Layering Masterclass 1: Lead Basics

Here's Serum. I start with the saw wave and put it an octave up, just to give it that lead characteristic. You don't want leads to be too low or too high. The main lead should be around this range. It's a feeling you'll develop. Voicing on mono almost all the time, and add portamento. How much depends on the melody. I also like to set the pitch bend to 24 up and down so I can pitch bend properly.

As simple as it is, this saw wave could already be a lead without doing anything to it, as long as we put it in a layer with processing. So don't stress about the individual leads too much. Just make sure you're really good at layering.

The first level is unison, detune and randomize phase. If I take the detune around 50 and start adding voices, it's basically duplicating the saw, slightly detuned to the other. That's the detuned lead, the basics of hardstyle. Every time you change just the detune you get a very different lead, so really study the differences.

The phase position tells the waveform where to start, always in the same place or random. Take the randomize phase down and you get that analog type sound. It's a really cool knob that a lot of people don't use. I usually just put it at around 100.

Next I use oscillator B to improve the lead. I usually put it an octave up. Different octaves give your lead more room in the mix. It doesn't really sound that good if you don't detune it, so add some unison and the randomize knob.

A trick that immediately works is FM from A, or the other way around. You can also take the sub level down and FM from the sub, or FM from the noise oscillator. White noise is just random waveforms, and on the FM that gives you this atmospheres type lead. Change the blend, the detune and the FM and you get so many leads.

The second level is LFOs on the fine tune, the coarse, the master tune and the chaos. LFO 1 on the fine tune sounds very annoying, like a mosquito, so take the amount down and you get this moving effect. Open up the rate and put it on Hertz instead of BPM so it gets really fast. That's typically something you want with rawstyle.

Then I decide if I want my leads to go up, down or not at all. LFO 2 on envelope, into the master tune, so the whole plugin goes up or down. 19 is an octave in Serum, so 19, 38 and 57 are all octaves. If I go up, I typically don't want more than one or two octaves.

The third level is distortion. Tube is really nice, just an analog type sound. Zero square is for screeches and heavy leads, and sine shaper too, but just add it slightly for very sharp leads.

Filters really come into play if you have distortion. A band pass on its own doesn't have drive and power. Add the distortion and you get these really cool rawstyle leads, and more resonance gets you sharper leads. Put a weird filter like a reverb or formant filter in front of the distortion and you really get into screech territory.