Transcription
Hello, I'm CHRLD, and I will be teaching you how to make Alan Walker's "Faded" using 3x Osc in FL Studio. Here, you'll learn how to sound design using 3x Osc without using third-party plugins, also getting like a 90% accurate remake.
This is the first of a 3-part Faded tutorial. You'll also learn how to make drums. For now, I'll be covering the basic electro house elements, creating 5 presets, and learning how to sidechain.
Let's create the starting point. Set the BPM to 90. First, you gotta load 3x Osc into a mixer track, with the volume decreased to -6dB so your ears won't explode. Let's rename it to "Soul Lead." (I don't know why it's called that.) Disable the other oscillators by turning down the mix volume. We only need the first one.
Now, the shapes here change how it sounds. We're using this one called the sawtooth. Change the pitch of the first oscillator to -12. And to make it sound cleaner, enable HQ mode. (Proceeds to play "Better Off Alone.")
Now you have that basic saw lead. But how do we turn it into that iconic Alan Walker pluck? Well, you have to click on this icon, which will give you access to more features. Go to the second tab, and you can see a bunch of weird lines and knobs. Don't worry. We're going to use the filter section.
This dropdown contains the filter modes. We're going to use regular LP, which is a lowpass filter. The first knob here changes the filter cutoff, basically how much of the frequencies you can let out. The second knob changes the resonance, basically how aggressive the filter is. Pretty cool, huh?
Set Mod X to 0% and Mod Y to 25%. To turn it into a pluck, we're using this envelope section. Go to Mod X, and enable the envelope by turning up the amount to 100%. We only need these two knobs, so turn down the attack, hold, and sustain knobs. The decay knob adjusts how short the plucking thing is. Set the decay to 40%, and turn down the tension completely.
Let's also do the volume envelope. Turn up the sustain to maximum, get rid of the attack. Set the release to 8%. Now it sounds like a pluck, but it is missing that sliding effect. To enable that, go to the last tab, and enable Porta. This knob adjusts how fast it glides. Set the time to 0:15.
Now it's finished. Just kidding, you still have to add reverb. Load Fruity Reverb 2 to the same mixer track. Set these three knobs: the high-cut, size, and damp to maximum. Add a pre-delay of about 100ms, 4 seconds of decay, and turn down the wet to 30%.
Now you have the full signature Alan Walker pluck! Which can be turned into a drop lead if you turn up the filter knob. If you think that first part was difficult, well, the rest will be easy now that you've created the base.
Let's create those crispy sounding chords. C r i s p y s o u n d i n g. Right-click the soul lead in the channel rack and clone it. Rename it to "Electro Chords." And route it to a different mixer track. Turn all oscillators into a saw, and set every mix to 50%.
Now to get that random sound, you turn up the phase randomness knob to 100%. Oh yeah, disable Porta. How do we make it sound better? P u t a l o t o f v o i c e s. We multiply the voices by enabling Fat Mode, also called the unison mode. Set the feed to maximum, and time to none.
Now, this echoes parameter increases the voices. Higher sounds smoother. 8 should be enough. Let's adjust the filter a bit. Set the decay to 25%, and tension to -50%. Now, let's add the effects. Load Parametric EQ 2 to the same mixer track.
And add a +6dB boost somewhere in the 5500Hz range to boost the high frequencies. Just copy the reverb from the soul lead by doing this cool drag and drop trick. I'm gonna make the MIDI for now. If you're a beginner, here's the shortcuts for convenience.
And if you want to turn: into: you have to click this magnet and set it to 1/4 step. Then move the 2nd and 4th note by a bit. Also, shorten them all slightly. Here's what the chords sound like. Y e s, r e a l l y p o w e r f u l.
Wait, there's an official MIDI? Nevermind. Nevermind, someone archived it. Let's edit the chords for the drop to make it thicker. Clone that electro chords. Keep it on the same mixer track. Rename it to "Drop Chords." Disable the third oscillator, and transpose the second oscillator to -24.
How do we make this sound thicker? In the fat mode section, we're going to adjust the delay pitch. Be careful, since normally it detunes way too much. Instead, we right-click and "type in value" to 3 cents. Another way is to hold [Ctrl] while tweaking it, allowing smaller increments.
Then, go to the volume envelope, and set the release to 15%. Turn up the filter completely, and here's what it sounds like. Now the other buildup chords. Clone the drop chords, and this time route it to a different mixer track. Rename it "Lush Chords." Transpose the first oscillator to -24.
Let's make it sound lushier. (What does that even mean?) Add 2% of attack in the volume envelope, and set the delay pitch to 2 cents. Then add Fruity Delay 3, and set the wet to 25%. Nice.
Let's make the bass for the drop. Load a new 3x Osc instance into another mixer track. Rename it "Saw Bass." Set the first oscillator to a saw. Pitch it to -24. Disable the second oscillator, set the third one to noise, and enable HQ mode.
It sounds too harsh, so we're going to EQ it. Load Frequency Splitter, and decrease the mid and high to -12dB. Then turn up the volume and downmix it to mono. If you can't see this knob, you'll have to click this icon, or it's just located differently in the mixer view you selected.
Now we're finished with the synths of the first drop. Let's add the effects. How would you call it "Fade" if it doesn't have that fading effect? We're going to add sidechain using Fruity Love Philter. Turn off the filter and oversampling.
In the volume pattern tab, enable the envelope. With this magnet enabled, make a triangle by right-clicking to create points. After that, right-click the first point and set it as a loop start. Then right-click the middle point, set it to a double curve. Then adjust the tension to 25%.
Disable snap, create a point somewhere here so that you wouldn't get clicking sounds. Copy it to the other mixer tracks, and now you have the first drop of "Fade." The drop chords and lead have a delay that comes after the sidechain.
Add Fruity Delay 3 on the chords. Set the delay time to 2:0. The tone filters the delay, set it to -40%. Then, reduce the wet to 25%. For the lead, it's slightly more complicated. Add Fruity Delay, set the delay time to 2:0.
Add some stereo offset like 20% to make it wider. The modulation is used to add vibrato. Set the rate to 5.0Hz, and the time mod to 25%. Decrease the feedback to -33%. Set the tone to -75%, and now you have it.
I'm going to structure the song. If you don't know how to automate settings, just right-click the parameter and hit "create automation clip." If you followed the tutorial right, here's what you'll end up with.
In the next tutorial, we'll be making the second part of the drop and the verses. Or just download the project file. Why didn't you just do th-