Layered synthesis with Operator

Ableton’s built-in FM synth is a surprisingly great tool for LA-style pad synthesis

Despite its focus on FM and additive synthesis, Ableton Operator is actually a fantastic tool for creating LA-style layered pads. The key is to select the algorithm with two independent carriers (A and B) for the pad and a combined carrier/modulator (C and D) for creating the transient layer.

Since Operator has independent envelopes for every oscillator/operator, you can set up oscs A and B with identical pad-like envelopes, with a medium attack and longer release. Since we need to keep the filter off to retain transient frequencies, use the Saw 4 waveform, which only contains the first four harmonics.

Detuning a pair of oscillators within Operator is a little bit more convoluted than other synths. Because the Coarse tuning is incremented by harmonic and the Fine tuning is positive-only, adjusting the sawtooths requires setting B to the first harmonic and offsetting Fine by 2, then setting A to 0.5 and offsetting Fine by 998.

The transient layer is created with the FM pair. For both Operators (C and D), configure the envelopes with immediate attacks and quick decays. For D – the modulator – experiment with a slightly shorter decay for a more realistic mallet sound.

To give the transient a more acoustic flavour, set its coarse tuning to a harmonic between 4 and 10, then offset the Fine tuning to some degree. This will add inharmonic sidebands that give the mallet a suitably organic sound. Here, the exact setting is a matter of personal taste.

Once you’ve got a layered mallet/pad sound happening, you’ll need to add the standard set of LA effects: chorus and reverb. These can be adjusted to taste, but a really wet sound will get you closer to the character of D-50 patches like ‘Fantasia’ and ‘Future Pad’.