Autechre Characteristic synth sound used by Autechre, μ-ziq etc.

Hey there.

I was giving Autechre's 'Nine' off the Amber record a listen and noticed these very characteristic sound sounds, like it has a quick pitch-fade or something.

The same sort of synth seems to be in use in μ-ziq's 'Hastic Boom Alert' off the Lunatic Harness record.

Nine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3FznotHuJA&feature=related

Hasty Boom Alert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o4akJm8oy8

Is this a special synth used or can it merely be programmed? I remember fucking around with some digital synths some months ago and I obtained a quite similar sound, but since it was all done by random fucking around, I have no idea how I achieved the sound. Is it a rapid pitch fade-in or something?

Thanks.

Do you mean the portamento?

After checking it out, yes, I do meant that. The glide-effect.

Is that obtainable with most digital synths?

Yeah, it's a pretty common thing in most analog/digital synths. There's usually a portamento or glide knob/slider/text input that lets you set how long it takes the pitch to change when a new note is triggered.

There may very well be instances of an attack envelope modulating the pitch, which is another trick possible on most synths.

yep, and there are different ways glide can be done. afingered, fingered(with or without legato/envelope reset), linear or logarithmic accelation. On some synths it is as simple as changing one global portamento/glide knob.

EDIT: also different sorts of effects when polyphonic too

nine sounds like reaktor's steampipe synth

It's a Nord Lead 2 in both examples.

Well... I don't think it is a Nord Lead 2 because Amber came out 3 years before the Lead 2 hit the shelves. Lunatic Harness also came out the same year as the Lead 2, so it is also unlikely.

the amber synth is a juno 106

I noticed most classic IDM synth patches are pretty basic monosynth type sounds with quick portamento and tons of reverb

  On 7/19/2010 at 7:53 PM, acid1 said:

I noticed most classic IDM synth patches are pretty basic monosynth type sounds with quick portamento and tons of reverb

yes, this is what it is. Very simple in fact. I feel the more simple a patch is the easier it is to mix in a track with other sounds.