Jeff Mills’ ‘The Bells, Part 2′

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We covered the bells in ‘The Bells’, as you’d expect — now it’s time to focus on the detuned chords.

“In the last instalment of Synth Secrets, we used u-he’s Hive to recreate the namesake of Jeff Mills’ classic techno track The Bells. This time, we’ll build another classic sound from that track: the punchy, detuned chord stabs. This patch can be slightly modified and applied in many techno settings, so it’s worth adding to your toolkit.

Grab a demo of u-he hive here if you don’t have it already. You can also apply these moves to your favourite softsynth and get similar results, just as long as it’s a capable one with at least three oscillators at your disposal. Here’s what we’ll end up with:

Create a new session in your DAW, set the tempo to 137, use the MIDI info below, and let’s go.

Step 1 – Start With the Basics

Place an instance of Hive on an empty MIDI or instrument track, then select Init from the presets list to initialize the patch. Change the Synth Engine setting from Normal to Dirty to introduce a little subtle dirt and instability the the sound, just the way a well-worn analog synth might behave.

Turn the Output knob at the very top right to 3 o’clock to get an overall volume that sits correctly in the mix.

Now head right over to the FILTER1 section and click on SUB1 and OSC2 to route the signals from those two oscillators through filter 1 and ultimately through the main output. Find SUB1’s settings and change the waveform from Pulse to Sawtooth. Then turn the Tune knob for sub oscillator 1 up to a value of 7. I guess it’s no longer a sub oscillator now that it’s pitched higher than the main oscillator. Is it a super-oscillator? Whatever you want to call it, it works.

Head to the OSC2 section and turn the Semi value up to 3. Now we have three oscillators stacked that create a minor chord triad when you press just one key. This is a classic techno and house approach. We’re well underway now.

Guess it’s no longer a sub oscillator now that it’s pitched higher than the main oscillator. Is it a super-oscillator? Whatever you want to call it, it works

Step 2 – Modulate

Let’s get all our modulators set up and ready to go. First we’ll take care of the envelopes, which make a subtle impact on this sound. Move to the AMP1 envelope and turn decay and sustain down a touch. Then on MOD1 turn sustain all the way down to zero, and pull other parameters down just a little. This sound is quick and punchy,.

Now in the LFO1 section we turn the Restart mode to Sync and the Time Base setting to 1s. You won’t hear what these do until we change the filter settings and route the LFO but it’s coming soon.

Step 3 – Engage Filter

Turn FILTER1 Cutoff down to about 11 o’clock and the Mod Env knob up to about 2 o’clock.

This patch can be slightly modified and applied in many techno settings, so it’s worth adding to your toolkit

Step 4 – Route the LFO

Click on MATRIX A to pull up the mod matrix. Now route LFO1 to Osc1: Tune. You can do this by clicking and dragging the crosshairs from the different fields, or by right clicking on the fields and selecting assignments from the list.

We want a bit of a dizzy, warped sound here, so turn the depth knob up to a value of 2. It will hardly look like you’ve turned it up at all, but you’ll hear it.