In this tutorial
My notes from this video
I always start with a saw wave in mono and add detune. That in itself could be a screech, but before I show you the other stuff I process it. You can hear it's a screech either way, it's just much better with all this stuff going on.
The first thing I always add is a compressor. The more you take down the threshold, the more snappy it gets. Then distortion, in this case a soft clipper because I don't want to blow up the sound yet, an EQ to get rid of the bass, delay at 1/4 and 1/2 on ping pong around the mids, and some reverb. I like the hall reverb the most because it's a bit cleaner than plate, and I add it in front of the compressor to give that ducking feeling.
The first thing I always focus on is detune. Play around with the detune combined with the randomized phase. With randomization the waveform starts at different points. If I take down the randomization it always starts at the place where I put the phase, and then the detune gives you different results.
Some spots sound like a laser and blow up the saw, which is not good for screeches. In others you get a very analog, warm sound, and if I increase the randomization a bit I get these old school type detunes. You want that old school analog feeling as opposed to the digital, because it's techno.
Another way to play around with detune is the noise oscillator. Take down the level, pick something like AC hum or ARP circuit so it's close to white noise, and FM from the noise oscillator. You get this very aggressive sound, and even with only a little bit of detune it's a screech as well.
The final thing you can do is go to the coarse pitch and mod source it to Chaos 1. In Global, turn up its rate all the way and just control the amount. Combine that with the noise FM and the detune and you get a really aggressive screech. I take down the coarse pitch a little bit because I don't want it too aggressive.
The second part in a screech is the pitch, so determine what type of screech you want. For an attack, route Envelope 2 in the matrix to the global master tune of the whole plugin. Type in 12 or 24 semitones so it stays in key and in pitch. You can also reverse the effect by typing minus 24.
Then play around with the shape. A screech that's very often done is kind of like a stab, the wow wow wow. Increase the decay and you get another screech.
The most simple filters you can use are bandpasses, 12 or 24. Add LFO 2 on half bar and you get a filter screech. But what you're probably looking for is more raw, and that's where the distortion comes into play. Add a pre-filter and a bunch of distortion. The more resonance, the more distortion and the more you focus on the mid-range, the more raw it gets.
You can also map the velocity to the cutoff. Create a pattern where a few notes go lower, and the filter moves based on the velocity. That gives you a little bit of control.
FL Studio·Serum
Nico Moreno·Brutalismus 3000·DYEN·Raxeller
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Techno Screeches Tutorial
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