Derek Sherinian Monster Lead

Categorized | Lead Sculpting, Tutorials

Posted on 17 September 2005 by Luca Capozzi

In this lesson we will speak about how to recreate famous Derek Sherinian Monster Lead on your synthesizer. Even if the lesson is based on Korg Triton/Karma series, the concepts explained can be applied on every modern synthesizer.

In this thread we will speak about how to obtain a Wah lead (famous for Derek Sherinan Monster Lead) for Korg Triton/Karma. This topic will be also “axiomized” for apply the tips i found tweaking to all “general” synth.
So thanx to “uncle” Axiom in advance.

NOTE:
When you see quotes in this color, are Axiom’s notes to original author’s writing. Check them out for all general programming hints for non-Korg boards.

DISCLAIMER:
The following material is the totality of some tips and ideas i’ve found “tweaking” in order to make MY OWN wah lead sound. (You can find the Whaster F@B lead in the Korg Patches Area). Anyway i didnt invented nothing new…

Lets Go.

What do you need for this lead sound.

- 2 oscillators (featuring a saw wave and a pulse wave possibly at 33%)
- an extra program with a sine wave that will act as feedback sound
- 2 filters
- 2 amps
- 2 lfo
- HEAVY EFFECTS. (flanger,phaser,hyper overdrive,delay)

[BASIC]

Oscillator Mode: Double
Voice Assign Mode: Mono
Enable the “Legato” option and set “Priority”: last

OSC1: high rom 264 “Saw-MG3″ at Octave: -1 [16']
OSC2: high rom 270 “Pulse-33%” at Octave: -1 [16']

For Both Oscillators:
Level: 127
Transpose: +00
Tune: +0000
Delay: 0000ms

[PITCH]

JS (+X): +12
JS (-X): -24
Set that values only if you want to make some crazy bendings and slide…

Tip: for some rock effect gradually put up (+Y) for “wah2 doing contemporary a (-X) bending. SHOWTIME! LISTEN TO THIS MP3

The Feedback layer
If you want to give your lead an extra, add a feedback layer using another program (or another layer) with an unflitered sine wave tuned one octave above (Coarse pitch +12). Go to Amp page of your synth and put the level of this sound to minimum. After that select a controller for Amp Level and choose aftertouch. Tweak with modificator amount to find a suitable level.
Now do the opposite on oscillators created before. Go on Amp page, set Aftertouch as controller but put a negative value for that.

Example:
Osc 1 Amp Level: 99
Osc 1 Amp Level Controller: Aftertouch
Osc 1 Amp Level Controller Value: -99

Osc 2: Same as Osc 1

Sine Amp Level: 00
Sine Amp Level Controller: Aftertouch
Sine Amp Level Controller Value: 80

In this way we will do a crossfading between the main sound (Osc1+2) and the feedback sound (sine wave).
Please note that those values are only for example purpose. Check your synth owner’s manual to know how to assign a controller to a parameter.

[BREAK]

[FILTERS]

Filter 1
Type: Low Pass Resonance
Trim: 99
Frequency: 40
Resonance: 05

EG:
S:+00 A:+99 B:+99 S:+99 R:+00
A:+00 D:+99 S:+99 R:+00

Filter 2
Type: Low Pass Resonance
Trim: 99
Frequency: 90
Resonance: 00

EG:
S:+05 A:+00 B:+10 S:+00 R:+05
A: +00 D:+05 S:+00 R:+05

Fig. 1 - Oscillators and Filters

Note: Please note that each column in Fig. 1 stands for a single voice/program/layer of your board. If your synth doesn’t let you use two separate voices with two separate filters, do different programs that you will package in a combi/setup/performance later.

Tip: To have a good response everywhere on the keyboard you’ll have to work on the Keytracking (here the values for the Trion’s series: Key Low F4, Key High C1)

[AMPS]

-Amp1:

Level: 100
Pan: C064
AMS:Note No.
Intensity: +00
Amp Mod: Velocity Int: +35

EG:
S:+00 A:+99 B:+90 S:+99
A:+00 D:+99 S:+99 R:+01

-Amp2:
Basically put the same values of amp1…try to change slowly the values to give your “own” touch…

Fig. 2 - ADSR Amp Envelope

[LFO]

Select a basic Triangle waveform and set the cutoff/frequency at 60/70,no offset. Fade on 0 and Delay on 0.
The first control on the frequency modulation must be : Note Number and the second to JS+Y.

At this point, without effects your patch will sounds like this one.

[BREAK]

[EFFECTS]

Okay, here comes the huge work…
Your effect chain must be something like this:

flanger -> phaser -> hyper overdrive/wah -> pitch shift modulator -> phaser -> delay ->>> master EQ gain[db]

Note:
If your synth don’t let you use an effects chain like this one, you have to use a filter trick to achive a wah sound. If you can put two filters in series on a program, add a resonant bandpass filter with a CutOff of 220Hz. Assign a physical controller (Mod Wheel, Joystick and so on) to its CutOff and find a suitable value. On your effects page, then, add a distortion. If you can only use one filter per program, change them from Lowpass to Bandpass. Set their Resonance high, but not higher. Remember to don’t apply any filter to feedback layer.

On the Triton’s series we will use the IFX for the 4 first effects.

[IFX]

1) 020 St.Flanger