Famous Sounds
This side lists ‘sound desgin’ guides for some famous (signature) sounds.
Of course it would be easy to provide VR registrations for download (and we’ll do for sure) – but our intention is to help you understand how to do your own progamming 😉
Important:
VR ‘hardware’ buttons/knobs/faders/etc are set into square brackets: [xyz]
VR ‘menu options’ are set into curly brackets {xyz}
VR Knob positions are given as ‘clock-time’ (corresponding to the graphs on VR knobs) from 7 o’clock to 12 o’clock/center to 5 o’clock
The pictures show the settings made on VR09/730 EDITOR
Van Halen ‘Jump’
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Maybe the most iconic synth sounds of pop history. The instrument Van Halen used was an Oberheim OB-X (OB-Xa). The sound is based on detuned saw-waves with OB-X stereo-effect and external hall effedts. |
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- Load VR ‘Jmp Brass’ into a single manual and shift down 1 octave. Right hand synth riff plays at > C5 keys, left hand bass plays dublets C2+C3 / F2+F3 / G2+G3
- OB-X had no touch sensitive keys, so in VR-menu {Keyboard} set VR {Initial Touch} to ‘OFF’
- Fatten up the bass with [TONE] (ca. 1 o’clock)
- ‘VR Jmp Brass’ has delay FX – but the original Van Halen sound had NO delay – so turn VR [DELAY] to zero
- Add a LOT of [REVERB]. Recommended type is ‘Cathedral’, length to 11-12 o’clock: this adds a long hall without changing the timbre of the tone (reverb settings at > 12 o’clock change the overall sound – avoid for Jump)
- Set [ATTACK] to 1 or 2 (not only has the original sound a softer attack than ‘VR Jmp-Bass’ but VR attack ‘0’ also adds ugly sound artefacts on reverb)
- [RELEASE] can be slightly increased (upon taste)
- Finally we need more ‘stereo’ for a fatter sound: therefore we use the only customisable MFX on VR: ‘Twin-Rotary’:
– select [MFX] ‘Twin-Rorary’
– VR ‘Rotary settings’ also affect Twin-Rotary: open VR-menu, dial to {Rotary} and
select {Rotary Type} ‘Type 3’
reduce Woofer+Tweeter {Wf/Tw Slow Speeds} to 2-3, use different values to create ‘beats’, e.g. WF=’3′, TW=’2′.
– left hand VR [ROTARY] buttons: turn rotary ‘OFF’, set speed to ‘SLOW’
– fine tune the [MFX] knob between 10 and 11 o’clock (upon taste)
Steppenwolf ‘Born to be Wild’
Steppenwolf organ players use the Hammonds’upper’ manual. Between the verse ‘riff’ chord h-e-g (b-e-g) and the chorus chords the dreawbars have to be used.
This is just ONE example of for sure numberless ways, to imitate the B2bW sound.
Watch some Steppenwolf live videos (Youtube) to see when the organist uses slap and slide techniques.
| Organ [TYPE] | Rock Organ |
| Organ [LEVEL] fader | 6 (not higher for avoiding pushing VR into internal saturation) |
| VR-menu {Organ} | {Leakage} ca. 20, {On/Off Click} ca. 10, {Low Gain} -5, {High Gain} +5 |
| VR-menu {Rotary} |
Rotary Type: 3 |
| [OVERDRIVE] | ca. 3 o’clock |
| [TONE] | ca. 3 o’clock |
| Use Drawbars: |
On the verse riff (Rotary FAST, chord b-e-g) : 766004400 On the chorus riff (Rotary SLOW): pull out 4, 2″, 1 3/5″: 766808800 (occasionally start-stop the rotary) On the solo (Rotary FAST): pull out more upon your Taste |
Prince 1999
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This sound uses the Virtual-Analog (VA) Synthesizer of VR as suggested by Mark Butterill. The sound design follows this Youtube Video. VA editing is done in VR09/730 EDITOR ‘Sound Designer’ (download EDITOR) but also works with Roland iPad app |
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String Machines
A few tips how to create sounds in the style of 1970th famous ‘string machines’ (s.g. Eminent Solina, Roland RS-09, Korg PE, etc used in works of Jarre, Pink Floyd, etc etc etc).
‘string machine’-like sounds can be found in ‘VR hidden ATELIER sounds’ and VR-GM2 ‘Sound Canvas’: you need VR09/730 EDITOR to access these sounds
- play with ‘stereo/mono’: you can switch VR base stereo patches to mono by setting Overdrive to 1. Use OD Dry/Wet to adjust ‘brightness’ of the sound.
- adding the ‘diffuse vintage smear’ to the sound using effects:
– MFX:Pitch shifter + Tape Delay
– MFX:Chorus/HexaChorus (a lot of) + eventually Tape-Delay
– Rotary as a ‘Chorus-effect’: use “Type 1” (types 2/3 cut too much highs) with rotary speed set to 1-2 - example patches + Effects from ATELIER sounds (savable to VR registrations):
– layer 2x STRING-II/”SlowStr.2″ (2-voice layer): Overdrive = 1, MFX:HexaChorux = 30, Tape Delay = 1
– layer 2x STRING-II/”SynthStr.3″ (2-voice layer): Overdrive = 1/wet = max, MFX:Pitch Shift = 5, Rotary - example patches + Effects from Sound-Canvas (not savable to VR registrations):
– layer 2x ORCH “60Strings” (2-voice layer): MFX:HexaChorus = 20, Rotary
– more ‘string machine’ patches in SouncCanvas ORCH: LofiStrings, TronStrings, SynStrings 5
Moog-type lead sound
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This example shows how to ‘moogify’ VR synth leads (sine, saw etc) making them sound more analog and ‘vintage’ using only VR effects (without VA-synth).
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