Rockitman Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 What is that first patch in this song? I can't find anything close on my Roland RD700sx. Then on the second verse he adds another synth, and finally in the solo in the middle another patch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mate stubb Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 It was a Minimoog. There were no patches, just knobs to turn. Do you speak the language of oscillators and filters? If not it will be hard to describe. Moe --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mididude Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 In the cover band I was playing in, I used a Little Phatty standard sawtooth patch (with the oscillators slightly detuned from each other), adjusted the glide, a.k.a. portamento, and ran it into a digital delay..your basic slapback type of delay. On the studio recording I think they have the dry synth signal panned to one side with a small amount of effected signal, and the 100% wet(effected) signal panned to the other side so it really stands out dramatically from the time the solo enters. I saw a guy playing that solo live in a friend's Cars tribute act one time several years ago on an actual Prophet 5; that was very cool to witness...if I remember right there was some knob-turning going on, he pulled it off very well. I know there's lfo-based pitch vibrato obviously in the solo, it also sounds like there's filter modulation happening. The only other keyboard part/sound I bothered with when my band played the tune was the electric piano one with chorus (that's what I'll call it anyway). I never was quite satisfied that I had 'nailed' the timbre of that e.p. sound but at a certain point you have to call it close enough for rock and roll. It's such a cool sound on the Cars' studio recording though; I've always wondered if it was an Arp Chroma or something--sounds to my ears quite different from a 'tine' or 'reed' type e.p. sound. To the original poster: I couldn't tell you off-hand exactly how high to set the filter cutoff; I would just use your ear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bryce Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I think it's okay to take some slight liberties with the sounds - unless you're doing faithful tribute band thing, of course.... The band I do it in, I use a Wurlitzer sound for most of the tune, then the two different synth sounds - one in the second and third verses, and a slightly different one for the solo. The verse synth sound is closer to the original than the one I use in the solo. On the chorus, I have my PC3 set to bring in an acoustic piano doubling the Wurlitzer on the bass notes when I hit them harder. Here's a rough cut of a video we did of it a few months ago. [video:youtube] dB ==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <== Professional Affiliations: Royer Labs • Music Player Network Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cphollis Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Really like what you did here -- just goes to show that you don't have to be slavish to the original, and it still sounds great. Looks like a fun band. Want to make your band better? Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettymike Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Awesome band Dave, sounds Great , love the name - The Police Cars . Rockstar lead singer. Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxcvbnm098 Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I always thought that he used a Mini-Korg for a lot of the sounds on that album, and I imagined it on that song as well. I know he used it a ton on" Just What I Needed". I think I read he also used a Prophet 5 on that first record from what I've read. Greg Hawkes is such a great but underrated keyboard player. His parts and sounds were so perfect for those songs. I'm a huge fan... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George88 Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 The vocal is insanely good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Wright Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I think it's okay to take some slight liberties with the sounds - unless you're doing faithful tribute band thing, of course.... The band I do it in, I use a Wurlitzer sound for most of the tune, then the two different synth sounds - one in the second and third verses, and a slightly different one for the solo. The verse synth sound is closer to the original than the one I use in the solo. On the chorus, I have my PC3 set to bring in an acoustic piano doubling the Wurlitzer on the bass notes when I hit them harder. Here's a rough cut of a video we did of it a few months ago. [video:youtube] dB Great Band Dave, That looks like fun! . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettymike Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I always thought that he used a Mini-Korg for a lot of the sounds on that album, and I imagined it on that song as well. I know he used it a ton on" Just What I Needed". I think I read he also used a Prophet 5 on that first record from what I've read. Greg Hawkes is such a great but underrated keyboard player. His parts and sounds were so perfect for those songs. I'm a huge fan... I love this clip of the Cars at Live Aid 1985 - Just What I Needed - Greg getting into it @1:18 > Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mididude Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Awesome band Dave, sounds Great , love the name - The Police Cars . Rockstar lead singer. Brett +1! Your solo sounded great too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Ferris Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Recognize the groovemeister back there- John Ferraro. Band sounds great Dave. Who's the lead singer/guitarist ? He looks familiar but can't place his name offhand. https://soundcloud.com/dave-ferris https://www.youtube.com/@daveferris2709 2005 NY Steinway D Yamaha AvantGrand N3X, CP88, P515 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bryce Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Thanks, guys! @Dave