Grime Synth Basics

Pies

Another cool old-school grime sound that’s easy to make is a pitch modulating lead like the one from from Wiley’s legendary ‘Pies’. To get an authentic take on the sound we’re going to use a sample-based synth with a pan flute patch – in this case Korg’s M1 plugin. You can get similar results from any sample-based flute or panpipe instrument, or alternatively you could start with a similar virtual analogue preset and modify it in a similar way to the approach we’ll use here.

Click the Prog button to put the synth in program mode, bring up the Browser, select Wood wind instruments and double click the Pan Flute patch to load it up. In the Insert FX panel, turn the Dry/Wet knobs for Inserts 1 and 2 down all the way down to turn the effects off.

Click the Osc tab button, and set the waveform in the Pitch MG panel to the square shape. Turn the delay down to 0, and turn up the Intensity to 50. The pitch will be modulated using the square wave.

With these settings the pitch of the instrument rapidly oscillates between the root note and an octave up, but the timing isn’t right for the effect we’re after. You can control the speed of the modulation with the Freq knob, and sync it to your host tempo with the Tempo Sync option above that.

The result is a distinctive sound that modulates between the octaves in time with the track:

Kingmob VIP

Finally, we’ll return to our first patch and make a modern variation of the sound in the vein of something like ‘Kingmob VIP’ by Logos. First, save the original version of the patch so you can return to it as a starting point for future experimentation.

Open up Filter 1’s cutoff to full to bring the brightness back in, then turn the Noise generator’s Amp up to 12 o’clock. This introduces a little noise, giving the sound a retro feel.

Click the 4 Env tab and turn the attack up to between 11 and 12 o’clock, and the Release down to 9 o’clock.

Finally, you can adjust the grittiness of the noise with the Color knob in the Noise panel, or use Massive’s Sample & Hold insert effect to get some real madness!

To download the patches we’ve created in this walkthrough, click here.

You must register for a free Attack account and sign up to receive our newsletter in order to download the samples. New members can register here. Existing members can log in here.