Favorite synth sounds

yburn · Post by **yburn** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:37 pm

Not strictly a synth but... Alison Goldfrapp through an MS20, as heard on the 1st goldfrapp album. As far a pure synth sounds go I stumbled across a sound when programming my Q. It's like a metal accordion being played by an angry Gorilla. Was jamming with it for hours, it's the future I tell you!

Carey M · Post by **Carey M** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:13 pm

yburn wrote:Not strictly a synth but... Alison Goldfrapp through an MS20, as heard on the 1st goldfrapp album.

I'll second that! That's a grrreat sound!

- CM

MissionBrown · Post by **MissionBrown** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:13 pm

THM wrote:
the_undercutters wrote:shine on you crazy diamond...(you know.. By "the floyd")

I really like that damn lead.
ita pretty easy to reproduce on the AN1X but damn its just so smooth.

Do you mean the lead sound - flute-alike - in the long intro ?

yeah

Andante · Post by **Andante** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:39 pm

yburn wrote:Not strictly a synth but... Alison Goldfrapp through an MS20, as heard on the 1st goldfrapp album.

A really great sound indeed!

burns46824 · Post by **burns46824** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:04 am

Jexus, that reverse guitar sound from the JP8 makes me not want to program synthesizers. Damn...

Probably the backing sequence in "Save a Prayer" (SH-2) or the strings in "Procession" (Quadra).

bigbadbarns · Post by **bigbadbarns** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:37 am

Shleed wrote:
bigbadbarns wrote:There's many, but the first to come to mind is the first sound I heard and thought "f**k, synths are cool".

It was in (forgive me!) "here's johnny"- that hardcore techno track from like 1992 or something. There was this awesome sound that kind of went "wooooow" (sine LFO on the pitch I guess) and ground to a halt.

I can't explain it any better than that. BUt I'm still curious as to how it was made.
I think you mean the hoover sound, made by the Alpha Juno synths. Love that sound

No its not the 'hoover', though that is freakin awesome! hehe.

I haven't listened to it for years. Its the FIRST synth sound you hear. That growling sound that grinds to a halt.

Any ideas?

hinotori · Post by **hinotori** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 5:41 am

opening of blade runner

jrcv · Post by **jrcv** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:47 am

Piano layered over strings, but having a more "artificial, bright, and wavy" feel, much like the startup/login and shutdown/logoff jingles for a Windows XP operating system.

Biboulon · Post by **Biboulon** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:27 am

The OBX's pad in "Love like Blood" from Killing Joke
The pads in "All cats are grey" from the Cure...
The Sequence in "Europe endless" from Kraftwerk

and so many others

Big Gnome · Post by **Big Gnome** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 12:13 pm

The fat resonance sweep from "Tom Sawyer" by Rush.
Peter Gabriel's standard chorused CP70 tone.
That lovely pad from "Plainsong" by the Cure.

Nothing particularly mindblowing perhaps, but each has a kind of iconic quality that would make me feel extremely cheap if I were to emulate them.

Shleed · Post by **Shleed** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:31 pm

bigbadbarns wrote:
Shleed wrote:
bigbadbarns wrote:There's many, but the first to come to mind is the first sound I heard and thought "f**k, synths are cool".

It was in (forgive me!) "here's johnny"- that hardcore techno track from like 1992 or something. There was this awesome sound that kind of went "wooooow" (sine LFO on the pitch I guess) and ground to a halt.

I can't explain it any better than that. BUt I'm still curious as to how it was made.
I think you mean the hoover sound, made by the Alpha Juno synths. Love that sound
No its not the 'hoover', though that is freakin awesome! hehe.

I haven't listened to it for years. Its the FIRST synth sound you hear. That growling sound that grinds to a halt.

Any ideas?

Ah I know what you mean now

I never heard of the song before, thought it would be the hoover sound since it was popular with old-skool tracks back then.
Not sure on how the sound was made, I think it's a saw wave modulated by ring modulation over an LFO... The LFO's speed being manually changed or modulated by an envelope. Think it was in Unison mode too.

Bitexion · Post by **Bitexion** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:01 pm

One of the best sounds I know of is the Elka Synthex Laserharp sound. So thick and juicy. Synth strings are also nice to listen to.

http://home.online.no/~tom-rf/rende.mp3

And the little plucky sounds + the deep breathy sound here:
http://home.online.no/~tom-rf/rende4.mp3

And another fave sound is a certain type of lead that is made with just one saw oscillator. I usually remake it on any subtractive synth.
Here from the A6. Don't mind the bad playing, I had no idea what to play so I just recorded some noodling.
http://home.online.no/~tom-rf/A6/a6arp.mp3

Oh! And the Prophet-5 preset 2-1, called "Unison Glide w/Resonance" in the manual. Can't find a sample of that one, but it's a preset on NI Pro-53 and Arturia Prophet-V (sounds best on prophet-v)

burns46824 · Post by **burns46824** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 8:54 pm

Noticed that some people have mentioned The Cure. Funny thing, I think their songs sound better using ROMplers -- SEE Trilogy DvD.

The original version of "Plainsong" is really bad, IMO. Still it's one of my favorite songs because they did it so well in Trilogy...Has anyone else noticed how poorly Disintegration was mixed?

Biboulon · Post by **Biboulon** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 9:57 pm

burns46824 wrote:Noticed that some people have mentioned The Cure. Funny thing, I think their songs sound better using ROMplers -- SEE Trilogy DvD.

Not for the albums like "17 seconds, Faith and p**n", IMO far better than the others albums.

For the 17 seconds, Mathieu Hartley played korg 700s and a Roland RS09, and for Faith, I think there is a lot of Solina played by Robert Smith.
The sounds of the synths and the guitars are very atmospheric (a lot of flanger) in theses albums, and I like it a lot.

desmond · Post by **desmond** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:05 pm

I remember the first time I listened to Propaganda's "A Secret Wish" album. From the first note on, the synth textures just took me totally by surprise.

The other nod I have to give is to Scritti Politti - Dave Gamson's arrangements, voicings and choice of sounds is absolutely superb...