Make a spicy lead with GForce Axxess

It's time to turn up the heat and Axxess a searing lead, with a little help from an ultra-cool addition to the plugin suite

- Roland Schmidt

Many synths wear their branded colours with pride; Moog features a white legend on a black background, and Oberheim employs highly identifiable cream panels, but one of the most enigmatic of all has to be the ARP generation of synths, resplendent with their orange blocks and white lettering.

Drawing inspiration from the original ARP Axxe, GForce Software has resurrected this classic in software form, with several operational additions along the way. As we’ve secured Axxess for our plugin suite, we decided to make it the subject for our latest series of synth sound design tutorials. We get things underway by drawing musical inspiration from a musician who became known for his soaring ARP synth solos. Billy Currie was a notable ARP Odyssey performer, with a recognisable sound and playing style that influenced a generation of synthesists throughout the ’80s. As part of the band Ultravox, he’d often provide lead-line synth solos during the bridge sections of songs, or interweave counter-melodies using his ARP Odyssey, at least when he wasn’t brandishing a viola, another one of his musical axes!

With the obvious connection between the Axxess in software and the original Odyssey hardware, this is the prefect time to create an ARP lead that Mr Currie himself would be proud of. Using the Axxess unison mode, we can create a similar effect to oscillator sync single. So don’t stand still, download Axxess and let’s explore!

GForce Software Axxess

A star new addition to the plugin suite, the recently released Axxess from GForce is a ‘fat, gnarly and flexible’ polysynth based on the 1975 Axxe, adding many modern bells and whistles…CM Plugin Suite V3.0.

Step by step Make a spicy lead with GForce Axxess