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Trying to find the sound for Let's Go by the Cars


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I only own one board, a Roland RD700SX. Our band wants to play Let's Go by the Cars. I have gone through all of my tones and there is nothing close. What are my options to getting this voice? I've read that Hawkes used a Prophet synth or maybe even a Jupiter later. I realize I may need to get a second keyboard one day as this band is starting to take off, but how about any of those ROland SRX add on modules? Any of them have synth sounds?
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We play that song and I use mainstage. I don't think you need to get too exact for a song like that. A sync lead and a synth strings does the trick for me. I also use an electric piano for parts but that's not in the original recording.

You want me to start this song too slow or too fast?

 

Forte7, Nord Stage 3, XK3c, OB-6, Arturia Collection, Mainstage, MotionSound KBR3D. A bunch of MusicMan Guitars, Line6 stuff

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Add an SRX-07 card and try patch 399 (WaveSyncSRX), 400 (T8Sync SRX), or 401 (SyncRush SRX).

Live: Yamaha S70XS (#1); Roland Jupiter-80; Mackie 1202VLZ4: IEMs or Traynor K4

Home: Hammond SK Pro 73; Moog Minimoog Voyager Electric Blue; Yamaha S70XS (#2); Wurlitzer 200A

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I'm thinking the SRX-07 would be my best option, I was able to here sample number 400 and it is close enough for a working man who has no knowledge of how to create synth sounds like on that mopho module. Just give me the presets!

Only problem is, nobody has an SRX-07 for sale. Did Roland stop making them? I see a couple used ones on Ebay, but they want $350 for them! Yikes.

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Did Roland stop making them? I see a couple used ones on Ebay, but they want $350 for them! Yikes.

 

Yeah, Roland discontinued them a while back so you're pretty much stuck with the used market... It's a danged good expansion board, but $350 is ridiculous. You might try searchallcraigs.com, saw some on there in the $225 range.

Live: Yamaha S70XS (#1); Roland Jupiter-80; Mackie 1202VLZ4: IEMs or Traynor K4

Home: Hammond SK Pro 73; Moog Minimoog Voyager Electric Blue; Yamaha S70XS (#2); Wurlitzer 200A

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I built that sound on a Virus Rack. Put a pitch envelope on one oscillator and sweep the pitch from a starting point to a bit lower ending point, then Hard Sync it up to another oscillator. When you do that you force the sweeped pitch to remain constant and end up sweeping the formant harmonics instead of the pitch. Tweak the fall-time on the pitch envelope (attk/decay/sustain/release) til the "Ahoooww" tone sounds right.

 

That's kinda the "from-scratch" way to get it. But like dB said you need an Analog or Virtual Analog synth engine to do it.

 

~ vonnor

Gear:

Hardware: Nord Stage3, Korg Kronos 2, Novation Summit

Software: Cantabile 3, Halion Sonic 3 and assorted VST plug-ins.

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The Classic Keys sound library for the Motif line including my MOXF8 has a synth patch custom programmed for that song (and many others). Anyway I recently bought a used SRX-07 card from someone right here on this board for a much better deal than that, and anyway I suspect that you can talk down ebay sellers to a more reasonable price on the used ones, I don't think they are going to be able to sell them at that price. I got the same sticker shock looking for a used one but was able to actually talk a seller way down on one (but ended up not buying it, as I did find one on offer from a fellow forum member here before doing the ebay transaction).

Rich Forman

Yamaha MOXF8, Korg Kronos 2-61, Roland Fantom X7, Ferrofish B4000+ organ module, Roland VR-09, EV ZLX12P, K&M Spider Pro stand,

Yamaha S80, Korg Trinity Plus

 

 

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It is not a difficult sound to obtain, and there are several really good ways to do it that have been suggested. Any plugin of an analog synth with two oscillators or more will do the trick. Like it was suggested mainstage can do it, and I think it is around $50. I do on an old SCI Pro One.
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It is not a difficult sound to obtain, and there are several really good ways to do it that have been suggested. Any plugin of an analog synth with two oscillators or more will do the trick. Like it was suggested mainstage can do it, and I think it is around $50. I do on an old SCI Pro One.

 

I do like economical, but everything you said is "greek" to me. What's a plugin of an analog synth? What is mainstage?

