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3. Synth processing with Redoptor, Antresol and Syntorus

1 When designing pads and chords, we traditionally add width, movement and modulation at the synthesis stage, before touching any processing; another approach is to synthesise a plain, thin synth sound then add character and motion via effects, and SilverLine plugins are ideal for this. Drop Backing Track.wav on an audio track in a new 110bpm project. 2 Load an instance of Dune CM (found in the CM Plugins folder), select Patch » Load Patch » PlainSquareChords.fxp, and load up PlainSquareChords.mid to trigger the synth. Turn the channel down to -8.5dB. These rather uninspiring synth chords feature only a single oscillator square wave with a touch of white noise mixed in for brightness – so far, so boring! 3 A touch of tube-style distortion will rough up the clean chords a little, subtly hinting that the sound may have been run through analogue hardware or generated with an analogue synth. To do this, load up Redoptor on Dune CM’s channel, call up its Guitar » Crystal Valve preset, then set the FX Dry/Wet knob to 25% Dry and the Output Volume to +2dB. 4 A flanger layers two copies of a signal, delays one by a small amount, then modulates that delay time, causing a distinctive, comb-filtering ‘whoosh’ effect. Let’s jazz up the pads with lush flanging: insert D16’s Antresol – an unofficial replica of the Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress flanger pedal – next in the plugin chain, then load up its Depth of Field preset. 5 Increasing the delay feedback will give our pad a more pronounced flanging effect. The left and right delays are linked by default; untoggle the Feedback Link to apply different values to them. Set the L/M Feedback to +30% and the R/S Feedback to -30%. We’re operating in L/R (left/right) mode, not M/S (mid/side), as the far left M/S Mode button isn’t toggled. 6 Experimentally stacking modulation effects can yield fascinating results. Load the Syntorus chorus after Toraverb and select its Gentle Smearing preset. Let’s finish the sound with a pumping sidechain effect. Add SC Trigger.wav to a new track, set its output as ‘no output’ or ‘sends only’, and use this signal to trigger a sidechainable compressor on the chords.