Tracking/Reigning in Analog Synths

As usual, just asking the question out loud helped my brain start working on the problem. I went back to one of the patches in question and started making liberal use of the cutoff, envelope amount, and key tracking controls, and it cleaned the sound right up on that particular patch.

In addition, do y'all have go to techniques for treating the above problem if retracking isn't an option?

I would say work on making the other mix elements lively and impactful enough to stand up to the size and character you’re getting out of your analog synths, rather than try to contain/flatten the synths.

I do a lot of analog synth stuff. I love tracking through the di on my sebatron vmp4000. Saturating the Pres hard is so nice and the extra distortion is welcomed 99% of the time.

I don’t find there to be any special tricks other just exercising good arrangement practices. Don’t layer too many parts. Carefully pick which parts will be the highlights and which can be smaller, background parts etc. Make sure everything is spread out sonically. And be very careful with tuning. Detuned oscillators sound great in solo, but can really fuck things up in a mix. Also really test out each patch to see if it sounds best in mono or stereo. Synth patches can have some crazy stereo information that can radically change when seething the output of the synth to mono (as opposed to recording it in stereo and then panning both sides dead center).

I find when I get into synth things that there's often A LOT happening in the low end that isn't helping. Hi pass filters, even simple one's on stock EQ can help. I'll sometimes take the PT EQIII one band, and set it for low pass and start sweeping until I hear the sounds I'm looking for, and then switch it to high pass.

I work with hardware synths, let's say 90% of the time, compared to plugins and have found it's all about the programming. Then low cut, high cut and mud cut if needed with whatever eq you prefer working with ITB. Pro-800 and Prophets have a metallic quality when the filter is opened. It does sound cool but will take space in the mix.
Synths sound better when tracking straight into a converter quite often too.
Chandler pres have nice saturation for synths if that's something one is looking for.

Low pass filters, de-essers, high frequency limiters, and tape plugs to tame the high end.

They’re synths, just like guitars they’re already shaped distortion and noise. Don’t be afraid to do more. Just don’t make them worse.

I have been known to do a few test recordings and then listen back to EQ as needed. It can be like a guitar, depending on the role in the piece. So often a lot of low end can be removed. Sometime high mids pushed, etc.


I think tracking through an amp can be cool. But it's often really inspiring to go line in and just seek out the flavor.

Personally, I have usually used my WT-72, so a tube pre, over my more clean options.

It can be quite frustrating to jam out with something you think is cool and the setting doesn't quite translate on the tape.

Seconding the insight of using a preamp that can handle the sonic spectrum and volume. My Phoenix DRS-Q4s sound unreal on analog synths... Also a decent optical compressor is a nice touch to get them under control going in.

I think it really depends on what type of music…in the genre’s I generally work in, they’re atmospheric, not upfront. In that case, I love what hardware vintage style tube pre’s and eq’s do to get 3d depth and tuck it into the track, and then if a little brightening is needed afterward, a little outboard saturation.

Synths love tape

I don't play synths usually, but I've mixed a handful.

Biggest thing I've noticed is waaaay too much bandwidth. The low-low lows eat way too much headroom than any other instrument. I ruthlessly chop off anything below about 50hz to start unless there's some effect i'm needing from something below that. Often I go all the way up to 80hz or more.

The high frequencies can be too much as well, so on goes the LPF around 10K to start and then move down from there until I start to miss something. Often I'm chopping down to the 7-8K range without really noticing anything missing in the mix.

That's the starting point. I also often notice that the mids will be quieter sounding than the lows and highs, so I'm sometimes peaking EQ in the mids for notes that I want to make sure to hear.

In any case, the resulting audio is limited by a few dB to keep notes from poking in and out too much.