KOOROW
Hitech leads are harder, rougher and more intensely coloured than darkpsy leads, so they need a different design approach. In this lesson, his first hitech tutorial, made after many requests on Instagram, KOOROW builds a sharp FM lead in Serum 2. Along the way he shows his favourite trick for playable sounds: routing one macro to several parameters at once.
The video is in Persian. This article walks through every step in English.
Keep it simple, give it direction
Synths like Serum are powerful enough to lead you anywhere. Experimenting might land you on a cool sound, but not the sound you were after. Design with a goal: you sit down to make the sound for a specific part of your track. Open a downloaded preset with twenty rows in its matrix and it looks complex. Usually it is just the macros routed to the parameters whose movement sounds good.
Modulation is movement
Every modulation exists to move a sound. You can move parameters automatically with LFOs and envelopes, or by hand with macros. The technique in this video: assign one macro to several parameters, so turning one knob moves three or four things at once.
Step 1: Note and arpeggiator
Write one low note and add an arpeggiator at 1/16.
Step 2: FM from oscillator B
For hard leads, use FM from oscillator B. B becomes the modulator: it moves A’s frequency at audio speed.
- Switch oscillator B on and close its volume. You only want it as a modulator.
- Bring B down two octaves.
- Turn the FM amount up on oscillator A.
- Choose the modulator’s waveform. That choice is the trick that makes it sound hitech. KOOROW went too far at first, then backed off.
Two ways to go from here: leave the modulator where it is and play a lower note, or lower the modulator by another octave. The results are different, so try both. Some producers use a sine as the modulator. KOOROW keeps his combination.
Step 3: High-pass filter
Add a filter and choose high-pass rather than band-pass. It sounds more hitech.
Step 4: Build the macros
He sets up a few macros so the patch behaves like a preset. Anyone who opens it can turn three or four knobs and know what will happen.
| Macro | Routing | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Texture | Oscillator warp set to Sync and raised to half. The same macro also turns another parameter down. | Changes the material of the sound and makes it harsher |
| Cutoff | Filter cutoff, with the range set so closing it does not kill the sound | Opens and closes the lead |
| Metallic | Opens the mix of Hyper/Dimension and a short delay (BPM off, linked), both from closed | A springy, iron-like edge |
| Space | Reverb plus a synced delay at 1/8 dotted, feedback 30. The reverb only goes to about 20–30% | Depth. More reverb than that makes it dirty |
For Metallic he first tried a flanger, then switched to Hyper/Dimension. Then LFO 1, in free mode, goes to pan. The rate is set so notes land left and right without an obvious back-and-forth pattern.
Step 5: Distortion first
One thing never to forget: put the distortion first in the FX chain. You colour the sound first, then add the cosmetics. Then shorten the release of Envelope 1, something KOOROW always does, and of Envelope 2 as well.
Step 6: EQ
Finish with an EQ: a low cut with a gentle Q, so it does not boost, and a slight cut of the highs from around 7 kHz. While adjusting, he accidentally switched the delay to ping-pong, liked it and kept it.
How to find parameters worth modulating
Macros or LFOs? Serum gives you six LFOs if you want everything to move automatically. KOOROW uses macros here to keep control. To decide what to modulate, move a parameter by hand. If the movement sounds cool, give it a modulator. After a while you will know by heart which parameters are worth moving for the sound you have in mind.
Step 7: Map and record
- Map macros 1 to 4 to knobs on your MIDI controller.
- Map the arpeggiator gate to another knob. Never forget the gate.
- Record. Sixteen bars was too short for this sound, so he recorded 32, riding Space and Metallic as he played.
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