Oxygène-style pads

Every synth fan knows the iconic album Oxygène, by Jean-Michel Jarre. We recreate those beautiful synthetic string and pad sounds here…

> Step by step 2. Create Jarre-like sounds with UVI String Machines 2

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For our Classic string machine/organ strings patch, we’ll use UVI’s String Machines 2 suite Workstation plugin to host it. Don’t have it? Try using examples from within your DAW-based sampler, to provide a suitable starting point. Anything from a classic string machine will do. 2

With homage to JMJ himself, we’re going to use a sample from the Eminent K150. You can also try other String Machine samples from within the UVI library, but we’re keeping it authentic. In light of this, we will also only use a single oscillator for our sound. 3

String Machines 2 is equipped with some great effects; but we’ll recreate these classic effects using our DAW. Click the effects tab, and ensure all Workstation effects are bypassed. You may also need to visit the main FX page, in the Edit tab’s GUI, to disable Delay and Sparkverb. 4

Next, click back on the Edit tab; note that our Eminent string sound is available on Oscillator one. If you want to change this sample, now is the time to do it, from the dropdown menu located in the graphic. We’re going to stick with our eminent K150 sample for now. 5

To mimic the relatively slow moving string pad sound, we’ll make some alterations to the amplitude ADSR envelope. Adjust the Attack fader to a halfway point, and do the same with the Release fader. You may need to adjust these further, to suit the track. 6

We now need to apply some effects. In your DAW, add three chorus plugins to your String Machine channel. To keep things simple while making your settings, keep all three plugin windows open, to adjust them while you audition your sound. Use any DAW-based chorus plugin.

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We’ll set different chorus rates on each of our three plugins. Set the first rate to 1.5Hz, the second to 0.3Hz and the final to 0.7Hz. Keep the intensity to around 10%, with a wet-dry mix blend of 50%, so we’re hearing equal amounts of the original signal and the plugins. 8

Now we can add a phaser; add this to your effects chain after the three choruses. If you have the ability to change the number of stages on the phaser, set it to 6, while opening up the bandwidth to between around 100Hz and 6200Hz. We also need to slow the LFO rate to something approaching 0.1Hz. 9

Lastly, adding a heavy reverb, with a long reverb tail, will really add to the character. We liked using a Synth Hall setting, from Logic’s own ChromaVerb, with a long decay time of five seconds. Add around 50-60% of wetness to the signal. Now play some slow-moving triads, for evocative ambient music!