Organic house is one of the most nuanced genres to produce, as not only do you need to write amazing melodies and be a fantastic songwriter, but you also need to be an incredible mixing engineer if you have any hope of squeezing the maximum amount of texture and atmosphere out of every track.

Lee Burridge’s All Day I Dream is the absolute leading name in the world of organic house music and Fulltone is one of the most accomplished producers on the label’s roster. So when I heard that he recently had another release on ADID, I had to get him on for the latest How It Was Made series to learn how Fulltone produced his track “Alba” and what he favorite synths and mixing plugins are to achieve such a floaty, blissful, and melodic sound.

As always, listen to the track a few times below to really acclimate your ears to what’s being described in the following feature and then buckle up, grab a note pad, and be ready to learn how Fulltone makes his music.

Dave Smith OB6

My main synth is the Dave Smith OB6. I like it because it’s so easy to use and sounds great with very little processing. I also use the onboard distortion a lot to give sounds more character.

I used the OB6 to make the delayed bass lead that comes in on the first drop. I used two oscillators, both on sawtooth and one of them is pitched +7 steps, with some filter envelope and slightly short decay to give it a plucky vibe and some subtle distortion to give more character. I also used Soundtoys’ Echoboy for the delay. 

The OB6 is an analog synth, so it mainly does subtractive synthesis, meaning you can almost recreate this sound on any synth with two oscillators. The lesson that I recently learned is that saturation/distortion is the secret ingredient to attitude and flavor.

Fab Filter Pro-Q3

Fab Filter Pro-Q3 is my most used plugin. It’s so easy to use and sounds great. I also use the dynamic feature to side-chain clashing frequencies.

I used Pro-Q3 to make the kick and bass work nicely together without clashing. In dynamic mode, I side-chained the bass to the kick, but only on specific frequencies, so these frequencies get ducked down every time the kick hits. This creates more room for the kick without affecting the overall bass sound. I also did a high-pass filter at around 100Hz, but only on the sides, to keep the sub-frequencies in the center. 

The spectrum analyzer, side chain, and dynamic mode can create separation between sounds. Using it in Mid/Side mode also makes things sound wider or narrower in specific frequencies.

Learn More About This Plugin Here 🔥 🔥 🔥

Fab Filter Saturn

Fab Filter Saturn is also a favorite. It’s a great saturation plug-in with many options. I use it a lot in multi-band mode to saturate certain frequencies. It’s great on vocals, drums, and bass.

I used Saturn on almost everything. I used it on bass mid/high frequencies to make it cut through more and on drum sounds to give them more attitude. I love the clean tape and warm tube settings. 

Saturation can be a really cool tool to increase the perceived loudness without actually adding volume to the sound. It can add attitude and make things sound like a record.

Learn More About This Plugin Here 🔥 🔥 🔥

Soundtoys’ Effects Rack

Soundtoys’ effects rack is great, I use it for creative effects. EchoBoy sounds incredible and has amazing saturation settings from which you can choose. The Decapitator is also great for saturation and distortion. Radiator just makes everything sound better – I usually add Radiator without touching anything, it just adds some flavor.

EchoBoy is my main delay. I used it on the lead bass and on the arp that comes in on the last drop. I also used it on a return bus to delay some sounds in different parts of the track. 

Soundtoys’ effect rack is a great tool for getting creative with effects. Just add stuff in and move knobs till you find something you like. I sometimes do that with presets – I load a preset and play with the settings till I find something I like. 

Learn More About This Plugin Here 🔥 🔥 🔥

The post How It Was Made: Fulltone – Alba (All Day I Dream) appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.