Zonderling play with wavetable synthesis
Since making their debut in 2012, Dutch duo Zonderling have released on labels including Spinnin’ Records, Heldeep and Armada. For their Sample Challenge, Martijn Van Sonderen (also of Noisia) gets creative with wavetables.
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Martijn favours wavetable synthesis for his effort. Serum’s wavetable engine becomes the base of the melodic elements. To start, though, Martijn slices off the tail of the 808 kick sample and loops it to become a longer, tonal bass sound. He then uses a Disperser and FabFilter’s Pro-Q 3 to add weight and punch.
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Next Martijn creates chords, taking Serum’s wavetable engine and using the Open Up Your Eyes vocal loop as a sound source. He uses an LFO to modulate the wavetable position and an LPF on higher frequencies. A second wavetable osc sits on top, with four-voice unison applied and a randomised wavetable start point for movement/width. He tunes it down to sit at the correct pitch.
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Sidechained compression adds rhythmic movement to chords. They’re processed further with Serum’s built-in delay, all-pass filter, delay and phaser. The Synth Bassline loop is also used as a wavetable source to create the bass sound. This is processed with low-pass filtering, subtle distortion and EQ. Again, the wavetable position is modulated by an LFO to add a little movement.
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For the rest of his beat, Martijn arranges drum one-shots on Cubase’s timeline. As with the kick. He separates the transient and tail parts of the 909 Clap, adding processing to the tail using NI’s Guitar Rig and moving the transient to land just before the beat. This is joined by the 909 Closed, with a subtle pitch envelope applied to give it a ‘pedal’-like sound.
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To create an FX sound, Martijn slices the word ‘you’ out of a sample and adds ValhallaRoom reverb, ValhallaUberMod delay, some EQ and compression. Martijn slices small noise sections from the Vinyl Break loop, for character. The Agogo bell, Grillpan and Synth Ping one-shots are also used to add variety to the beat.
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For some final processing, Xfer Records OTT compressor is used on the main chords after the effects. FabFilter’s Pro-L limiter is placed on the master output too, for an extra finishing touch.