Layering Leads / Thick and powerful leads without compensating to much headroom

P

Producer2005

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I'm getting a little confused when layering leads, with that being said here is my scenario;

Ill write a supersaw lead in Sylenth with 4 Oscillators and 8 voices per Oscillator, all Oscillators detuned to about 11 O'Clock, and that aspect of the lead is sounding nice and thick, ill then open another instance of Sylenth and start cutting a Square lead through it with on 1 Oscillator with 8 voices with not to much detune for a cleaner sound and some pitch modulation to make it sound interesting, first question, the phase knobs in the Oscillator settings of Sylenth, its very hard to hear what this is actually doing, is it beneficial or should it be left untouched?

Another thing I've noticed is long/dark reverbs seem to help glue the sounds together well. Obviously adding reverb to the leads reduces the volume so i will make slight increases on the volume, now in FL Studio you can increase the volume firstly in the step sequencer area, you can increase the volume within the VST and you can increase the volume in the mixer for the channel you assign the VST to, which is the best volume to edit that will offer the best results, the set volume in the step sequencer area is user 78%, should that not be touched and is it set at 78% by default for a reason?

Another thing i have noticed is in the mixer is seems to be a peak controller for the volume, but when i run a DB meter on the channel it is telling me its higher than the reading of the peak meter on that channel, its very confusing in getting an accurate reading?

Now when i have all my layered leads mashed together i will cut the bass frequencies out through eq, is it best to manually eq the low end out or use a specialized filter plugin in, i feel safer using an eq for some reason?

I use the FL plugin stereo enhancer i think its called to try and widen the signal which does sound great specially when its opened right up and it almost sounds like a slight delay between the L&R however in the end the leads sound good layered but it doesnt hit hard and sound full and thick at the end of it all like i want it to, i have tried eqing in certain frequencies to try and beef but still not the desired result.

Another thing i was confused about is once i get all my layers together would it be wise to compress them together?

Do any of you have any tips, tricks or assistance you can offer for any of the mentioned issues? Its really puzzling me, i can provide an audio clip of what Im talking about later when i finish work if you like.
 
I'm getting a little confused when layering leads, with that being said here is my scenario;

Ill write a supersaw lead in Sylenth with 4 Oscillators and 8 voices per Oscillator, all Oscillators detuned to about 11 O'Clock, and that aspect of the lead is sounding nice and thick, ill then open another instance of Sylenth and start cutting a Square lead through it with on 1 Oscillator with 8 voices with not to much detune for a cleaner sound and some pitch modulation to make it sound interesting, first question, the phase knobs in the Oscillator settings of Sylenth, its very hard to hear what this is actually doing, is it beneficial or should it be left untouched?

don't know sylenth but i do know synthesis - a phase knob will shift the start position within the wavetable (the source for the waveform) forwards or backwards by a set amount - 12 o'clock is no shift, 7 o"clock is -180[sup]o[/sup], 5 o'clock is +180[sup]o[/sup] - the degree of shift is more interesting when considered across several voices - it can thicken the sound dramatically or weaken depending on the interaction between each voice

Another thing I've noticed is long/dark reverbs seem to help glue the sounds together well. Obviously adding reverb to the leads reduces the volume so i will make slight increases on the volume, now in FL Studio you can increase the volume firstly in the step sequencer area, you can increase the volume within the VST and you can increase the volume in the mixer for the channel you assign the VST to, which is the best volume to edit that will offer the best results, the set volume in the step sequencer area is user 78%, should that not be touched and is it set at 78% by default for a reason?

you can avoid this by using the reverb as a send fx and only returning the 100% wet signal - you keep your individual channels as they are and bring in as much of the the reverb as you need

when mixing however, you should always use the channel volume rather than vst or step sequencer levels - stops you moving the sound in multiple places and accidentally clipping your signal and not realising where the problem started - vst, step sequencer or mixer channel....

Another thing i have noticed is in the mixer is seems to be a peak controller for the volume, but when i run a DB meter on the channel it is telling me its higher than the reading of the peak meter on that channel, its very confusing in getting an accurate reading?

not sure what you mean here?

Now when i have all my layered leads mashed together i will cut the bass frequencies out through eq, is it best to manually eq the low end out or use a specialized filter plugin in, i feel safer using an eq for some reason?

either/or, both do the same job, just that a filter may do it better

I use the FL plugin stereo enhancer i think its called to try and widen the signal which does sound great specially when its opened right up and it almost sounds like a slight delay between the L&R however in the end the leads sound good layered but it doesnt hit hard and sound full and thick at the end of it all like i want it to, i have tried eqing in certain frequencies to try and beef but still not the desired result.

with the stereo enhancer put it onto the group channel rather than the master channel, see below and put it after the compressor, not before - fx sequence is important and in this case, as you are messing with relative volumes across the stereo spread, you don't want to undo the work by putting the compressor after it (which would flatten out the signal level differences)

you may need to add some dynamic control via a compressor - run it hot and use the compressor to bring the level back down - hard to know which settings as each situation is unique

Another thing i was confused about is once i get all my layers together would it be wise to compress them together?

see above - but if you are going to compress, do it lightly rather than heavy - set the threshold high and the ratio low - also do this via group channel rather than in the master channel

Do any of you have any tips, tricks or assistance you can offer for any of the mentioned issues? Its really puzzling me, i can provide an audio clip of what Im talking about later when i finish work if you like.

audio always helps, especially for each step of the process - i.e. what it sounds like with just the saws, just the square wave, the two together, results of eq, results of reverb, results of grouping, compressing
 
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