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[William E.]

Hey there,

I'm currently trying to reproduce the sound of the synth pad sound in "Compass" from the FEZ Original Soundtrack by Disasterpeace (comes in at about 0:40)
http://music.disasterpeace.com/track/compass

I know he mainly uses Native Instrument Massive as synth but I don't have that one. I'm currently trying to get that sound with the NI Photone from the Komplete Elements package which came with my sound card. Are there any (free/cheap) synth I might want to use to get that "Compass" sound for a pad?
Seems it has to be an easy waveform (square/sawtooth) with lots of reverb and a bitcrusher. Is there anything else I should try?

Thanks!

[dawid w. mika]

Hey William,

Beyond bitcrusher (mixed around 20-40% wet) and a huge reverbs, there are few other tricks that came to my mind.

More than one oscillator at the same moment. In both of them you should try to modulate the pitch just a tiny bit with a very slow lfo (it would be good to give each modulated parameter it's own independent lfo with different settings if possible with your synth of choice). In general try to modulate everything that comes to your mind and judge with your ear what makes sense, so... cutoff frequency, filter resonance, pitch, pitch, pitch, panning, settings of bitcrusher, etc.

Massive has some really nice randomization capabilities which can add a lots of life to your sound and I'm pretty sure that Distaster didn't forgot about this beautiful function. I never tried Photon, but if there's no randomization then replace it with lots of automation.

Remember about bitcrushing reverbs too

It's everything that comes to my tired mind (it's almost a midnight here in Poland), but I'll try to think on it more tomorrow.

Here are some nice free synths that I used before buying of Komplete: http://elektrostudio.ovh.org/?lang=en&PHPSESSID=8619b6baa66b9cc0538810773b6b4975

Good luck!

[ZackParrish]

I'm assuming this is the sound you wanted...
https://soundcloud.com/zack-parrish/fezactly

I know you don't have massive but with just about any type of oscillator synth you should be able to achieve the sound. Here's the massive preset for anyone that wants it.

http://zackparrish.com/fez_preset.zip

If you get a synth similar to massive I'll go grab the same one and try to replicate the sound on there, and then give you a howto guide so you can kind of figure it out on your own.

[pgil]

I just attempted creating that sound using the freebie TAL Noisemaker.  Here's the .fxp

Basically took a square wave with a long release and slowly mod the pitch with a LFO, then added a big reverb.  TAL's built-in reverb isn't great though, you could probably improve on it.

[Lauchsuppe]

I like Photone a lot and it is definitely suited for creating awesome pad sounds. However, it's probably a little ambitious for what you want to achieve; it took me a while to figure out what all those knobs do, at least. It's expansive.

I'd give pgils suggestion a shot. I used to use the TAL stuff a lot, too.

Also noteworthy imo is http://www.tweakbench.com/
His/Her vsts are a little dated, but perfectly suited for 8bit-ish stuff. Esp. the GUI design is great because it's simplistic and straightforward. It really helped me develop a feeling of how synthesizers work. For what you are looking for, I'd give triforce and ritual a shot - you have to make use of third party effects for reverb, saturation and and any non-lofi-enhancements tho.

If you got NI Elements I'm sure you got some version of Guitar Rig as well? If so, try adding an instance of that to your effects chain if you feel like experimenting. I'm not too familiar with it, but if I remember correctly, some of the effects (esp. in the reverbs and distortion sections) might add to the style you're going for.

[Polly]

Watch

.. if you haven't already.

[William E.]

Hey,

thank you all for your replies! This will be of great help.

I bitcrushed the reverb tail as diasterpeace suggested in that video, polly and dawid. I just watched that video again and read the blogpost on his site. The sound demo of zack is great. I think I just didn't used enough reverb. I'll try to go with the TAL Noisemaker + ValhallaVintageVerb + Bitcrusher von Ableton Live. Got to adjust the wet ratio indeed, used it 100% by now.
Lauchsuppe, I already have that small Guitar Rig version in NI Komplete Elements, yeah. It's a nice idea to experiment with that too!

Thank you all.
I also try to get back on the posts in my other thread about that composer circle. Cool to get so much feedback here so quickly!