808 Cymbals on the Voyager

Tips and techniques for Minimoog Analog Synthesizers
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Jasperh
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Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:04 pm

808 Cymbals on the Voyager

Post by Jasperh » Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:39 pm

Are these the hardest things to program in the world or what?

It's impossible! Anyone manage it? Any tips for cymbal programming? Would a ring modulator help?

Thanks!

And hello. I'm new to this forum

Jasper

nick braithwaite
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Re: 808 Cymbals on the Voyager

Post by nick braithwaite » Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:26 am

Perhaps surprisingly for a lapsed drummer, I've yet to try making cymbals on a Voyager. But I have tried gongs and bells and they can be somewhat awkward, to say the least. Usually, it only sounds right for a limited number of notes. I'm fairly new to this myself, but there are a couple of good starting points I've found helpful. Try making the filters self-oscillate with the VCOs off at the mixer - some high-pitched bell-like sounds are among the sounds that will emerge and you can try trimming these to taste. The problem with this tends to come if / when you try to mix in the VCOs, as the filter resonance can be so loud as to swamp them....well, that's what happens to me :oops: Another thing is to severely detune the VCOs (try just 1 & 2 first & without the resonant filter) and you may find a hard sync helpful:- switch on the 1-2 sync switch and you will then find the fine-tune control on VCO 2 becomes a wave-form controller, so try tweaking this - you should start to hear a pronounced metallic edge to the sound. Used in conjunction with the filter & filter envelope controls, this can be very useful & versatile - it's also a good starter for Hammond organ-like sounds, particularly with a hard attack and a slight chirp on the filter envelope for the "dirty-contact-key-click" character A hard sync usually works best with the slave oscillator, VCO 2, tuned higher than VCO1 (the Master) on the octave switch and oddly enough sometimes with VCO1 turned off at the mixer. Some of my efforts in this direction have been more convincing than others, but it's worth a try! A Ring-Mod will probably help but it can be a tricky beast.....I've yet to tame mine! There are probably loads of guys here who can tell you far more than I can, but I hope you will find this helpful. There is bound to be someone who has done this and can give you exactly what you want. Welcome to the Forum and good luck - everyone here is helpful & friendly - don't be afraid to ask simple questions. Have fun - all the best.

EMwhite
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Re: 808 Cymbals on the Voyager

Post by EMwhite » Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:58 am

I don't have a constructive answer, except to say that it's a hell of alot of work to reproduce the dynamics of a long ringing sheet of stamped (or milled) metal.

Looking back at the drum machines that have been produced over time, you'll either find a less than stellar result, or the manufacturer bagging any attempt and instead resorting to Samples while otherwise leveraging analog OSCs and filters (Jomox Xbase 09, 888, 999).

Some amount of warble via non-linear ring mod that comes on late would improve upon the 808 but this definitely is one of the more difficult ones.

How about a contest to see who can craft the best 808 reproduction?
.
'76 Minimoog, Taurus 3, Oberheim FVS + Son of 2-voice; Sequential ProOne; Juno 106; Moog Model 15; Kurzweil 250; Hammond M3; and a handful of Fender Basses Flickr!

Jasperh
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Re: 808 Cymbals on the Voyager

Post by Jasperh » Thu Jul 15, 2010 4:48 pm

Great tips. I'd love to hear what the winner of that competition came up with. I read up on SoundonSound about bridged t oscillators, and thought to myself: there's got to be a way of doing this on the Voyager.

Hmm, I'll try the tips. Perhaps Moog should give us a prize if we manage it! Or perhaps it's impossible and they'll never have to give one out :P

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Klopfgeist
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Re: 808 Cymbals on the Voyager

Post by Klopfgeist » Thu Jul 15, 2010 4:53 pm

This might help: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul02/a ... ts0702.asp

The voyager doesn't really have the right architecture to produce TR808 cymbals, but other cymbal sounds can be accomplished with white noise, frequency modulation, the bandpass filter, and hard sync on the voyager.
So this thing only plays one note?

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