How to recreate the synth lead inJump by Van Halen

The key parts of this synth sound are the:

  1. Big, fat, detuned saw wave. This can be accomplished with 2 saw oscillators with one detuned or with a unison. You could do both too.
  2. Some filter envelope. It should be pretty fast. Just enough to hear the filter cutoff snap open.
  3. Spacious reverb and optionally some delay.
  4. If your synth has it, a vintage or slop knob. Jump is an older song and older synths' tuning naturally drifted. This will help it sounder closer to the original.
  5. Add chorus to make it sound thicker, if needed.

Another note: this song covers a broad range of notes. If your synth doesn't have that many keys, you may want to add a sub synth on the bottom end to get the lower growly synth sound.

Oscillators

Osc 1

Wave
saw wave
saw

Osc 2

Wave
saw wave
saw
Pitch
Pitch at 2%
+2

Filter

Cutoff
Cutoff at 60%
60%
Resonance
Resonance at 0%
0%

Filter Envelope

Attack
Attack at 10%
10%
Delay
Delay at 0%
0%
Sustain
Sustain at 100%
100%
Release
Release at 0%
0%
Amount
Amount at 100%
100%

Amp Envelope

Attack
Attack at 0%
0%
Delay
Delay at 0%
0%
Sustain
Sustain at 100%
100%
Release
Release at 0%
0%

Effects

reverb
reverb at medium%
medium
chorus
chorus at low%
low