We recently explored the arrangement of Jeff Mills’ seminal track The Bells in an issue of Deconstructed, but what’s an arrangement without the instruments? In the next two instalments of Synth Secrets, we will use Hive, u-he’s workhorse softsynth, to rapidly build these classic techno timbres.
We love Hive for its ultra-streamlined workflow and its chameleonic sonics; it can instantly flip from glassy, ultra-modern wavetable and FM sequences to dusty vintage tones as you’ll see today, with an interface that’s so sensible that it never leaves you lost. You’ll find that we can tear through building these patches in minutes, or maybe even seconds if you’re good.
If you don’t already own Hive, you can grab a free trial here to get started. You can also apply almost everything we do here to any softsynth you use, be it Serum, Massive, one of Ableton’s built-in bits, or anything else.
Start a fresh session in your DAW and set the tempo to 137 BPM. Here’s our MIDI. Let’s get started.
Top tip: Use headphones for the subtle changes and click the images to enlarge!
Step 1: Basic Setup for Layer 1
Starting with the basics, we will fire up an instance of Hive and select Init from the preset list to initialize the patch. Flip the Synth Engine setting up at the top center from Normal to Dirty to emulate the vibe of some well-loved ‘80s Roland boxes. At the very top right you’ll see the Output knob – push that all the way to max.
Leave all the OSC1 settings at default and move down to the FILTER1 section. Pull the cutoff down to zero, turn filter 1’s Input knob to about 3 o’clock to drive the filter a bit, and turn the Mod Env knob to 4 o’clock.
Step 2: Modulators
Move to the AMP1 envelope section. Increase decay and release just a touch and pull sustain down to zero. Then move to LFO1 next door and set the Restart mode to sync, and turn the Rate knob to zero. These are subtle differences and you’ll only hear the LFO take effect when we route it somewhere later.
Step 3: Another Layer
Now we’ll bring in a second layer that we can pull in and out of the mix to keep things interesting.
Move over to the FILTER2 section on the right side of the interface. We’ll flip the OSC2 switch to bring another layer into the mix.
Now move up to OSC2 and change the waveform to a triangle shape. Change the Octave setting from 0 to 1, which pitches it up 12 steps. Now back down to the filter section. Turn Cutoff down to about 12 o’clock and Resonance to about 3 o’clock. Then set the Volume knob in the FILTER2 section down to about 2 o’clock. Right underneath that you see the AMP2 and MOD2 envelopes; set everything except for the attack on these envelopes to about 50 percent.
Step 4: X and Y
We want to use Hive’s approachable XY pads as a way to get hands on with our sound. In the center section click on the XY heading to pull them up. We’re taken to the settings for XY Pad 1. Hit the EDIT button on the bottom right corner of that section which will bring XY Pad 1’s settings up on the bottom of the Hive interface.
Now turn the knob assigned to Osc1: Volume up to about 12 o’clock. That makes it so that the pad has essentially zero effect on the volume of the first oscillator. Move to the right and turn the Osc2: Volume knob to max. That makes it so that when XY pad is all the way to the left, oscillator 2 is silent. However when the pad is all the way to the right, oscillator 2 is turned up to max.
We highly recommend that, once you’re done building this basic patch, you experiment routing the pads to a variety of parameters. For now, we’ve automated the position of XY Pad 1 over the course of a few bars so you can hear the crossfade in action.
Step 5: Modulation Routing
Hit the MATRIX A button at bottom left to pull up the mod matrix. In the first slot, assign the modulation source to LFO1 and the target to Osc1: Tune. Pro tip – you can change assignments by either right clicking on a field and selecting the source or target from the list, or by clicking and dragging from the field to the parameter you want to attach to.
Then in the matrix you’ll turn the depth knob on this routing literally only up to 1. It’s actually a bit of a challenge to get that tiny move just right, but what we’re aiming for here is a subtle warbling rather than an intense vibrato, so it’s the right thing to do.
Step 6: FX – A Basic Need
Click on the FX heading in the center section to pull it up. Activate the delay and turn the width and the mix up a touch… and that’s it. You’ve got it.
The sound on its own:
The sound with some dirty 909 action:
Want more? Keep reading and we’ll dive into the other synths on this track. You’ll widen your techno synth vocabulary in no time.
While you’re here, you may enjoy our Deconstructed of Jeff Mills’ The Bells, where we dive into the arrangement.
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