Best synth for dub chords (dub techno)

The Lounge Other Gear
#42

It’s worth exploring opening out the chords, and using inversions, too.

Rather than playing 3-5 notes of your chords roughly a 3rd-4th apart, spread them out. Play the root note, the 5th, the (minor)3rd, and the 7th (or 9th). Having the 3rd or 5th of the chord as the lowest note played (forcing one of the others to be the highest) does nice things to the perception of the harmony.

(Those of you with better music theory than me probably find this description too simplistic. Sorry!)

Another great tool for interesting tone is to split the chords between two sounds, or different wave shapes per note (when you have mutliple oscilators).

16 Likes
#43

Don’t apologise, this is great!
Has me thinking about how sample chains of different dub chords could be produced with a MIDI clip going through the sort of changes you touch on…hmmm!

1 Like
#44

I´m not into Dub a lot, but the Chord function of
my new Dreadbox Nymphes is really great for that.
I´ll dedicate a full bank for just chord stuff.
7 presets with seven custom chords each !
Any chord can be set, also inverted ones.

3 Likes
#45

LOL.
“I need a box just for Dub Chords I don’t like these ones”
Spends $1700

7 Likes
#46

Well, at least they have a reason. I spent ££cough on a couple of synths last year just because they seemed cool, and on one because it reminded me of “my first synth”. Now I have three epic monos and little talent or time.

Perhaps I should offer to make some dub chords for a small fee. What key are we in…?

8 Likes
#47

Yeah this is what I bought mine for. I’ve heard some good ones out of the opsix as well.

1 Like
#48

I think I will make a choice on it.
With good external reverb and delay it should be awesome.

#49

yeah man, all this stuff is really fun with the 106. Slam all the frequencies into the filter (I even add a little noise), gate for a really tight cutoff and then I add chorus and sample it.

After that I go nuts with effects, filters…etc. I find this to be really fun just throwing the sample into a drum machine like the RYTM which collapses it to mono and then using the stereo verb and delay on the box to bring it back. Can get some awesome things happening.

1 Like
#50

Digitone isn’t a good fit for use? 8 poly, polyphonic unison… crazy modulation… sound design from creamy analog to sharp digital… :man_shrugging: Sounds about right to me.

2 Likes
#51

100% sound design will only get you so far.

My friend made an awesome free sample/midi pack with a great description of various rootless chords. Highly recommended!

6 Likes
#52

The synth should play polyphonic and has plenty of filtering options, like serial or parallel and a notch-filter. If you’re looking for a one-stop solution without adding a big pedal board you either need a super flexible sequencer or a synth with build in fx.

I’d vote for my trusted Virus Ti, but also for the Digitone and A4. Peak also fits that bill or the newer Nord Leads.

#53

As you’ve been asking explicitly for wavetable, I find the modwave quite convincing (in the video starting at 12:31):

Generally I found the megafm most convincing for this genre. Korg opsix is also great but as far as I’ve understood, you don’t like another FM synth.

One last thought: FM synths, equally as analogue synths, can have a very different sound character. MEGAfm, Korg opsix and digitone sound quite different and each of them has its pros and cons. So I wouldn’t discard other options just because they share a similar synthesis method and you already own one.

And one more thing: Why not sticking with the digitone? It’s also capable of doing some great dub chords.

#54

After playing with the Subharmonicon a bit more tonight, I’m thinking it would be a great candidate for this. Add a Night Sky, and a good delay….

1 Like
#55

Very nice step by step sound design walk through. It is not the synth, but the processing that makes the difference…

3 Likes
#56

The Digitone is great for dub chords imo.

11 Likes
#57

regarding the Mega FM:

I´m just a little scared that the Mega FM alsways sounds so chrunchy / noisy … because this is not what I alsways would wanted.

Other then that … seems like great for dub chords

2 Likes
#58

Argon8

2 Likes
#59

This is fantastic!

1 Like
#60

Digitone for dub is very good and I’m using but I want some additional module with 1 channel in which I add external delay and reverb, since there is no individual output and I’m a bit tired from fm algorithms

1 Like
#61

Skip internal FX. Pan T1 hard left and T2 hard right with fx send to 0. Now you have a multitimbral poly with 2 mono outputs to route thru any chain of external FX you prefer. Doesn’t solve the FM tiredness though.