80's Synthwave Tutorial Part 1 - Beats, Bass, Lead and Pads

Watch Part 2 Here: • 80's Synthwave Tutoria...
School of Synthesis tutor and Native Instruments specialist Tristan Malloch teaches us how to make Synthwave in this excellent 10 minute video made with Ableton Live and Carbon Electra. Here he makes beats, bass, pads / leads and uses techniques like sidechaining to create an authentic made in the 80's synthwave track. He pays particular attention to designing the sounds from scratch using basic and easy to understand synthesis. This process can be applied to any DAW or synth.

[@scottmcglynn1961]

Finallllllyyyyy found the sound I’ve been searching for! Thanks a bunch for walking through it!!

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

You are most welcome thanks for watching!

[@happyjessus]

Well done.. you just fit a whole genre in 10min. Hope you got some more of these tutorials!

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

Thanks for feedback, always - lots on the way.

[@peterpattern8117]

Thank you. Very nice sound, and easy to adapt to any soft synth really!

Excellent quick tutorial. You explain very well.

[@Kemosabi.]

Sounds great!

[@Hassan_Omer]

Thanks for the tutorial!!

[@Portekberm]

Thanks! Nice and straight forward

[@shan1392]

Thank you so much for showing us how to design the sounds from scratch as opposed to using presets. Very valuable tutorial. I'm only beginning to understand the power of sawtooth waves when it comes to synthwave production.

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

You're very welcome! Understanding basic synthesis is really important in a producers musical journey, there are many resources and starting with a simple synth is always best. Check out Carbon Electra it has a really good manual / tutorial step by step process in basic synthesis

[@volkermathes5355]

thank you for teaching

[@jmmusic013]

Thank you brilliant

[@DanieleIppolito]

awesooome! 😎

[@raymondleung6522]

You deserve more subs!

[@thestonedrummer6147]

Excellent video loving the bass

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

Appreciate it! Thanks for watching

[@honigtamara]

Thank you

[@alexdias3700]

great!!!!!

[@davidecarbonemusic]

Nice, wish I had of seen this before making a synthwave soundtrack for a major up and coming video game!!!

[@MikeMadari]

Davide, if my guess is correct, I’m going to lose my mind for all the right reasons!

[@MrLegendary0ne]

cyberpunk 2077?

[@scottmclennan9231]

Ticket to earth? Great game wicked banging soundtrack.

[@davidecarbonemusic]

@@scottmclennan9231 No its still in development but thank you we absolutely adore TTE and love that soundtrack!! 🙏

[@aaronmyrie]

Very well explained. Might nick this and use as a reference for my uni project :')

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Jorge.O85]

Thanks !! 👍

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

Thanks for watching!

[@brobocop8293]

this video would be more helpful if you did not just assume every one would be using carbon electra. i was following you perfectly on the bass patch with my matrixbrute right up until you added some arbitrary "modulation" ......WHAT modulation lol. LFO> filter ? i dont use that VST so i have no idea what the routing is .

[@ryancoulburn]

Thank you great video!. Please could you explain what the "Mod Envelope" control is actually doing, which you turned up slightly for your bass? I can't find any plugins in my software that have this parameter and i really feel like this control makes it sound more plucky, which is want I for my basses.

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

The Modulation Envelope (like LFO) is a modulation source assigned to destination, in this case (and most cases) it is assigned to the filter. This enables the filter to snap shut or open ups key press which generates a squelch or pluck sound. See the 'Making a Detroit Techno Chord' tutorial on this channel for a clearer explanation. Hope that helps.

[@1Tomaraya]

Thank you for a great video, alot of useful tips. Would it be possilbe to achieve the sidechain compression effect just by simply not playing the note or do you need the effect of the compressor ?

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

No you need the Sidechain effect which is effectively adding a shape to the note creating the rhythm you hear.

[@Wilkins325]

I was thinking the same thing. Like maybe playing "threes", but then i realized you cant do this and have the same effect. It sounds a little bit higher quality by sidechaining, and plus if you want to sidechain other things, its better to actually do the effect. You have greater control this way

[@rodthom86]

What kind of chords or chord progressions are used in this kind of music?

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

Check out Scaler 2 and the synth wave chord presets

[@flickeringscreens211]

probably 7th chords, as most old analog synths could only play 4 or 5 notes at once.

[@meeton2990]

I don't have carbon electra, what can I use instead? I've tried to use some other free vst's but I'm struggling a bit to recreate the sounds you are making

[@SchoolofSynthesis]

Really you could use any simple synth, Tristan isn't doing anything to advanced. Most likely use whatever comes with your DAW

[@StrikeAgainstMusic]

I'd recommend checking out Helm by Matt Tytel, it's free and has a lot of great modulation options

[@Fabregas200788]

very interesting why do I do all the same and got different pad sound thanks (not) for not showing the notes for pad

[@solomonramsa]

Where's the Lead sound? Idc, nice vid for sure

[@sabana7564]

Quick tips if using a vst like vital or serum, to get the same effect as his modulation, take an lfo and set the frequency to 1/2 and set the attack really low much like a pluck and assign it to the cutoff of your filter 1.

[@zetrel]

Or just use an envelope.

[@TerenceKearns]

"Side chain that we hear so much in synthwave..." They never used to use gratuitous pumping in the 80s. IMO it sounds out of place on the pads. Great little walkthrough tho :)

[@zealot8904]

He said synthwave not "80s music" Synthwave is not a 1 to 1 emulation of 80s music, it is an electronic music genre that uses 80s sounds with modern production techniques. Using heavy sidechaining is pretty common in Synthwave music.

[@tonyjones6256]

Nice tutorial but way too much side chaining for my tastes. Not sure there was much used in the early 80s though I wasn’t really listening out for it! Looking forward to the next part

[@DarkSideofSynth]

This amount of SC is a modern take. Not so much SC, if any, back in the '80s. An alternative, with a sort of 'cleaner', not so side-chainy, approach for the bassline would be to have the arp pattern skip the first 16th so that the kick is heard better but there's no ducking in the bass because there's no note there for the first 16th of each beat. Simpler, no resources needed ;)