Tips On Patch Creation

[SimonT]

Hi All!

Want tips on making my own patches.

Pads, Leads, Polysynths and Basses.

I know pads generally have a slower attack on a lot of them but is there any specific elements people would go for in these patch designs?

What would you listen / go for in a bass patch or a pad say?

I suppose for pads, it'd depend on what type of pad...moving pad, atmospheric, bell pad, bright pad etc.

Warm Pad on Subtractor is a nice pad. I've included a pic. It seems to be made with 2 sawtooth waves with a +5 and -5 cent adjustment. What would that detune give / add to the patch? It has a medium attack, no decay, high sustain and a long-ish release. There's no resonance and the filter cutoff is just under half way. If you open the cutoff the sound goes a lot more piercing if that's a good description and doesn't sound as nice. It definitely has that Juno kind of warm sound to it hence the name.

It was under Static pads. I'm assuming they called the patches there Static as opposed to moving.

Be interested to know what people do here.

Thanks!

 

[tomwolfe]

The best way to learn how to make patches is to do exactly what you're doing there - study other patches you like, and then try and recreate them from scratch, as well as changing parameters to tweak patches to fit in with what you're writing.

With the detune, this is a very common thing with pads as it basically fattens the pad sound up. If you want a thin pad sound, try reducing the detune, and then for fatter pads try increasing it. But as you say, pads generally have medium attack times and medium releases. Also don't forget to modulate the cutoff with an envelope as well as this helps to create movement.

There's a great book about synthesis sound design which helps explain a lot of what defines the character of various different sounds - Creating Sounds from Scratch by Andrea Pejrolo. Well worth checking out.