel happy to have let them all go and ready to start a new journey with software
Sounds great, I'll be signing up to the patreon for these! I do think there's a difference in some instances with hardware but once in context they're gone for most things. In a blind test I can't tell is a prophet plugin over a prophet once I add other instruments and drums, and even then, only when they're A to B Comparisions unless they're not patched right. I think a hybrid solution is where it's at. It's really only noticeable with specific monos I think when in context. I'm actually liking hybrid sounds now too, a digital synth with a couple layers of analog monos is a nice contrast to my ears. I've actually sold pretty much all my hardware over time, and mostly in Ableton. I only have an a moog (that doubles as my midi controller) and an and an analog 4 since that's damn fun to use and you can use it during a performance. (People seem to react to it better than pressing pads with a laptop next to you during a performance at a bar or something too. well, at least the ones I've been at)
I love the feature Error on Analog and Drift on Drift which give them the "Analog" feel. The strongest thing about physical device is actually the tactile workflow, which enable you to experience in a intuitive and fast way, also the instrument design itself can guide you in a meaningful way.
Very good demo! My main inhibition to using software synths for analogue tones is that most don't oversample at a high enough rate to do audio-rate modulation of anything besides oscillator pitch, and even then it's not consistently good. (Xfer Serum and the u-he titles are some notable exceptions; REPRO and Hive are pretty good at it.) I discovered a whole new world of textures with my Moog semimodular, but they are more like aliasing mush when I try them in software - which is so unfortunate, as I prefer softsynths for easy patch recall, portability, and DEFINITELY cost.
You should try VCVRack, its software architecture is built so that audio-rate modulation is the default to any module. Additionally many oscillators made in there are written to generate waves via oversampling. It's definitely one of the closest experiences to analog synths I have tried and considering most of it is completely free is insane.
Reason has amazing sounding synths and mixers. Run it at the highest bitrates and samples per second (whatever your sound output supports) and it starts to sound analogue...
Excellent tutorial. I decided to avoid GAS when getting back into music during the lock downs, and do all my sound design with virtual modular (Cherry Audio Voltage 2). That gives very close parallels to hardware sound design. The one thing I missed was the physicality of twisting knobs and 'playing' the synths. I purchased an akai midi mix (great value) but still wanted more. I purchased an electra one (beautiful and very funtional device!) but it still left me feeling divorced from the synths. Then I got a Faderfox pc 12. Its awesome! All the knobs i want!. My dream midi interface to give a me that 'last mile' feeling would be a faderfox pc12 with 14bit midi / midi 2. In short, for me, analogue synths are not just the sound, but the tactile feel of playing with them. So gimmie lots of sensitive knobs to play with and I will be a happy man!
All this work just for ableton to release drift, which is designed to sound analog and get you there faster than wavetable. amazing tutorial regardless. Very deep understanding of synthesis demonstrated here.
One thing that I find really contributes to the "analog" sound are the waveforms itself. Since they're synthesized with circuitry, they have a certain sound or warmness to it, I sampled my SE-02's waves for use in Serum and it already makes a huge difference for emulating an analog sound in software, even without all the modulation. Still, great video!
@phritz thanks for vid! Really cool lo-fi ish, analogu-ish patches! Would love to recreate them for myself. I would like to add some words - I totally agree with everything in video, and nex step for analog emulation - is making an fx chain, that emulates analog sound path on circuit board. For example - you need to put an saturator for adding harmonics after the OSC makes sound, also, you need limiter at the end, to emulate analog clamping and cliping the sound, cause the limits of wire and analog output. And etc. I think, we need to make ultimate guide on how to emulate analog circuit in digital world.
0:30 I noticed the same thing on my Reface Cs. It's a virtual analogue and when you modulate the oscillators pitch with a very slow, very subtle LFO it sounds much nicer!
Finally someone put it into video/words very well. I always thought of analogue gear in the modern age as kind of... Dumb. Unless you're a hardcore enthusiast and have the money, there's is NOTHING special about analogue except that it's prohibitively expensive.
