What's the cheapest way to get the Baba O'Riley sound?

[p19978]

Newbie here: and in the interest of full disclosure, I'm a lowlife cover band guitarist who happens to play some keys on my Hammond SK1.

 

Anyway, band wants to cover some Who, what's the best and cheapest (and easiest) way to cover that arpeggiated sound?

[synthizen2]

The cheapest and simplest way to do this is just to sample the sound itself and play it as a backing track. In fact, I think The Who does this themselves during their shows.

 

Outside of that, I'd look for a cheap/free VST synth with a built-in arpeggiator, pick out or sculpt the closest sound to what you want, and create the arpeggio within the software.

 

From what I know about this, The Who actually used a Lowrey organ with some kind of "repeat" function that created the rhythmic pattern, while certain notes were held down. Sort of like a primitive arpeggiator.

 

 

[CEB]

Get a free vst polysynth of your choice as long as it has a LFO and multiple oscillators.

 

1.Set 2 oscillators to pulse waves.

 

2.Spread the oscillators an octave apart.

 

3.Detune them by VERY slightly.

 

4.Set the oscillators volumes the same.

 

5.Set the filter for a midrangey punchy tone then add a little resonance. It needs to be heard over the big guitar chords.

 

6. Add some drive if you have it. You could try a bit crusher if you have it. Dirty it up a hair. How you do it depends on which free synth you get.

 

7. Set the volume envelope as follows: attack at 10ms, decay at zero, sustain at full, and release at 12ms.

 

8.To get the sixteenth-notes set the LFO pulse modulation to trigger the amp section. set it to full pulse modulation. Theoretically if your synth doesnt have an amp or VCA as a modulation destination, you could modulate the lowpass filter whose cutoff frequency is set to zero. This will also act as a on off switch (repeater). Set LFOs rate to around 8 Hz. or so. and the waveform.

 

I probably left out a step. This s the way to do it if you want to be a keyboard player. This is a great learning patch. It will teach you how LFO modulation and a VCA/amp works and it cost nothing if you have an adequate laptop.

 

Not sure what the best free synth currently is for this. Someone will suggest a good one.

 

If you start to get close but it isn't quite right do a screen print and post a picture of your synth settings.

 

Otherwise if you are in Illinois you could buy my Roland Gaia for $300 with a gigbag and the patch already programmed. I'm not using it anymore since setting up all my patches on the Kronos.

 

[WesG]

what's the best and cheapest (and easiest) way to cover that arpeggiated sound?

 

Excluding sampling, buy a 1960s Lowery spinet organ, any model which has a "Marimba Repeat" button.

 

Wes

[CEB]

On the Gaia I have it setup as a step sequence which works great because I needed to play the piano chords underneath the synth lick.

 

The Country band's fiddle player is a phenom ..... I wonder .... hmm.

[dongna]

"Best", "cheapest", and "easiest" are likely going to be 3 different answers.

 

For "easiest" and arguably "best", but definitely not "cheapest", you could consider picking up a Yamaha family rompler and the Vintage Keys voice library available on motifator.com. There's an MP3 demo you can listen to.

[MathOfInsects]

Get a free vst polysynth of your choice as long as it has a LFO and multiple oscillators.

 

1.Set 2 oscillators to pulse waves.

 

2.Spread the oscillators an octave apart.

 

3.Detune them by VERY slightly.

 

4.Set the oscillators volumes the same.

 

5.Set the filter for a midrangey punchy tone then add a little resonance. It needs to be heard over the big guitar chords.

 

6. Add some drive if you have it. You could try a bit crusher if you have it. Dirty it up a hair. How you do it depends on which free synth you get.

 

7. Set the volume envelope as follows: attack at 10ms, decay at zero, sustain at full, and release at 12ms.

 

8.To get the sixteenth-notes set the LFO pulse modulation to trigger the amp section. set it to full pulse modulation. Theoretically if your synth doesnt have an amp or VCA as a modulation destination, you could modulate the lowpass filter whose cutoff frequency is set to zero. This will also act as a on off switch (repeater). Set LFOs rate to around 8 Hz. or so. and the waveform.

 

I probably left out a step. This s the way to do it if you want to be a keyboard player. This is a great learning patch. It will teach you how LFO modulation and a VCA/amp works and it cost nothing if you have an adequate laptop.

 

Not sure what the best free synth currently is for this. Someone will suggest a good one.

 

If you start to get close but it isn't quite right do a screen print and post a picture of your synth settings.

 

 

Look, CEB, if you don't know just say so.

 

[Dave Weiser]

Sample the recording. This is what The Who does.

 

Also I highly recommend working it into a medley with Billy Ocean's Get Out of My Car (and Into My Dreams). Stick around until 4:20 for the good stuff.

 

[video:youtube]