William Orbit - Barber’s Adagio for Strings
The mid-90s was all about the supersaw; an iconic sound, used on one of the most iconic dance tracks of the era, by William Orbit
> Step by step 2. Recreating William Orbit’s supersaw
1 Load your DAW and the ZebraCM onto a spare instrument channel. We’ll need to initialise the patch. Go to the display and menu at the top of the plugin, and select Init. This will also be a very loud patch, so reduce the master Volume to a value of 20 immediately.
2 As part of the initialised default, you should see a sawtooth wave already deployed to Osc1. To supersaw this, press the number 11, which appears within the Osc1 section. This adds a total of 11 aliased waveforms to the overall sound, emanating from Osc1.
3 As we’re going to make this sound exceptionally thick, we are going to perform the same routine, with Osc2. Click on the number 11, within the Osc2 section, and then move to the Volume pot, increasing its value to 100.
4 The art to creating the perfect supersaw is to detune it by the right amount. Too much and it will sound too wide, and too little, it will phase. Using the Detune pots within each oscillator section, set Osc1 to a value of +14, and Osc 2 to a value of -16.
5 In order to create that super bright 90s synth sound, we need to choose an appropriate filter type. We really like the LP Xcite filter; select this from the filter section dropdown menu. Once selected, adjust the Cutoff pot to a value of 115.
6 To maintain the brightness of our sound, while also instilling filter-based bite at the front of each trigger, we’ll use Env2 to subtly modulate the cutoff frequency of the filter. Use the preassigned Env2 pot, within the filter section, and set it to a value of 35.
7 Env1 is charged with controlling the amplitude/volume of our patch, but we can accentuate the overall effect by lessening the attack and lengthening the release. Adjust the Attack pot to a value of 24, then adjust the Release pot to 26.
8 Our patch is almost ready, but will be helped considerably by back-end effects. In the effects master section, on the bottom right of the plugin, doubleclick on both the Delay and Rev buttons. This activates them both by highlighting them in turquoise. You will then hear both effects when you play a note.
9 Finally, we will adjust the reverb setting; within the reverb section, adjust the Wet pot so that it is placed at a value of 20. Now just play some thick chords, or accentuated off beats, to get that classic 90s trance effect.