Need help on warm pad/soft strings
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Posted on Sep 09, 2013 07:27 am
Bharathram
Member Since: Oct 11, 2011
Hi
Its been very long time since I posted any topic on this forum. I have a very important and desparate requirement. I am looking for a background synth pad which sounds exactly like the one posted in the below AR Rahman's song. This is one of the oldest songs of AR Rahman and he uses these background pads to add soul to many of his songs. It has almost become AR Rahman's tradmark background pad these days.
I have explored a lot of synths (VST's) but I am unable to get this timbre/sound out however hard I try.Need your guidance on helping me in this. The pads start at 0.04 in the below youtube link and continues to flow throughout the song. You can hear it clearly again at 4.16
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J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Sep 10, 2013 04:47 am Well, I'm not exactly an expert synthesist, but I would start by doing some research, and see if you can dig up info on exactly what synthesizers he used at the time those songs were recorded.
Then I'd do some further research, and figure out which VSTi synths are the closest in architecture to the synths he used. Depending on what he actually used to record, there may not be a soft-synth that emulates it perfectly. But you might be able to get close.
Once that's figured out, it will probably take a lot of playing and fine tuning to get to that desired sound, and I'm not sure where I'd start. I can tell it is a very thick and lush pad sound, so layering a couple different VSTi soft synths to thicken the sound might work, or at least help. I don't think a single soft synth will be enough unless it has some serious unison/voice power.
If you know or find out what synth he used, and you have the funds for it, you might be able to track one down on e-bay, but depending on the vintage and model, it could be very cheap, or very expensive.
Also, as in any recorded/produced music, there may be additional effects and processing layered on top of the synth sounds to give it that ethereal and lush quality.
Wish I could help more, but I'm not so good at emulating or recreating existing synth sounds.
Good luck!
Sep 10, 2013 07:19 am The problem is that these songs are quite old and come from the era when these type of pads are almost unknown to anybody in Indian music. Hence I am unable to get any info through research. As you said, I think I will have to start expermenting and fine tuning with the synths I have, so that I can get atleast closer to it.
cooloFrisco's Most UnderratedMember
Since: Jan 28, 2003
Sep 11, 2013 12:28 pm I really like AR Rahman's breakdowns. That bass he uses in the breakdown is awesome too.
It sounds like there is some cathedral style reverb added to the pads to expand the sound. And I'm pretty sure there are layered pads playing at different notes to give a pad harmony in the background. At least one of them sounds like a "strings" styled synth.
That's about the best I can do.
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Sep 11, 2013 06:39 pm Well, from what I gathered, it seems he used some Roland synths (XP series workstations?) and maybe a DX7 in his older works. In more recent stuff, he seems to be very fond of Korgs, and I've read that he uses the Triton quite a lot. Supposedly at some point he also used the M1, and the Karma.
You could try something like layering different soft synths like a couple instances of something like Tyrell Nexus 6, and maybe a DX7 clone of some sort to try to layer a few different pad-type sounds. I think the Nexus 6 is supposed to be similar to some of the older Roland style synths like the Juno, and it's a very good quality free synth designed by Urs Heckman of U-He. (known for the infamous Diva soft synth) The latest version is nice looking, and has some built-in fx as well. It's definitely one of my go-to synths.
The site is in German language, but the download links are at the bottom of page 3 before the comments.
www.amazona.de/amazona-de...r-tyrell-n6-v3/
As for Rahman himself, as was indicated in the links below, these days he uses a slew of soft-synths. Omnisphere, Spectrasonix stuff, and apparently carries a large sample library of old Akai and Roland sounds around with him.
In the above track, I think a strings style pad is definitely in use, but there's also a warmer ethereal kinda sound. Maybe a slow attack brass pad with a big Low-pass filter on it? Maybe some kind of low pass or maybe a band pass filter in use? Then there's also that kinda digital bell/chime/pluck kinda sound in front of the pad. I can't really describe the whole sound very accurately. But I definitely think it's a layered type of sound.
Anyway, here's what little I was able to dig up so far. Hope it helps:
www.gearslutz.com/board/e...ire-synths.html
www.orkut.com/Main#CommMs...06335&hl=en
Off topic: but the video kinda reminds me of a movie from my college days. I think it was "Monsoon Wedding." But that soundtrack was done by a Canadian composer, haha! :)
Sep 12, 2013 12:10 pm Thanks J-Bot . That was very helpful. thanks for doing such detailed research. I will try experimenting with these synths that you gave. I will try nexus and see how it fits. Is there any place where we can get presets of these older synths (Roland and DX7) etc.?
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Sep 12, 2013 07:02 pm By presets, do you mean samples? Or do you mean presets specifically for the nexus synth?
As for the first, I don't know, other than buying sample packs, but those usually need a sample player like Alchemy, or NI Kontakt, or whatever. I don't know how feasible that would be.
For presets for the nexus, there are a few downloadable packs on KVR. www.kvraudio.com/banks.ph...&order=date
There's also some here:
www.u-he.com/PatchLib/tyrelln6.html
I don't know if anything in those packs would be close to what you want. And I don't know of any roland/juno-specific preset packs. The nexus itself comes with quite a few presets as well. Of course, you can always try to design a sound from scratch, and that may take you in a new direction or get you in the ballpark.
Also, Tone2's firebird2 synth recently went free, and it used to be a good synth back in its day. I think it sold for about $60 or $70 USD. It's not as complex as ElectraX/Rayablaster/Saurus or the newer fancy synths by any means, but it has a good sound IMO, and it's a good synth/tool to have. I don't think it tries to emulate any particular hardware, though. It also comes with a solid number of presets.
www.tone2.com/html/firebi...thesizer_1.html
Sep 16, 2013 04:35 am Yes I meant the samples. Which is the best site to get quality samples for the vintage synths roland xp series, Dx7, korg triton etc. There are quite a few selling on ebay. But is there any trusted seller for this?
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Sep 17, 2013 08:18 pm I don't really know the best site to get good quality samples from. I'd have to do some searching around. I do know that there are very many sites out there that have samples, both free, and commercial.
For paid samples, you could try looking through the larger companies likee IK Multimedia, or Native Instruments, Camel Audio or EastWest. Of course, you would need their software to load in their libraries.
There are smaller independent groups that make samples, but half the time they make them for Kontakt. Which, if you own NI Kontakt, then that's probably not a problem. Problem is I just have the free player version, so any free 3rd party libraries I try out have a 15minute limit before having to relaunch the software. :P
So, best I can say, is hunt around and see if you can find something that will work. Google, and probably KVRAudio forums are your friends for this type of thing. Though, you have to be registered on KVR to use their forum search function, at least you used to be....don't know if they changed that.
Sep 20, 2013 11:01 pm J Bot . You were of immense help .. you know what. The pad that he is using in the background is from JV2080 vintage synth. I bought a samples from JV2080 and Xp80 based on your advice. I then searched through the pads library and found that one of them exactly matches the sounds he is using. Without your direction , I would not have explored these vintage synths...Thanks a lot
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Sep 22, 2013 10:04 pm Great! Glad the info was helpful!
Some of those old workhorse synthesizers were quite powerful instruments.
There's a nice site with a lot of info on many different vintage synths and what they were capable of doing. There are also some site and user ratings for each synth in their database. It's a good resource for looking up information on different makes and models of old synthesizers and some other info such as voice count and architecture.
www.vintagesynth.com
Sep 22, 2013 11:03 pm yes.. I have checked that site.. its very nice and has lot of info. The other site which I loved is synthmania.com. They have samples that you can listen to for most of the vintage synths. and if you are convinced you can buy it later.
