"Wonderful Christmas Time" by Wings Synth?

sas · Post by **sas** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:34 pm

Okay, we heard it every year, that bright wah-wah sound ushering in Christmas and drowning out McCartney's voice, and the rest of the mix for that matter. What synth is creating that bright tone? I remember hearing it was a Yahama CS-something or other... Remember, this song came out in 1979.

Analogue Crazy · Post by **Analogue Crazy** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:44 pm

In the video there is a SCI Prophet-5. It must have been a rev.1 Prophet because i don't think the rev.2 came out until 1980.

JUGEL · Post by **JUGEL** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:00 pm

might be a CS-80?

I love that song. Of all the c**p christmas pop songs .. that's the best.

hfinn · Post by **hfinn** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:24 pm

I too believe its a CS-80. You can't always go by what's in the video.

StepLogik · Post by **StepLogik** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:32 pm

I heard this yesterday while in the car and i was trying to figure it out myself. I didn't know the song was from '79. For some reason, I was thinking that it was newer than that. The date definitely limits the possibilities - if I were a betting man I'd say CS-80.

Great "c**p christmas pop song" though!

StepLogik · Post by **StepLogik** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:37 pm

YouTube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9BZDpni56Y

hmm, Paul is wearing a Harry Potter scarf

OriginalJambo · Post by **OriginalJambo** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:38 pm

Thing is, you can get a very similar sound with practically any poly synth - all it is a single saw per voice with a sharp, resonant filter decay and s**t loads of delay.

Really works though for the track.

StepLogik · Post by **StepLogik** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:47 pm

OriginalJambo wrote:Thing is, you can get a very similar sound with practically any poly synth - all it is a a single saw per voice with a sharp, resonant filter decay and s**t loads of delay.

Really works though for the track.

yup. i'm noodling around on a juno-60 and i've got it almost spot-on perfect.

rjd2 · Post by **rjd2** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:47 pm

as an owner of an cs80 and a P5, i would bet on the P5.

if you want to hear a song that has a prophet 5 synth line that was programmed in DIRECT homage to this very song mccartney did, go to itunes and search for:
rjd2
"rollerskating jam"

Sir Ruff · Post by **Sir Ruff** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:49 pm

a casiotone?

Synthaholic · Post by **Synthaholic** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:51 pm

When I found out the song was done in '79, Prophet 5 was the first thing that came to mind. Then I confirmed it by watching the video.

So many great songs (Christmas and otherwise) were done on Prophet 5. Lovely filters that synth has.

Though, the sound in Wonderful Christmastime can be done convincingly on pretty much any analog poly.

hfinn · Post by **hfinn** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:58 pm

again, you cant always go by the video. I doubt they would want to lug a 200lb CS-80 to a video shoot when a prophet 5 one person could carry alone just for the sake of being accurate. He had a 80 and used it a lot at that time.

sam · Post by **sam** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:39 pm

Many years ago i had a prophet 5 and i remember that sound was one of the factory presets....

It's all coming back now...

Synthaholic · Post by **Synthaholic** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:00 pm

It's possible that the string-like chords were a CS80 while the filter swept/delayed staccato sound was a P5.

Then we can all be right.

Post by **Dano** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:56 pm

OriginalJambo wrote:Thing is, you can get a very similar sound with practically any poly synth - all it is a single saw per voice with a sharp, resonant filter decay and s**t loads of delay.

Really works though for the track.

I was just getting ready to say that I had made the same sound on my Xiosynth - I used 2 oscillators per voice though.