The 9 O'Clock Synth (aka the Funky Electro Stab)

Welcome back to the Sound Synthesis Architect!

Today we are going to create a funky electro stab in Massive. I call this the 9 o’clock synth and you will soon see why. As always, this can also be created using other VSTs that offer the same or similar parameters.

This patch is going to use three signal generators, which are going to be the noise generator and two oscillators. The first oscillator will be set to square/saw with the wave table position all the way up which makes it a saw wave.  We’re also going to push the linear potentiometer on the right all the way up so that it’s being directed at filter one.

Next, turn on oscillator two, set it to square/saw with the wave table all the way down, and drop the pitch by an octave. Just like the first oscillator we are going to take the linear pot and drag it all the way up so that it’s routed to filter one. 

As a side note, I just found out a trick to make pitch changes easier. If you hold down Alt (I’m using a PC, this function may be different on Mac) while dragging to change pitch it automatically jumps by octave.

Then make sure that the noise generator is turned on and set to white noise. We’re going to raise the amp of the generator to about 12 o’clock and route that to filter one as well.

Now we’re going to head up to the filter section. The large linear pot on the left of the filters changes whether you want to route your filters in series, parallel, or series-parallel. We’re going to set this to series by dragging the pot all the way up. Next, set filter one to lowpass 2 (12 dB filter), turn the cutoff all the way down, and set the resonance to a little past 9 o’clock. Filter two is going to be set to lowpass 4 (24 dB filter), drag the cutoff pot all the way down, set the resonance pot to a little past 9 o’clock, and turn the linear pot to the right all the way up. The last thing we want to do to the filters is to take the mix stage (the large linear pot to the right) and drag it all the way down to mix 2.

Next we’re going to make some adjustments to the parameters of the amp envelope so click on envelope 4 (this should be default routed to the amp). Set the attack pot to a little past 9 o’clock and the release to about 10 o’clock.

We’re going to control all of our filters using envelope 1 so the first thing we want to do is go to envelope 1 and bring the attack and the sustain (decay level) all the way down. We’re going to assign this envelope to the first modulation slot of the cutoff of both filters as well as the amp of the noise generator. Set the range of the noise generator amp by clicking the modulation slot and dragging it all the way down. Next set the range of both filters by clicking the modulation slots and dragging them all the way up.

Lastly, we are going to set-up the effects channels. We are going to set FX1 to classic tube with the dry/wet and drive pots to about 9 o’clock. Next, set FX 2 to reverb with the dry/wet and size set to about 9 o’clock.

Now you should have a great funky electro sound for your next project. If you have access to Massive I have provided the patch below. Thanks for reading!

9 O'Clock Synth

Happy synthesizing!