Dear all,
I would like to synthesize the sound of the synthesizer that comes in at 1:28 of “Today for U”, song of the musical Rent. It sounds very familiar, so I should know where it comes from, however I don’t.
RENT: Complete Musical - playlist by Jaideeee | Spotify
Anybody a suggestion how this is made and how I could produce this on Vital?
Many thanks for your help!
Joop
Hey Joop,
I just took just a quick listen, so won’t be doing a deep dive, but just giving general guidance
I assume you’re looking for the sound around 1:28 that’s would be dance synth stab type sound?
Actually, this sound really reminded me of the movie Space Jam haha, with its iconic dance synth stab.
Space Jam (around 20-30s in)
Anyway, sorry Nostalgia rushed back to me.
These type of sounds can be done in a few ways but often there are a couple fundamental ideas behind
First, this is usually made with saw waves, or super saws, usually a couple oscillators that are detuned from each other.
Second, and most important, is something that developed in the 80s and 90s synths: “Chord lock”
Often with one note it is pressing multiple octaves and usually a major fourth, or a fifth.
It’s the sound of the chord in a single press that make that distinctive sound.
Feel free to search anything like “space Jam synth”, dance synth stab, 80s synth stab, chord stab, house stab, etc. They are all a little different but come from the same idea
To do this in Vital, grab all three oscillators with saws, add some unison and detune (say 5-7 voices, with10-20% detune, whatever you like the sound of)
Now with each oscillator, first leave as is or make -12, make then next an octave higher, and the last make 19 or 15, you can play around here for the “chord” you want.
If this might be too much, just let me know I can try and link a quick tutorial for something that sounds close.
TL;DR: this sounds like a detunes super saw chord stab 
very famous in the 80s and 90s
Hi Larry,
I was was trying something with detuned saw waves, but I thought it became too sharp compared to the sound Today for you. The score (Musical is always written music) gives parallel fourth, so maybe I should program those and not play. I actually to not hear the score played in fourth. Tomorrow I’ll give it another try.
I also did make a sound based on noise and a resonator Iin Msoundfactory,…), not bad, but also not very much like the original…
Just tried it out, it is the unison that I was missing, now it’s going really in the right direction!
It is also rather critical how much you open the filter.
Thanks, nice discussion!
Nice Joop I was going to suggest some tasteful filtering or reverb/delay could be fun!
The nice thing is actually that it is a rather dry sound, so Unison, not too much,reverb, not too much and filter just to give it some sharpness, but absolutely not too much. Still tweaking!