80s Pop Synth Sound in a Pedal

[ped]

This is the kind of thing I love programming on the VB99. Although the FI is amazing, I don’t think it matches the VB99 in terms of overall flexibility. Unfortunately they aren’t easy to get and you don’t have to take a leap of faith to get one and then invest a lot of time playing with it. I’ve had mine for years now but I’m still working out new things with it. I love it to bits!

[bartelby]

11 hours ago, Al Krow said:

There's an entirely good reason why you have GAS for this pedal: there is nothing out there that currently touches it...Soz buddy. I know I'm not helping! 😂

Here's a quote from the chap (a trusted BCer) who tipped me over the edge into getting one:

"It is without doubt the best sounding and most versatile synth pedal out there. Period.  But!!!... and both of these shouldn't be taken lightly... you have to have a very clean playing & muting technique to trigger fast lines and the willingness to learn the editor which can be a bit of a monster at times. If you can handle that... then if I know you at all then I'd say that you will LOVE it."

Well if there's one person I know for sure who will enjoy messing about with a PC editor a LOT more than me, I think it just might be you! And if you love synth sounds...

 

Fortunately all my future funds are heading towards expanding this.

 

Or maybe that’s unfortunately...

[Al Krow]

@bartelbylooks amazing! I suspect @Quatschmacher in particular is going to be very interested in this!

Not sure that's going to fit on my pedal board though! 😄 

[Al Krow]

11 hours ago, ped said:

This is the kind of thing I love programming on the VB99. Although the FI is amazing, I don’t think it matches the VB99 in terms of overall flexibility. Unfortunately they aren’t easy to get and you don’t have to take a leap of faith to get one and then invest a lot of time playing with it. I’ve had mine for years now but I’m still working out new things with it. I love it to bits!

But you're now talking about a piece of kit that cost > £1,000 vs one that is around £330 (new). With that price differential, you'd hope the Roland VB-99 would be more flexible, right?! 

I think they both came out in 2016, but am I correct that the VB-99 is no longer in production?

[BigRedX]

15 hours ago, Al Krow said:

+100 ^^

I love being a bass player. I didn't sign up to be a keys player...😎

 

15 hours ago, tobiewharton said:

Quite.

I'm a musician.

What instrument I use doesn't matter so long as it is the right one for getting the sound(s) I want with the minimum of fuss and the maximum ability to get consistent results. Especially live.

[Al Krow]

19 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I'm a musician.

What instrument I use doesn't matter so long as it is the right one for getting the sound(s) I want with the minimum of fuss and the maximum ability to get consistent results. Especially live.

I'm a bass player.

What instrument I use does matter: I would be absolutely pants on a cello, or a flute, or a... And I already have enough gear to lug (as the band provider of the PA). Especially live.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Al Krow

[ped]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

But you're now talking about a piece of kit that cost > £1,000 vs one that is around £330 (new). With that price differential, you'd hope the Roland VB-99 would be more flexible, right?! 

I think they both came out in 2016, but am I correct that the VB-99 is no longer in production?

They can be had used for about £600 now I think. Yes you’d expect it to be more flexible but then it replaces everything you’ve got so in actual fact it represents good value when you look at it that way (at least that’s how I justified it to myself!)

Still want a FI though because you can never have too many toys to play with!

[Quatschmacher]

On 22/08/2018 at 19:15, Al Krow said:

Option 2 - check this out, it's a bit spendy (but a fraction of the cost of Option 1 😄 ).

That’s not actually true, unless you mean top-heavy fractions; there are a fair few keyboard and module synths that are cheaper than the Future Impact eg, Korg Monologue (£230 new, £180 used).

[Al Krow]

29 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

That’s not actually true, unless you mean top-heavy fractions; there are a fair few keyboard and module synths that are cheaper than the Future Impact eg, Korg Monologue (£230 new, £180 used).

