How to make more interesting lead synths

RuSty1

New member
I'm trying to improve my music and I've been listening to my music trying to figure out what ti improve. I've always struggled with making the drop or chorus of a song. I produce like trap electronic music, basically just electronic music at like 70-80 BPM.

To me an electronic drop consists of a sub bass, Drums and a lead synth (or synths). I guess my drums and sub bass are ok, they are not perfect but only practise will improve that. I understand how to get better at drum programming. But that lead synth. I can't wrap my head around how to make a good interesting lead synth.

I don't struggle with the other synths. Usually in the rest of the song I have multiple synths together like a might have a pluck then add some pads to give it some volume and fullness. Then I might add a melody in with a different kind of synth. I can do this well and I'm happy with the way it sounds as well.

I know you can layer a lead synth. So just layering synths like I do with the rest of the song won't work because then it wouldn't sound like a drop it would just sound like the rest of the song with a dancy drum beat and sub bass.

I enjoy sound design when its not frustrating like it is with lead synths. I have taken my time to learn what every single button and knob does in Serum. I have actually practised a lot of sound design. I know how to use both NI Massive and Serum to make sounds. But the one kind of sound I just can't make is lead synths.

I've tried googling, youtubing and researching the hell out of what a lead synth is and I've found nothing really. I've asked questions on here about how to make a lead synth but I still find myself in the same situation.

I listen to music that inspires me and I listen to the lead synth in the drop and I just cant tell how the hell they did that, how did they make it. I'm specifically talking about the high end of a synth.

The high end of my synths sound like shit. They are always too harsh, too sharp and too gritty. They have that kind of zzzzzzzzz sound aha. So I add some voices and detune it and then it sounds like white noise and it doesn't sound good. A classic example of what I'm talking about is like a saw wave. A saw wave by itself is super harsh (because it has all those upper harmonics). If you add like 8 voices to that and detune them, the top end sounds like just white noise or some kind of shhhhhhh
 
I would low pass the synth removing the harsh frequencies. Open up a song in your DAW and do some frequency analysis and see where they roll off their high end.
 
You might want to try Side chain compression first. Side chain the compressor to the big 808 kick so that the synth pumps with it. Then roll of some of the top frequencies with an EQ, don't cut too much out. You can try a saturator/distortion plugin to warm it up and control the type of grain you want to represented on the high end. You can mix the saturator plugin in parallel once you have dialed in the settings to your liking. "parallel" means to mix the wet/dry. Example: 50% wet / 50% dry, 30/70 and so on...
 
Sorry for the late reply, I've just done my Dj'd my first house party so I have been preparing for that all week.

Yeah I know what sidechain compression is and I've already tried rolling off the top frequencies and then warming the synth with a saturator. I also know what parallel processing is aha.

I've tried so hard on this and I'm not getting good results still. I might just revisit the basics of sound design and synthesis and go from there.

I'm also gonna try and analyse songs that I like as well.

Thanks guys.
 
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