Mission 016
Synth Effects — Glue The Voice
Chorus, delay, reverb. The last 20% of every great patch.
The last 20% of every great patch happens AFTER the synth.
+50 XP
// WHAT IT DOES
Most modern presets are 80% synth and 20% effects. Strip the effects off and you'll be shocked how thin the raw synth sounds. The effect chain is part of the patch.
Four workhorses cover almost everything: (wide / thick), delay (rhythm and space), (room and depth), distortion / (glue and grit).
Order matters. Typical chain: synth → distortion → EQ → chorus → delay → reverb → out.
Think of it like → The synth is the food. Effects are the seasoning. Both matter.
▸ WHY YOU CARE
- • It's the difference between a dry, mono, lifeless synth and a finished-sounding instrument.
- • Tempo-synced effects (delay, gated reverb, sidechained ) lock everything to the groove.
- • Even great oscillator design can't replace good FX — they're not optional.
// SEE & HEAR IT
▸ An LFO is a slow oscillator that controls something else. Pick the target to hear vibrato, filter wobble, or tremolo.
▸ HOW IT WORKS
▸ Signal flow — watch the dot
▸ SIGNAL FLOW
Glowing dot = your signal travelling through Live.
▸ LISTEN FOR
- • Chorus widening without changing pitch.
- • Delay echoes locking to the grid.
- • Reverb pushing the sound 'back' in the mix.
▸ WALKTHROUGH (4 steps)
- 1. DO: Play the dry synth.▸ LISTEN: Honest, often thin.
- 2. DO: Add chorus (rate 0.6 Hz, depth 30%, wet 30%).▸ LISTEN: Widens, thickens.
- 3. DO: Add tempo-synced ping-pong delay (1/8, feedback 40%, wet 25%).▸ LISTEN: Rhythmic echoes bounce L↔R.
- 4. DO: Add hall reverb (decay 2 s, wet 20%).▸ LISTEN: Lifts the patch into a space.
▸ COMMON MISTAKES
- ✗ Drowning the mix in reverb — kills clarity fast.
- ✗ Forgetting to the reverb so low frequencies don't muddy the tail.
// QUIZ (QUICK)
Question 1 / 30 correct
Chorus works by