Sledgehammer patch

Software Instruments Prophet V
#1

I am fairly new to synths, both software and hardware, so please excuse the noob question. I have the Arturia collection and I was hoping there was a patch/preset for the arturia prophet 5 similar to the one in sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel. From my research I have found it is a prophet 5 on the original recording. Can anyone help?
Thank you in advance.
This is sound I am looking for in the following video.

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#2

Hi @Jayshutt76 and welcome to The Sound Explorers Forum!

I don’t think it’s just a Prophet 5 on that intro, if at all. If there is a P5 then it sounds like it’s not one of the stock presets i’m afraid, quite possibly one of those involved programmed, or they may have hired as sound designer as is sometimes the case.
There’s also A LOT of Emulator II on that track… it starts with the classic ‘Shakuhachi’ preset.
Just had a couple of listens to the original again and there is what sounds like some kind of Emulator high brass in the left channel.

If i were you, i’d follow your ears, load up Analog Lab V and just scroll through the brass presets as it’s a pretty generic sounding brass patch, you’ll likely find something fairly close that way.

HTH!

Ps,
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#3

Sorry. The part I was thinking about is the main synth part (under the horns). The quite metallic sounding synth. It becomes quite prominent in the 2nd verse.

#4

Hello @Jayshutt76 ,

As it was said before, I think it must have a lot of other elements that flesh out the original sound.

Unless you ask Peter Gabriel directly, you never know between musicians.

Good discovery to you.

Musical Friendship of France.

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#5

I just found this article about the synths that Peter Gabriel uses.
Happy reading.

Gear Rundown : Les synthés de Peter Gabriel (mixdownmag.com.au)

Morceaux classiques : Peter Gabriel ‘Sledgehammer’ (soundonsound.com)

#6

HI again @Jayshutt76

A technique that’s VERY widely used is to ‘stack’ or layer more than one sound over another to make it sound ‘bigger’, ‘thicker’, ‘more complex’ etc and it does sound like there’s more going on in the original than in the video you posted originally.
This is one of the things AnalogLab V is GREAT for, you can mix and match two different sounds from the same synth or different synths at the same time and change sounds or synths on the fly pretty much, until you find what you’re after.

I read sometime ago that the producers of The Human League’s ‘Don’t you want me’ claimed to have layered over 200 different synth sounds on that record… i think there might be some exaggeration and hyperbole going on there though (tautology intended) :wink:

Hope that helps to point you in the right direction a little more.

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