Give Virtual Synths An Analog Feel WIth Ableton’s Frequency Shifter

Here is a 2 minute Ableton Live Tip, via AfroDJMac, on how to use Ableton’s Frequency Shifter Plugin to emulate the subtle pitch variations found on many analog synths.

“This is a cool tip for making your tracks less-perfectly-in-tune, like most real world acoustic and analog instruments,” he notes.

Fairly simple stuff – but adding ‘imperfections’ and randomness to your soft synth patches can make them sound a lot less clinical. This isn’t limited to Live – you can create similar effects with pitch-shifting effects in any DAW or by using a random LFO to modular the pitch of oscillators in synth patches.

via AfroDJMac

6 thoughts on “Give Virtual Synths An Analog Feel WIth Ableton’s Frequency Shifter

  1. That’s unbelievable, I discovered this trick the other day completely on my own, and TOTALLY thought it gave Massive that free-running oscillator sound. I showed it to a friend of mine and he told me I was nuts.

    Glad to see I wasn’t, and also that my ears are getting better at picking up on details.

    BTW, Massive > insert 1 > frequency shifter > dry/wet = 5% + pitch = 0

    Will give you the same effect as above

  2. This could also obviously be done with an LFO set to pitch but if you want to use the LFOs on the plugin for controlling something else this is a nice alternative

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