Want to dig deep and synthesize. Send me on a mission!

[MBlom]

I've been into synths for about 10 years now (originally, and maybe most, a bass player) and I know my way around the basic stuff. But I always seem to get stuck playing basslines with the classic setting of the filter env closing at a fairly high res since I love the funkyness of it. Though I really enjoy playing along with my favourite song like that and programming my own stuff, I would like to take it one or a few steps further, especially since I'm about to finally getting myself a Voyager. Before that, and in cronological order, I've owned a Korg Trident (loved the roundness and laying chords through a guitar overdrive pedal, but the synth part of it was too limited), Nord Lead 1 (wonderful first synthesizing synth, here I realised how much it matters with one knob per function, it was just a little to limited and digital I guess), Nord Modular (fun but I didn't like having to use a computer to get the full capacity out of it), MicroKorg (just kept it for a few days, hated the interface) and MonoMachine. The MonoMachine is a keeper, I love the sequencer, capabilities and the harshness of the sounds, but I'm getting the Voyager for the keyboard, one-knob-per-function, the vast capabilities and of course THE SOUND!

Ok. That was a long intro. Here's the deal. As soon as I'm getting the Voyager (it'll be at the beginning of aug) I'll check all threads here more or less systematically, and will definitely check out KnobTweak. What I would love from you guys is if you could send me on some synthesize-mission where I get to listen to a song, mimic the sound and play along. This way I get to listen to music, practise synthesizing skills and improve on my keyboard action. A three step rocket, or Kinder Egg if you want your metaphors sweet. Please just give me some hints, if I have to start from scratch I might lose interest or never get even close. Maybe like: "Theres an FM bassline in xxxx by xxxx. Turn on fm to osc x, keep the filter fairly x. And try to find the right amount of fm and osc levels." I would really love these kind of assignments, they would appeal to my curiosity and not setting the bars too high. And it really doesn't have to be only bass lines. Though solos will probably be too much to handle for me. Maybe End Of Line or Derezzed (played sloooow)? I loves me Daft Punk...

If someone could give me a hint on how to get a clavinet-like sound and an appropriate Stevie Wonder song, that would be a terrific start!

Sergeant Blom, over and out!

[GregAE]

Congrats on your forthcoming purchase! The Voyager will provide you with many, many happy hours of sound exploration. Heck, just auditioning all the presets will take you many happy hours!

As for clav presets, you'll want to check out "HPcompressedClav" (preset 28 in the RME bank), "Outer Limits Clav" (preset 14 in the Electric Blue bank), and "ClavBass" (preset 24 in the Anniversary Edition bank), to name a few. While these may or may not be quite what you are looking for in the way of a Stevie Wonder clav sound, it will get you the basics of the patch, and you can tweak from there.

A personal favorite SW clav song is "Higher Ground" - you might try mimicing the 'wah-wah' part of the sound using the Voyager filter (you'll want an expression pedal plugged into the Filter control input for this). Won't truly be the same, of course, but will be an interesting challenge to see how close you can get.

Good luck on your mission...

- Greg

FYI: A list of all of the Voyager factory presets is on KnobTweak. Find it here:

KT > Files > Voyager > Voyager Patches - Factory > 2010 Vger Preset List.zip

[ColorForm2113]

This should be fun! I also like to take non musical sounds I hear in every day life and try to recreate them on the voyager. So far I have squeaky glass, quaking ducks and laughing

[stiiiiiiive]

A Laughing?

I don't believe you.

Sound or it doesn't exist

[ColorForm2113]

That reminds me I need to fix that last voyager demo iposted still *d'oh!* I see what I can whip up tomorrow

[EricK]

"Too High" is another good SW song also for some of that funky bass you like.

I was thinking that the clav was a little easy to get on the voyager but I haven't tried to program one in awhile, it's a little harder than I remember it. I went in there just now to see about it and one thing that will take you in the right direction is some fast attacks and some very narrow square waves.

An aspect of the clav that a lot of people don't think about is the release. It is an almost instantaneous attack and release frankly, but I noticed this on an old Roland RD-500 on the harpsichord/clav setting....when you depress several keys and hold them until the strings totally die (unorthodox clav playing obviously), what you will notice when you release the keys are slight clicking sounds where the tangent lets off of the string. It's a very interesting attention to detail roland managed to work in to their program.

A clav hammers the strings, not like a piano, but like you would hammer a guitar. When you release the key it releases the string, and since the note is then muted by the yarn, the pickup will pick up that sound. It is very subtle, but that can make a nice clav patch even more authentic. So turn the release on and add a little more envelope release...not so much that it sounds like a delay but that it clicks immediately upon release of the key.



Really up for a challenge? Make the best pad preset ever on the voyager.

[MBlom]

I thought I'd dig into clavinet synthesizing and there's a zip-file called ClavWorld on my Google Drive that I'm pretty sure I downloaded from KnobTweak. Problem is I can't open it there and not mail it to access it with my computer either. Tried to download with my computer now but I can't find it. Where is it? GregAE?

[GregAE]

I thought I'd dig into clavinet synthesizing and there's a zip-file called ClavWorld on my Google Drive that I'm pretty sure I downloaded from KnobTweak. Problem is I can't open it there and not mail it to access it with my computer either. Tried to download with my computer now but I can't find it. Where is it? GregAE?

It's still on KnobTweak. Find it here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Knob ... vWorld.zip.

- Greg