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Tutorial 128 / Ableton Live

Build Rowan Veil

Rowan Veil is an organ sound made with Operator, Chorus-Ensemble, Reverb and Utility.

5 stepsOperatorLive 12 Suite

Listen to the finished sound

Download WEBM ↓

Follow the synthesis steps in order. Use the audio examples and device settings alongside the instructions.

Step 01 / 5

Build oscillator A and its amplitude envelope

Choose oscillator A’s waveform and coarse/fine tuning. Set its envelope mode, attack, decay, sustain and release for the fundamental body of the sound. Keep the other oscillators, pitch envelope, LFO and filter off for this first stage. Ae, Be, Ce and De refer to the envelopes for oscillators A, B, C and D; Pe refers to the pitch envelope.

Use Operator with the complete starting settings. Set the source and amplitude controls below; sections marked Off stay bypassed at this stage.

Signal flow: Operator → Chorus-Ensemble → Reverb → Utility. Begin with the instrument, then add each effect in its numbered step.

Control Value
Volume -8.0 dB
PB Range +2 st
Tone 100 %
Spread 0 %
Osc-A On On
Osc-A Wave Sine
A Coarse 1
A Fine 0
Osc-A Level -8.0 dB
Osc-A Lev < Vel 35 %
Ae Attack 12.0 ms
Ae Decay 800 ms
Ae Sustain 0.0 dB
Ae Release 170 ms
Ae Mode None
Osc-B On Off
Osc-C On Off
Osc-D On Off
Filter On Off
Pe On Off
LFO On Off
Rowan Veil — Operator — step 1
Rowan Veil — Operator — step 1 · Select image to enlarge

Sound after step 1 — WebM/Opus

Next: Shape the harmonics, pitch and filter contour →

Step 02 / 5

Shape the harmonics, pitch and filter contour

Use the oscillator switches and algorithm below to introduce the remaining sound layers. Set each enabled oscillator’s tuning, level and envelope. In a serial algorithm, modulator level controls the strength of FM overtones; in a parallel algorithm, it controls the level of a separate audible layer. Enable the pitch envelope and filter only where marked On.

Keep the first stage’s source and amplitude settings while making these changes. The complete instrument settings show the resulting tone before effects.

Alg. 11 places A, B, C and D in parallel as separate audible layers.

Control Value
Algorithm Alg. 11
Filter On On
Filter Type Lowpass
Filter Slope 12 dB
Filter Freq 3.36 kHz
Filter Res 5.0 %
Filt < Key 50 %
Pe On Off
LFO On Off
Osc-B On On
Osc-B Wave Sine
B Coarse 2
B Fine 0
Osc-B Level -15 dB
Osc-B Lev < Vel 35 %
Be Attack 12.0 ms
Be Decay 927 ms
Be Sustain 0.0 dB
Be Release 170 ms
Be Mode None
Osc-C On On
Osc-C Wave Sine
C Coarse 3
C Fine 0
Osc-C Level -19 dB
Osc-C Lev < Vel 35 %
Ce Attack 12.0 ms
Ce Decay 800 ms
Ce Sustain 0.0 dB
Ce Release 170 ms
Ce Mode None
Osc-D On On
Osc-D Wave Sine
D Coarse 4
D Fine 0
Osc-D Level -24 dB
Osc-D Lev < Vel 35 %
De Attack 12.0 ms
De Decay 800 ms
De Sustain 0.0 dB
De Release 170 ms
De Mode None
Rowan Veil — Operator — step 2
Rowan Veil — Operator — step 2 · Select image to enlarge

Sound after step 2 — WebM/Opus

Next: Apply Chorus-Ensemble →

Step 03 / 5

Apply Chorus-Ensemble

Select the mode, then set Rate, Amount and Dry/Wet. Rate controls the speed of movement, Amount controls its depth and Width sets its stereo spread. The high-pass setting limits the low-frequency content entering the chorus.

Control Value
Mode Chorus
Rate 0.18 Hz
Amount 18 %
Dry/Wet 22 %
HP On On
HP Freq 180 Hz

Place Chorus-Ensemble after Operator. The complete settings include its remaining controls.

Rowan Veil — Chorus-Ensemble — step 3
Rowan Veil — Chorus-Ensemble — step 3 · Select image to enlarge

Sound after step 3 — WebM/Opus

Next: Apply Reverb →

Step 04 / 5

Apply Reverb

Set decay, room size and Dry/Wet for the surrounding space. Predelay separates the direct attack from the room. Input filtering shapes what excites the reverb, while diffusion and high-frequency damping change the density and brightness of its tail.

Control Value
Predelay 12.0 ms
In Lo Cut On Off
In Hi Cut On Off
Diff. Hi Freq 4.50 kHz
HiShelf Gain 0.60
Density High
Freeze On Off
Decay Time 1.87 s
Room Size 72.00
Dry/Wet 18 %

Place Reverb after Chorus-Ensemble. The complete settings include its remaining controls.

Rowan Veil — Reverb — step 4
Rowan Veil — Reverb — step 4 · Select image to enlarge

Sound after step 4 — WebM/Opus

Next: Apply Utility →

Step 05 / 5

Apply Utility

Set gain and width at the end of the chain. Set Utility’s Gain knob to the Output value in the table. Width changes the balance between center and side information; Mono combines the channels. Bass Mono narrows only the low frequencies below its cutoff. Keep DC Filter and phase-inversion switches at the listed values.

Control Value
Output -8.79 dB
DC Filter On
Bass Mono On
Bass Freq 140 Hz

Place Utility after Reverb. The complete settings include its remaining controls.

Rowan Veil — Utility — step 5
Rowan Veil — Utility — step 5 · Select image to enlarge

Sound after step 5 — WebM/Opus

Audio & settings ↓

Audio & settings

Audio recordings and settings for this tutorial.