need help with synth layering

[dominic94]

Hey guys, all this week I am doing researches and still cant be comfortable with that. How do you layer your synths ? I know EQ is the most important thing, u must give its own frequency space for each layer of synth. But when I try it, I am always really not happy with the result. I spent whole week trying to do a layering job, but still havent made a nice layered synth. It really kills me, I feel bad about it. Please share your methods and techniques.
Thanks

 

[chopz makes beats]

you need to go into more detail here...

it's not too hard.. if bottom frequencies/bass is overlapping keep the most dominant one if that's your bassline if not cut them all out. on layers cut all the mud and blend them together. if a synth gets too thin sounding, or looses important frequencies because of cutting out low frequencies you can always saturate them a bit and that seems to work

 

[bandcoach]

if you are layering it is because you are looking to create a composite sound - layering is simply another word for orchestration, which means the fundamentals of orchestration need to be followed

if not doubling at pitch or the octave then use

• wide gaps between notes below E[sub]2[/sub]
  • gaps of a fourth or a 5th or larger down to E[sub]2[/sub], then
  • gaps of an octave or larger between notes below E[sub]1[/sub]
• smaller gaps between notes above E[sub]2[/sub] - 3rds and 2nds as well as larger gaps

this approach ensure that you remove the potential for harmonic clashing in the range where the beat frequencies stand out, and therefore limit the need to apply drastic eq to resolve an orchestration error



note on octave numbering
Middle C = MIDI note number 60 = C[sub]3[/sub] in most daws = C[sub]5[/sub] in fl and BiaB