BJG145 wrote:...only other offerings I've spotted so far apart from Nostalgia are Cult Sampler and this offering from Pro-Rec. I'm kind of surprised there aren't more.
I use this in Reason and it's really very good: Power FX CMI Legacy (it's well worth also downloading the Supremacy ReFill which adds extra patches and some sounds from non-Fairlight synths).
I'd like to back up the theory that the drone was something from the Fairlight through a Quantec Room Simulator with the reverb time set to infinite. I reckon quite a few drones and textures on Peter Gabriel albums were done that way too.
Desmond, if you read this, how much pitch bend did you apply to the sample for the melody part? I spent a while last night on my humble W-30 trying to get this thing in the ballpark and didn't meet with much success. My Cello2 sounds like Army Dreamers, not Running...
nathanscribe wrote:Desmond, if you read this, how much pitch bend did you apply to the sample for the melody part?
Like I say, I think the original was probably played with real pitch bend, but when I was playing with it, I used an envelope to give a scooping pitch attack. This is a key constituent to the melody part.
How much did I use? Numbers doesn't really help as different instruments have different envelopes, but basically, I used as much as was necessary for the sound to feel like it was getting in in the ballpark... Pitch envelopes you are primarily concerned with the envelope depth (ie, how much pitch the envelope will bend over -typically for this you are looking at somewhere between 1 and 2 semitones I guess) and the attack and decay times to get the length of the bend right.
desmond wrote:somewhere between 1 and 2 semitones I guess [...] and the attack and decay times to get the length of the bend right.
Can the W30 route an envelope to pitch?
Not as far as I'm aware, but it can 'peak' a synced LFO to pitch mod... which means you get an initial sweep a bit like the 'glide' on some old analogues. It follows the LFO wave (which is retriggered from zero at note-on) till the wave hits the top (or bottom, if you set it negative) and stays there. I don't believe there's an offset built into the LFO level. So what I'd probably have to do is use that LFO peak feature for, say, a couple of semitones of bend, and offest the played pitch by the same - or drop the pitch of the sample tone by that amount.
I suppose the other route is to add a pitch envelope in Logic.
Desmond, you really should get your own section in the magazine. Instead of the engineers/producers/artists explaining to us how they came up with these other worldly sounds, we'd have you explaining how to reverse-engineer them.
the lead sounds like a fairly simple synth sound to me, which could have been made with some of the "analog" samples on the fairlight, with the proper envelopes applied of course. I made a patch on my jupiter 6 along with an echo of course, and it pretty much nails the sound.
The envelopes are the key here. the proper pitch dip and VCA control really seems to make a difference, and this is the issue with the previous example. don't get me wrong it is decent, but with a little more finesse on the envelopes it really locks into place. I couldn't get the envelopes correct on my MPC1000 but the JP6 was much easier.
I can try to record/upload it tonight if anyone still cares about this thread.
giorgio wrote:the lead sounds like a fairly simple synth sound to me, which could have been made with some of the "analog" samples on the fairlight, with the proper envelopes applied of course. I made a patch on my jupiter 6 along with an echo of course, and it pretty much nails the sound.
I disagree, for all the reasons I posted above. But I'm happy to be proven wrong.
giorgio wrote:I can try to record/upload it tonight if anyone still cares about this thread.
This question has been bothering me all damned week. I remember how totally floored I was when I first heard the tune twenty-some years ago (yeah, late to the dance as usual).
All's I really know about the Fairlight is from Kate Bush & Peter Gabriel, so I can't comment properly in that regard.
That signature "trumpet" sound is interesting. My memory had it down as a sped-up low brass sound, but on relistening that isn't quite right. At a couple of points it seems to evolve from a (for lack of better term) synth-brass sound to more like a strings pad. I'd have to dig up the CD & put the phones on to get deeper into it, but it's definitely two tones at least, so it could be e-brass for the main body with the e-string at the top.
The "ahhs" that run through as a ground remind me very much of some of the sounds from Shriekback's Oil & Gold, where I'm fair certain they used a Fairlight, DX-1, & JP-8 -- far above my remit to sort all that out. Though I'm guessing that a well-done interleaving of samples, synthetic voices, & actual singersmight be difficult to differentiate with just a helpless little stereo track.
Nothing final from here, but it makes me want to try emulating it, not to mention renewing my appreciation of Kate Bush (she's a month older than me, fwiw).
