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 |
Roland RD 1000 – the “Elton Piano”
VR patch ‘SA piano’ corresponds to the vintage ‘Roland RD 1000″ – the “Elton John Piano” – precisely to RD ‘Piano 3’, the crispy RD ‘rock piano’ patch.
Like most VR tones, it needs some fine tuning:
1. select SA Piano
2. [OVERDRIVE] : set to exacly 9 oclock (midi 15) to give it more ‘body’ and soften the harsh highs
3. {OD/dry} mix (VR menu EFX) : set to max (‘dry’) to re-gain some highs
4. [TONE] : set to 3 o’clock
5. [Cutoff] : rise a little bit to ca. 5
When it comes to famous ‘Roland RD Chorus’ we encouter the ‘weakness’ of VR effects:
Both MFX ‘Hex Chorus’ and MFX ‘Chorus’ sound extremely thin – miles away from the RD-Chorus
MFX ‘Modulation-D’ is not ideal neither but closer to RD-Chorus, reproducing more of the ‘spheric character’:
a. select MFX ‘Modulation-D’ and set [MFX] knob to 9:30
b. add the ‘VR Reverb trick’ : set [REVERB] between 3 and 5 o’clock: in this range, as a side effect, VR Reverb makes the sound more ‘spacy’. Use {reverb type} and {wall type} (VR menu EFX) to adjust the length of the reverb, e.g. reverb type “Room” and wall “Drapery”
More ‘tricks’:
Using VR ‘GM-Engine’: the GM-Engine has a (beautiful) Chorus of its own (only available in VR-GM-engine) that comes quite close to RD1000-Chorus: load SA Piano into VR GM2-engine (e.g. to channel 5 by using a midi controller for playing VR GM engine) and apply CC93 (‘GM2-Chorus’). You can also add the ‘reverb-trick’ described above (GM2-engine sounds runs through the same VR EFX Reverb – don’t forget to set GM reverb-send C91 to max)
CTRLR EDITOR users might try ATELIER PIANO “SA Piano 1/2/3” (where 1 and 3 come close to the original) or “Piano 3” or “SA Piano” from the GS/SC-section “EL.GRAND”
Finally we recommend a phantastic sounding (freeware) virtual MKS-20 / RD1000 (Windows/Mac/Linux, standalone or VST): it contains all RD patches (the Elton ‘Piano-1’, the ‘RD E-Piano’ etc). It can used for performances – or help to optimise your ‘RD Piano’ on VR. Download: Giulioz RDPiano (scroll down to ‘plugin downloads’)
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 (VR menu EFX) 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
Mellotron
VR owner Nick Stavola created a series of exellent Mellotron sounds. Download the “NStavolaMelltron.zip” and unzip
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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