F - yep, that's Dr. Ferraro. He's the man. The singer's name is Tedi Sarafian. Among other things, he's part owner of Barefoot Speaker company, so you may have seen him at trade shows. dB ==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <== Professional Affiliations: Royer Labs • Music Player Network Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AWkeys Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Great job, Dave! Wow, John Ferraro? That's awesome! I think I saw him play with Larry Carlton at the old Club Bene in Sayreville back in the 80s. On the first Cars album, most of the synth work was done on a Univox Mini-Korg I. The "electric piano" sound was from a Yamaha CP-30, I believe. The Prophet was definitely the source of the resonant low E sweep on "Moving In Stereo" - I just copied it exactly on mine. I play a few of those songs, and when using the Nord Stage 2 I have to play the pitch stick to get the vibrato I want. Otherwise I nail the Mini-Korg sound. I gotta get inside the synth engine of the Casio PX-5S - I bet it can duplicate those sounds extremely well. What a fantastic album front to back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Nice video. I love The Cars. My cover band is now doing 4 of their songs and talking about more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
counterpoint Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 AWKeys +1 - Hawkes used a Yamaha CP 30 for electric piano sounds on BBL and other songs on the first album. Did a reunion with my college band recently and we did 'Good Times Roll', 'Best Friend's Girlfriend' and 'Just What I Needed'. I programmed my PX-5S for these. Will post my Stage Settings at some point in the Casio forum under the moniker "jimmyjames" (the Setting for BFGF contains an attempt to copy the CP 30 sound). You're right...the PX-5S can nail the MiniKorg 700S sounds. Took a bit of work to get the exact same pitch modulation rate and amplitude as the 700S which had a fixed rate/amount activated by one flip switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanV Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 I played this a few months ago with one of my projects. Used a Wurlitzer patch on my PC3LE7 for the pianos and I dialed in a snaky synth patch on my Nord Stage 2 for the synth line. Worked pretty darn well. Nord Stage 2 SW73, Kurzweil PC3LE7, Moog Sub 37, Alesis Ion, Rhodes Stage 73, Moog Werkstatt-01, Yamaha CP-300 ------------- Knock knock Who's there? Interrupting synthesizer Interrup-MOOOOOOOOOG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockitman Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 Originally Posted By: Brettymike Awesome band Dave, sounds Great , love the name - The Police Cars . Rockstar lead singer. Brett +1! Your solo sounded great too! It did! That whole song sounded awesome Dave. " Speaking of that solo, does anyone have a sheet for this? I've pretty much figured out all the other synth parts but trying to recreate that solo is proving very tedious, alot going on there!! I've combined an EP and a Clav for the first synth part that is played during the verses. It's not spot on, but close enough for the bar crowd! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettymike Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 Love love love the Cars and their songs , a huge shame Benny11 went well before his time. Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotiDave Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 I play in a Cars trib based in San Diego called Dangerous Types (one of my "gigs"). I use a single Motif XF7, so there's alot of splits, XA voice on/off switching, etc., to accomodate all of the different sounds ("voice" in Motif speak) in some of their songs. I think I have 5 voices designed into my program for BBL. Yes, Greg used a CP-30 as his go-to EP. I found a very cool aftermarket library for the Motif XF that had CP-30 EP (sampled) voices. Its works nicely. FYI - Greg layers that voice late in the song (during the guitar lead) with a different EP sound. The synth lead in verse 2 and 3 is a pretty basic detuned saw. Most any synth can replicate that fairly easy. The lead synth needs a good delay, I have trouble with the up-portamento at the beginning of it, I'm coming out of doing other things just before it so I can't hit the first "up" manually using a pitch bend or something. One thing to remember is his epic synth stylings were laid down little piece by piece, individual, in the studio with all of the technology available in a studio. Alot of his live work doesn't come close to replicating his studio tracks if you listen close to the many live videos out there. Love the Cars. Playing Greg's work is fairly easy, he wasnt a great key technician. But programming his work ... thats a life mission to precisely emulate what Greg did. A true synth pioneer! The baiting I do is purely for entertainment value. Please feel free to ignore it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettymike Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 All the Cars songs are keyboards driven , so all keys sounds should be edited to be on their best behaviour and really Sizzle and Bark . (And hope like Hell the sound mans awake). Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockitman Posted June 24, 2014 Author Share Posted June 24, 2014 Love love love the Cars and their songs , a huge shame Benny11 went well before his time. Brett Amen brother. A lot of great musicians made that band and Ben's voice had a melodic tone that just fit their sound like a glove. The songs he sings have always been my favorite Cars songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettymike Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Ditto my Friend. Here's Benjamin Orr with one of his wonderful songs he wrote back in the 80's , a very talented Suave looking guy , with Golden voice. "Stay the Night" > Can't believe he left us back in 2000 (RIP Benny11 , no party on Benny ). Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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