Cover of "Reflections" by TWO LANES on the Waldorf Iridium Core synthesizer

[UltimateOutsidr]

Since late last year I've been working on a series of "one-synth challenge" tracks, where I try to use a single hardware synthesizer for everything except maybe drums or vocals (depending on the synth's capabilities). I've mostly been doing cover songs, because my main goal here is to develop my mixing/production skills so I can bring what I learn to my original compositions.

To date, all of my prior tracks have either been with vintage hardware, or with modern reproductions of vintage synths. This is the first one with a truly modern synthesizer, with so many features it's almost overwhelming.

While I am pretty happy with the results, I am always looking for ways to make my stuff sound more professional, as my long-term goal is to be able to have my stuff in playlists on Spotify/Apple Music, etc. I am not sure how to properly embed soundcloud or youtube video links here yet, but here's my attempt at posting both. The video includes some production notes and details about the synth.

SoundCloud:


YouTube:

 

[Bulls Hit]

Not familiar with the original. Quite a varied selection of sounds from 1 synth. Mix is good. Based on this I'd say you're well on the way to mastering the Waldorf!

 

[UltimateOutsidr]

Thanks!

 

[DM60]

I just purchased a UBX and starting to learn more about hardware synths. I like what you did here. More questions than comments. The tone at 7 seconds, which is carried throughout the song, sounded to me somewhat harsh for the composition. Same way for some of the lower parts. To my ears at least. That being said, if you were to change it, would you use EQ or would you tweak the filters, LFOs, voltage, more or just EQ it to your liking.

Many synths have these harsh tones, but the operator (it is a machine after all) has many tools to sculpt. Just curious of how you would approach the mix, from the source or post by EQ? Still thank that tone that starts at the beginning needs some smoothing out (unless that is the intended tone, then all bets are off ).

 

[Papanate]

Mix is good - the one by Two Lanes has more space and is muted in tone a bit more than yours - what did you use for drums?

 

[UltimateOutsidr]

Many synths have these harsh tones, but the operator (it is a machine after all) has many tools to sculpt. Just curious of how you would approach the mix, from the source or post by EQ? Still thank that tone that starts at the beginning needs some smoothing out (unless that is the intended tone, then all bets are off ).

I believe you're talking about the lead arp part that plays through the majority of the song, and I think the harshness you're referring to is the saturation I applied to that patch. The original song used saturation to give that part sort of a lo-fi feel. Since the purpose of this track, for me, was to learn how to program this synth I used the Iridium's built-in distortion effect for that part. This was actually the very first patch I programmed and recorded on the synth, and I will say that I don't care for the on-board saturation effect that much. It was either too subtle or too extreme; I couldn't get a decent mid-way sound on it. (In fact for the other patches I programmed I just used a third party plugin, Soundtoys Decapitator, for saturation instead.) But long story short; the saturation was intentional, but I felt a little limited by the specific effect I used to achieve it.

Anyway, regarding your question of how to tame harshness in a mix, this would be my approach:

1. Fix it at the source. If you're hearing frequencies you don't like in a part, try to root-cause the issue and see what you can do to mitigate it. (Like, in this case it was the saturation effect. So you could use a different effect or try to adjust the existing settings, or maybe even use a different patch altogether.)
2. If it's not something you're able to fix during tracking, then EQ/filter is the next step. Depending on the nature of the offending sound you can use notch EQs to surgically target certain frequencies, or filters to de-emphasize unnecessary portions of the signal. (For example, the kick sample I used had kind of an annoying mid-frequency rattle to it. I applied a low-pass filter to the kick to hide the rattle, and I ended up really liking the resulting sound; this wouldn't work for all kicks/tracks, but I liked the effect here.)
3. There's also a current trend in music production of using dynamic EQ plugins to tame harshness. Plugins like Oeksound soothe2 or the new Waves Curves Equator actively search for frequencies that exceed their traditional levels in a mix and push them back down. (There is some criticism of this approach- or at least of using it too often- because sometimes these specific frequencies are the things that give sounds their unique character, so constantly applying EQ like this can deprive a track of a signature sound.)

Mix is good - the one by Two Lanes has more space and is muted in tone a bit more than yours - what did you use for drums?

Most of the drums were samples that I sequenced in the Cubase 14 drum machine. To simulate the "wood blocks" sounds they used in a few passages of the original song I created a multi-sample patch in the Iridium of some rhythm bones and then just played random notes and applied a little delay to it.