Author Topic: Next Vintage Emulations? (Read 74012 times)

marinedalek · « **Reply #60 on:** February 16, 2006, 01:45:40 am »

Roland Jupiter 4 - Not a popular choice, I know but I have my reasons

EMS VCS3 (putney) - Classic 70s leads and basses, plus a great sound effect creator.
Roland SVC-350 vocoder - Again, I have my reasons...

Ok, what the hell - my first and last choices are purely because they were in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1980 when Peter Howell was creating his version of the Doctor Who theme.

Sweep · « **Reply #61 on:** February 16, 2006, 03:15:05 am »

This is off topic, but I'll post it here rather than contacting you directly because other people may also be interested.

You sound like someone who may be able to answer this question.

I recall Delia Derbyshire's original Dr Who theme having a much warmer and subtler oscillator timbre than any of the later versions.

I don't have a copy of the original theme, but I've tried synthesising the timbre as I recall it, and I've never quite got it. I'm presuming it's an old valve oscillator, probably well warmed up by the time it was committed to tape. The synth oscillators and test-tone oscillators I've tried aren't the right sound, and processing still can't quite get it. I've even tried adding sine waves at different frequences to get the effect of a basic tone plus harmonics, but that didn't quite do it either.

There are a lot of test tone oscillators about, but I suspect I could buy dozens, maybe hundreds before finding one with that tone.

Do you know if there's a sample recording somewhere of the basic oscillator sound Delia used? Or if you have any information on oscillators that have that particular richness, I'd be interested.

- thanks

omissis · « **Reply #62 on:** February 16, 2006, 07:43:22 pm »

Dr.Who's "scream"

Quoting from http://tv.cream.org/lookin/drwho/moments/

"The downwards scream was created in similar fashion. The source sound is a downwards-sliding hard-edged tone produced using an audio oscillator. Again, this was fed into the pitch shifter with very short delay, a downwards shift, and heavy feedback. Aliasing distortion within the shifter added to the overall effect. The result was mixed with the rising echoes to give the sound we are all familiar with."

By the way, the bass-line of the 1980 version was a YAMAHA CS-80 reworked through tape manipulation

By the way , do you remember Springsteen's "Born in USA" ?? The lead synth is again a YAMAHA CS-80

marinedalek · « **Reply #63 on:** February 16, 2006, 10:52:23 pm »

Sweep => Contrary to popular belief, the original theme wasn't completely oscillators - the bassline was a sample of a rubber band/string being plucked. What I think you're referring to however is the melody. I do indeed have the complete set of samples, they're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, having come from an 8-bit, 22050Khz source, but they provide an extremely good starting point.

An important thing to remember also is that there are two melody lines - the "swooping" sine and a high organ part played on an early analogue electric organ that the radiophonic workshop mutilated somewhat. Also, judging by the interview given on the "Masters of Sound" documentary on the Beginning DVD boxset, the swooping melody was recorded at half speed - understandable considering the precision needed to manipulate the oscillator in the correct way.

Here is an mp3 of the samples strung together. I've put marker points indicating where one sample stops and the next starts.

http://marinedalek.co.uk/melody.mp3

And just for omissis, here's a sample of my recreation of Peter Howell's 1980s bassline, done on the CS-80v.

http://marinedalek.co.uk/basslinedemo.mp3
[/quote]

Sweep · « **Reply #64 on:** February 16, 2006, 10:56:40 pm »

Omissis, many thanks for that.

That's brilliant.

The pitch shifter and feedback have taken me into just the right sonic area. I'm using a Mg Voyager as the sound source, and bringing the Mg filter into the equation adds something extra as well.

I realised a while ago that pitch shifting is an under-used technique, but I hadn't thought of trying it in this context. With the feedback carefully mixed in and the levels set just right, it's magic.

This actually has a lot of potential, using different oscillators and filters.

Sweep · « **Reply #65 on:** February 16, 2006, 11:09:42 pm »

Marinedalek - yes, that's the bit I meant, not the scream, though using the pitch shifter on a sine wave oscillator with feedback and a filter has opened up the upper registers of the sound into the etherial textures I was after, as per my previous post. It can be done delicately as well as drastically in scream territory.

I hadn't realised there was a modified organ in there as well (though I knew about the method used for the basslines - I think she had a piece of wood with two nails supporting the band, in true Radiophonic style?).

I think I'll do a series of experiments with this, using the pitch shifter/feedback and also using the speed change you mentioned - as well as sampling and changing speed and other parameters that way. I'll also download the MP3 - many thanks for that.

My aim with this has been to get that certain sound texture and use it in new ways, rather than to replicate the original theme, and the information I've been given has already made that possible.

omissis · « **Reply #66 on:** February 17, 2006, 11:09:09 am »

Quote from: "marinedalek"

Sweep =>
And just for omissis, here's a sample of my recreation of Peter Howell's 1980s bassline, done on the CS-80v.

http://marinedalek.co.uk/basslinedemo.mp3

[/quote]

That's simply great of you, Sweep!!

Sweep · « **Reply #67 on:** February 17, 2006, 02:27:39 pm »

Thanks, but that was the other guy, Marinedalek.

omissis · « **Reply #68 on:** February 18, 2006, 01:14:52 pm »

Ooooopssss :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:

I route the compliments to MDLK :lol: :lol: :wink:

Boulotaur2024 · « **Reply #69 on:** March 15, 2006, 09:28:50 pm »

You guys might be surprized of my choice, but I'm gonna give another vote to Roland vp-330

Also SynthEx would be great, reading through the thread and articles posted here made me want to play it.

omissis · « **Reply #70 on:** March 16, 2006, 12:03:31 pm »

I'll give a chance to Vp-330 but , my guess, it could be more realistic to switch to the ELKA Synthex ( see related thread ) :wink:

Elhardt · « **Reply #71 on:** March 21, 2006, 02:57:29 am »

The last thing that Arturia needs encouragement to do is another synth emulation. What they first need to do is finish the ones they currectly have. Fixing bugs and problems is where they should be spending their time. Better a small product line of 100% complete and working products than a larger product line of 98% working products.

-Elhardt

omissis · « **Reply #72 on:** March 21, 2006, 12:25:53 pm »

Quote from: "Elhardt"

The last thing that Arturia needs encouragement to do is another synth emulation. What they first need to do is finish the ones they currectly have. Fixing bugs and problems is where they should be spending their time. Better a small product line of 100% complete and working products than a larger product line of 98% working products.

-Elhardt

Full agree, Elhardt.

I detected almost 50 entries since December among bug reports , tips for getting a better emulation and (few)Features' requests , and this just for the CS-80V only, I can't nothing else but thank all the people in the CS80V Group who contributed to make this a better instrument, I wish at least........ok I'm in love with the Yamaha CS80 but, you know, love makes the world go round..... :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:

andre · « **Reply #73 on:** November 02, 2006, 12:34:47 am »

Oberheim Matrix-12
Oberheim SEM 4,8, ?-voice
Roland Jupiter 8

wintersun · « **Reply #74 on:** November 04, 2006, 11:15:00 am »

Jupiter 8 everytime.
Ive owned just about all the various different behemoths of the 70's and 80's and nothing touches the sound of the jupiter 8, not even the synthex, because the synthex has a very CEM sounding taint to it.
The discrete circuitry inside the jupiter 8's make a very distinctive sound indeed, and sound more like a polyphonic modular than the cconventional polysynths of the time like the prophet 5, oberheim ob8 etc..

but as has already been mentioned, i'd rather arturia got their current product line in check before anything else is developed.