Ozric Lead
by Carlo Castellano
In this tutorial I will explain how to recreate a lead sound I realized inspired by Ozric Tentacles sounds. Technically speaking, this lead is very simple to achive (is a sync-based lead) and do not require particular skills to program it. This lead can be extremely metallic and “spacey” but it requires realtime controls to play at it best.
For the creation of this lead sound I’ve used a VA, XioSynth from Novation
Ingredients
- 3 oscillators (even 2 are good enough)
- sync between oscillators
- a 4 pole (24db/Oct) Lowpass filter
- 1 LFO
- some realtime controls
- effects (delay, reverb, chorus)
Assembling
Let’s start setting our patch as monophonic with two oscillators in sync (1>2).
Oscillators
Set a sawtooth waveform for the first two oscillators and a square wave for the third. Even if not mandatory for the “core” of our lead, the third oscillator will add “width” which can raise the lead presence in a mix. Let’s tune the second oscillator 2 octaves and 6 semitones above the first, and tune the third one only by 4 cents.
Filter
Set up a classic 4 pole (24dB/Oct) Lowpass filter. At the beginning, we can set the filter full open (cutoff value to it max) and resonance just above an half. Set Velocity as filter cutoff controller so when you strike your keys harder the cutoff value decreases. It is important to not exceed with this parameter since while resonance value is kept low, you’ll not achive the classic “filter whistle” (self oscillation). We will see further how to assign realtime controls to both cutoff and resonance.
LFO
Let’s set 2nd oscillator pitch as LFO destination. As waveform set a sine or even a triangle and set LFO speed slightly above minimum. Now we have to set the “tricky” value, modulation depth wich will affect LFO modulation amount over the pich of our second oscillator. A good value may be just above the half of LFO maximum speed range, but I suggest to set is to suite your personal taste.
Controllers
Perhaps the most important section of this lead sound. You need 3 controllers of any kind, from classic modulation wheel to knobs or sliders. I have used a lot the XioSynth XY pad, very comfortable to modulate more parameter at once. Main parameters to assign are: filter cutoff, filter resonance and LFO speed. If you’ll use a spring loaded joystick, can be useful to assign filter cutoff to this last. Furthermore can be also useful to assign other controllers for the effect section. If you can’t tweak with them because, as example, your hands are both busy, I suggest to use (if available) aftertouch or foot pedals.
Effects
A good delay is the perfect solution for every lead. I suggest to set a delay with an average time with 2 or 3 repetitions. Now add a bit of reverb and chorus to “beef up” the final sound.
Final observations
Once done everything explained, you’ll achive a sound like this one:
It is important to find out parameter values even following your own taste for both LFO and filter. This is a lead sound which should be played tweaking a lot with controllers. It can sounds good even if played by an arpeggiator, in this way you’ll have at last one hand free to tweak knobs and other controls. To experiment other kind of timbres (less playable then this one) you can try to route LFO to the first oscillator pitch instead the second.
Enjoy.
