Uptown Funk

[jstrauss]

Anyone have any suggestions on creating the synth sound used in this song as well as how to program the portemento glide. I have a Motif ES 8 and/or Mainstage 2 available.

 

Thanks

[EscapeRocks]

your Motif has everything you need.

 

I am hearing slightly detuned synth brass stabs throughout during the verses, and of course the big synth brass hits during the chorus and breakdown.

Also, slightly modulated synth strings.

[J Free]

For the sustained chorus chords-a la The Time/Jungle Love. I went with old school analog square waves with LFO to add the vibrato. The portamento glide-I added enough to I could play a chromatic scale/eighth notes for an octave and it sounds smooth.

[DanL]

I just created a split for this on my FA08. I had to manually create the sweep/glide sound. Use an envelope to control pitch, and with a long attack time it'll sweep up slowly.

 

My split is:

the vocal bass sound

the sweep/glide sound programmed to 1 note

a poly synth with a short release for the hits that come in during the verse

the "prince" type fat poly synth sound for the chorus

trumpet section up an octave, trombone section and a full horn section all layered to create a fat horn sound.

 

I also have a softer pad on the SK1 for the chords at the very beginning.

[CEB]

The only thing I have going on that is different is the tone builds (0:59)

 

I programmed a tone build on a synth and I current manually play it because the tune is simple. You just have to hit one key. Often I produce the builds I need on a synth and sample it then trigger the sample live with the sample player on the FA-06. You could do that on your Motif and play the riser on a bass key of the Motif.

 

I would stack 3 wave oscilators detuned to taste then crank Env Depth to max then crank the Attack in oscillator section. To create the build. I hope I typed that right. Someone into EDM will correct me.

 

[video:youtube]

 

Both my bands are going to do this. The 10 piece horn band is cool. I have no splits just the Jimmy Jam style Poly saws. I just pull the wheel back and ease of the gas in the intro. I should setup and a seperate voice. In the pop band I have to cover horns. I layered Power Section with 2 lead horn voices. I don't remember which ones.

 

[CEB]

PS - FWIW - You need to careful on long builds. Especially noise builds. They can hurt people ears through FOH if you don't take care and test these things out.

[Bill H.]

As a DJ I have access to ACAPs. If anyone wants a sample of just the "do"s (without the synth offbeat hit) for a running loop - hit me up and I'll put it on Soundcloud.

 

This track is absolutely huge right now. I'd call it a must add for any band doing contemporary material.

[CEB]

That is cool. I'm lucky that both my bands have very strong bottom voices. But the those sample would help a lot of people out.

[LennyTunes]

I programed this for my cover band, and my Kronos had everthing I need. But I would love to get the vocal samples much closer if possible!

[nadroj]

Sampled each individual "doo" and assigned them to individual keys on the Nord meaning we can play the intro and mid section exactly as it is at any tempo.

 

For the stabs in the verse, a slightly tweaked synth brass built into the FA with modulation hits it spot on.

 

For the rise, a couple of spruced up saw waves with an edited string pcm tone with a 3 octave portamento does the the trick. Alone it sounds horrible but works very well in the mix.

 

Chorus chords, a default polysynth patch built into the FA with modulation sounds exactly the same as the track. Unsure if its synth brass or strings. Brass is a staccato brass patch loaded from Rolands Brass EXP.

 

All in all, fun song. Combined with all the backing vocals, its one of the busiest songs I have in the set. Individual parts ain't hard, but doing it all at once keeps me on my toes, which is nice.

 

You should be able to nail it with main stage. Just go overboard with the modulation.

[Bill H.]

Was asked by a forumite for those "doo"s so here they are:

 

https://soundcloud.com/b-ill-9/2015-01-26-11h23m53

 

They start on the second half of the loop to get around possible Soundcloud copyright screenings but you guys will know what to do BPM is 115 if you are making your own loop.

[Bobadohshe]

Thank you!

[CEB]

Nothing to add .... just hoping this song causes a return to music like P-Funk and the stuff from Jam and Lewis at their greatest popularity. Not only did the 10 piece horn band add this tune but we are putting this in the set.

 

[video:youtube]

[Les Mizzell]

Paid my way through college playing in a 12 piece with a kick-ass brass section doing Kool and the Gang, P-Funk, Sly, Parliament, ConFunkShun, Isley Brothers, Ohio Players ... and I've never had more fun in another band since. (... and I'm an old fart so the material was new at the time too ... heh ...)

 

Playing this stuff is just a blast. I'd almost consider going out on some gigs again if the right chance to do this material again came along!

 

I was pretty excited the first time I heard Uptown Funk on the radio. I do hope it starts something of a return to less, uhhh, "processed" music!

[AvidOne]

Using an S90ES, I fiddled with the pitch envelopes of two synth voices and added them to a performance, slightly detuned, for the synth sweep that occurs a couple times in the song. The note must remain pressed and released at a specific point in the song but the starting and ending pitch match, also live. My PEG screen for the voice looks like this:

 

Hold Atk DCV1 DCV2 REL Depth

Time 0 21 95 92 0

Level +88 0 +127 +127 0 +54

 

 

This may get the OP started. Looks like my table didn't convert well in this post but Hopefully the OP can place the numbers correctly!

[clavjav]

Just had a crack at this.

 

I couldn't afford to spend hours on this (A lot of this synth stuff doesn't come naturally to me!), as I have a lot of other work to do.

