Designing a Modern NI Massive Trance Lead

With how flexible NI Massive is as a sound design tool, I’m a bit surprised that we do not see more people producing videos like this one. It is a perfect synth to make modern leads in, whether we’re talking about Trance, Minimal, Glitch, Pop, Hip-Hop or any of the other mainstream giants. It’s not just for Dubstep wobble basses, and this lesson does a good job of covering all of the little steps taken to make the sounds featured at the beginning of the video. You’ll notice right away that there is no voiceover in this video, so make sure you pause the video when working in Massive if you are following along. Let’s see how to make this sweet NI Massive Trance lead.

It begins by loading a default Square-Saw I wavetable into OSC1 and a Square-Saw II wavetable into OSC2. The Pitch of OSC2 is changed to 29.39, which is nowhere near a whole octave. So this will have a widening effect upon the overall sound, as well as produce an inharmonic sound. This is just the beginning of this Massive Trance lead.

Next a Daft filter is loaded into Filter1. Then a Bandpass filter is loaded into Filter2. Already, you can start to hear that this sound will become nicer as we progress. An envelope is set up and assigned to modulate the Cutoff knob of Filter1. An LFO is also set up, with a noise waveform, and assigned to modulate the pitch of both OSC1 and OSC2.

A Synced Delay is added on the FX1 panel to provide a nice echo, which gives a lot of depth to this Massive Trance lead right away. A Reverb is added to the FX2 tab to give the sound more room to move around in. The EQ is activated and used to accentuate some of the higher frequencies and attenuate some of the low end presence.

Some Phasing and a Ring Mod are both added to OSC2 via the Modulation OSC panel. This transforms the sound quite a bit. A Highpass/Lowpass Filter is loaded into the Insert1 panel to further shape the sound’s delivery. A Parabolic Shaper is added to the Insert2 panel to help add a slight edge to the sound.

Throughout the course of making this sound, many Macro controls were assigned to provide control over the bulk of the effects, filters and pitch modulation. Very little was done along the way that was not affected by these Macros. Through the use of these additional controls you will be able to change the overall sound, delivery and character of this Massive Trance lead in dozens of different combinations, giving you a very flexible new instrument!

If you have a tutorial request, make sure you let us know in a message before you depart. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
OhmLab