In this article Alessandro Panella uses an analogue style subtractive Synth to recreate some classic patches. Over to Alessandro:

“Picture yourself in an Italian village, with a hot boiling sun and swampy rice fields…” 

This silly adaption of the famous Beatles song that Im sure you recognise aims at suggesting the physical context that surrounds me these days. Not the best situation to sit at the computer and work on a mix or a composition. Trying to find out a solution to move my attention to something interesting (or fun, at least) and forget this canicula (the peak of summer heat - Ed) for a couple of hours, I listened to my inner nerd and I decided to jump into what we nerdy keyboardists usually do to confirm our self-esteem: recreate some famous sounds used in the songs we loved and still love!

Disclaimer: I know that what follows includes the “usual suspects” and that all these sounds have already been reproduced with various VIs that emulate the original synths. Being a happy user of the Slate Digital All Pass Bundle, I decided to raise the bar a little bit, using only Sonic Academy’s ANA2 synth, which is included in the aforementioned bundle. 

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pink Floyd)

Original instruments:

• Strings: EMS VCS3 and ARP Solina String Ensemble

• Horn Lead: Minimoog

This is one of my favourites, mainly for sentimental reasons (and musical ones too, of course). The intro to the song is simply epic. 

Let’s start with the strings: I used all the three oscillators with different flavours of sawtooth. Osc 1 has the standard Saw waveform that opens with the init patch, with 9 voices slightly detuned and Pulse Width set somewhere between 31% and 32%; Osc 2 uses and ARP Sawtooth, again with 9 voices detuned at 26% and Pulse Width at 71%; Osc 3 has a Jupiter 8 Sawtooth with 7 voices and 20% detune, with Pulse Width set at about 23%. This last oscillator plays one octave higher than the other two. As regards filters, I used an Oberheim LPF and a EMS VCS3 LPF in parallel, with cutoff respectively at about 125 Hz and 32 Hz, with a bit of resonance and drive, to obtain some “crispiness”. 

The Amp envelope has a slow attack (1 second), maximum decay and sustain, and a 2.7 sec release.

I also used a slight chorus, a plate reverb, and a bit of equalisation, as you can see in the picture.

Moving to the Horn Lead, I used three oscillators again. The first has a Moog triangle waveform, with 9 voices and a bit of detune; Osc 2 uses the Saw morph 1 waveform, 9 voices slightly detuned and the Morph parameter set at 73% with a touch of Pulse Width; Osc 3 has a Prophet Saw, playing 1 octave lower than the other two, again with 9 voices very subtly detuned.

I decided to use the same filters as the previous sound, obviously with different cutoff frequencies (32Hz for the Oberheim LPF and 110Hz for the VCS3 LPF).

The original sound has a rather slow attack, so the Amp Envelope is set with a 320ms attack time, maximum decay and sustain, and 0.1 sec release.

As regards effects, I have a delay and a plate reverb to give the sound some width and I also added a touch of chorus (even if the original sound is rather static), because I wanted to give the lead a “personal touch” (keep in mind that, as long as the sound is similar enough to the original, we can always mark it a bit with our personal taste).

Africa (Toto)

Original instruments:

• Brass: Yamaha CS80

• Mallets: Real marimba + Yamaha GS-1

I think Toto is my favourite band ever. I love their arrangements, their sound, their musical language; so I approached this song with the due respect.

Starting from the brass, I needed a very fat sound (after all, they used a CS80…). I opted again for three oscillators; the first uses the standard Sawtooth (4 voices, 10% detune, -1 octave), the second has a JP800 Saw (3 voices, 15% detune, -1 octave) and the third uses the MS20 Square waveform with 2 voices, playing 1 octave higher.

I admit I was a bit lazy with the filters, so I used the same setup as in the Pink Folyd patches: Oberheim LPF and VCS3 LPF, this time in series, with cutoff respectively at 70Hz and 40Hz, no resonance or drive, but with an envelope that controls the filters behaviour (A: 160ms, D: 1900ms).

The Amp envelope aims at reproducing that rather “slow-ish” feel of the original brass sound (A: 70ms, D: 2300ms; S: -15.5dB; R: 0.1 sec).

For the effects, I used a very light waveshaper to give the sound a little “bite”, a chorus and an ensemble effect and a little bit of reverb. A touch of EQ (as shown in the picture) completes the recipe.