 

So gonna try and manage this with just 3 parts,

 

Top - Brass (all)

Bottom - Synth for chorus, and also verse stabs

- Rising synth programmed to bottom key

 

As I said, I don't really know what I'm doing with the synth stuff most of the time, but managed to get a pretty good result on the Krome with these settings. Just took the rappers delight preset which has two detuned oscillators and fiddled with it,

 

http://i.imgur.com/WOZ6vtQl.jpg

 

On the pitch screen I set the EG intensity to +12. P.S. I don't what half this means, but as I say, it sounds ok!

 

Hopefully I can avoid having to cover the 'dooos', there's enough to do in this song already, might see if our drummer can trigger these as a sample.

[Les Mizzell]

Nothing to add .... just hoping this song causes a return to music like P-Funk and the stuff from Jam and Lewis ...

 

Watched an amazing reaction to Uptown Funk over the weekend. Was at a dance convention with my wife. Competition had finished and maybe 400 dancers were all sitting on the stage awaiting an awards ceremony. A DJ was pumping high-energy mixes, but everybody on the stage was looking at their phones or talking.

 

Uptown Funk came on and there was a collective scream from everybody in the place! Every single dancer on stage gets up, and boogies their asses off the entire song. There's air-bass, air-guitar, air-brass ... these kids know every single word, every single little accent, every brass note, every move from the video ... and they're freaking jamming HARD.

 

The song comes to an end, the DJ mixes into a high-energy Beyonce tune at the same tempo ... BUT ... everybody looks around for a second and sits back down and stares at their phones again...

 

Pretty freaking cool to see that.

[Geoff Grace]

I like the song, and I cut my teeth on p-funk when it was new; but my hopes aren't high for much of a revival.

 

In my view, the success of "Uptown Funk" is somewhat akin to Bette Midler's 1973 remake of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," giving the young generation a fun taste of another era. The Pointer Sisters zeroed in on a similar targetand did some great workbut the overall scene moved ahead and never looked back.

 

I love the piano (Tom Salisbury) on this one:

 

[video:youtube]

 

I hope I'm wrong though, and funk makes a BIG comeback...

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[Bill H.]

I doubt if there's going to be a revival either, because Uptown Funk really has much more in common with today's music than classic funk.

 

The references to Trinidad James are all over this track. Most of you guys probably aren't into today's hip-hop, but all his shout outs: don't believe me just watch, this one's for the...,

 

And the one that just cracks me up: Popped a molly I'm sweatin' WOO! Mark Ronson G rated that one with "Girls hit you hallelujah WOO! but the timing and phrasing is exactly the same.

 

It's set up so that anyone under 30 can instantly relate to this track.

 

Instrumentally Bruno Mars has been in this territory before with "Locked Out Of Heaven" and "Treasure". I'm not sure the extent of his collaboration with Mark Ronson but it sounds a lot like his previous recent stuff.

 

 

[fjzingo]

Cool I found this thread, the OOh samples have been loaded into my nord elecro. Splitted the oohs into their respective keys and transposed the one ooh missing(C#). Saved tomorrows rehearsal, thanks! If anyone want's the program shout :-).

 

 

 

 

 

[BernMeister]

For the sustained chorus chords-a la The Time/Jungle Love. I went with old school analog square waves with LFO to add the vibrato.

Use sawtooth waves instead...it'll get you much closer to the actual sound.

[marczellm]

Just watched the video. I loved the part at the end when the band comes on playing in a stage lit with 80s style lights and some retro instruments such as the Roland SH-101. (My dad is a stage lighting tech, and the 80s was his heyday ) The same lights were also in the video for Treasure.

[Sven Golly]

Just watched the video. I loved the part at the end when the band comes on playing in a stage lit with 80s style lights and some retro instruments such as the Roland SH-201. (My dad is a stage lighting tech, and the 80s was his heyday ) The same lights were also in the video for Treasure.

 

That's an SH-101.

[CEB]

I play a SH-101. I was using it live for some Ke$ha stuff until practicality got the best of me. I like that little synth ..... I guess this is why I have too much shit.

[marczellm]

Just watched the video. I loved the part at the end when the band comes on playing in a stage lit with 80s style lights and some retro instruments such as the Roland SH-201. (My dad is a stage lighting tech, and the 80s was his heyday ) The same lights were also in the video for Treasure.

 

That's an SH-101.

 

Oops. Corrected.

[J. Dan]

As of today (just finished practice) looks like I may be doing this with a Segway into Jungle love (Morris Day) or the other way around. This is one of those "sequence the drums and whatever else) duo's with a guitar player. Normally I would sequence the bass and play the keys unless there are no keys, then play bass. (The other guy plays guitar). I'm almost thinking of sequencing all the keys/horns and playing bass on this one. Gonna be hard to get the bass that funky in a sequence with all the nuances....slap/pluck, neck slides, etc.....much easier to play than sequence. Plus, since I'll be singing, it may be really hard to sing and hit all those horn stabs at the same time. We'll see. I suppose first I'll see if I can sing/play at the same time, if so, make a stab at sequencing the bass.

[Bottom End]

"Segway into Jungle Love" !? That's one heck of a stage show.

[Joe Muscara]

Segway into Jungle love

http://www.adrenalinjungle.com/portals/4/segway%20(4).jpg

[mate stubb]

[J. Dan]

 

You guys crack me up!