Synths & Sound Design

Tutorial | Jun 17, 2015 by Sara Simms

Want to make big, fat layered lead synth sounds? Sara Simms takes you through the process using Sylenth in the DAW of your choice. Perfect for beginners and more intermediate producers and musicians.

Tutorial | Jun 15, 2015 by Joe Albano

Become a master of distortion, and better still, the distortion effects plug-ins you'll find in the box with Avid's Pro Tools! Joe Albano gives you a tour of these with audio examples to boot.

Tutorial | Jun 09, 2015 by G.W. Childs IV

If you own Ableton Live don't rummage around 3rd-party plug-ins for beautiful sounding pads. Instead, look inside... Inside Ableton, that is! Using Analog, GW Childs shows how big your pads can be.

Tutorial | May 30, 2015 by Sara Simms

Thanks to the tools available and their affordable price tags, there's never been a better time to produce music. Sara Simms shares 8 tips for new & veteran producers to get the music flowing.

Tutorial | May 29, 2015 by Lynda Arnold

Don't think of pads as fillers in your tracks. With some creative techniques in any DAW you can transform pads from drones into highly interesting and evolving musical parts.

Tutorial | May 28, 2015 by Rounik Sethi

Fancy learning how to create unique filter processed drums using Reason’s Synthetic Rig? The Filter Pattern rack is incredibly usable as Mo Volans shows in this video tutorial.

Tutorial | May 23, 2015 by Rishabh Rajan

This tutorial on making a dark, brooding pad is taken from Rishabh Rajan's FREE interactive eBook: NI Massive Sound Design Recipes available for iPad, iPhone, Mac, Android and PC.

Tutorial | May 21, 2015 by Matt Cellitti

Along with the new effects and instruments in Komplete Select that come bundles with the Maschine 2.3 update are tons of tips and tricks you can employ in your productions. Here's 4 awesome ones!

Tutorial | May 20, 2015 by G.W. Childs IV

G. W. Childs delves into the dark side (not really...) of Propellerhead Reason and uncovers how Redrum can actually be used to create melodic sounds and phrases.

Tutorial | May 18, 2015 by Peter Schwartz

When mixing your next project (especially orchestral) spare a thought for your audience. Using pre-fader sends, Peter Schwartz shows how to simulate how sounds will be perceived.

Tutorial | May 17, 2015 by Joe Albano

If you're looking to re-create an acoustic instrument or vintage synth/drum machine in software, sample-based instruments will only take you so far. Joe Albano explores modelling instruments in depth.

Tutorial | May 13, 2015 by G.W. Childs IV

Your Korg volca keys can easily make short techno stabs and blippy synth sounds, but it can do more too. G. W. Childs demonstrates how to create pads and strings using this powerful hardware synth.

Tutorial | Apr 30, 2015 by Gary Hiebner

Even if you haven't yet updated to FL Studio 12 yet (why not??) Gary Hiebner shows you how to translate visual pixels into sonic synthesis using BeepMap. We wish every DAW had this!

Tutorial | Apr 29, 2015 by Rich Tozzoli

With some choice hardware and plug-ins, even when you're out of the studio you can get some truly excellent sounding guitars. Rich Tozzoli uses his UA Apollo and 3 stomp boxes in UAD v8 to good effect

Tutorial | Apr 28, 2015 by The Sound Tutor

Learn how to control the stereo dimension of your Ableton Live mix thanks to this in-depth tutorial from The Sound Tutor. You can also work through and download the included project on Splice.com.