The plugin was made for the request of an online magazine by the developer company called u-he. The concept of this synth is based on the classic Roland Juno 60 with an exciting mixer section, which allows for a very quick workflow.
The plugin was first released in April 2011. You can download it from the u-he website.
Features
- two VCOs with pulse width modulation
- sub oscillator
- white noise
- ring modulation
- feedback
- two LFOs
- mod matrix
- two ADSR envelopes which can be looped
- onboard chorus effect with three types
- custom preset manager
- resizable interface
- GUI can be changed with skins
- multi core CPU support
- available on Windows and Mac
- 32-bit and 64-bit format
Project Settings
The settings and key used for my electronic composition are:
- tempo 120BPM
- time signature 4/4
- C-minor
Dedicated Octaves for the Instrument Channels
For filling up the frequency spectrum I chose C2 and C3 for the basses. C4 and C5 is for the mid range, which consists of leads and a pad track. I also named the channels this way, except for fx and drums.
Init Sound
I used the Initialize preset as the starting point. You got it when you insert the plugin to the channel.
BassC2
The first idea was this bass track. I programmed the it with the help of a MIDI keyboard and a mouse.
Synth:
- OSC1, volume -10, shape 3
- OSC2, volume -20, shape 2
- VCF, cutoff 135
- VCA envelope, 1 50 100 20
BassC3
The second track idea is this higher bass channel. The note used is the C3 for the entire MIDI clip.
Synth:
- OSC1, volume -100, shape 3
- OSC2, volume -22, shape 2
- VCF, cutoff 150
- VCA envelope, 20 50 100 14
BassC3-2
A bit distorted sound which is programmed in a way that only at the end of the beats are varied with this.
Synth:
- OSC1, volume -100, shape 3
- OSC2, volume -22, shape 2
- noise, volume -56
- ring mod, volume 10
- feedback, volume -70
- VCF, cutoff 150
- VCA envelope, 0 56 0 0
Basses Group
The basses group is sidechained to the drums group to give more headroom to the track. After that I used an EQ Eight to strip the low and high end as well as the 280 Hz region with a bell filter to help the mid range and remove masking there.
LeadC4
The lead part consists of two tracks and this is the first one created and panned to left by 20. With the EQ I made a complementer shaping with the other part.
Synth:
- OSC1, volume -27, shape 2.5
- OSC2, volume -77, shape 1.56
- vibrato 100, pw 14.5
- ring mod, volume 9
- VCF, cutoff 150
- VCA envelope, 1 50 100 20
- chorus, ensemble, rate 32, depth 40, wet 100
Effect:
- Ping Pong Delay, frequency 1.98kHz, bandwidth 2.82, feedback 40%, dry wet 40%
- Utility, +4 dB
- EQ Eight, low cut at 200 Hz, -6 dB bell cut at 3 kHz, high cut at 9 kHz
LeadC4-2
This is the second part of the lead panned to right by 20.
Synth:
- OSC1, volume -19, shape 2.5
- OSC2, volume -66, shape 1.56
- vibrato 0, pw 50
- sub, volume -88
- noise, volume -80
- feedback, volume -29
- VCF, cutoff 150
- VCA envelope, 1 50 100 20
- chorus, ensemble, rate 32, depth 40, wet 100
Effect:
- Reverb, low cut, high cut, size 1, stereo full, decay 1s, reflect and diffuse at 4 dB, dry wet 55%
- Utility, -2 dB volume
- EQ Eight, low cut at 200 Hz, -6 dB bell cut at 856 kHz, high cut at 9 kHz
PadC5
For the pad sound I used three note and two note chords in an 8 bar clip. I raised the attack and release to be slower at those parts and gave decay and sustain to maximum.
I also mixed this channel very quiet, because of the smaller priority it has in the whole song.
Synth:
- OSC1, volume -30, shape 3
- OSC2, volume -30, shape 2
- VCF, cutoff 115
- VCA envelope, 28 100 100 36.5
Effect: Reverb, low cut, high cut, stereo full, size 70, dry wet 38%
Mids Group
I made a low cut at 173 Hz and a high cut at 13 kHz to remove unnecessary frequencies.
Fx
The white noise fx sound reminds me a bit of snare or hat sound of analogue drum machines. It has a small decay and nothing else on the VCA envelope section.
Synth:
- noise, volume 5
- VCF, cutoff 135
- VCA envelope, 0 19 0 0
Effect: Auto Pan, amount 100%, rate 1/2, phase 180°, shape 100%, sinus waveform
Fx2
This is also a white noise based sound, but it has got some tuned part as well, which is coming from the oscillators.
A chorus gives it a spread in stereo and it has a small attack part as well used as a delay contrasting the previous fx sound.
Synth:
- OSC1, volume 25, shape 2
- noise, volume 25
- ring, volume 25
- feedback, volume -56
- VCF, cutoff 135
- VCA envelope, 15 19 0 0
- chorus, classic, rate 50, depth 50, wet 100
Fx Group
I made a low cut and hight cut with EQ Eight to give space for other instruments as well.
Drums
I used the drums only to have more of a song feel to it. It consists of a kick, snare, an open and a closed high hat.
I removed some part of the spectrum in the case of the hats with EQ (low cut at 888 Hz and high cut at 12 kHz).
Master Channel
As a minimal mastering process, I used an EQ Eight with a high cut at 18 kHz and a Limiter with default settings to help the song sonically.
Conclusion
In this tutorial I explained how to create a short composition using u-he TyrellN6. I used it on the bass, leads, pad and fx. I also added drums from one shot samples.
There is a lot more to explore with Tyrell as it has got a lot of other features like mod matrix and LFO routing.
