How many of you beloved Moogerfoogers have come up with your own ideas on patches to make your beloved Moogs sound close to a grand piano (not the electric Wurlitzer or Rhodes pianos)? This patch idea is not just of interest to me but to some other Moog fanatics who may be interested in using their Moog as something other than just a synthesizer.
I mean, what settings would you adjust each LFO, knobs, switches, et al, to get a near representation of the grand piano sound?
Also, what would the settings, knob positions, and other switches be if one were to make a Moog sound like a clavinet?
Moog hot sheet:
Minimoog D
Opus 3
Source
Memorymoog
Minimoog Voyager
Little Phatty
That’s not being realistic, and I’m not talking about a Radio-Shack brand here…
Especially when most Moog synths are monophonic to boot. I’m not saying that some kind of pseudo-piano sounds are not possible, but a Grand Piano ? Common…
Roland have spent 5 years developing their V-Piano to try to approximate such a sound synthetically.
You need much more than simply 3 oscillators with a few waveforms, a low pass filter, and some envelopes to recreate that with some degree of realism.
What you might enjoy however is this article on music synthesis theory, especially recreating piano sounds, with practical examples applicable to many analog synths, from the “synth secrets” series on the SoundOnSound site that was written by Gordon Reid.
Here’s a link to it. It might not permit you to recreate a faithful Grand Piano sound out of a Voyager, but you could maybe learn a trick or two, as I did…
Is it possible to make a Moog Source sound akin to a Wurlitzer or Rhodes piano (if not an actual grand piano), provided I set all its switches correctly?
Is it possible to make a Moog Source sound akin to a Wurlitzer or Rhodes piano (if not an actual grand piano), provided I set all its switches correctly?
~Ben
That’s subjective on the listener.
If they can be fooled that a non-touch sensitive monosynth can sound like a highly touch sensitive polyphonic, then that’s up to them.
As a bet involving 100 people, my money would be on “no.”
But I cannot discount that a good player who knows what he’s doing recording-wise, might be able to fool some, at least for a short time.
I’ve heard some reasonable emulations of acoustic pianos on analogue synths (and, truth be told even more so on FM synths), but not when you sit and solo them. The best they can do is evoke the attack/decay of a piano and get you in a similar timbral zone which will work in an ensemble context. But then one can say the same of any instrument with physically vibrating parts: brass, woodwinds, guitars, timpani, etc.
In a solo context though? No. Pianos are completely polyphonic, have huge dynamic ranges and it’s not just the interaction of a hammer hitting the string that you hear. It’s also the resonances of the cabinetry, how the player is working the pedals, the inharmonicities of lower strings, the changes in the rate of decay as one plays up the keyboard, whether the lid is open or closed, etc.
Asking a Moog Source to do that without massive amounts of multitracking, outboard processing or modifying a host of parameters in real time is probably more a teaching exercise than anything else.
Or to be blunt: there’s a reason why ROMplers became popular. Horses for courses.
I designed the “Frankensteinwhey” factory piano patch for the Andromeda. This is from the tips-n-tricks document on wohmart.com:
There are several tricks to getting a piano sound on an analog synth:
hard sync VCO2 to VCO1 and tune VCO2 at least octave+5th higher than VCO1. I don’t
remember the exact tuning in “Frank” but this gets you those harmonics from those wound
strings. Ramp and narrow pulse waveforms work best for sync’d VCOs for oodles of harmonics.
use BP mode for the filters, FILTER1 HPF → FILTER2 LPF. Adjust FILTER2 cutoff, resonance,
and keytracking to taste for reducing the high harmonics. I used FILTER1 to emulate the
resonance of the soundboard in a piano, IE vary resonance and cutoff (tuned near the
fundamental) so that you get some “woodiness” to the tone.
Complex envelope - this is where the Andromeda’s dual decay and release stages and
selectable slopes are really handy. I spent the most time getting the envelope right, and then
scaling it to key number (see next tip).
Modulation, modulation, modulation. Route velocity to FILTER2 cutoff for less harmonics on
softer keystrikes. Route keynumber to pulse width. Or route envelope to PW. Envelope to
prefilter VCO1 level. Keynumber to mix level. Keynumber to FILTER2 resonance. And
keynumber to envelope decay/release, the transients on a real piano are shorter on the higher
notes. The timbre of a piano is complex and dynamic depending on velocity and note, this is
where the Andromeda’s vast modulation routing is put to the task.
Leave the effects OFF. Get the basic sound first, don’t try to voice the piano patch using delays
or reverb. Piano sounds are likely to be used in MIX mode (think layers), so the less you rely on
effects the better.
If you have a weighted action MIDI controller, drive the Andromeda with it and check for natural
timbre and response. Check the timbre outside the 61-note keyboard of the A6. You’ll be glad
you did when you use the TRANSPOSE feature in MIX mode or by the wheels. My personal
test was “Maple Leaf Rag”.
Getting a good piano sound means finding the right combination of all of the above and it’s not easy,
especially the modulation stuff. It’s a real good analog programming challenge. It’s a test of your
imagination. You’ll find something that works in the top range but those low notes aren’t quite there,
and then a filter tweak or sync’d VCO2 tuning tweak will just move the halfway point around.
LOTS of tweaking. Save often, and save several versions so you come back the next day and find
that the third of seven versions takes you in the direction you wanted in the first place. Don’t spend
hours on trying to get one sound, give your ears a rest and come back to it. I’m still refining a
Wurlitzer piano patch, which will be included in the bank I ship off to Alesis.
I’ve done a couple of variations of “Frankensteinwey”, one of which I turned off keyboard tracking of
the sync’d VCO2 and modded the pitch with less than 100% keynumber, which worked for another
style piano I wanted. Experimentation and imagination are the key here. Things I haven’t tried are
using the ringmod (what would that sound like with a sync’d VCO?), different filter modes, VCO
crossmod (don’t laugh!), filter feedback, etc.
The Andromeda’s vast modulation routings and filter variations play a big part in getting a good
piano sound, and it’s so fricking cool to have a real analog filter controlling the harmonics with
velocity. Plus the keyboard is semi-weighted and not the featherlight spring action on most other
keyboards. I can’t think of another analog synth that has near the tools the Andromeda does for
complex sounds like
If your analog synth has all those, then you have a good start. I wouldn’t use “Frankensteinwhey” in a solo context, but it worked in a group context.
