Kraftwerk "The Robots" bass sound

Robonaut · Post by **Robonaut** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:57 pm

I was dinking around with my Prophet 08 last night trying recreate this patch without a lot of success. I could get the blippy resonance, but not the body of the sound.

Can anyone provide some pointers?

Thanks.

Yoozer · Post by **Yoozer** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:09 pm

Why not save the blips as one preset, then make another for the bass, then stack them? That way you can sort of overcome the phenomenon of not having an identical filter and you get more control.

I'm hearing a sawtooth with a thin pulsewave - maybe a fast but subdued LFO over the pitch to make it a little bit more grainy.

intercorni · Post by **intercorni** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:11 pm

The Kraftwerk Bass Sound is making with the minimoog.

Post by **madtheory** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:28 pm

It sounds like they layered the blip with the bass sound, because the blip stays at the same "pitch" throughout. They're also modulating the filter cutoff, again, this is not affecting the bass tone, indicating that it's a composite sound.

Ya, it does sound very Minimoogish alright. The whole album does!

Automatic Gainsay · Post by **Automatic Gainsay** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:18 am

madtheory wrote:It sounds like they layered the blip with the bass sound, because the blip stays at the same "pitch" throughout. They're also modulating the filter cutoff, again, this is not affecting the bass tone, indicating that it's a composite sound.

Ya, it does sound very Minimoogish alright. The whole album does!

I am not directly familiar with the sound, and I don't have this recording (I'm sure people are throwing stuff at me in their minds), but it is possible to have an oscillator in a patch that stays at the same pitch despite keys depressed on the Minimoog- the keyboard tracking can be shut off on the 3rd oscillator.
I can't say if that's what's happening in this recording, but it's possible.

pricklyrobot · Post by **pricklyrobot** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:47 am

Automatic Gainsay wrote:I am not directly familiar with the sound, and I don't have this recording (I'm sure people are throwing stuff at me in their minds)

Consider multi-colored traffic cones chucked from my head at yours. What do you have against German guys in matching red shirts?

Honestly, if you think Kraftwerk are boring and repetitive, just listen a few more times. It grows on you like crazy.

suitandtieguy · Post by **suitandtieguy** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:25 am

pricklyrobot wrote:Consider multi-colored traffic cones chucked from my head at yours. What do you have against German guys in matching red shirts?

i think it's very safe to assume Mr Gainsay has no dislike for Kraftwerk, he just hasn't heard "The Robots."

for example, i think Kraftwerk is the s**t, enough to get your traffic cone reference and immediately lament that those guys want no one to hear their awesome hippie period, but i'm only familiar with the The Mix version of the track.

Automatic Gainsay · Post by **Automatic Gainsay** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:36 am

pricklyrobot wrote:
Automatic Gainsay wrote:I am not directly familiar with the sound, and I don't have this recording (I'm sure people are throwing stuff at me in their minds)
Consider multi-colored traffic cones chucked from my head at yours. What do you have against German guys in matching red shirts?

Honestly, if you think Kraftwerk are boring and repetitive, just listen a few more times. It grows on you like crazy.

I have liked the Kraftwerk I've heard... I just haven't pursued it, really! I don't know why. I guess I would probably love the early 70s stuff.

suitandtieguy · Post by **suitandtieguy** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:44 am

Automatic Gainsay wrote:I guess I would probably love the early 70s stuff.

i'm fairly certain there's one track you've heard quite a bit. i believe we're within a few years age-wise, if you don't smack your forehead and say "WOW I WAS DIGGING KRAFTWERK BACK WHEN I WAS LIKE SIX YEARS OLD!!!?!?!" then it's possible i assume too much:

also dude, when did you get a novachord!?! i'm so glad to see you picked one up. i regret selling mine.

EDIT: i found a U-Toob link for the original so i'm finally checking it out. i think i like the The Mix version better, but this is very very cool regardless.

severen · Post by **severen** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:26 am

I have great Kraftwerk TV clip.

Kraftwerk - The Robots (French TV 1978)

http://board01.ktdom.com/php/board.php? ... 6&page=137

Bitexion · Post by **Bitexion** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:41 am

Come on, guys, it's not layered and it's not an impossible sound to recreate. My Andromeda has a preset called "Snick Bass" that is exactly like that. The "click" is made by sweeping the filter cutoff fast with envelope, and the sustain level is set low (but not all the way down) so it ends at a dark tone. The pitch coloration is because the filter cutoff is high, and the sinewave is bleeding through.
The reason the "blippy" sound is never the same is due to instability in the minimoog filter, also emulated by assigning velocity to the filter cutoff on other synths.

tim gueguen · Post by **tim gueguen** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 4:10 pm

When I first listened to The Man Machine a few years ago I was very surprised when it turned out I'd heard a lot of that stuff before. Back in the late '70s-early '80s the local CBC station used bits of "Spacelab" and "The Man Machine" as filler music before signon and when they were having technical difficulties. They used the first miniute or so of each tune before the vocoder parts kicked in, looped if I remember correctly.

Post by **Jack Spider** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 6:59 pm

Further to what Bitexion says, I remember that Angus (Clubbedtodeath) produced a very passable version on his Novation KS4 with no multitracking. I'm sure that he routed the filter cutoff to keyboard velocity for the variation in sound.

Never tried to emulate the sound when I had a Mini, but it's not unfeasible that they simply manually adjusted the cutoff whilst playing.

Bob-omb · Post by **Bob-omb** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:08 pm

There's a preset on the Little Phatty that emulates that sound quite good.

Post by **madtheory** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:13 pm

Automatic Gainsay wrote:it is possible to have an oscillator in a patch that stays at the same pitch despite keys depressed on the Minimoog- the keyboard tracking can be shut off on the 3rd oscillator.

I meant that the blip is done with a fast filter sweep, not an oscillator. I haven't used a Minimoog in depth, so how do you get the blip and also the bass tone?