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Synth sound on "Crazy" from seal


RudyS

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Does anybody have any tips on recreating this sound. I'm having a hard time on this one (just learning the new architecture of the Kurzweil PC3).

 

Do I have to do the sweeping with the filter, or is it more like a flanger thing?

Rudy

 

 

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Gate?

 

A general term for automation which turns something on and off. LFO, sequencer, arpeggiator etc. You can play the notes by hand, or program a mechanical device (like an arpeggiator, which is what the original track sounds like) to open and close the filter, if you want a very tight, mechanical feeling in the rhythm.

 

There is an additional small undulating movement of the filter, in addition to the rhythmic pattern (this could be a slow LFO, or you could twist a knob, move a pedal etc.)

 

Let us know what you end up using.

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Mitchell Sigman once did this sound for his 'Steal That Sound' feature.

 

I think his articles were combined into one compilation and published as a book.

 

Google books has a preview of this page, sans images.

 

 

clonk

Nord Stage 2 Compact, Yamaha MODX8

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Tusker, thank you. I was a little confused by the general term but already thought you meant that. I now have an LFO triggering the filter cut-off frequency (to get the rhythmic part) and doing a additional filter sweep and resonance manually by sliders. I guess i could indeed also do this by a second (much slower) LFO.

 

Busch, I was not yet subscribed on keyboard magazine in 2009, so I don't have it. I could also not find it online.

Rudy

 

 

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Mitchell Sigman once did this sound for his 'Steal That Sound' feature.

 

I think his articles were combined into one compilation and published as a book.

 

Google books has a preview of this page, sans images.

 

 

clonk

 

Thanks, dr88, but maybe I'm just blind, or it is because I am in the Netherlands, but I can't see a preview of the book..

Rudy

 

 

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Hmmm.... I hear Patsy Cine's voice and perhaps Floyd Kramer's piano in "Crazy", but certainly no synth. :poke:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-wJNpWgss8

 

But then again, I'm old, grumpy, resistant to change, close-minded, and not hip to much pop music since the Kingsmen rocked my world in about 1963 (I was 6 when my older brother played Louie Louie for me and I knew I wanted to rock).

 

BTW... I think Willie Nelson wrote the original "Crazy" in ~1960 before he grew his hair long, started smoking too much ganja, and fried his brain. Since Seal did his "Crazy" song sometime in the 90's(?), Willie has probably been too senile and stoned to figure out how to sue for copyright infringement.

 

One other rant.... Why aren't the Kingsmen and Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts in the damned RRHOF? None other than Frank Zappa said that the Hot Nuts were one of his main musical influences. They invented "porn rock" which Zappa "elevated" to new heights (as well as depths of depravity).

 

 

 

 

Gigs: Nord 5D 73, Kurz PC4-7 & SP4-7, Hammond SK1, Yamaha MX88 & P121, Numa Compact 2x, Casio CGP700, QSC K12, Yamaha DBR10, JBL515xt(2). Alto TS310(2)

 

 

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Yeah you are probably right.... Song titles generally don't fall under copyright infringement, but then with a good enough lawyer in the USA courts you never know. ;)

Gigs: Nord 5D 73, Kurz PC4-7 & SP4-7, Hammond SK1, Yamaha MX88 & P121, Numa Compact 2x, Casio CGP700, QSC K12, Yamaha DBR10, JBL515xt(2). Alto TS310(2)

 

 

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Interesting how Seal covers it live. Good video of the keyboard player.

 

 

Busch.

 

Nice video! We played this a couple years ago, there is an Alanis Morrisette version that is cool that we sort of took parts from. I played the sequencey part manually too, with a sound where the lfo swept the filter. I like the sound on this video better, like it's velocity controlled or something.

Live: Korg Kronos 2 88, Nord Electro 5d Nord Lead A1

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Nice video! We played this a couple years ago, there is an Alanis Morrisette version that is cool that we sort of took parts from. I played the sequencey part manually too, with a sound where the lfo swept the filter. I like the sound on this video better, like it's velocity controlled or something.

 

+1

 

Terrific find, Busch. :cool:

 

Marcus Brown reminds me a bit of David Sancious on tour with Sting. Attention to detail, sparse rig, great results. :thu:

 

Reproducing Trevor Horn on stage is no mean feat.

