Hardware synths may not come with as many bells and whistles as a synth such as Serum, but hardware synths’ warm timbres and hands-on approach to generating ideas make them the obvious choice for many producers.
And to get a truly unique sound out of the basic oscillators on hardware synths, producers need to go the extra step of processing and mangling the raw audio they record from their synths.
Nobody knows this better and gets more quality results in their music than Italian producer RTIK. His go-to weapons of choice are the Korg ms20 and the Moog Mother-32, which can be heard across his latest release, which we will talk about shortly.
So to celebrate his latest release, we sat down with this talented producer to learn how he achieves such a warm, powerful, and unique sound out of his hardware synths in hopes that you can achieve a similar level of individuality in your music.
Stream RTIK’s Latest Release
A perfect testament to RTIK’s signature blend of analog distortion coupled with blissful harmonies, his latest two-track EP is a continuation of a sound RTIK has long been perfecting.
Few producers can take a listener on such a musical journey and still have it all make sense, but RTIK achieves this with ease. The light synth leads drift over the top while acidic plucks churn out the groove underneath to create a sentimental torrent of grit and emotion.
This sound would be impossible to achieve without the masterful blend of analog synths and digital precision, which makes me even more excited to dive into the following interview to see how he made it all happen.
What opportunities do producers miss regarding sound design when using hardware?
It is strictly a personal experience that varies depending on what outcome each producer tries to achieve.
Many producers concentrate on how a specific synth/drum machine should be used rather than thinking outside the box and developing their way of using that instrument.
The so-called “happy accidents” are when you discover hidden qualities of that instrument that could lead to a sound characteristic that hasn’t been heard before.
That’s relevant to the instrument’s parameters and can also be applied to the processing of it in unconventional ways (why not run a drum machine through guitar pedals or massive reverbs?).
How do you personally process your hardware synths to make your sound unique?
I love messing around with filter resonances and LFOs to bring out unwanted frequencies in a sound. That usually starts directly on the synth after the main sound is already sculpted with the type of oscillators.
Then I push the filter resonances to the extreme so that it messes with the wave, and a lot of times, it creates weird resonances and natural distortion that gives a unique grit and character to the sound.
For example, in my latest track, “Cracked Code,” the grit and pixelated sound of the lead that you hear throughout the track was achieved with the Behringer Crave (a very cheap hardware synth that emulates the Moog Mother-32) thanks to the LFO modulating at a fast rate, which messed with the oscillator giving the sound that extremely gritty and fragmented characteristic.
During my sound design sessions, I’m always recording directly into Ableton, so I don’t miss any happy accidents that I can resample later. I end up with long sound design sessions and files (I record in chunks of 5/10 min), which I can reuse later when working on specific tracks.
What is more important, the hardware of the processing afterward?
I think they go hand in hand.
Some synths are great out of the box without much processing, while others might need a bit more work to make them sound polished and fit into the mix. At the end of the day, if it sounds good, it sounds good.
Generally, it’s good practice to have great-sounding basic effects, such as saturators, reverbs, and delays, because usually, the stock effects built in some hardware synths don’t sound as good.
So I permanently remove all effects directly in the synth (unless it contributes to the initial sound design) and take care of that later on during the processing stage in Ableton.
Share the effects chain you often use when processing your lead hardware synths.
The heavy sound design party sculpting the sound happens directly on the hardware synth. I like to tweak the knobs and parameters until I’m happy with the result. Once I’m working with the audio file in Ableton, my chain usually starts with saturation, EQ, and light compression to fatten up the sound and tame some peaks/unwanted frequencies.
Then I start with the effects. I like to set up an effect rack directly on the audio track to keep the main sound nice and crispy without making it too wet with the effects. Every channel of the effect rack contains a different result, all at 100% wet, so I can blend them in as I like. Usually, on mono lead synths, I have a short delay in making the sound wider while still keeping it at the center of the mix.
Then I have a longer, more creative delay (my favorite ones to use are Echoboy and Replika XT) to create nice tails that move around the stereo field; ping pong is my favorite delay mode.
Reverbs are next (still in the effect rack), which can vary depending on how much I want to keep the sound in front of the mix and how busy the track is. I avoid long reverbs during busy parts of the way, but I love to have metallic and airy reverbs providing a bed for the leads, which I bring out during the breakdowns and more atmospheric sections.
Once I’m done sculpting my effect rack, I finish up with a bit more EQ and compression to glue together the effects and make everything sound more cohesive.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
