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Creating Slides/Portamento sounds


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Hello to all.

So, as far as I can remember I have been hearing this sound, especially in the 80's and early 90's and always wanted to create it but like most musicians today, I used available samples and became lazy.

However, I want to be able to create this myself but not certain how it works.

 

I am referring to the Portamento slides between keys or octaves.

 

Take a listen to the intro on this song by Keith Sweat.

 

Here is another song by Boyz 2 Men, same at the intro:

 

And finally, here it is again, Bruno Mars:

 

I mean this sound is all over the 80's.

 

I want to be able to incorporate this into my songs using those sexy synth basses.

 

I currently own the Korg Kronos 8 and the Yamaha Montage 8 and an array of other keys.

 

Doing a google search, I see all kinds of suggestions that get me nowhere.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

AI

 

 

 

 

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All of those bass sounds are a Moog Minimoog (or an emulation). Kronos and Montage should have lots of options:

 

1) Choose a monophonic synth sound.

2) Turn on legato triggering.

3) Adjust portamento and filter cutoff (not too bright!) to taste

4) Slide your fingers up and down the keys.

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I use Zebra2 on 24 Karat and have been creating presets for years, take pride in the way I can capture the sounds used as it"s my job.

The portamento sound on the chorus and intro uses multi Oscillator with separate amounts, or duo poly meaning you don"t get a single pitch in motion but separate glides combined.

They travel at slightly different rates which gives it a wider bigger sound.

At the same time there"s a descending Filter Sweep with high amounts of resonance, which gives it that great sound full of motion.

 

Do you have Zebra2?

Be happy to share the patch, you can then study its settings and see why all of the motion is so desirable.

 

Also do several other Bruno tunes where I cover EPianos Brass and Synths that have even better portamento sections like Uptown Funk.

The Verse Tag Portamento patch on Uptown was not easy to recreate but definitely a study in sound sculpting.

 

 

 

 

Magnus C350 + FMR RNP + Realistic Unisphere Mic
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The original post seems to ask specifically about portamento on synth bass. Because it's an occasional musical device (in other words, not triggered the same every time with every note), that kind of pitch mod either needs to be manually performed (pitch wheel) or assigned to pressure or other mod source. Have you tried baking into a Kronos bass synth patch a pressure-triggered pitch mod?

 

But hardware brings up a great point that might be slightly different than the OP.

 

I remember programming a multi-pitch riser on Nord Wave for Locked Out of Heaven years ago, and have been using the same basic methodology for the pitch rise in, well, almost every other Bruno Mars tune I play (his producers use it often).

 

It makes a huge difference.

 

One singer told me last month, "I sing Uptown Funk with every band I work with. You guys are adding something to that rise section that no other band does. It heats up and is bigger with you guys than any of the other bands."

 

I told her I add some secret sauce in addition to the standard chromatic-on-upbeat rise. Offered to show it to her, but she had other things to do.

 

Point is simply if throwing the rise from a lowly Nord Lead (the Wave is essentially a Lead with sampling) in behind the chromatic run makes that big a difference from other bands, I'm going to guess that every little bit of add'l programming I do is something other KB players may not be bothering to do. And all I use is Nord Wave and Kronos and some old subtractive synth familiarity.

..
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The original post seems to ask specifically about portamento on synth bass. Because it's an occasional musical device (in other words, not triggered the same every time with every note), that kind of pitch mod either needs to be manually performed (pitch wheel) or assigned to pressure or other mod source.

On many boards, you can program the portamento to be active only when you play legato, so you can control where you will hear the slide via your playing technique.

 

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Do you have Zebra2?

Be happy to share the patch, you can then study its settings and see why all of the motion is so desirable.

 

Thanks, my friend!

That is very kind of you!

 

I do not have Zibra2, Ironically, I have never used a Soft-Synth before, however, I am thinking about it.

I can still download a trial and check it out.

 

Thanks again!

 

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OT: but the question reminded me of the Syntheslalom feature on the Farfisa VIP combo organs. Ahead of their time!

 

[video:youtube]

 

What song is he playing at the beginning?

I am in love with those chords, looking to using them, is it an original song or just something random?

 

Thanks

 

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All of those bass sounds are a Moog Minimoog (or an emulation).

Not sure I would agree with that statement. Many/most analog synths throughout the years featured a portamento/glide setting, including contemporaries of the Minimoog. The ARP 2500 came out the same year as the Minimoog and included a Portamento feature. The 2500 and its popular revision the ARP2600 were used on many pop hits in the early 70s through 80s. EMS (Pink Floyd) was a contemporary of the Mini and had it too. Many of the songs listed as examples in the top of the post are more reminiscent of (and may be) Roland Jupiter8, Sequential Prophet V, and Oberheim OB6 synths from the late-70s/early-80s. Some of these are super-saws, which isn't a sound that was possible until the Polyphonic synths of the late-70s.

 

The Mini is definitely the most iconic synth out there, and one of the first big sellers, but it absolutely doesn't lay claim to the portamento or the synth bass sounds. I remember playing around with a Buchla in college, which pre-dates the mini by a few years, it had a portamento parameter too since it didn't have a keyboard and only responded to a pitch wheel or voltage Sequencer. It's very possible Bob Moog invented the feature, but it very well may have been Don Buchla, the two were pretty neck-and-neck.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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