 

Dan, thanks for turning me on to the AM version. Very cool.

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Nice video! We played this a couple years ago, there is an Alanis Morrisette version that is cool that we sort of took parts from. I played the sequencey part manually too, with a sound where the lfo swept the filter. I like the sound on this video better, like it's velocity controlled or something.

 

+1

 

Terrific find, Busch. :cool:

 

Marcus Brown reminds me a bit of David Sancious on tour with Sting. Attention to detail, sparse rig, great results. :thu:

 

Reproducing Trevor Horn on stage is no mean feat.

 

Dan, thanks for turning me on to the AM version. Very cool.

 

Cool sound indeed. Do you think the cut-off freq is controlled by velocity? I will try that.

Rudy

 

 

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I'm working on a volume of synth sounds for the Kronos and in part because of this thread I came up with two Crazy programs for the Kronos. I can't share the audio at this time as my main computer is down but I'll describe what I did.

 

For the intro I used MOD-7 which allows you to combine PCM with synth/FM synthesis. That opening sound I used a vocal PCM wave and filter it and left the envelope quite open. I added couple of sawtooth waves with a sharp decay envelope for the percussive tone. You bring this in using the value slider on the Kronos. Also, pretty important is a delay/chorus. I used a Multitap Chorus delay with the delays at 200 and 300ms. The chorus is at 20 ms with a 1Hz cycle rate. This really adds to the sound getting it closer to the recording. All this was done with one EXi and with the second EXi in the program I added a Polysix program, sawtooth with a filter that rather slowly crescendos right before Seal starts singing. You play the repetitive part with your right hand and add the fourth chord (E A D) with you left as the two EXis are split.

 

 

For the main "gated" keyboard sound I used two narrow pulse width waves an octave apart as the main sound. The Amp envelope is pretty much on/off as this is basically an organ sound. The filter is 24db with the cutoff at ~900Hz with a large resonance peak. I set an LFO to slowly modulate the filter, not too excessive but enough to get movement. The filter envelope is not used. In the FXs section I added a bass amp/cabinet combo to provide additional distortion. Listening to the recording, it sounds fairly dirty. Next I added a stereo phaser with a slow rate (actually 3 quarter notes MIDI with a song tempo of 103). The resonance on the phaser is high (about half way up). Finally I added a BPM delay with some 16th note delays. When you listen to the tracks there are a lot of delays and effects going on. Even though some are from other sounds, this gated patch benefits from the delay effect set fairly high.

 

Some of this I based on the Sigman article and some on my own experimentation.

 

Busch.

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Busch, thank you for your insights on the sound. I have one question though; Do you also play the part manually? If so, how can you use the LFO to slowly do the filter sweep as it will re-trigger every time you hit the chord? Or am i missing something?

 

Rudy

 

 

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how can you use the LFO to slowly do the filter sweep as it will re-trigger every time you hit the chord?

 

Excellent question. I was wondering the same thing.

 

I used the COMMON LFO on the Kronos which doesn't get re-triggered.

Busch.

 

Excellent answer. I think my m50 has similar architecture to the KRONOS and would probably work the same way. Will try it out when I get a few hours free.

Nord Stage 2 Compact, Yamaha MODX8

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I think it is possible with the Kurz as well using the ASR on LFO2. Did not yet figure it out completely.

 

I tried to get the gated sound with a faster LFO. Works quite well only to get the timing right without a click is really hard. So I think I want to play it completely manual, but still think there is something missing. The sound in the video Busch posted is really good, but I can't nail it, even by controlling filter by velocity. Any suggestions?

Rudy

 

 

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Here's a quick and dirty version of my programs on the Kronos. I haven't finished them.

Nice. And that organ sound gets you most of the way toward Won't Get Fooled Again, too. (I prefer to play the WGFA hits manually, so there's no need to feed tempo to a drummer.)

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I also heats that. I now use an envelope (asr2) to do the filter sweep. Set the attack that it matches about 4 measures. When i'm too much out of sync I use SW2 to re-trigger the envelope.

 

BTW, for people interested, on the kurzweil you can achieve what busch does with a common LFO, by a setting called "global on". This makes ASR2 and LFO2 "common" and not re-triggered by the notes.

Rudy

 

 

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