Reveal Sound’s soft synth Spire has quickly become a standard in the plugin collection of most aspiring producers, with its powerful feature set and impressive audio quality allowing the creation of a huge range of desirable sounds. In this 3-hour course from Producertech senior tutor Rob Jones, you’ll be taken through every section of the plugin interface and shown a multitude of techniques for designing a variety of different patches.

Spire’s 4-oscillator sound engines offer a host of unique options for the type of synthesis, with amplitude, pulse width and frequency modulation all available, as well as a sync mode. This is further enhanced by a double waveform feature, where the first waveform is selectable from all standard oscillator types and the second from a long list of sample-based waveforms, which can be combined independently in each oscillator and made to interact in weird and wonderful ways. Once Rob has explained how each mode works and how waveforms can then be processed and blended in the unison and mix sections, he provides a number of patch design examples to help cement the techniques learned so far.

The next part of the course then tackles Spire’s filters and various modulators, including envelopes, LFOs and a stepper, before moving onto the Arpeggiator, EQ and FX. Once every part of the synth has been dealt with, Rob moves onto a series of extensive patch design lessons, with the first showing the designing of a gritty, raucous bass, the second a gripping lead and the last a multi-part, groove sequence.

Signing up to the course gets you instant 24/7 access to the streamed tutorials for as long as you need, plus a download pack containing the patches made on the course and 10 bonus presets from Loopmasters. Check out the free sample modules before signing up for an example of the course style and content, which ensures you’ll walk away with a much improved understanding of how to use Spire to create your own masterful sounds!

Sample Module

Course Breakdown

Module 1 - Wave Section - 2 Lessons

A guide to the oscillator engines and the many different modes within them for creating classic, PWM, FM and sync sounds with the synthesiser and sample-based waveforms.

Module 2 - Unison and Mix Sections - 2 Lessons

A module showing how the unison section allows a host of detuning effects and also intervals and chords to be made, before the width and panning of the oscillator is defined.

Module 3 - Example Wave Designs - 2 Lessons

A simple example of using all 4 oscillators to create a detuned saw preset, followed by a more complex example of layering oscillators to create a patch.

Module 4 - Filters - 2 Lessons

A guide to the filter section, including the individual filter controls and how to set up and use them in series and parallel modes.

Module 5 - Modulators - 2 Lessons

Spire’s main modulators are covered, looking at how to modulate oscillator pitch in one-shot and continuous looped fashion with the envelopes and LFOs, respectively.

Module 6 - Stepper - 1 Lesson

A module showing how to use Spire’s stepper to modulate the filter cutoff up and down, in order to create a classic, rhythmic bass patch.

Module 7 - Arpeggiator - 1 Lesson

The Arpeggiator is used to create a dancing, melodic patch, with the sequencer bars shifting the pitch of notes across several octaves in a syncopated rhythm.

Module 8 - FX and EQ - 2 Lessons

The final sections of the synth are covered, showing how they enable the application of numerous effects as well as parametric EQ to the master output.

Module 9 - Patch Design 1 - Bass Part 1 - 4 Lessons

The first part of a lengthy series of lessons showing how to create a bass patch, which includes a guide to the different monophonic modes available, creative use of filtering to add additional layers of sound, and application of effects.

Module 10 - Patch Design 2 - Bass Part 2 - 3 Lessons

The bass sound from the previous module is expanded, with a bass layer added using another oscillator, modulation applied to the shaper effect, and then important parameters on the synth mapped to different macro controls.

Module 11 - Patch Design 3 - Lead - 5 Lessons

A multi-layer lead patch is made, consisting of an FM striking sound, bolstered by filtered noise, followed by a more gradual sync’d oscillator for the secondary part of the sound.

Module 12 - Patch Design 4 - Sequence - 2 Lessons

A rhythmic, looping sequence is created, which includes a psy style bass, syncopated minor chord stab and up-beat hi hat.