Some nice sounds. A lot can absolutely be accomplished by way of understanding how to get "that sound", if that's your bag. For me it's not the only the sound(non-linearities) that keep me from selling of my gear. It is the way each of them inspire performance not only through control but also the quirky(non-linear) way those controls combined with human performance, make the sound respond (their personalities). That said, I will never part ways with my computer or my myriad of digital plugins (and a few synths) which also have their own personalities. Also, analog filters are Truly lovely in the way they respond to material via various ways of modulation(s). They have a "character" I can't get with Cytomic or U-he's awesome models, but again,... I love All synths. You don't need analog hardware but if you love synthesis, well,.. I absolutely highly recommend trying that wonderful drug and decide for Yourself ;)
the warmth of the pitch is not just a simple vibrato with a geometric shape at constant speed , but with random variations , it must be alive. For pseudo analog synths one guy was suggest a LFO with a mix triangle shape + random S/H . For the natural "drift" of the voice i have seen 3 S/H random wave at different speed , for a good natural variation. We can do it with a Gauss Band modulation too. When there is a good variation we can see on the specter slight variations of the level of high harmonics. For a polyphonic synth the real trick, even on modern analog synths which are too straight , is the Voice Component, variations of parameters by voice : pitch, filter, envelope, etc.. where every voice act independently , at different speed. For exmeple filter sweep instead of being synchronized for every voice, has different sweep speed for each voice, giving this organic sound we like. And the overdrive is important in the sound of analog synths, it give them all the meat. The best mono synths like the minimoog, etc.. have an over-driven sound.
Great tutorial - I adore the minimalist style so much, but please also consider dubbing in voice over to read the text on screen for future ones. As someone with dyslexia, this would make the tutorial a lot easier to consume and retain and is my main gripe with a lot of how-to videos online.
To me it is really about having a hardware interface to contol everything. It just feels so much more playable and interactive to me to have a knob or a switch or a patchpoint for everything. I enjoy the opportunity for creativity and the ephemeral nature of having a sequence that goes away as soon as you unplug it, and a patch that is lost as soon as you take the cables out. I agree that in terms of sound for money digital is the way to go, but I don't think a software synth will ever feel the same as a desktop analog or emulation.
I currently own 4 analog synths (plus dx7): Juno106, 2 Prophets, Moog37. And I can say, that you are damn right. You just don't need it. I don't need it. But I love them.
![New RHODES Stockholm EP9 [Nord Stage 4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z6Tnx4Z94Vw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Genshin Impact | กาชา Clorinde ไวฟุนั้น ควร C6 [เทสตัวละครต่อ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SOVaBvL7K20/mqdefault.jpg)
this tutorial is missing one key component, Digital synths by its nature don't come in BOXES. Dave Pensado once told me that the bigger the box, the bigger the sound. I bought a Moog Modular and they had to helicopter that shit to my home just because the box was so big. But it was worth it. You can't compare the sound of the analog because your computer doesn't come in a real, analog box, it's a digital box. Even if the box is a big digital box, it's still just a digital box. You need a real, cardboard, locally wrapped and handled Cuboid
well fiNe thEN
*buys physical copy of omnisphere*
Can I buy just the box and stick my PC inside?
Hmmm....That explains why I never did like the sound of the Prophet 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10 on TH-cam enough to buy one. Same with the OB X ,Y and Z.... wait your trying to trick me...I didn't buy any of those because they sounded dated.
makes sense
It's because they are different that we can compare them. Lmao
For those who are interested about the wavetable synth and maybe don't know much about it i've got a little tip to have a huge variety of wavetables. Load a sample (let's say we've got a chord stab but it could be anything even something sampled from a record or a simple kickdrum) in the timeline and zoom until you can see the single sinusoidal cycle of the sample's waveform, cut the single cycle and consolidate it, so drag it and drop it into the wavetable osc. In this way every note you play will sound with the characteristics of the sample and you'll have a completely unique, inspiring and interesting sound from the start.
