Deconstructing Cut Copy's "Visions"

Cut Copy's "Visions"'s synth pad sound is a masterpiece of sound design!

Have you ever wanted to play this pad sound with your synthesizer? Then, this article is for you!

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Cut Copy is the name of the Australian synth outfit behind hits such as "Hearts On Fire", "Lights And Music" (both part of In Ghost Colours) and "Need You Now" (Zonoscope, 2011). The band was founded by Dan Whitford, while it was still a solo project of his. Then, Benett Foddy and Tim Hoey (guitar) joined. Not long after the first LP (Bright Like Neon Love, 2003), Benett left the band and Mitchell Scott (drums) joined Tim and Dan. A few years after the release of their first album, Ben Browning (bass) was introduced as an official member.

In Ghost Colours album cover

"Visions" is part of the 2008 album In Ghost Colours, by Cut Copy, which opens for the track "Nobody Lost, Nobody Found".

MIDI keyboard

This is the first article with synthesizer tutorials, on the blog.
For this you can use a MIDI keyboard or even a synthesizer with MIDI inputs. This (Native Instruments Komplete 49) is what's being used to demonstrate how to make these sounds.
The main sound is the synth pad with tremolo and delay. It's such a beautiful fading pad sound! To create it the the recipe is:

1. unsynced square LFO modulation of the VCA and maybe a little PWM, envelopes with low Sustain levels but longer Decay/Release;
2. And a little bit of crossmod/Oscillator modulation of the Filter;
3. The timbre of the sound is brighter when the VCA is lower (the downpart of the square LFO tremolo);
4. For a Delay I would use something tapelike with a generous amount of degradation;
5. maybe put a chorus in front of the delay channel (only some chorus on the signal going into the repeats);

(Credits to M-32, Gearslutz)

Model Pro (Moog Prodigy emulation)

Next, there's the bass line. Of course it's a normal bass guitar that was used in this tune, but with some sound design with Model_Pro, a Moog Prodigy emulation, it's pretty close. Here's an example of a bass sound that fits well with the pad:

Here is the full song: