Analogue bell sounds.

[Userfriend]

Any favourite analog synth for making bell sounds? post examples and discuss differences.

Yamaha CS-30. It starts from the beginning in this vid. Especially after one minute it´s making a really fat bell tone.




The ARP Odyssey after 3.45:




Korg 700s, after 12.15:

[Synthacon]

a relly fat bell tone.

Seriously that is perhaps the worst use of the word fat in connection with synth sounds

[pflosi]

I like my A6 most for this. I need polyphony for bells (always multitracked when striking bells with the MS20) - need long release - very phaaattttttt

[Synthacon]

With all the phatness that people talk about I am surprised the sound can get through the speaker cones!!!

[pflosi]

That's more of a problem with cheeeeeeeseeey™ sound IME

That's also a better description of bells

[mharris80]

D Collector posted a bank of JX-8P sounds (check the sticky above) that has a great-sounding preset in it called "Juno Bells".

[Audity]

Digital/FM synths (my DX7 in mind, specifically) seem best suited for pitched percussive/bell type sounds. I've also had fairly good luck achieving metallic/bell like sounds using the ring mod on subtractive synths.

[ted1986]

The Yamaha DX7 is very good with metallic sounds, but of course, that is a digital synth. Then there was the PPG Wave which was analog/digital.

[Don T]

I'm quite partial to the bell sounds generated by the Korg DW-6000 and DW-8000.

Perhaps the key is having the type of envelope generator response that is more readily available with a digital EG.

[hyphen nation]

Prophet VS in my experience is one of the best synths for making bell sounds, just a huge sound. Evolver is pretty good too. Is there a reason it has to be analog?

[V301H]

As Analog VCO Synths go the Jupiter 6 can do some of the best bell sounds I've heard. The JP6 has an inherently bright sound combined with wide-ranging Oscillators which in Sync mode are capable of producing metallic sounds with high-end sparkle. There is also Cross-Mod for dissonance.

[Userfriend]

Is there a reason it has to be analog?

It´s just so obvious that digital synths do this type of sounds well. It´s no match for them. I think we all know that. Therefore I wanted to pay attention to analogs.

[shaft9000]

off with ye digital/hybrid suggestions!
they're not what the OP asked for

sure many analog synths can "kinda" do the bells,
but this is traditionally west-coast design territory; timbres that go places Moogs and the like cannot

ZeroOscillator
Buchla 261e
Wiard Anti-Oscillator
Serge NTO/DTO/Pvco

there's not much range or flexibility in any of the analog fixed-archetecture synths, although the JP-8 has just about the sweetest sound out of any of those that I've heard. but very little timbral range or flexibility with the measly x-mod+wave selector only.
the A6 has some range, but is not stable enough and lacks thru-zero provisions that add greatly to this sort of osc's flexibility

tracking and mantaining FM ratios precisely across many octaves is the chief advantage of digital implementation. stability has greatly improved though in recent decades, and now it is mainly a matter of real-estate and limited funds-to-be-had that you don't see an FM analog poly.
It would be an AWESOME synth if anyone could do it, though.

[orlando56]

shaft9000, please forgive my ignorance, but what does "thru-zero provisions" mean? Question asked in all sincerity.

[shaft9000]

i'm sure someone can explain it better than i.
being that I'm a "musician" and college dropout, my physics sucks and my electronics are even worse.

here's Cynthia of Cyndustries' spiel:

i find it humorous, as since then several through-zero(albeit digital) osc have been added to the eurorack market such as the Cylonix Cyclebox.

Nevertheless the ZO remains quite special. Now that a mk2 is coming to market, the old mark1 ZO's are now VINTAGE!

no more "3 stacked PCB's perpendicular to the faceplate PCB"
mk1:
mk2 :


anyway - my take (subject to improvement!):
one thing is that on most oscillators the FM is usually only DC and exponential, a la 1V/Octave. Each voltage increase of 1v doubles the frequency.
a through-zero oscillator can handle both AC and DC, in a way that the waveform reverses direction when passing the zero-axis rather than being cut/rectified/ignored. ime offsets are needed often with expo but not linear for this reason.
so to get this sort of FM the CV must be linear and not exponential. expo curves can cause things to sound wonky at LFO range, or messy as h**l from sidebands during audio-rate FM. Linear stays consistent as you play up the scale if your FM ratios are precise enough - which has always been one big difficulty of using analog to do Chowning-style FM.
some oscillators that handle linear are not thru-zero, like the Buchla and Anti, yet the range is enormous and the linear modulation is there. you just may have to use offsets in-between the modulator and VCO.

linear FM in this regard is analogous to the natural vibrations endemic to bell sounds - something like taking a less resonant object(hammer tip) and striking another much more resonant object (hollow metal shell), and the kinetic energy fading in time -tri waves are a perfect modulator for vibrations. the FM ratios determine harmonics.

FM is an extended spectra beyond classic subtractive - it can be easy to confuse these things with ring/AM modulation and x-mod in general.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_ ... _synthesis

i'm still learning it myself.
feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, anyone!