Thank u so much for the tip 🫡
golden tip, thanks!!!
Great tip!
Cant you just drag the sample into wavetable and it'll do that for you but with more waves ?
@@NamelessSmile no, if i recall correctly, if you drag the whole sample it won't load the wavetable so it won't work...
i really hope this is the future of tutorials. couldn’t have made it more simple. in 6 mins you gave me a clearer understanding of creating synths to your liking. thank you for this video.
i fw your music bro its tuf
Finally somewhere where I can say screw those analog purists, bunch of carpet baggers if you ask me. But now joking aside. I really believe that you don't need analog at all anymore, at this point you can almost identically create any sounds off any of those machines, and do way more with them, not to mention you can save the setting lol. I think the future of performance and production will be multiple touch screens with your synths open on each, a couple MIDI controllers, a mixer and boom, $20,000 setup for 500 bucks
@@LoserDub I still like my analogue toys, but arguably all your getting for the price these days is improved workflow. its still quicker for me to run everything I record through a channel strip with a bit of light dynamics processing on the inserts than it is to make that channel strip in the daw. but here's what catches me out and why you're right. what if that day I don't want the ssl pre and eq, maybe the artist im working with prefers the Neve sound. im still gonna bringup a 1073 plugin to get that in my workflow. granted on the was 900 I can record 24 channels with zero patch baying and have that set up in the control room in less than ten minutes. which is beneficial. but theses days were mostly dubbing in the studio, giving us the time to be flexible with our sounds. which is what's better about how many great digital plugins there are these days. just cause my studio runs ssl I can still bring up like a century channel strip or something inprotools and basically have emulated versions of like six different studios in my daw. digital is amazing now. still love analogue but honestly I think its less and less useful. I have a real teletronix la2a in the studio at college. but sometimes I pull up the plugin version of the silver one or whatever because it sounds different, and I didn't have to spend another 3k on a compressor.
@@LoserDubI'm also hoping for some more solid MPE controllers personally
Use what you like, it all sound truly amazing today. Hardware or software. General music listeners out there don't care how you create.
the real word
even the free vsts nowadays are amazing. I use vital a lot and i genuinely like it more than serum.
@@C1c4daI've tried creating the same patches in Serum & Vital. And I gotta tell ya, Serum has a warmer tone than Vital.
I usually create simple analog synth inspired patches. For other sounds like growls and stuff, it didn't matter much.
But recently bought Diva (blackfriday sale) and now I primarily use Diva for analogue inspired patches. It's beautiful.
Anyways everything has its own strengths and weaknesses, I guess.
Truth of the Matter
Nicely done. Great patches.
i love yoou
oh hi!! thank you for your comment, love your videos!
I grew up using digital synths. Today I am designing both analog and digital synth circuits/code for hardware mostly. The key difference between digital and analog in terms of sound becomes ever smaller (unless we are talking about wild feedback-patches on a modular synthesizer). What is a difference tho, is the one between a plugin and dedicated hardware synths - regardless if analog or digital - on hardware you have the advantage that you usually have knobs that allow you to directly interface with a parameter and they are right there without you having to set anything up. This can change how you interact with the thing and therefore change what you make with it (not automatically leading to better results, but it is a different experience and that can have an impact on how you do music). I still use a lot of software synths if I am working on a sound design, but hardware can be more in the moment if you are in the rehearsal room with other musicians.
Ah yeah, and certain filters still sound better in analog, e.g. I have yet to hear a convincing emulation of the Wasp Filter - but there are also digital things I have never heard in the analog world and would not like to miss.
Sorry, u should quit your job. The difference hardware digital software digital is not the knobs .
Thank you. I just figured analog people didn't want to get software lol. And it looks cool in a room.
