How To Make - Synthwave with The Midnight / 547

Hey @zagaroth_db, I had this same issue and was not able to use the synth with the free player ever again after about 30 minutes, I wrote this post back then, hope it helps:

For you guys that have been trying to workout how to get the “Dreamy Synth” sound into your DAW of choice: in the Resources .zip file (up top under Course Resources) there’s a demo version of the NI KONTAKT instrument AND a folder containing the .wav sample files for the instrument (cuz KONTAKT is basically a sample playback device at its core). Grab those samples, map 'em across the keyboard on your software or hardware sampler (I’m a Reason guy so that’s NN-XT for me), increase the the decay and release on your AMP envelope, and you’ve basically got the Dreamy Synth. The KONTAKT instrument also does some subtle modulation of a lowpass filter envelope with each key press, you could certainly do the same for extra credit! :slight_smile: Tip: The A samples are named an octave too low, so A1 is actually A2, A2 is A3, etc. So for the first octave, your map’s gonna be:
C1.wav
D#1.wav
F#1.wav
A1.wav
Rinse/repeat

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Hey there @mikedailor

Thanks for chiming in :wink: and yes, I remember to have seen your post before, just didn’t come back to mind :blush:

Since the samples are included it’s indeed possible to recreate the instrument inside Kontakt Player or even Logic EXS24 Sampler, good point. I couldn’t find a Kontakt demo in the resources, that might have been changed. Things have also evolved at Native Instruments since the time this tutorial was made. You now need to have a user account by them and use Native Access in order to run the free Kontakt Player or their free Komplete Start package. Before it was possible to download & install individual products & NI was using “Service Center” to authorize, this is not the case anymore.

@zagaroth_db

Check if you’re using a demo of the full Kontakt sampler by clicking on the name in the top left corner as shown in the pic below and then you can follow this guide line in order to have the free Komplete Start package running. Give it a new try once you’re sure you’re all setup & running with NI stuffs. If the instrument stops playing again after a while, then we’re back to my previous post and that’s probably because it was made with an earlier version of Kontakt, I doubt you’ll be able to re-save and convert it so therefore Mike’s solution to recreate the instrument is the way to go.

Dreamy Synth Crew: For those looking to recreate this sound (without the experience of a keen ear and knack for synthesis), there’s a patch I have for spire that is virtually identical. Since Spire has the plate verb, you can switch that off and further process to taste, as it will sound different in each mix. Glad to share if anyone is looking for it.

Hey there @chrisgvitar

Just a reminder here, be aware that you can only share personal & user soft-synths presets that were made from scratch, starting from the init settings. If this preset comes from factory or payed presets banks, you’re not allowed to redistribute them :wink: .

big fan of synthwave. minimal instruments but edited perfectly. great to learn how to do the basics really well rather than making a muddy mess which i tend to do hence why i am here! enjoying these tutorials

seeing this kind of production being made step by step, is amazing! thank you!

Amazing, thank you!!

Really interesting as I don’t know much about this genre

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Hey there @4beats2thebar

There are other Synthwave Tutorial available on Sonic Academy if you’d like to see more in this genre.

What makes the guitars interesting is the pitch bends and hammers he makes that emulate real guitar playing. Unfortunately he totally skips that entire process, which in my opinion would have been the most valuable process to review.

Wow, absolutely amazing tutorial. Thanks so much Tim (also for your humour). So great to learn from a band that I love…

amazing tutorial!

Why do you EQ without hearing what it’s doing?

Poppy vocal synthwave is not my thing, but this is an undeniably killer song. Very catchy and well written. Overall a good course. Not seeing a breakdown of that guitar solo was a slight bummer.

This is gonna be fun! My favorite Synthwave band shares their secrests!

Awesome tutorial from one of the greatest synthwave bands. Tim is an excellent tutor and teaches how to make of my favourite ‘The Midnight’-tracks. I have watched the whole coarse atleast three times. If you are into synthwave, you have to check this one out!

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I Like this kinda tutorials it’s to the point, step by step and in short video’s on how the track came together.

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Awesome, thanks!

Thanks for the tutorial Tim, extremely informative.

This is an amazing tutorial. He explains WHY he doing what he is doing rather than showing you the song making process because, honestly, if you need help with that, this might not be for you. You need to already have some insight and creativity to make good and successful music. There are plenty of other tutorials in abundance all over the internet (including Sonic Academy) for that! His knowledge of what to do once the sounds are already chosen is what makes this a great tutorial. ALSO, if you are resourceful enough, you can get the same results with STOCK plugins from your DAW by taking note of what he is doing with his 3rd party compressors, eqs, reverbs, etc. and applying that to your DAWs stock plugins.

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