reproducing the opening effect of Everybody Wants You on FA-06?

[mmartinez]

Anyone know how to reproduce the opening motorcyle-type effect of Everybody Wants You (Billy Squier) on the FA-06? To my ears it almost sounds like they recorded two different things - an oscillator thing in the left channel, and a sweeping thing in the right channel. But maybe it's one patch, I dunno.  I'm not sure the FA-06 can even get close to it.

[Tusker]

I'll offer a few general thoughts, but quite possibly somebody here will have an exact recipe.

 

Engines of all sorts have been a favorite attempt of synthesists. If you want to be able to control the pitch yourself, you synthesize it, otherwise you can sample it. You usually need an oscillator to go at the RPM of the engine. I imagine for a motorbike you want to comfortably go from about 10 RPM up to a max of about 6000 RPM.  So you use an audio oscillator and sweep it, but you usually find that it become too much of a single pitch toward the upper end of the range so very often, people sweep the frequency of an LFO which is being swept up and down with the "accelerator." Or they detune the audio waves at non consonant intervals so that they don't sound musical together.

 

If you are using an LFO, what is that LFO modulating? Well, usually it's a bunch of explosions that the engine is generating correct? The typically recipe for an explosion is filtered white noise. (filtered because by the time sound of the explosion escapes the engine, the higher frequencies have been deadened by the metal of the engine and also the tubes it is escaping through.) As you put more gas, you might open the filter.

 

So one textbook recipe is white noise into filter, filter cutoff modulated by lfo. You sweep the lfo rate up, and concurrently, you might open the filter a bit. The lfo is typically a descending saw wave (descending ramp) so that each explosion opens the filter suddenly and then closes it. Or that second recipe of a bunch of saw waves at different pitches.

 

But in synthesis, there are lots of ways of getting the same sound with different recipes. For example, you could modulate a VCA (amplifier) instead of or in addition to the filter. And you could actually use those audio oscillators in conjunction with the white noise. I dropped the needle on the Billy Squier track and it reminded me of an oscillator sync of a square wave oscillator. So those are a lot of options. And yes, it could be that they overdubbed roughly similar sounds to get a more realistic whole. 

 

Not sure if the FA-06 has a filter which responds musically when modulated at such speeds. So that might suggest modulating the amplifier instead. Or even some effect parameters (like comb filters?) if the FA has some effects which respond well to high speed modulation. These are some general thoughts. I hope they help.

[stoken6]

5 minutes ago, Tusker said:

But in synthesis, there are lots of ways of getting the same sound with different recipes.

+440. I'm hearing ring-modulation or at least: something being modulated at audio frequencies. 

 

Cheers, Mike.

[o0Ampy0o]

If you leave it out will anyone notice let alone care? Just begin with the guitar riff and I'll bet everyone forgets about the motorcycle thing existing if they recall it at all.

 

I have heard that opening and song countless times. If anyone began with the guitar riff I know I would not think "they left off the synth opening."

 

Now, Bad Motor Scooter by Montrose I'd probably think it was cool that they did not do it. The motorcycle riff does come up during the song so they would need to do it somewhere but that one at the very beginning I have heard it done poorly even by Sammy Hagar so at least that one I'd prefer they not try if it is not done right. There is a live video of Montrose skipping the motorcycle thing for the entire song and it sounds fine.