May 19, 2024
by GForce Software
Federico Augusto Ágreda Álvarez, a.k.a Zardonic, is a Venezuelan keyboardist, DJ, composer, producer and remixer primarily known for his heavy electronic dance music, dubbed as Venezuela’s top DJ act and one of the Top 10 best DJ masks in the world, with releases peaking at #1 in Beatport’s Drum & Bass releases of the week and Amazon’s Hard Rock & Metal Bestsellers. He is also featured in the game Warlocks Vs Shadows, making him the first Latin American musician to be ever featured as a playable character in a video game. A remix with Mikey Rukus to his original Revelation was used as the theme song of the All Elite Wrestling pay-per-view Revolution in 2020.
Zardonic, who contributed to Minimonsta2, Oddity3, OB-X, Axxess and more recently impOSCar3‘s sound design, kindly agreed to answer a few questions.
Do you have any tips for getting great-sounding patches?
I’m guilty of loving all things that sound, well, FULL. Dramatic and emotion-driven, almost as if the sound itself was a character telling his own story. So start by setting Unison Mode to Mono, Polyphony to 16, full spread, detune to taste (55 cents is the sweet spot for me), add a filter, add resonance to taste, crank up the drive, add a pinch Delay and Reverb… and you’ll get a massive lead/reece/bass thing that will take up the entire spectrum. Then you can play with a bit of filter modulation here and there to spice things up. But that should basically be enough to make an entire track. Shape the tone further with a bit of EQ, layer it with a sub, add drums and you’re pretty much good to go.
Which of your impOSCar3 patches do you consider your personal favourite?
Probably Yoyful or Yoyrider. I have a love/hate relationship with formant filters. They’ve been used to death, but… they’re SO addictive and always a yoy to use.
Is there anything, in particular, you liked about impOSCar3?
The FILTERS, man! The OSCar was such an iconic synthesizer in the first place. I never had the opportunity to get my hands on a real one, sadly. But I do remember when the impOSCar plugin was released and everyone was raving about it! The latest update definitely brings it to the next level. Custom Wavetables, new LFO shapes, macros, up to 16 Unison voices, it’s everything we’d want and then some!
What’s your favourite synthesiser?
Oh man, I could nerd out for days on this. Favourite hardware synths include my PWM Malevolent (and the upcoming PWM Mantis, once I get my hands on one. For OSCar lovers, this is gonna satisfy your needs!), my ARP 2600M, my Polivoks Pro… I have a knack for synthesizers with rich, gnarly tones. Probably because I always liked to treat synthesizers as replacements for an electric guitar, which is why I’m always inclined to making big, noisy and resonant sounds. Favorite software synths include the GForce MiniMonsta 2, Arturia Pigments, Kilohearts PhasePlant. MiniMonsta 2 is a great alternative to having a Moog One for me (and also over 10k cheaper). Pigments is really intuitive for quick sound design choices, and PhasePlant is where you can go as mental as your computer allows.