Guess you get what you pay for, right?  I think my £230 is feeling pretty safe, right now 😂

 

[Quatschmacher]

15 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Guess you get what you pay for, right?  I think my £230 is feeling pretty safe, right now 😂

 

This is a fantastic little synth. I bought one for my son. It’s a very capable machine. Doesn’t have full ADSR but is capable of great sounds and has a very powerful sequencer.

That demo does no justice to it at all. 

Edited August 24, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

These are the demos to watch to get a proper idea of all this can do:

It’s a playlist of 10 videos detailing the different aspects of the synth. 

Edited August 24, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Al Krow]

Thanks Q - I clearly need to review your follow up YouTube post! 

But it would be interesting to hear from our "live" keyboard playing BCers whether this would realistically cut the mustard / they would look to use one themselves?

Edited August 24, 2018 by Al Krow

[M@23]

3 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

That’s not actually true, unless you mean top-heavy fractions; there are a fair few keyboard and module synths that are cheaper than the Future Impact eg, Korg Monologue (£230 new, £180 used).

My Bass Station 2 cost £230, second hand, mint and boxed. I bought it for the 80s stuff. It's perfect for it! 

[Quatschmacher]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Thanks Q - I clearly need to review your follow up YouTube post! 

But it would be interesting to hear from our "live" keyboard playing BCers whether this would realistically cut the mustard / they would look to use one themselves?

Marc Doty’s reviews are the most comprehensive and are essential viewing if you’re interested in the models he has reviewed. 

[Quatschmacher]

I managed to get close to the Ain’t Nobody sound with pedals. It sounds like a narrowish pulse wave. I used an Octabvre into a Mastotron (pulse width quite narrow) into a downsweep 24db filter on the Manta. I favoured the jazz pickup on my PJ as it seemed to give the the sound some thinness. I ran that into an aggressive noise gate on a Sentry. The main stumbling block is getting the filter sweep to reset quickly enough. Playing very tight staccato with the noise gate helped but it think I need to try a bit of compression at the front so I can get the gate tighter.

[Quatschmacher]

@tobiewharton, I’ve just had a go at programming “Ain’t Nobody” on my Minimoog App, this setting sounds pretty close. It’s a medium-width pulse, no resonance, relatively fast downsweep envelope with medium depth.

I’d seriously recommend buying this app if you have an Apple device, it’s worth every penny, you can play it on the device or hook up a cheap midi keyboard. At a push you could even play it with your bass using a Sonuus G2M (though there’ll be some latency).

@CameronJ, I can share the settings file if you want to have a listen to it to comment. 

[Quatschmacher]

... or buy a Behringer Model D for £285, which is a dead-on Minimoog hardware clone.

[Quatschmacher]

5 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

@tobiewharton, I’ve just had a go at programming “Ain’t Nobody” on my Minimoog App, this setting sounds pretty close. It’s a medium-width pulse, no resonance, relatively fast downsweep envelope with medium depth.

I’d seriously recommend buying this app if you have an Apple device, it’s worth every penny, you can play it on the device or hook up a cheap midi keyboard. At a push you could even play it with your bass using a Sonuus G2M (though there’ll be some latency).

@CameronJ, I can share the settings file if you want to have a listen to it to comment. 

After listening with headphones, it seems like it’s actually the narrow pulse:

[stewblack]

On 22/08/2018 at 23:28, roceci said:

The humble Zoom B3 can yield a few surprisingly decent 80s synth sounds if you mess around with it I've found. This is a patch I use for Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody and anything else that sounds DX7-esque...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n1topj3b3m42yw3/I Wanna Dance...B3 bass.mp3?dl=0

It's not the greatest for quick-ish runs as the demo shows towards the end, but the tracking is fine for the most part if you watch your technique and keep your lines steady. That patch could probably use a little octave but I'm maxed out at three slots on the B3...time to look at an MS-60B I think!

 

Don't suppose you'd care to share the patch settings you used to achieve this would you?

[roceci]

On 26/08/2018 at 09:49, stewblack said:

Don't suppose you'd care to share the patch settings you used to achieve this would you?

Sorry mate been on holiday. 