@@marskat131 Please tell us what it really is then, I'd like to know
@@marskat131 you should quit commenting on TH-cam
Same point on my comment, and this vid is a good example, it's fulll of digital clickz lol. And just to say, if they decided to leave the new synclavier regen at 50hz max, it's for a reason and i love it, it's not about analog and digital, each is usefull, it's about good hardware, real instruments on one side (and i wont go about the ethical part of the buisness huh), and crappy plastic, not durable, not reparable, or digital clicks and/or a dehumanizing relationship with a computer, wich is the less intuitive way to make music whatever genre....
I apologize if I’ve caused some discomfort for using the word analog too lightly, I should have phrased it ‘making it sound less digital’ or smth idk, I still like how it sounds tho
then again some digital synths like the Virus can sound analog and quite nicer than software.
Lol there's no pleasing the purists, it sounds analog to me. Nice tutorial!
great tutorial 🤙🏽
Very cool video, easy to follow. Dont let interwebz producer trolls get to ya. Good music is to you, what you love. Not what others think.. big ups!
@@GuitarsAndSynths I own a virus ti2. you really gotta milk the eq and distortion, analog character level and saturation to get it even remotely analog. then i flip on my dreadbox murmux v2 and am instantly reminded that the virus is digital. virus is irreplaceable for its versatility imo though.
This was delightful, seeing the thought process behind it, all the individual steps explained and to top it all of this clean look that just makes it easier to follow. What a treat, thank you very much for sharing. I would love more of this pls.
Something I do with all of my patches by default is to assign a value between 0.1-0.5 to the random column on the matrix for filter cutoff, oscillator fine tune, oscillator position, envelope attack and decay times, and amplitude. This means that every time you hit a key, you get a slight variation in the sound. I based on this on how the vintage knob on the P6 / OB6 works.
The major limitation is that each parameter is taking the same random value on each key press, but I find if I vary the modulation amount from -0.5 - +0.5, it adds a certain something.
Then you just need to add some saturation and/or tape emulation down the chain, and it usually sounds pretty good. I don't most people could tell the difference on a recording between a well-made VST patch and an analogue synth. I use analogue gear myself and I mostly keep it around because I like the device, more than because the sound is inherently better.
For me, using hardware (analogue or digital) is not necessarily all about the sound, but the immediate access to ways to edit it. Clicking around on a screen VS just moving your hands and adjusting physical dials and switches, is two very different ways of working.
The stock analog instrument in ableton and has an "error" setting in the main area you can turn up to do this as well.
@@KimStennabbCaesar For me it's about the specific synth itself. Just like Serum doesn't sound like Omnisphere, a JD-990 doesn't sound like an OB-X. They just all lean towards different characteristics because of their capabilities, limitations, workflow, as well as type of synthesis.
@@ivansoto9723 Yeah, I agree with this statement.
@fisle that's what I do on most patches - there's almost always slight movement of the filter, and tuning, and pitch, and those are modulated with separate things (different LFOs, cycling envelopes)
minifreak makes this easy
I love the style of the editing here! it's so clean!
In a mix. Most if not all people wouldn’t even pick if it’s analog or not.
And that’s the truth :)
Absolutely true, those old 80’s analog synths actually sound much cleaner than what was done here, they sound dirty like that when theyre played on a cassette tape, but thats cause theyre on tape being played thru a cheap walkman. Theres gunna be noise and pitch warble with that. Analog can be extremely stable and clean, actually, my analog electrosmith 3340 oscillator is much more clean sounding and tracks pitch significantly better than my digital 2hp sine oscillator. Production quality is probably the biggest factor there
John maus said this . Spent years building synths and he said in the end you can’t hear it
even with the raw signal, if you're decent at sound design and aim for a "analog sound", no one can tell a high quality digital synth setup from an analog one. modern digital synths can sound really "analog" and modern analog synths can sound really "digital".
Really loving these videos lately. Keep 'em coming!
always excited to see new phritz videos :]
I just got into EDM making and was a bit puzzled that I heard people talk about synths being somewhat complicated. Then I realized that my degrees in engineering of course made everything almost "intuitive", but if you haven't taken x classes in signal processing, filtering and mathematics, it might feel at bit more mysterious at the start...