 

 

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I just had to do this on my FA-08. Pretty easy. Basically just 2 oscillators using PCM Wave #47 (which is the same on my Jupiter 80) and then added a little chorus.

 

And as for possibly adding a second keyboard, the MOX6 can be had for about $550 now which was my main board for 80s sounds.

Roland Jupiter 80, Roland FA-08, Yamaha MOXF6, Nektar Impact LX61, Macbook Air
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The Roland VR09 has several great sync-saw presets. I've modified one called SuperSaw Sync by adding a third OCS Sync lead 1...a touch of three-way delay, a little bit of flange and a smidge of overdrive. Nails it. Fantom X7 covers the strings part but the RD should do that fine. I am surprised the RD does not have a decent sync synth sound. My dad has a first gen RD700...I'll have to check it out.
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Distortion box and a wah pedal.

 

While this not what makes the sound on the album... now I *really* want to hear this song played with a synth or maybe a Clav through a Tube-screamer, Vox Wah and analog delay pedals!!! If the Roots had to cover this on Late Night w Jimmy Fallon, I'd like to think that's what they would do.

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Distortion box and a wah pedal.

 

While this not what makes the sound on the album... now I *really* want to hear this song played with a synth or maybe a Clav through a Tube-screamer, Vox Wah and analog delay pedals!!! If the Roots had to cover this on Late Night The Tonight Show w Jimmy Fallon, I'd like to think that's what they would do.

Fixed. :)

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Distortion box and a wah pedal.

 

While this not what makes the sound on the album... now I *really* want to hear this song played with a synth or maybe a Clav through a Tube-screamer, Vox Wah and analog delay pedals!!! If the Roots had to cover this on Late Night The Tonight Show w Jimmy Fallon, I'd like to think that's what they would do.

Fixed. :)

 

D'oh! I was on auto-pilot - thanks!

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  • 3 years later...
Add an SRX-07 card and try patch 399 (WaveSyncSRX), 400 (T8Sync SRX), or 401 (SyncRush SRX).

 

(zombie thread resurrection).

I have the an SRX-07 in my XV-5050. Last night I listened to patches 399, 400, and 401. I'm trying to figure out how to cover the synth in "Just a Girl", but read elsewhere it uses the same synth sound as "Let's Go". I am not hearing a strong enough resemblance between patches 399-400-401 and what I hear in these two songs.

 

Is there is some Roland XV effect I need to apply on top of one of these patches? I will admit that I don't have experience with most of the effects in the XV.

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Correct me if I'm wrong (I was once before...lol)

Doesn't Roland typically use a sample instead of offering true OSC sync? Typically you can chose between different samples, but can't really tweak to your liking. At least that's how it's done in the FA series and Jupiter 50/80.

Interesting alternate approach....The VI in the Gemini uses an envelope to affect pitch of one of the oscillators to achieve the effect.

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Rockitman, do you have access to an Ipad or Iphone? There are many synth apps on iOS that can give you that exact sound for a fraction of what that SRX card (or a second synth) would cost. Just midi the Ipad or Iphone to the Roland 700SX and you have access to MANY synth sounds after purchasing the appropriate synth app(s), some of which are FREE.

Kurzweil Forte 7, Mojo 61, Yamaha P-125,

Kronos X61, Nautilus 73

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It's a sync sweep, but voiced a little differently than Let's Go. I just looped the first two bars in my DJ program, and it does sound like it's got a bit of an amp sim or distortion in there.

 

My SRX-07 is in a Fantom S that's still in storage, but Roland's overdrives and distortions are very easy to use - with labeled types.

 

Although it may not sound spot on at home, I'm not sure it's going to matter much once you put it in context. You're basically just ghosting the first two notes of a guitar riff.

 

I think the song is going to work well for you though. Even though it's 20 years old, it still gets great reaction in my karaoke show with women under 35. They all jump around and sing the chorus by heart whenever anyone sings it.

 

Let's Go OTOH doesn't do anything for this group - which is mostly a club for young adults.

 

 

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That sound was originally done on a Moog Source. The Source has a cool feature - when hard sync is enabled, the pitch wheel function is changed to sweep the sync'd VCO. I have one and it definitely nails that sound.

 

The Moog Prodigy can do it too (sans pitch wheel technique), they both share the same oscillator design. Both synths have a very good hard sync sound.

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