Z-SYN
Saw wave
Decay 0
Tone 6
Freq 3
Range 7
Reso 7
Synth 50
Dry 100

160 Comp
THRSH -25
Ratio 4.0
Gain 6
Hard Knee

Bottom B 
Bass 6
Trebl 5

I've got the tone just a tad back from wide open on my Jazz in passive mode, pickup blend at 50/50 and plucking over the neck pickup for fatness. Doing my best to isolate each note with judicious muting. Hope that helps.

[stewblack]

8 minutes ago, roceci said:

Sorry mate been on holiday. 

Z-SYN
Saw wave
Decay 0
Tone 6
Freq 3
Range 7
Reso 7
Synth 50
Dry 100

160 Comp
THRSH -25
Ratio 4.0
Gain 6
Hard Knee

Bottom B 
Bass 6
Trebl 5

I've got the tone just a tad back from wide open on my Jazz in passive mode, pickup blend at 50/50 and plucking over the neck pickup for fatness. Doing my best to isolate each note with judicious muting. Hope that helps.

Thank you! Sat home with a flu  bug  so playing pedals is about all I feel up to right  now

[BigRedX]

On 24/08/2018 at 10:13, Al Krow said:

I'm a bass player.

What instrument I use does matter: I would be absolutely pants on a cello, or a flute, or a... And I already have enough gear to lug (as the band provider of the PA). Especially live.

It doesn't take a lot of keyboard technique to be able to play most synth bass lines with more accuracy and reliability on a keyboard synth than you can using a bass guitar and pedals.

Most of the bassists I see doing this sort of stuff have some serious bass guitar chops and a massive pedal board to hold all the effects they require, but I know I can do a much better job, in terms of accuracy of playing, and consistency of sound, with something like a Nord Lead and my decidedly 3rd rate keyboard technique.

[woodyratm]

On 28/08/2018 at 09:21, BigRedX said:

It doesn't take a lot of keyboard technique to be able to play most synth bass lines with more accuracy and reliability on a keyboard synth than you can using a bass guitar and pedals.

Most of the bassists I see doing this sort of stuff have some serious bass guitar chops and a massive pedal board to hold all the effects they require, but I know I can do a much better job, in terms of accuracy of playing, and consistency of sound, with something like a Nord Lead and my decidedly 3rd rate keyboard technique.

Fairly accurate. My boards have been cray. Proper downsized now (cough check the for sale section).

You'll get a decent representation from the aforementioned future or deep impacts, but you do need to have super clean playing. Even your right hand catching the string above (D> A for example) can cause it to trigger the wrong note.

[tobiewharton]

On 22/08/2018 at 23:28, roceci said:

The humble Zoom B3 can yield a few surprisingly decent 80s synth sounds if you mess around with it I've found. This is a patch I use for Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody and anything else that sounds DX7-esque...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n1topj3b3m42yw3/I Wanna Dance...B3 bass.mp3?dl=0

It's not the greatest for quick-ish runs as the demo shows towards the end, but the tracking is fine for the most part if you watch your technique and keep your lines steady. That patch could probably use a little octave but I'm maxed out at three slots on the B3...time to look at an MS-60B I think!

 

Gone back to this and picked up a B3n from dannybuoy - time to do some serious fiddling!

[BillyBassman]

On 22/08/2018 at 23:28, roceci said:

The humble Zoom B3 can yield a few surprisingly decent 80s synth sounds if you mess around with it I've found. This is a patch I use for Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody and anything else that sounds DX7-esque...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n1topj3b3m42yw3/I Wanna Dance...B3 bass.mp3?dl=0

It's not the greatest for quick-ish runs as the demo shows towards the end, but the tracking is fine for the most part if you watch your technique and keep your lines steady. That patch could probably use a little octave but I'm maxed out at three slots on the B3...time to look at an MS-60B I think!

 

As a B3 owner, I'm delighted to find this. Thank you. However, the link is just an mp3 file. Do you have a patch you can share, or the name of the preset you used as a starting point? Many thanks 🙏