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I'm trying to create a really nice electro house portamento saw... and I'm having difficulty. And I don't know why. It sounds really simple.

Take this for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tokE083QMw

I started with a osc unison (no detune) saw, and paired it with a sync saw at +11 semitones (it had the most buzz). Passed it through drive waveshaping (not a lot though so as to keep the low end down), then through a LPF/HPF hybrid and finally an HPF. I enveloped the filter and amp to give the sound a really sharp start. It still wasn't sounding buzzy enough, so I modulate pitch by a tiny bit with a 100 hz LFO to add in a really high buzz.

I throw on early reflections.

It sounds like shite.

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong, or what I'm missing?

It sounds like a straight saw to me. No unison. No sync. No layering.

I think what might be messin' with your head is that it's not a straight portamento. It can't be. The staccato notes have no glide back down after other notes. This track is done with DAW automation of the portamento and vibrato on specific notes in the track. A single portamento value won't work. That's the thing with many pop tracks - they sound more simple than they really are. A similar technique is used on the Owl City Fireflies track - the whistle portamento is only on certain notes.

Just to chime in, you might have more success on the slim phatty. The R3 is going to roll off the highs at the oscillator and you aren't going to get that buzz you want.

The sync actually might be a good idea, but mono not unison. If I remember correctly, even with detune at 0 unison staggers the phase. Sync with the slave being an octave lower as a starting point and the oscillator mix only being the slave. The slave pitch being lower will control the depth of the wave and some more control to the sound of the saw.

Sounds like it just needs a compresor.. to my ears at least

Have you tried a really resonant highpass or bandpass filter?

Highpass generally makes a kind of buzzing sound. And bandpass is basically HP + LP.
Listening to me it certainly sounds heavily EQed or filtered.


You could also try cross modulation with OSC2 an octave below or set at 0 transpose. No mix of OSC2 though, this is almost definitely a single osc sound as far as the mixer section goes. Thinking about it I might be wrong but more on that later.

But i'll repeat again, first thing I'd try with that patch after hearing it is:
-fairly resonant BP. Or a very resonant LPF24 + low reso HPF tuned to keytrack the root frequency.
-Drive set to about 20-27.

Thanks for everyone's posts, I'm going to read them through entirely in a second.

It seems that the Slim Phatty processes portamento differently from Korg's Synths- on it, glide does NOT occur for staccato notes- only legato.

I talked to the producer, he said it's just a plain old portamento saw + sine, with some mids and highs boosted in EQ.

Upon research, it seems the difference between glide and portamento is that glide starts at the end of the first note (which implies legato playing, to be possible) whereas portamento starts at the beginning of the second note (which is possible with staccato playing)

Upon further chat, he did automate portamento.

Oh-

and he used Synth1.

A Free VSTi.

^ proof that the musician is key and throwing money at things doesn't help

You have to bare in mind that tons tweaking goes into things after they are recorded, particularly in the mastering process, so trying to recreate a sound exactly as it's heard on a recording with a synthesizer alone is just asking for a headache, haha. Even though the R3 does have a good effects section, they are not quite the same as what a good sound engineer and mastering process can get you. I've been in many bands where our recordings went from flat to massive by mastering alone.

You could try using the mod sequencer to automate the portamento?