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How to Make a Raw Hardstyle Lead in Sylenth1

To make a raw lead in Sylenth1, we're going to add a lot of detune.

My notes from this Short

01

Four detuned saws with retrigger off

For this to work I'm using all four oscillators. Eight voices, no retriggering, detune. I stack that with five voices, saw wave, no retrigger, a bit more detune and up an octave.

Then I enable part B. Eight voices, retrigger off, a lot of detune and one octave up. And one more time: saw wave, retrigger off.

02

LFO 1 on pitch B only

The trick is to use pitch B instead of pitch A and B in LFO 1, so we only make part B very screechy. Add gain, rate and amount, use random and make sure it's on free so it can move faster with hertz.

Now LFO 2 can add modulation to the pitch of A and B as well. Add gain and amount, put it on free and set it around 60 to 70 percent.

Sylenth1 LFO 1 and LFO 2 for a raw hardstyle lead: LFO 1 on a random wave with Free on, routed to Pitch B, and LFO 2 on a sine with Free on, routed to Pitch AB
LFO 1 on random goes to pitch B only, LFO 2 to pitch A and B.
03

Pitch envelope, clipping and filter drive

In envelope 1 I add pitch A and B as well, with a bit of decay, take down the sustain and make it go down. In filter A I use oscillator part A and B and open it up a bit.

Add distortion on clipping, but not too much, and an EQ so it's a bit more bright. You can make it more raw by adding more resonance and drive in the filter and increasing the detune. Then some basic reverb, delay and OTT.

What I use in this video

Sylenth1·OTT

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