Best synth sound ever

bruno

est malade
i nominate this:


i would also list john carpenter's stuff, escape from new york in particular is mesmerising:

 

bruno

est malade
im too dumb to answer this. id inevitably nominate something that turn out to be a guitar or a flute. i think funky worm, as mentioned, is sublime but perhaps not a synth?
god i love flutes, especially synthetic ones! i just assume it's a synth unless recorded before 1940 or whatever, there is no way of telling what anything is anymore. the important thing is that it's a beautiful sound.
 

Ulala

Awkward Woodward
Right, so I see lots of Carpenter but no Faltermeyer. This must change.

This one takes a while to get going but is full of great bits once it does:



'Fletch' is affably crap, lifted immeasurably by Faltermeyer. Harold does the whole soundtrack, this is the theme:



And the classic, which I'd contest is the definitive synth record ever. Bollocks to Jean-Michel Jarre, innit. (Oh, and whilst the 12" mix is jim-dandy, the 7" edit is my favourite, so that's what you're getting.)

 

bruno

est malade
nice. speaking of (soundtrack) synth gods, let's not forget sylvester levay of cobra fame. he was also heavily involved in scarface (some say more than giorgio). here is one cobra bit:


on the same album is this miami sound machine tune with a killer intro:

 

Simon78

Well-known member
I love the lead synth and the stuttering bass sound in this one. They sound like pretty stock sounds off a DX or something. Such a tune as well.

 

bruno

est malade
vangelis is most definitely an elephant in the room. how could one not mention the gorgeous synth wash of blade runner blues? or the poignant synth backdrop to rutger hauer's last monologue? he looms over this thread like a giant greek ark.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Thanks to whoever mentioned Mala on this thread. i've belatedly discovered him as a result (dubstep I only dip into occasionally), and while I'm not sure that it's his synths that are doing it for me, i definitely overlooked him. that huge selection of dubs on youtube from the joe nice show are a great resource...

for all those who mentioned E2-E4 or Kraftwerk, not sure how well-known this is:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zWV3m5tKDCk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
if i had to choose one it would be fingers' can you feel it bass. there are so many variants on it and i love em all.

the techno stab, the classic jungle dread bass (not sure of the proper name), that warpy 2step bass, synth brass chords, donk, all classics for good reason.

the arp cybotron sampled for clear is also a fave. there's quite a few other cool sounds in that track. kraftwerk knew how to tweak.

this bass sound in windowlicker. aphex is easily one of my fave sound designers. the spooky sounds found on saw ii are hard to beat.

these rising, increasingly pitch modulated chords. also found at 0:46 in *

the bass from the beginning, the delayed arp around 0:32 and the chord at 0:45 in you don't know by drexciya definitely float my boat. so many tracks i could have chosen from drexciya.

electro* in general is a pretty good source of interesting sound design.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
if i had to choose one it would be fingers' can you feel it bass. there are so many variants on it and i love em all.

Quick geeky question - is that a square wave-based patch, perhaps with a triangle too? Seems quite basic (but brilliant), though I could be completely wrong cos I'm shit at sound design.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
i used to think it was a square wave, i made a few patches with a single square and some filter envelope action and got quite close. but i got even closer with 2 slightly detuned triangles, with less filter env action. on his rbma session, he says that he used a 'roland juno 2, which didn't even have midi' which suggest he was actually using a juno 6, as there's no such thing as a juno 2. and junos only have one osc so it would have been the built in chorus that gave it the effect of 2 detuned oscs. that's my guess anyway.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
the same subject just came up on GS and the definitive answer was this

"Juno 6 - Just use the Sub Osc and flip on Chorus mode II"
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
i used to think it was a square wave, i made a few patches with a single square and some filter envelope action and got quite close. but i got even closer with 2 slightly detuned triangles, with less filter env action. on his rbma session, he says that he used a 'roland juno 2, which didn't even have midi' which suggest he was actually using a juno 6, as there's no such thing as a juno 2. and junos only have one osc so it would have been the built in chorus that gave it the effect of 2 detuned oscs. that's my guess anyway.

thanks for that - am gonna give it a go this evening as part of my ongoing education in sound design...

GS = gearslutz, right? Do you know any other forums etc that are particularly good on breaking down sound design from famous records. I've seen a few, but they seem to concentrate on rubbish/obscure house records often, with nary a nod to great house or electro...
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
not really, a lot of the time when i see people ask how such and such a sound is made they end up getting a load of people whinging about not copying, being original etc. but there is info out there, you just have to dig for it. imo the best thing to do is just tweak and discover for yourself. preferably on a synth with dedicated knobs for it's main functions or a vst with a hardware controller. basically hands on as opposed to mouse and screen. subtractive synths are pretty simple and can make a big portion of the classic 'synth' sounds.

if you focus on (finely) detuned oscs, filter envelopes and lfos you should be able to get a lot of mileage. so many variants to be had just using the basics.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
yeah, i'm probably gonna set a few hours aside to tinker with all the different modulation possibilities on the basic waves, see how far I get. When you talk about finely detuned oscs, do you mean to widen/fatten the sound, or for any other use?

not really, a lot of the time when i see people ask how such and such a sound is made they end up getting a load of people whinging about not copying, being original etc. but there is info out there, you just have to dig for it. imo the best thing to do is just tweak and discover for yourself. preferably on a synth with dedicated knobs for it's main functions or a vst with a hardware controller. basically hands on as opposed to mouse and screen. subtractive synths are pretty simple and can make a big portion of the classic 'synth' sounds.

if you focus on (finely) detuned oscs, filter envelopes and lfos you should be able to get a lot of mileage. so many variants to be had just using the basics.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
yeah, i'm probably gonna set a few hours aside to tinker with all the different modulation possibilities on the basic waves, see how far I get. When you talk about finely detuned oscs, do you mean to widen/fatten the sound, or for any other use?

yeah, to make it sound fatter & give it some movement with the phasing is def. the most common use. but 2 raw oscs detuned by a few cents is pretty flexible, even before a filter is brough into the mix. 2 detuned sines can get pretty trippy, very Sähkö if you add some verb. like modulating the fine tune of one of em with a low depth, slow lfo so the phase moves about. can get pretty woozy. so many things to try though.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
best to go in with as few predetermined ideas as poss though. it won't take long to figure out how to get close to sounds you want to copy.
 
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