Virtual Instruments Tips & Tricks

Join veteran Groove3 instructor Thomas Cochran for a look at some handy tips and ideas for getting better sounds from your virtual instruments. Whether it's problem-solving, such as removing an annoying click from a sound's transient, or ways to vary a sound by way of modulation or other means, you'll gain a fresh perspective on VSTi use and what exactly they're capable of. These virtual instrument video tutorials are for those with basic VI familiarity.

Basic Tips

• Removing Pops & Clicks from Instruments (06:01) - This video introduces the course and shows how to use envelopes to remove pops and clicks at the start and end of notes. This can be super helpful if you are finding a patch is having these issues and are trying to fix it.

• Note Velocity (05:56) - Learn how to make more dynamic virtual instrument sequences though using velocity variation.

• Adjusting Internal Instrument Volume (05:25) - Discover tips on how to gain-stage with internal volume controls. This video also discusses how this can be super helpful if you're using a distortion or a dynamics device.

• Mono & Poly Instrument Settings (05:31) - Learn what mono and poly settings are on virtual instruments and how they're helpful. This video also covers portamento and how it's used to program interesting note sequences.

• Making Sounds Darker Using Filters (05:45) - Here's a simple filter video showing how you can modify the tone using filters on virtual instruments. This lets you make sounds darker or brighter to help them better fit into a production.

Adding Movement & Variation

• Adjusting an Instrument's Shape (06:14) - See how to use envelopes to adjust how an instrument is shaped. This is a great way of taking simple virtual instrument patches and quickly making more complex sounds.

• Adding Movement with LFOs (06:09) - Thomas shows how to create movement in instruments using LFOs. This is great for making more complex-sounding patches easily though adding simple variation.

• Built-in Effects (05:35) - Learn how built-in effects can make your instruments sound more professional. For example, you can take a simple pluck sound and transform it into a ambient pad or distorted bass in just a few clicks.

Advanced Tips

• Keyboard Tracking (05:16) - This video shows keyboard tracking for the filters and amp and demonstrates how this can be used to make dynamic and playable synth patches. This helps your synth and sampler patches feel more realistic when playing chords.

• Thickening Sounds with Unison (04:55) - Discover what oscillator unison is and how to create unison effects on a synth. This video also covers how to create this sound on samplers and synths that don?t have a dedicated unison mode.

• Thicker Bass Synths (03:11) - Watch how adjusting the volume of an individual oscillator when stacking multiple oscillators can produce thicker and heavier-sounding bass. This reduces phase cancellation and makes your synths sub more pronounced.