VG-99 - Drum sounds

Started by rolandvg99, May 16, 2013, 11:24:22 PM

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rolandvg99

Finally found a way to make lo-fi drums. Crystal synth with massive harmonic EQ worked the best. The crystal synth has loads of hidden secrets. Will post some examples next week after some more tweaking. A big step in the direction of an all VG-99 drum recording.

3 days of vacation up next...  :)
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aliensporebomb

Roger Powell the synth player of Todd Rundgren's Utopia (and formerly employee of ARP Synthesizers) did an album called air pocket where he had all the drums being done by synthesizers and it really did sound like a drum kit but there were no commercially available digital drum units available at the time. 

Listen:


He was able to come up with some pretty decent sounds just using oscillators and filters and gated noise bursts. 

My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

mbenigni

QuoteThe crystal synth has loads of hidden secrets.

Please share your thoughts as this develops.  I don't know how similar the GR55 Crystal Synth is, but I've fiddled with it a bit and couldn't find much use for it.  I should probably dive back in at some point.

rolandvg99

Quote from: mbenigni on May 17, 2013, 06:23:29 AM
Please share your thoughts as this develops.  I don't know how similar the GR55 Crystal Synth is, but I've fiddled with it a bit and couldn't find much use for it.  I should probably dive back in at some point.

I don't know if th GR's got the power, but there are certainly some similarities. Crystal synth is the synth that is closest to creating a pure sine wave if tweaked the right way.
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mbenigni

#4
Quote from: rolandvg99 on May 22, 2013, 01:25:09 AM
Crystal synth is the synth that is closest to creating a pure sine wave if tweaked the right way.

This leads me to believe they're not very similar.  It may be a case of Roland just appropriating the name "Crystal synth" because it has some historical significance. I haven't been able to get anything like a pure sine wave out of it; it sounds more like Reaktor's "Wavepipe" to me, but less adaptable.  The attached screen shot shows the few parameters available for the GR55's Crystal synth (in purple at the bottom.)  Are these similar to the VG99 parameters?

I'd probably sooner go to the Analog GR synth, or even the Brass synth, if I were trying to get somewhere near a pure sine wave.  Plain old "Wave" synth with a ton of low-pass EQ might also work in a pinch.  (But I should mention above all else that I don't have a lot of experience tweaking COSM synths...)


rolandvg99

The crystal parameters are the same, but the VG-99 has way more flexible eq. Bassdrum uses pitch shifting and heavy eq to achieve the front head ringing and to shape the waveform. We're talking +30 db frequency boosts at chosen intervals. Problem is that the VG has fixed frequency steps in the EQ section which limits the possibilities of tonal shaping. EQ is pseudo parametric, not fully parametric which is kind of a downer, but hey, the VG is dead awesome anyways.  :)
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mbenigni

QuoteCrystal synth is the synth that is closest to creating a pure sine wave if tweaked the right way.

I've been thinking about our back and forth on this, and how it relates to your drum patches, and I'm beginning to wonder:  when you wrote "pure sine wave" did you really mean "pure white noise" (or technically speaking, pink noise.)  That would make more sense.

rolandvg99

Turning up attack level, turn off body level and sustain, then turn off mod tune and mod freq and it gives a pretty pure tone. Add hard, narrow positive EQ and it shapes out to a sine like wave. Adjust attack length for tone sustain. Adjust pitch shifters to reduce the feel of a distinct tone and create additional overtones. Add mod tune and mod freq to adjust noise and timbre. I've also added som overdrive and compresion here and there.  :)
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rolandvg99

To V or not to V: That is the question.

My little Soundcloud corner