5 Advanced Sound Design Tips

Mastered the fundamentals and want to step your synth sound design up a notch? These are the tips we lean on when a patch is nearly there but not quite.

The synth manual

Yes, this is an advanced technique! Many manuals go into detail about their synthesis methods, design and functions, which can be overwhelming for new synth users. We seriously recommend giving the synth manual some time. Did you realise u-he Diva has a function that outputs the mathematical product of two different modulation sources? And how would that influence the sound if you used it? It's little features like this that'll raise your synth game from good to godlike.

Noise as a feature

Often overlooked, noise can add useful harmonics to sounds, making them fuller, thicker and generally more pleasing. It has mix benefits too, filling out the mix without needing additional layers. White noise is ideal, and works well on short plucky sounds where it cuts through the filter for that warm, fuzzy pluck. Sometimes just a few notches on the dial is all that's needed. Our preset in the video below illustrates it perfectly. You don't hear it so much as feel it. Hmm, lovely stuff.

Get the sound: Diva - Current Trends Vol.1

Movement of sound

Movement adds variation, and variation keeps the ear interested. Use LFOs and other modulation sources to bring in changes in pitch, filter, pan and more. In some synths, such as Xfer Serum (we don't sell Serum itself, but we do make packs for it), almost any parameter can be modulated, from the subtle to the mind-bending. Try applying low to medium rate LFO pitch modulation to one oscillator in very small amounts. You can hear this in subtle action on the main square lead in the first video below, and at the extremes (high LFO rate and high depth) in the second.

Subtle LFO

Get the sound: Serum - Future Trance Vol.1

Extreme LFO

Get the sound: Repro5 - Outrun Vol.1

Mixer levels

It's common to enable a synth's additional oscillators and leave the levels where they are. Instead, enable additional oscillators with some really different tones, drop the volume to 0, then slowly bring it in until it adds a different quality to the sound. It's not about hearing that oscillator itself, it's about hearing the sum of the parts when it's combined with the rest of the sound, which can be quite different to the same oscillator at full volume.

Know your synth

This goes beyond reading the manual. It's about understanding your synth and using the features that are unique to it. Many synths, for example, don't include oscillator hard sync. Use the unique features, because they'll get you sounds that are difficult to reproduce on other synths. You'll then start to hone in on "your sound" and have everyone wondering "how can I sound like that!?"

If you want to dig into what makes different synths tick, our guide to the different synthesis types is a good next stop.