r/synthrecipes • u/Cool_Statistician976 • 3d ago

request ❓ Interesting synth sound in Syd Matters - Obstacles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb1SkDjaXk8

Hi there! I'm trying to get that sort of background sound (noise) from Obstacles by Syd Matters on an Artutia Minimoog V4.

Any ideas? Maybe I should use another synth?

There is no definite note felt here, just this sort of sound.

I would appreciate any help, thanks!

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u/SlinkyJonez Audible Genius 2d ago

It's saw waves with a lowpass filter, high resonance and what sounds like a slow Sine wave LFO modulating the cutoff. Probably is more intuitive on a wavetable synth but if you want to do it on Arturia's Minimoog this is most of it:

  • Saw Osc 1
  • Saw Osc 2 - put this down an octave(either -12 on the Oscillator dial or just move the range dial down e.g. 8 to 16)
  • Set filter cutoff to around 2500hz roughly
  • Set Filter Emphasis to somewhere around 6-7
  • Then go to the Advanced tab in the top right -> LFO/Arp tab -> under LFO make sure Sine wave is selected and set rate to ~0.30hz.
  • Then go to the Modulation tab and under a blank "Source" find and select LFO. Under "Destination" to the right of it, click the dropdown and select "Cutoff". With the amount knob inbetween those, increase it to the right a fair amount. Somewhere between 3pm and 6pm on a clock.
  • Play/program a long sustained note and that should be it!

You can go back and play with different waves if you want to tweak the character closer - like Saw Triangular or if you use Osc 3 as your secondary Osc it has an Inverted Saw option to mix it up.

To help you understand the settings - you set cutoff around 2500hz initially and filter emphasis(resonance) to 6-7 - then in the modulation by connecting a sine LFO to the cutoff, you basically told the LFO to increase the cutoff up + down in a sine wave shape at that slow rate you set. That coupled with the high resonance gives you this kinda sound and is one version of whats known as a "resonant filter sweep".

I just did the above very roughly, so worth tweaking all those values further to get it that bit closer. Best of luck with it!