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General tips

1. Lo-fi space cadets Harmonic 33 use GMedia's excellent M-Tron to help create their retro soundscapes. It's an emulation of that tape-based proto-ROMpler, the Mellotron, as used by The Beatles, Radiohead et al. If you'd like to get the same kind of feel without spending, a free Mellotron emulation is available: MelloSound. Set its attack and release times to long values, and then douse with a little reverb for instant organic vibes.

2. If your synthesizer has an oscillator sync mode, use a modulation source to vary the pitch value of the master oscillator and create squelchy techno sweeps. The amount that you change the pitch of the master oscillator controls the extremity of the sweeping effect. You can get different timbres by transposing the master oscillator to a different octave. If you're using an LFO to control it, try changing the LFO's wave shape to create different effects. If the effect is too extreme, reduce the pitchbend range of the master oscillator.

3. You can get classic C64-style chords out of any synthesizer with a built-in arpeggiator. Simply create a patch based around a pulse wave, play a three or four note chord and turn up the arpeggiator speed until the sequence begins to sound like a chord rather than a series of individual notes. Adjust the arpeggiator's length or gate to get the sound you want, and add a slow pulse width modulation sweep to get that crunchy SID-chip vibe.

4. When creating synth leads, it's possible to get a lot of movement simply by detuning oscillators against each other. Set up two saw waves and detune one by 40-60 cents. When you play the patch back, note how each key modulates at a different speed. Extra voices using the same oscillator wave shape and detuned between the two can be added for an even phatter sound. This effect works well with saturation, chorus and unison, so if your synth has these, give them a whirl.

5. Remember, you can automate most controllers these days, not just filter cutoff. For instance, try varying the filter envelope amount instead for a similar effect.

6. Many synths feature noise oscillators, which can be used to create swooshy filter sweeps. They can also be employed to add a percussive element to your patches that works particularly well with darker, more filtered sounds. If you feel your synth patch needs more definition, try gradually adding to the amount of noise in the mix until the desired effect is achieved. This kind of sound works particularly well with a quick low-pass filter envelope.

7. The Minimoog is one of the most sought after synths of all time. Some owners got even more filtered goodness out of it by feeding its outputs into its inputs, resulting in the signal being filtered again. You can achieve a similar effect on a synth with two filters by setting them up in serial mode, and switching them to the same filter cutoff frequency. If your synth has a saturation stage that can be applied between the filters, try using it to add a little warmth to the tone. A different effect can be created by separating the filters ie, having them at different cutoff levels. The second filter should be more severe than the first for this effect to be noticeable.

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