FL Studio Sytrus tutorial on how to make a growling pad that has a slow but sharp attack and has motion in the sustain and release. For this tutorial I will be using FL Studio’s Sytrus but any FM synth can work as long as it can have tempo based envelopes.

Step 1: Creating the Base Sound

  • The attack should end at beat four with a peak volume of 75%. The tension point should be at 9%
  • Decay should end at beat four with a volume of 25% with a tension of 6%. This point at 25% will be your sustain. If you are using Sytrus make sure you right click the control points and designate them it decay and sustain. See picture for placement.
  • The release point will end at the first eight note of the second bar at 0% and have a tension of 20%

Creating A Growling Pad

Step 2: Creating the Modulation Sounds

  • Shape -60%
  • Tension -85%
  • Skew – 70%
  • Pre-Filter – 4% (or 7 harmonics)

The remaining values will be at minimum

Creating A Growling Pad

For operator 3 start with a sine wave and bring the noise fader up to maximum so its complete white noise. The frequency ratio should be set to 1.000 instead of the standard 2.000 The volume envelope for operator three should be set to tempo and is as follows…

  • The attack should end at beat two with a peak volume of 50%. The tension point should be at 18%
  • Decay should end at beat three with a volume of 15% with a tension of 20%. This point at 20% will be your sustain. If you are using Sytrus make sure you right click the control points and designate them it decay and sustain. See picture for placement.
  • The release point will end at the first eight note of beat four at 0% and have a tension of 20%

Creating A Growling Pad