One thing you have probably heard is the “that sounds electronic, you should add some warmth to it.” Having a warm and analog sound is one of the aspects of making your mix sound pro.
To start, lets define Warmth:
Warmth comes from electronics and saints that have tubes in them. When you play the instrument, it always sounds different and has a variety because as the tubes, which is part of making the synth, warm up there are slight changes in the sounds. Warmth has come to refer to dynamic changes in your synth as well as a solid fill mid range that is not over driven in the highs. Warmth also refers to a natural and analog sound.
Now lets move on to techniques for warming it up.
Adding Analog sound to your Mix
Amp Modeling is one of the simple and amazing tricks is to add warmth. Programs like Live’s Amp, Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig. Also Wave’s does a good job with a their guitar plugins as well. Images below of those three programs.
Ideally you can actually send your music out of a cabinet and then record it with a microphone. That adds a really nice quality and “air” to it. If you can’t then these plug ins help. Giving just that touch of distortion will give your music a realistic touch.
Equalizing is another technique to give your synth a warmth. Cutting back the top end can add more mellowness. Also, using a low-pass filter with a resonant peak can add a nice touch. Adding a a hump or different strong Q cuts can make it sound unique as well.
Tape Distortion can be another cheap and rad effect. By taking your synth and running it through an 8 track, tape cassette, or even VCR you can add a nice warmth. Then run it back into your DAW. If you want to get more experimental you can even record at 1/2 speed and then record back in full speed and such. Will make really cool effects.
Reverb is also something that adds a nice quality. Using a good IR Reverb can give that realistic quality. I have also seen some nice gear emulations with IR as well. Here is a list of free IR library of gear emulation http://irlibrary.org/index.php?cat=amps_preamps
Layering techniques can also be used to fill out your sound. Take one synth and maybe another synth that has a more wispy top end, or deeper low and mix them together. I have a tutorial on Layering Drums, and the same concepts apply.
Final Touch with Compressing By adding a good compression to the mix, it will mellow out any frequencies that are hitting too hard and smooth out the sound. There are tons of ways to compress, so just play around with it. A golden rule to keep in mind is: If the gain reduction meter doesn’t return to zero several times a bar, you’re almost certainly using too much compression This means that the signal is being compressed all the time, and will probably sound squashed or flattened as a result. Try a higher threshold, and then higher ratio if it’s not doing enough.
Final Thoughts on Warming your Synth Sounds
By using a mixture of these techniques you can give your synths a much fuller and realistic sound. Remember at the end of the day, though, what sounds good is good. Don’t get too lost in what you can do, and just do the right amount to make it better and move on.
Enjoy the play!