Love the editing, so clean
Nice video! You’ve got some really cool sounds here
just discovered ur videos today. instantly went to spotify and listened every song from u. ur now one of my top fav producers lmao
Terrific. Clear and concise. Great format
I love your video production! Thanks for sharing your knowledge! :)
This why i love sound designing !! I need to really work in it in order to master it ! Thanks for this video bro
love this kind of editing, great job
Beautiful tutorial on sound design! Love it!
love your style of video. so good
Great video, really love Wavetable. Now I love it more then before :) Thanks!
That was an incredible video. Thank you!
I most make music in the DAW, but I enjoy playing with my analog toys sometimes. I think they do sound just a little better than my plugs, but I cant usually be bothered recording them. Vintage synths evoke a strong feeling if nostalgia too, for those of us old enough to remember when they were new.
I love your minimalistic video style!
I finally learned how to make one of the osc’s in wavetable actually sound like noise instead of a single cycle wave from the noise. Very helpful, thank you.
i highly recommend taking some stereo pink noise and slowing it down until it’s completely inaudible, layering whatever sound with that, running that thru distortion, and then highpassing it
Great video, great patches! - With regards to the SMP filter: Andrew Simper of Cytomic created these filters (for The Drop) and licensed the (custom) MD versions to Ableton + he said this about the SMP filter on KVR: "SMP = Custom MS20 Rev. 2 / OSCar"
easily the best tutorial i've seen (about pretty much anything) and i don't even use ableton. if only all tutorials could be as clear and helpful as this one
I like that this has no talking and is straight to the point and efficient without any filler bs
love the format!
I am always overwhelmed with Wavetable this video made it understandable. Thanks!
been using ableton for 8 years and had no idea there were different filters in the stock plug-ins, i was freaked out by the acronyms so always left it😭
great vid, awesome sounding presets too 🤩
ever since I started "making music" and designing sounds I was fascinated by the amount of things you can do with Wavetable, and as I became more and more invested in the hobby I started to move away from basic Ableton devices thinking they were "too simple" or "too default-sounding" and that I needed to buy expensive shit just to achieve decent sounds, but this video has reminded me why I love stock plugins so much :) thank you!
The most useful 7 minutes for today! Thank you.
I really like those sounds at the end
I really appreciated this tutorial and I signed up to your patreon for access to these presets.
I use mostly hardware due to IT being my day job. I cannot click 1000 times like i used to. Started getting into Ableton more. Hybrid is where it's at for me. For edge and grit... unstable sounds it would not hurt to just buy a single analog filter or module to run sounds through. Get the best of both worlds. Looking forward to more videos!
Same here I click all day at work and after work making 'music' with hw is more appealing.. Excuses (: but good ones.
same and I started with Ableton and a laptop and got tired of working ITB all the time as it felt like my day computer job. Playing with hardware is more enjoyable and feels like instrument versus computer programming. Mixer recorders make life easier now to dump audio to an SDCard and import to your DAW as well.
@@GuitarsAndSynths I hit legit burnout around 2020. I am self employed which means lots of overtime with no overtime pay. Between that and events in my life something just snapped. I can no longer retain information from a screen. I feel sick at my desk. I look at code i have written and emails and it looks like it was written by another person. The burnout is a legit concern for anyone. DAWs can do so many amazing things i feel i am missing out. Hopefully i come out the other side of this and can leverage these tools better.
Best use of Helvetica on YT. Cuts through the crap and focuses on the sound. 👍
While most of this I knew, some details were made clearer and a few things were new to me.
Having said that, this video made me look at some of your other videos and I enjoyed them so much, I made a Patreon account just to subscribe to you! Great stuff. I can’t wait to explore all you have there.
that pre-last polyrhytmic patch and melody was just stunningly immersive. cool tutorial
You're an incredible sound designer.
