How To Make Soft, Smooth Sounds Like Owl City?

ericblobb

New member
Hi there I am very new to sound design and music production and I have one very big question. How do I make very smooth sounding, um, sounds? If you've ever listened to Owl City you can hear that in one of his songs Fireflies, there is a very nice lead that sounds punchy, and soft and really nice. I've looked on YouTube for tutorials on synthesizing, I have Sylenth1 by the way, and all they ever show you is how to make very metallic sounding sounds like groans or dance leads. And while those are still good and all, how the heck do I get a more smooth sound like Owl City? Is there a special effect or like a filter I have to use? And would it be possible in Sylenth1? If not, what other VST's and instruments would you recommend to a beginner? I use Ableton Live 9 by the way. Thanks.
 
Hiya there! By the looks of it I would say you're a beginner to making music. I'll just cut to the chase and tell you how to get soft, smooth, flowing, punchy but gentle sounding sounds, but be warned I have a problem with writing a lot so prepare to read.

Now this question in an abstract way of looking at it is like asking a painter how hard and lightly he presses on a paper with his paint brush, and the type of brush he's using. I know this might sound odd, but bare with me. Look at making sounds this way. You're sound is the paint, and the effects you apply to the sound is how you stroke and apply the paint to the paper (lightly or softly). So there you go, effects are really the core of creating soft sounds. I'll get into what type if effects you want in a little bit, but first Sylenth1.

Now I've never used Sylenth1, but I'm positive it already has effects built inside of it. Anything that modulates and manipulates a sound source can be considered an effect. Delay, Chorus, Reverb, EQ, Gating, White Noise, Bit Crushing, Frequency Filters, are all common effects within side virtual instruments. So on that note make sure you go through the manual or look up online the type of effects sylenth1 has, and what they do.

Now. You're going after very soft, and smooth flowing sounds. One that just makes you think of drifting off into a field of one million fire flies. Haha like that? Anyways there are many types of effects that you can use to "shape" a sound to make it sound more soft. Even if its a harsh sound, you can make it sound soft, even if its a soft sound, you can make it sound softer, or even harsher; and this is all done with effects. So I'll now list the types of effects I currently know that are common and can use to make 'soft' sounds.

They are: Reverb- Very important, this should be the first effect you should learn. Reverb is like the glue that puts your song together in a way. Think of reverb of being a room simulator. In real life you'll never hear a true natural sound cause you're always in space where sound waves bounce off of object. And this is the premisis of reverb. It simulates sounds inside a 'space'.

Delay- like reverb, very important you must learn.

Chorus + Flanger. Learn about chorus and flanger than phase your sound which can be used if you're looking so make a sound sound softer.

So I don't want to pour to many effects onto you since you're new so my advice is to learn the following that I gave you, and you'll be set to creating your soft sounds. Once you learn about these effects I'm sure you'll come across other ones like distortion (broad sense), harmonic excitation, amp simulators, Convoltion (think thats how its spelled) its like reverb, so on and so forth. Which can all be used in combonation to yield softer sounding sounds.

So it comes down to effects, and synthesis sorta has a little to do with it. All sounds are derived from square, pulse, sawtooth, trianlge, and sine waves. Triangle and sine waves I'd say sound more smooth than sawtooth and pulse, but the whole fact of building soft sounds from these types of waves is all up to you. Hope that helps and sorry about the length I have a problem with writing too much hahaha.

Cheers!
 
Hi there I am very new to sound design and music production and I have one very big question. How do I make very smooth sounding, um, sounds? If you've ever listened to Owl City you can hear that in one of his songs Fireflies, there is a very nice lead that sounds punchy, and soft and really nice. I've looked on YouTube for tutorials on synthesizing, I have Sylenth1 by the way, and all they ever show you is how to make very metallic sounding sounds like groans or dance leads. And while those are still good and all, how the heck do I get a more smooth sound like Owl City? Is there a special effect or like a filter I have to use? And would it be possible in Sylenth1? If not, what other VST's and instruments would you recommend to a beginner? I use Ableton Live 9 by the way. Thanks.

An audio example would help a lot.
 
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