I like to make trancey/atmospheric music and am wondering what you need for a synth sound to become 'alive'. I find really nice sounds from my Korg synth, but they sound really 'keyboardy', and machine‑like. What effects do people use to make their keyboards sound as though they're in a commercial track?
T Roberts
Assistant Editor Sam Inglis replies: Have you tried taking away, or editing, the built‑in effects on the Korg? (I don't know what model you have, but any workstation since the M1 will have some built‑in effects.) Most presets on modern synths are laden with reverb, which is fine for some sounds, but if every sound in a mix has lots of reverb it will all sound a bit distant and feeble. Try experimenting with the effects settings on different patches — for instance, bass sounds rarely benefit from reverb, so try taking it off, whereas trancey lead and pad sounds could work with quite a lot of reverb. Delays are also very useful for trancey sounds, and again, you should be able to set up a delay using the built‑in effects on your Korg.
If truth be told, there isn't any effect that you can magically slap on to a mix to make it sound 'alive' (if there was, everyone would be using it...) and outboard processors are mainly more sophisticated versions of the effects that are built into modern workstations.
SOS Contributor Chris Carter adds: As you have discovered, it is all too easy to produce monotonous and uninspired electronic tracks. Your problems may not be entirely attributable to the right or wrong type of effect: what you could be lacking is dynamics, expression and movement. Your Korg synth will probably have all the usual performance controls, so as a starting point edit the synth presets so that you can give them a unique character as you play. Assign any real‑time controllers to parameters such as filter frequency, volume level, effect balance and envelope attack/decay, and use these controllers to modify the sound while you're playing. For instance, move the mod wheel, pitch‑bend wheel/lever or front‑panel knob controllers, or employ keyboard aftertouch, to slowly change filter brightness or patch volume. Try adjusting the envelope attack as you play, for less or more emphasis, and shorten the decay of pad sounds to temporarily accentuate echo or reverb effects. Use keyboard velocity to control effect level — so that harder/softer playing causes more/less effect to be applied.
Chorus effects work well for some trance and atmospheric music. Use one of your realtime controllers to change chorus speed and depth as you play. Changing from a very slow and deep to a slightly faster but shallower chorus works well. For less repetitive arpeggiator patterns, try including or taking away notes while modifying the patch with real‑time controllers. Longer or softer sounds with reverb suit patterns with fewer notes, while shorter, harder sounds with delay applied can play patterns with more notes.