Dubstep with FM8 Part 4: The Sequenced Lead Fill

With a music genre like dubstep, there are often times many sounds competing for the title of lead and/or bass. In fact, I feel that dubstep is a great example of audio ADHD in some ways. And when it comes time to begin breaking down the different sounds and elements that make up the lead, for instance, opportunities arise for providing names for them. This lesson is all about how to design and program a sequenced lead fill element. This programming of this kind of sound is approached similarly to how you would approach a drum or percussion fill in music in other genres. So the sound needs to be easily controlled and should develop and resolve pretty quickly, so it does not overstep or overpower. Let’s take a quick look at how this is accomplished.

Before we dive head first into this last lesson in the series, I hope many of you have taken the time to let Jonny know how he has helped you with FM8 and provide him with some feedback. This is all a lobor of love for us, and we always appreciate hearing from the community.

This sound starts out with Operator F working as our main carrier with Operators C-E acting as modulators to Operator F. Operator F is then routed through the filter (Operator Z) before it hit the main output strip. Some addition modulation and feedback routing is et up to fatten the sound up a bit. And some noise is added to Operator F via Operator X, which is the Noise and Saturation unit in FM8.

The total number of unison voices is increased to five, which are detuned and panned to generate some serious width. The synth is also set to run in Monophonic mode and some Digital quality is added to the sound before we leave the Master window. In the Effects window, a Peak EQ unit is used to accentuate the high-mid frequencies and a Reverb unit provides our sound sound with more room to develop in. And a touch of Chorus/Delay is used to thicken up the sound and add just a little movement. A small amount of vibrato is added via the Mod window before we move on to set up the envelopes.

Now to sequence this sound! This is done by setting up the operator envelopes with rhythmic curves that fit the music it will be used for. Make sure that you have Temp Sync turned on for all of the envelopes, as well as the Link feature. This way all of the envelopes will be identical and will help to ensure an even and consistent delivery of sound. Once you have a pattern you like, it is ready to add to your project!

Cheers,
OhmLab