So you’ve had your synth for a while and programmed all the obvious sounds for it. Now you want to create entirely different sounds. I’m here to help you with that. I’ve been programming sounds for synthesizer companies and Sweetwater for over 25 years.
One of my first tricks for finding fresh sounds in a ROMpler (an insider’s word for a sample playback synthesizer that has its samples stored in ROM or Flash ROM) is to listen to each of the onboard sampled instruments and look for instrument keymaps that weren’t used to make a factory preset. It helps to print out the list of sampled instruments, which is either part of the downloadable owner’s manual or a downloadable data sheet. You might think that every sampled instrument available in a ROMpler would be showcased in a factory preset, but I find that there are often many unused instruments. Why? Because modern ROMplers often include the sampled instruments of previous keyboards and then add some more to the new model. The end result is that there can be more instruments than there are factory preset slots to play them. Grab some colored highlighters, and edit each factory program. Look at the sampled instruments that make up that preset, and highlight them in your printout. When you’re done, you’ll see all the samples that aren’t used in any of the factory presets. Take an existing preset that’s fairly plain, and dial in these unused instruments to replace the existing one. Save the ones that are interesting to user locations, and tweak them after you’ve collected them all.
Another favorite trick I use on ROMplers is to listen to each sampled instrument with its frequency (pitch) set both to extreme high and extreme low values. It’s amazing how many cool sounds can be found by slowing a sample down by many octaves until it sounds like barrels deep under water that are bumping into each other. Or it might sound like slow repeating clicks. When you find a magic combination of a sample and an extreme high or low pitch offset, give it a temporary name, and save it in the user bank.
Some ROMplers let you play sounds backward (sometimes called reverse). Again, go through all the interestingly complex sounds, and see what they sound like in reverse.
If your synth is based on waveshapes (sine, triangle, saw, square, pulse, noise), instead of samples, you can try some of these tricks. First, slow each of the waves to extremely low frequencies to see if they make interesting clicking patterns. Sweeping a resonant lowpass, bandpass, or highpass filter via an LFO, or envelope, or by hand using the mod wheel can create fresh soundscapes that can be enhanced with ping-pong delay or cavernous reverbs.
If your synth supports it, try modulating one oscillator with a different oscillator to get complex FM textures. Controlling the frequency of one of the oscillators with envelopes, LFOs, a mod wheel, or a pitch-bend wheel can create whole new worlds of sounds.
Starting with noise and shaping it with various filters and effects is another great way to find different presets. You can even create realistic whistles and female choirs by filtering noise with a highly resonant lowpass filter that’s tracking the keyboard 100%. You can add vibrato by modulating the filter’s cutoff frequency with an LFO.
If your synth has multiple layers and different types of filters, you can experiment with mixing three different sounds together — one with its highs reduced by a lowpass filter, another with its lows reduced with a highpass filter. And if your synth has one, use a bandpass filter to cut both the highs and lows, leaving you with only mid frequencies. Now, layer these three sounds together, and tweak the filter cutoff frequencies until you’ve created something new. Then add effects, and give it a name you can remember. If you keep applying these tricks, you’ll have a menagerie of fresh sounds in no time.