Synapse Audio Minimoog emulation "The Legend" for VST/AU and RE released!

[EnGee]

And none of your 100 synths can make such sounds?!

Anyway, it took me less than one minute to have the desired brass sound. I don't know, for synth brass sounds, Oberheim and DX7 come to my mind immediately. So, my to go brass sounds currently is FM8 (but the brass sound is a basic sound, so I think most synths are capable of it! If you want a realistic one or near, then use samples in Kontakt or whatsever).

FM8_Brass.JPG

Hey, that's great. You found something that works for you and I found something that works for me

Isn't life wonderful?

It is, but sometimes KVR after some time can make you mean and funny Sorry, it is just for fun!

[Mutant]

Okay, this is pretty close to the sound I'm looking for.

It's a short demo of the Yamaha GX-1 which is what the intro to Fanfare For The Common Man by ELP was played on, supposedly. There is tons of conflicting info on this and I don't want to get into a long ELP debate because it's all besides the point.

Anyway, this is just one of the many sounds of the era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nxpRDNjjd4

But you do realize that the sound you can hear in that video is heavily tainted by speakers/room/microphone ?
It is not the sound you would hear if MrFirechild connected the synth to a proper portable recorder.

And please stop posting fully produced songs as audio examples, the synth is only a small piece of the whole signal chain that probably includes a studio with equipment worth half a million $.
Expecting any single synth (hardware or software and including the GX-1) to sound like that when recorded dry is at least a bit unrealistic.

[exmatproton]

Okay, this is pretty close to the sound I'm looking for.

It's a short demo of the Yamaha GX-1 which is what the intro to Fanfare For The Common Man by ELP was played on, supposedly. There is tons of conflicting info on this and I don't want to get into a long ELP debate because it's all besides the point.

Anyway, this is just one of the many sounds of the era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nxpRDNjjd4

But you do realize that the sound you can hear in that video is heavily tainted by speakers/room/microphone ?
It is not the sound you would hear if MrFirechild connected the synth to a proper portable recorder.

And please stop posting fully produced songs as audio examples, the synth is only a small piece of the whole signal chain that probably includes a studio with equipment worth half a million $.
Expecting any single synth (hardware or software and including the GX-1) to sound like that when recorded dry is at least a bit unrealistic.

+1

[v1o]

I love how everyone is staying on topic.

[Ingonator]

I had alraedy done Synth Brass patches for the factory content and also posted some additional ones here.
Also as i was quite convinced that this kind of sounds works quite nicely with The Legend even if other synths like e.g. Memorymoog, Jupiter 8, Prophet 5, Oberheim synths, Synthex and some others are supposed to be the best for this stuff i am currently working on more sounds of that kind for The Legend.

Yesterday i already made 9 new Synth Brass patches with The Legend and opposing to the opinion of some others you could create a quite big amount of different Synth Brass sounds (even if differences betwen some are maybe just small). For me it's not really about replicating real Brass instruments and there are different kinds of synthetic Brass sounds like more more soft sounding ones and/or also Brass like pads with longer filter attack and decay values.

Besides using the poly mode this also includes using other advanced features like e.g. the 12dB filter mode (which while still being a Moog ladder filter design could make a real difference), adjustable stereo width and built-in Reberb. Several of the resulting sounds do not seem to be possible with a real Minimoog Model D while the patches still keep the "Moog like" sound of course.
Not to forget that the full ADSR envelopes in The Legend could also make a real difference with certain sounds. In the original Minimoog the Release stage when used was identical to the decay amount. This meant that if you needed a longer decay time the Release if not set to 0 (which was teh otehr option) had to be the same or vice versa.

I got a lot of other plugins that seem to be be better suited for this kind of sounds and that include several additional features (including emulations of synths mentioned above) but sometimes it is great to have synth that you like but has certain limitations and to see what is possible. Not to forget it is also about the specific basic sound like that in The Legend and/or the Minimoog (and replicating that sound The Legend currently seems to be the best).