Really well done video! I think a lot of producers (myself included) see hardware synths and think "I need that to get (xyz) sound," but lately I've been a huge fan of trying to recreate sounds through synths, and that reverse engineering is a priceless experience. Likewise, the knowledge of making beautiful textures only helps when you get your hands on that hardware piece in the future. Thank you for sharing this :)
Interesting video, thank you. I agree, many digital synths and VSTs or AUs can be used to create lovely analog-sounding sounds. And people don’t necessarily need an analog synth.
The difference with analog synths is that the “warmth” happens more or less by itself. (If the synth has been designed to have “warmth” at all, that is.) It is possible to add lots of analog-y quirks to a digital synth. But it is really hard to replicate the ease and directness with which an analog synth can produce them.
Yes, analog quirks are instabilities and noise … and distortions. But there are also other subtle effects. Such as the subtle beating that multiple voices can have, which can be very characteristic for a synth. Or the subtle idiosyncrasies in oscillator waveforms, that end up in the overtone spectrum. And because everything is based on voltages and currents, there can be cross-influences across components. Something can change subtly when a key is pressed, for example. Everything is somewhat connected (although designers tend to try to isolate the components, but there is always a bit of a remaining influence between them). So, the artifacts can also synchronize in analog-typical ways. - And the typical analog artifacts appear by themselves.
I believe that all of these idiosyncrasies can in principle be replicated with digital synths. But it is not easy. And the digital synth needs to be able to support all these. And the sound designer needs to try to avoid the digital artifacts as well.
Analog artifacts can depend on lots of different things. But analog equipment typically behaves “smoothly” … and that usually means that the artifacts sound “warm”. Digital synths have long learned to simulate analog distortions, where they are prominent enough. (Digital artifacts, if not created intentionally, tend to behave “abruptly” … and that typically sounds “harsh”. But digital synths have learned to avoid these in many places, except when desired.) The remaining difference is that analog synths have smooth / warm artifacts even where digital synths do not simulate them. The sound designer can try to put them in, with some success … but it is really hard to do it in exactly the way analog equipment would do it … because it varies in idiosyncratic ways, and everything is somewhat connected.
I have many plugins for my DAWs. But whatever I use, I find it really hard to replicate the sounds that people create on analog synths. (It doesn’t matter whether I use many parameters on a capable digital synth, or if I use a digital “clone” of the synth.) The differences are clearly audible even on youtube videos, and the sound has a different character. So, yes, it is easily possible to create analog sounding sounds. But the sheer emotion that a beautiful analog synth sound can evoke is hard to replicate. And no, I don’t own any analog synths … I cannot afford them, nor do I have enough space. But the cravings are there.
Some people experience the character of a sound very consciously, even the more subtle parts. Others may not hear the character as clearly. But however much we hear it, it still influences us. The character of a sound makes us feel a certain way.
All that being said, there are a few VSTs that go a long way to simulate analog sound. For example, the U-He synths: Diva in particular. The approach is to simulate the voltages and currents in the analog circuits of a synth. Thereby simulating all the analog artifacts along the way. And it sounds amazing. - Note that Diva is still limited, because as far as I understand, it uses shortcuts to simulate the circuits, to cut down on the enormous CPU processing costs of a full simulation.
Some others use similar approaches: for example, the Yamaha AN technology is modeling analog circuits.
All in all, I believe the main message of the video is fair: creating analog sounding sounds on digital synths is possible, and those sounds can be lovely. But I think it is also fair to say that analog synths are valuable for their effortless yet subtly complex analog character. - Would I pay 10k+ for them? Nope. Not unless I was super rich. But I do value them.
Perfect demonstration!
good quality content here ! very informative, no bulshit, and highly usable !
absolutely brilliant
Very inspiring! Thank you
These presets have a really cool Boards of Canada kinda sound to them. Great tutorial!
OMG, can’t believe I didn’t know about the different filter types! The Ableton one sounds nice.
Really cool tutorial, thanks !!
