How do I get this effect on my synth leads like in 90's Gangster Rap?

[Christian Jones]

If you listened to any rap by Dre or Snoop et al back in the day you've heard this polymoog type synth lead they used all the time, which I believe was first used by Ohio Players. My two favorite songs that used it are Easy E's "Real Muthf'n Gs" and Mac Mall's "My Opinion." I was able to get pretty much that exact sound going in Massive, at least for the Easy E sound. But the Mac Mall lead sound has this quick and subtle pitch bend effect at the beginning of each note and I doubt it was done manually w/ the pitch wheel. I've also included a quick sample of me playing these two leads using the Massive patch and you can see I pretty much nailed the Easy E tone, but Mac Mall.... how do I get that little auto pitch bend effect?

 

 

dre synth sample.mp3

[Base 57]

Portamento?

[Chandler]

Its portamento as the the person above me said. Its also sometime known as glide. You need to make sure your synth is set to monophonic though. 

[Christian Jones]

Thanks, but no.. I got the portamento/glide part down as evidenced in the mp3 I included of me playing these leads. But the Mac Mall lead has a little something else going on in the lead where there's a slight dip in the pitch at the beginning of each note re-trigger - unlike the Easy E lead which doesn't do that - and that's what I'm trying to figure out, how Mac Mall did it. 

[samson7842]

I'm guessing here, but have you tried setting it up so it only plays one note at a time? 

[Base 57]

8 hours ago, Chris Jones said:

there's a slight dip in the pitch at the beginning of each note re-trigger

Yeah, I hear it. May be a pitch envelope because it scoops up even if the previous note is higher. But he could be just slapping the pitch wheel.

[abacab]

May be using some type of modulation on the pitch, causing it to dip. Might be envelope or LFO, but just guessing.

[synkrotron]

I would use envelope on the oscillator pitch...

[Christian Jones]

Thanks guys, you were all right..,, it was an envelope on pitch. 

For anyone who suddenly decides that they absolutely have to have this sound it's easy to do in Massive. Just use one occilstor and adjust the base sound to taste/reference, and after the main adsr you use a second one on the pitch parameter and adjust the decay to adjust the speed of the pitch dip. Just needs a bit of eq to fatten. I attached a file. 

 

mac mall synth.mp3

Edited February 11, 2019 by Chris Jones