Actually for monophonic Synth Brass sounds the Minimoog seemed to be used quite often and several of both polyphonic and monophonic sounds of that kind are alraedy included with the factory content for The Legend.

The point with The Legend is that while you could still use it as a 100% proper 1:1 emulation the additional features could really make a difference. This does not mean that it should be tried to "overload" it it with a huge amount of additional features (while a few additional ones are alraedy planned or work in progress).

[fluffy_little_something]

I wonder what's worse in that context, envelopes without separate decay and release or, like on some Roland synths, only one envelope for both filter and amp. Sure, there was the possibility of using gate for the amp and the envelope for the filter, but gate usually causes attack and release clicks.

Anyway, there are other poly sounds as well. For pads I did not like Legend much, they sound a hard in my view. Maybe authentically analog, but still hard. Maybe the oscillators are simply too dominant for softer pads.

[Ingonator]

Anyway, there are other poly sounds as well. For pads I did not like Legend much, they sound a hard in my view. Maybe authentically analog, but still hard. Maybe the oscillators are simply too dominant for softer pads.

Too "hard" sounds could have several cause. I do not think that the Minimoog in general has that kind of sound.

For softer sounds besides the amount of Oscs used (you do not always have to use all 3) i would start with a lower Cutoff and/or envelope amount and also with filter key tracking off (too high key tracking could result in too harsh sounds too).
In The Legend you got the choice between teh deault 24dB and 12dB filter which could have a big influence too.

Also the amount of saturation seems to be important. Besides the Osc levels (many of the old Minimoog patches seemed to use quite low levels there) also the Drive, Feedback and saturation (at the back panel of The Legend) parameters are important.

At the back panel of The Legend you also have trimpots to further adjust the Cutoff and Resonance range of the filter (default at center position) and a few other options.

For poly sounds also using the stereo spread could help sometimes to make things less harsh and it could make it "bigger" at the same time.

In general just because certain people use the Minimoog for specific "on your face" sounds does not mean that it has to be that way with each and every patch when programming this synth properly.

[fluffy_little_something]

Yes, I remember trying those things. I think I am just spoiled by the shimmer of synths that allow for the stacking and detuning of lots of voices

[Ingonator]

Another way to get a smoother sound (besides what was already mentioned above or an EQ which is always an option) is to add an instance of the Legend FX plugin to the track with the synth plugin to use this as a second filter in series. If you route a MIDI track to the FX plugin you could even use the OScs and envelopes of the FX plugin.

[egbert101]

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[Ingonator]

When it comes to Synth Brass, you have to also include the Yahama CS-80 (either Arturia CS-80 V or Memorymoon ME-80), although more instantly recognizable in the works of Vangelis, it is still an absolute beast for such sounds.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/cs80.php

CS-80 is indeed great for such sounds. One of the patches i made this week while not a proper 1:1 replication is inspired by the CS-80 video at YouTube and i used the 12dB filter mode for that (the real thing used a 12dB LPF too).
I got Arturia V-Collection 5 and will maybe try to relicate Brass presets from the CS-80 in that where it makes sense (and if possible).

[egbert101]

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[fluffy_little_something]

The Vangelis sound is pretty simple, almost any synth can make that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fne0oIEv-WI

Tried it in Sylenth1. The patch is velocity expressive, but I don't have aftertouch, let alone polyphonic aftertouch

https://app.box.com/s/eh8p3r1ura4rpmitck2hke3poj2s3q9i

[chk071]

The Vangelis sound is pretty simple, almost any synth can make that

Never quite good the hype about it either. Or, generally, about the Blade Runner soundtrack.

[fluffy_little_something]

I assume it was the combination of movie and soundtrack back then...

The smaller Yamaha synth the guy in the video used sounds good, have Yamaha given up on making normal synths these days? They are more into workstations now it seems.