Great tutorial, I’ve never used Ableton or bought a software instrument but have owned lots of vintage synths and samplers. Really interested in Ableton but also looking at arturia v colection that I can use with logic which I have used for many years. The sounds you created, sound much like my old ensoniqs. Thank you, feel happy to have let them all go and ready to start a new journey with software
This is amazing, instant subscribe.
you are the coolest tysm for this !! super helpful for a novice wavetable user :)
Sound design is truly so fun 🎉
Some crazy Boards of Canada sounds right there at the end. That's freaking neat!!! 🔥
What an amazing video!
Thank you for the video💯
Awesome video! I knew a lot of these tricks already, but you got some amazing sounds in this
Sounds great, I'll be signing up to the patreon for these!
I do think there's a difference in some instances with hardware but once in context they're gone for most things. In a blind test I can't tell is a prophet plugin over a prophet once I add other instruments and drums, and even then, only when they're A to B Comparisions unless they're not patched right. I think a hybrid solution is where it's at. It's really only noticeable with specific monos I think when in context. I'm actually liking hybrid sounds now too, a digital synth with a couple layers of analog monos is a nice contrast to my ears.
I've actually sold pretty much all my hardware over time, and mostly in Ableton. I only have an a moog (that doubles as my midi controller) and an and an analog 4 since that's damn fun to use and you can use it during a performance. (People seem to react to it better than pressing pads with a laptop next to you during a performance at a bar or something too. well, at least the ones I've been at)
great video. i made all of my sound design with wavetable. it's a great synth. Need to upgrade to live 12 now
lovely video
wavetable is such a synhtesis monster!!
amazing and simple !
this is actually really helpful holy shit
I could almost hear your voice. Thank you for this
I love the feature Error on Analog and Drift on Drift which give them the "Analog" feel.
The strongest thing about physical device is actually the tactile workflow, which enable you to experience in a intuitive and fast way, also the instrument design itself can guide you in a meaningful way.
Very good demo! My main inhibition to using software synths for analogue tones is that most don't oversample at a high enough rate to do audio-rate modulation of anything besides oscillator pitch, and even then it's not consistently good. (Xfer Serum and the u-he titles are some notable exceptions; REPRO and Hive are pretty good at it.) I discovered a whole new world of textures with my Moog semimodular, but they are more like aliasing mush when I try them in software - which is so unfortunate, as I prefer softsynths for easy patch recall, portability, and DEFINITELY cost.
You should try VCVRack, its software architecture is built so that audio-rate modulation is the default to any module.
Additionally many oscillators made in there are written to generate waves via oversampling.
It's definitely one of the closest experiences to analog synths I have tried and considering most of it is completely free is insane.
Reason has amazing sounding synths and mixers. Run it at the highest bitrates and samples per second (whatever your sound output supports) and it starts to sound analogue...
I love the pacing of the video
Great video!
Excellent tutorial. I decided to avoid GAS when getting back into music during the lock downs, and do all my sound design with virtual modular (Cherry Audio Voltage 2). That gives very close parallels to hardware sound design.
The one thing I missed was the physicality of twisting knobs and 'playing' the synths. I purchased an akai midi mix (great value) but still wanted more. I purchased an electra one (beautiful and very funtional device!) but it still left me feeling divorced from the synths. Then I got a Faderfox pc 12. Its awesome! All the knobs i want!. My dream midi interface to give a me that 'last mile' feeling would be a faderfox pc12 with 14bit midi / midi 2. In short, for me, analogue synths are not just the sound, but the tactile feel of playing with them. So gimmie lots of sensitive knobs to play with and I will be a happy man!
All this work just for ableton to release drift, which is designed to sound analog and get you there faster than wavetable.
amazing tutorial regardless. Very deep understanding of synthesis demonstrated here.
One thing that I find really contributes to the "analog" sound are the waveforms itself. Since they're synthesized with circuitry, they have a certain sound or warmness to it, I sampled my SE-02's waves for use in Serum and it already makes a huge difference for emulating an analog sound in software, even without all the modulation. Still, great video!
