Making a Spacey Atmospheric Lead in NI Massive

This is a really nice sound to use in a downtempo, ambient, minimalistic or countless styles that require something a bit more atmospheric and unobtrusive.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNOn6afTrI[/youtube]

[aside title=”Nice & Mellow!“] Atmosphere and space are two simple elements that can go a long way in a song![/aside]
This sound begins with such a naturally beautiful and simple sound, you may be tempted to not go any further and just keep it there for your music, but if you want to add the space elements it isn’t much more work at all. Using three Color oscillators to generate the base sound if this synth, YouTube user cuttydragonhorn then adds a BandReject filter to create some softened  movement through modulating the cutoff with a stepper.

A sample & hold insert is then introduced to give it the noising space elements, and its pitch is modulated through an LFO. A little chorus effect is added to round this out a bit. And then the big change happens. The mode of OSC 2 is changed to Formant and the intensity is modulated through an LFO. It’s easy enough to leave this part out if it is too harsh for your project. You can achieve similar effects that are not quite as jarring by other means, like turning up some resonance or bringin in some controlled feedback. Just a couple ideas to toss out there for those of you who prefer more lo-fi and downtempo style ambient synths.

Cheers,
ΩhmLab