Please help identifying patches: Little shop of horrors

[ImproKeys]

Dear Pit Veterans,
I need some pointers on how to put together the sounds from keyboard 2 of LSOH, especially the ones in the right column. I have a Juno D (but not to hand) and have a hard time imagining how the Roland / Rol Exp sounds would sound.
 
Thanks for your thoughts.

[marczellm]

I would take one of the following two approaches.

 

If it is a requirement that I absolutely nail the sounds, and I had a lot of time, I would try to guess which exact synths / expansion cards they might have used based on the year. Then start looking them up on the Synthmania website which has a lot of individual audio examples of factory sounds. Or I would try to find videos on Youtube where someone runs through the factory patches of a given synth in numerical order. Use the synth manual to quickly navigate in the video. Even googling for the patch name might sometimes turn up useful results.

 

More realistically, I would listen to the original soundtrack with the score in hand, and go by ear.

[nursers]

First, love LSOH, my favourite musical. I've only played keys in one production many years ago, and did have a JV-1080 at the time I think, but didn't have that patch list. I'd go with the by-ear route @marczellm suggested - there's not that many unique sounds so you should get pretty close.

[BluMunk]

2 hours ago, marczellm said:

I would listen to the original soundtrack with the score in hand, and go by ear.

And, to clarify this, this is the keyboard book for the 2003 revival arrangements, so find that album, not the original Broadway cast album.

 

It does look like all those patches are literal patch locations/names from Roland romplers (JV-something or XV-something), referencing preset banks (Rol A .... Rol B ... etc) and unnamed expansion cards (Rol Exp ...). However, note that this patch list isn't curated... it is likely a port from whatever patch names the programmer used for the original production, and they have not been optimized or edited for reproducibility. "Acoustic" patch and "Piano" patch as separate items. Less than useful. Probably zero meaningful differentiation. Celli and also Cello Section? Use the same patch.

This looks way more complicated than it needs to be.  Most of those patches in the right hand column are hammond organ patches, some of them at least by name even referencing the same basic registrations/tones (there are 4 referencing Sly & The Family Stone).

My approach to this would be:

1. Determine the basic 'type' of patch by looking at the notes on the page, considering the patch instructions, and listening to the album.
2. As you have time, further refine by picking up on references in the patch name (Sly & Family Stone, Vanilla Fudge, Del Shannon Runaway, Evil Ways, Trick of the Tail, Three Dog Night, Joe Zawinul's Rhodes, Easy To Be Hard (original recording of the musical Hair)... I'm not sure what 'Clark Farfisa' is referencing, but it's clearly someone)... but this can be a huge undertaking/rabbit hole. Don't get too absorbed here... most of the time, two or three organ patches, one or two rhodes patches, one wurli/pianet will be fine to cover all bases for a show like this. Only get detailed if it's fun for you to do so.
 

[ImproKeys]

14 hours ago, BluMunk said:

This looks way more complicated than it needs to be. 

…

Don't get too absorbed here... most of the time, two or three organ patches, one or two rhodes patches, one wurli/pianet will be fine to cover all bases for a show like this. Only get detailed if it's fun for you to do so.
 

Thank you (and the others as well)! I will try that approach in first rehearsals after listening to the new version recordings (if I find them). 
your answers help to be easy about finding each „correct“ sound. 

[D. Gauss]

i would just choose any patch named "Audrey."   

[Mighty Motif Max]

I recognize some of those patch names as being from the SR-JV80-08 60s & 70s Keyboards expansion board. https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/6070_P.pdf

 

Those exact patches are available in the modern Roland expansion soundsets for the Juno DS, FA series, and Fantom, in various incarnations.

[Thethirdapple]

This reddit thread came thru the interwebs to my browser window this morning…

 

Quote

Update 5: Just found out I’ve been using the wrong synth the entire time. I have just had some email correspondence with a keyboardist from the Orpheum Theatre for the original production and they indicated the synth used was the KORG Polysix, not the Korg Poly-61.

 

 

 

PEACE

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[ImproKeys]

Wow, that’s great, thanks!