Amazing tutorial
i have been using ableton for years and this video gives me what i need to know about those acronyms on drive choices lmao
Great vid!
incredible vid!!!!!
Analog is just imperfection, that's all there is to it
@phritz thanks for vid! Really cool lo-fi ish, analogu-ish patches! Would love to recreate them for myself.
I would like to add some words - I totally agree with everything in video, and nex step for analog emulation - is making an fx chain, that emulates analog sound path on circuit board. For example - you need to put an saturator for adding harmonics after the OSC makes sound, also, you need limiter at the end, to emulate analog clamping and cliping the sound, cause the limits of wire and analog output. And etc. I think, we need to make ultimate guide on how to emulate analog circuit in digital world.
Wake up babe, new phritz video
0:30 I noticed the same thing on my Reface Cs. It's a virtual analogue and when you modulate the oscillators pitch with a very slow, very subtle LFO it sounds much nicer!
Great digital sounds
I’m really I got recommended this video because I learned stuff and it was entertaining. 😊
Great 👍 video. I’ve subscribed.
Finally someone put it into video/words very well. I always thought of analogue gear in the modern age as kind of... Dumb. Unless you're a hardcore enthusiast and have the money, there's is NOTHING special about analogue except that it's prohibitively expensive.
Some nice sounds. A lot can absolutely be accomplished by way of understanding how to get "that sound", if that's your bag. For me it's not the only the sound(non-linearities) that keep me from selling of my gear. It is the way each of them inspire performance not only through control but also the quirky(non-linear) way those controls combined with human performance, make the sound respond (their personalities). That said, I will never part ways with my computer or my myriad of digital plugins (and a few synths) which also have their own personalities. Also, analog filters are Truly lovely in the way they respond to material via various ways of modulation(s). They have a "character" I can't get with Cytomic or U-he's awesome models, but again,... I love All synths. You don't need analog hardware but if you love synthesis, well,.. I absolutely highly recommend trying that wonderful drug and decide for Yourself ;)
this video is amazing. i wanna become friends with the wavetable matrix too.
the warmth of the pitch is not just a simple vibrato with a geometric shape at constant speed , but with random variations , it must be alive.
For pseudo analog synths one guy was suggest a LFO with a mix triangle shape + random S/H .
For the natural "drift" of the voice i have seen 3 S/H random wave at different speed , for a good natural variation.
We can do it with a Gauss Band modulation too.
When there is a good variation we can see on the specter slight variations of the level of high harmonics.
For a polyphonic synth the real trick, even on modern analog synths which are too straight , is the Voice Component, variations of parameters by voice : pitch, filter, envelope, etc.. where every voice act independently , at different speed.
For exmeple filter sweep instead of being synchronized for every voice, has different sweep speed for each voice, giving this organic sound we like.
And the overdrive is important in the sound of analog synths, it give them all the meat.
The best mono synths like the minimoog, etc.. have an over-driven sound.
nice sounds
beautiful.
That last sound was cool
Great tutorial - I adore the minimalist style so much, but please also consider dubbing in voice over to read the text on screen for future ones. As someone with dyslexia, this would make the tutorial a lot easier to consume and retain and is my main gripe with a lot of how-to videos online.
Thanks ! I learned something
Great content, but absolutely banging form.
I loved this!!!!!
To me it is really about having a hardware interface to contol everything. It just feels so much more playable and interactive to me to have a knob or a switch or a patchpoint for everything. I enjoy the opportunity for creativity and the ephemeral nature of having a sequence that goes away as soon as you unplug it, and a patch that is lost as soon as you take the cables out. I agree that in terms of sound for money digital is the way to go, but I don't think a software synth will ever feel the same as a desktop analog or emulation.
yo this needs soo much more exposure!
I currently own 4 analog synths (plus dx7): Juno106, 2 Prophets, Moog37. And I can say, that you are damn right. You just don't need it. I don't need it.
But I love them.