The mallet/marimba/kalimba was a real challenge, because (as far as I know) Toto used a real marimba overdubbed with various passes of a Yamaha GS-1, an FM beast whose behaviour cannot be reproduced by the synth I decided to use. I had to find a different approach, knowing that reaching the same sound as the original was almost impossible. I aimed at obtaining a sound that reminded me of the original with a good amount of approximation and that could work well “in context”. 

The patch is structured around 2 oscillators and 2 waveforms from the sampler part of ANA2.

The oscillators are used to obtain the body of the sound: Osc 1 has a Moog Triangle (8 voices, 5% detune); Osc 2 uses a Glass Marimba wavetable (6 voices, 20% detune). The two oscillators are sent to two different filters and their volumes are balanced so that Osc 1 is very present and Osc 2 only gives a touch of brilliance (that was my “FM effect” solution).

The Sampler section includes a Xylophone and a Marimba, which give both the attack and the “colour” of these percussive instruments and contribute strongly to the global effect as you can see in the mixer page, shown in the picture.

The filters are a Moog LPF and an Oberheim LPF in parallel, the former dedicated to Osc 2 and the latter to Osc 1.

The Amp envelope is shaped to get a percussive sound, so a touch of attack to “round” everything a little bit (3 ms), a short decay (530 ms), sustain and release set to 0.

The effects include a subtle chorus, a rather marked delay and some reverb.

Jump (Van Halen)

Original instrument:

• Brass: Oberheim OB8

Let’s be honest, every keyboard player has programmed its own Jump sound. We’ve all played the song when we were young, and playing it with our own sound was soooo satisfying. 

This sound is the typical example of the fact that you do not always need bells and whistles to get something very meaningful and powerful. 

The patch is extremely simple: a single oscillator, with the Saw Morph 03 waveform, with 9 voices detuned at 16%; the Morph parameter is set at 65% (simply because that spot was the better sounding for my purpose).

The filter is, obviously, an Oberheim LPF fully open and with some drive.

The Amp envelope is almost a classic “immediate open-close curve”, so attack and decay set to 0, maximum sustain and a 0.1 sec release (don’t ask me why, it simply sounded fine to my ears).

A chours gives the final touch and now… Might as well JUMP.

In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)

Original instrument:

• Brassy pad: Prophet V

This is a super-classic 80s brassy-pad sound, so lovely and so iconic!

My take at it starts with two oscillators each with a Prophet Square waveform (4 and 3 voices respectively), with different Pulse Widths which, in turn, are slightly modulated with the dedicated envelope to recreate the “movement” that I can perceive in the original sound. 

The filter, once again, is an Oberheim LPF (I love its sound), controlled by an envelope (A: 86 ms, D: 5900 ms, S: -9 dB, R: 21.5 ms); the cutoff is set to 20.5 Hz, no resonance is added. 

The Amp envelope sits somewhat between a brass and a slow pad, with an 80 ms attack, 10500 ms decay, -4.5 dB abd and a 3 sec release.

The final touch is given by a slow chorus and some delay.

You have surely noticed that I deliberately chose not to one of the most powerful features of the ANA2 Synth, namely the G-Envelope, because in my opinion it goes too far from the simpleness and straightforwardness of the controls available on the classic synths used back in the days. Was I right or wrong in my decision? I don’t know, but I’ll be glad if you let me know your opinions in the comments.

At the following link, you can download the patches for Sonic Academy ANA2.

BONUS SOUND

DISCLAIMER: super silly moment ahead, we were asking the team for synth sounds we’d like to see in this article - Russ for a joke said ‘The Birdie Song’… 😳, we were impressed when Alessandro actually did it!

The song is “The Birdie Song” and it might not be known to the youngest readers, but it reached quite a good success during the Eighties all over Europe, and it boasts an even older origin, as it was composed some time during the Fifties by the Swiss composer Werner Thomas under the title of “The Goose Song” and it was conceived as an entertainment piece played with an accordion (as you can see, I did my homework! I don’t want to disappoint).

Once again, I followed the original sound as a guideline, but I added some personal touches here and there to obtain a mixture between an accordion and some sort of squeaking duck-like sound. 

No screenshots or patches in this case. Your homework for this late summer is to replicate on your own my super-custom-special Birdie Song sound as best as you can… if you can!