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If you have been making your own sounds for a while, I hope you can find some new insight in this article. After all, music production is like anything else: you’re either learning or your dying. A little bit dramatic but it’s certainly the tone I want to carry through to you, the reader. Let us check out a few ways you can improve your synthesis methods. First of all, let’s discuss depth. I’ve found that a great way to add depth and richness to a synth sound you are making is to use multiple oscillators and sound sources but to detune them against each other very slightly.

This can make a tremendous difference in the thickness of the sound and how it comes across to the listener. If you only had two oscillators to work with you could offset the second one by 5 cents, and the first by another 5 cents so the difference is measurable and obvious, yet subtle in its identification.

For even richer and thicker sounds – and I mean mega rich! – you could use more and more oscillators. On some virtual instruments and hardware devices you can use up to 99 oscillators and more, making for huge ensembles of detuned goodness. The way that this number of oscillators is offered is through unison mode, which, when switched on, allows the instrument to multiply the oscillator used by up to 99 or so, and gives you control over the detune range.

On some computers, using this many oscillators will put a heavy strain on system resources such as the CPU, so it is advised to keep an eye on the stats and if you incur a jittery operation or inconsistent clocking, to freeze some of the tracks (like this synth track) so your computer does not need to mathematically compute the different oscillators anymore.

Another way you can thicken up your sounds in a different way is to tune down one oscillator up to an octave beneath the main one. This makes the sound richer not only in sound range but also harmonically as you are basically using an octave of difference between the sounds. You don’t even need to use the same sounds; experiment and you will come across some great permutations. If you were to use a fifth (7 semitones) instead of the octave (12 semitones), you accomplish the classic fifth sound we hear in so many patches these days. I hope I’ve shed some light on making rich sounds for your music. There are many other ways you can spice up your patches and I hope this is the beginning of a journey for you. Best of luck.

Article written by John Gellei for BeatFuse: make your own beats and make hip hop beats are just some of the music and rap resources available on the site.