Anyone know how to make an approximate Vox Humana sound on the Matrixbrute?
If so can you share the file, or a map to the knob settings necessary.
thanks!
I got curious, and started some searching, which turned up a thread on Gearspace about reproducing this sound. That lead in turn to an archived Keyboard magazine article and this video published just recently:
None of these used the MatrixBrute, but the general sound design can be applied to any subtractive analog synth with at least two VCOs, pulse width modulation on at least one of them, and three LFOs, so we’re in luck!
I had a crack at it. This might not be perfect, but it’s in the right neighbourhood. I used a saw wave on VCO 1, pulse wave on VCO 2, routed both through the ladder LPF at 12 dB slope. LFOs 1 & 2 do slight pitch modulation on VCOs 1 & 2, respectively, while VCO/LFO 3 is used as an LFO only, to modulate the pulse width of VCO 2. The Starsky Carr video says to put a phaser on it, but since the MB doesn’t have one, I used the flanger instead. You might prefer to use the delay, or just add external FX. You might want to tweak the envelope, too. I left it with a short release, because I think the tail on the sound in Cars is coming from delay or reverb decay rather than a release on the synth envelope, but have a play with it.
I love seeing questions like this on the forum, because it gives me an idea for a quick project that can get me out of a creative rut. It had been a long time since I’ve given my MatrixBrute some love, and this reminded me of how much fun it is to program a patch on it. Thanks!
3 Likes
Thanks @tmoore for posting that link, i was about to post the same one as it came up on my feed the other day too.
I was able to load it in! Thanks so much for the preset. Sounds good. I’m glad you had fun making it! Also nothing like some fresh sounds to reinvigorate creativity.
1 Like