Vangelis CS-80 Bladerunner lead sound

[garryknight]

Before I get stuck in trying to recreate this sound on a Serum, has anyone been there and done that? If not on a Serum, any other soft synth?

[JerGoertz]

This was done with awesome accuracy (IMO) using one of the old Synthsquad synths; I think it was in Himalaya's Antiquity bank.

[garryknight]

Ah, thanks. It took me a little over 10 minutes of experimentation to get this with Serum. I think it's close.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/254 ... r%20GK.fxp

Edit Hmmm... That's probably not going to be all that authentic. I doubt that the CS-80 had 12 oscillators. Oh, well, it's late. I'll have another go tomorrow.

[Groov85]

If it sounds close, then it is

[garryknight]

Agreed.

I tried it with just two detuned oscillators but it doesn't sound as good. It could do with a little more reverb, but I like it so it's obviously an exact replicant ... um... replica

[Chris-S]

I doubt that the CS-80 had 12 oscillators.

CS80 has 2 oscillators, 12 dB lowpass filter.
Key to the sound is a large hall and filter modulation with aftertouch (or something).

Older thread:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 1&t=408798

[Slaapstadseun]

There is a patches in Luftrum's Ambient for Omnisphere2 that nails that CS80 sound so exactly it gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

[fmr]

Memorymoon ME80 costs only $ 40,00 and it comes with that patch and many other Vangelis sounds.

What better than an CS80 emulation to get that CS80 sound?

[fluffy_little_something]

Tried it on Sylenth1 some time ago...
https://app.box.com/s/jjgy8pgx3j58nrf9ip1dyxm8x16x8v05
(I have assigned AT, but I have no idea whether it works as intended as my midi keyboard does not support AT )

[mladi]

Memorymoon ME80 costs only $ 40,00 and it comes with that patch and many other Vangelis sounds.

What better than an CS80 emulation to get that CS80 sound?

1+

[garryknight]

CS80 has 2 oscillators, 12 dB lowpass filter.
Key to the sound is a large hall and filter modulation with aftertouch (or something).

Thanks. I'm not at my PC at the moment but I'll check this against what I did. Might have to knock the hall through and get an extension fitted...
And thanks for the juicy five-page thread link

There is a patches in Luftrum's Ambient for Omnisphere2 that nails that CS80 sound so exactly it gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Thanks

Memorymoon ME80 costs only $ 40,00 and it comes with that patch and many other Vangelis sounds.

What better than an CS80 emulation to get that CS80 sound?

Yes, but $40 to get one patch that I can emulate closely enough? Thanks, anyway

Tried it on Sylenth1 some time ago...
https://app.box.com/s/jjgy8pgx3j58nrf9ip1dyxm8x16x8v05
(I have assigned AT, but I have no idea whether it works as intended as my midi keyboard does not support AT )

Ah, thanks. I'll check that out when I get back to my PC. And I've got a keyboard with AT, so I'll incorporate that, too.

[garryknight]

As an update, here's what I've found.

1. Using two detuned oscillators in Serum doesn't give the same fat sound as the original sounds to me, so I'm sticking with my 7+5 voices.

2. Using Serum's MG Low Pass 12 (a Moog emulation, I believe) gives better results (to my ear) than the regular LP 12. Someone in the KVR thread mentioned two posts ago said not to use a Moog filter as it was too saturated, but to me that gives it a more analog sound. I'm not at all sure how close the MG LP 12 is to a real Moog filter, though.

3. The default tone on my patch (controlled with Macro 2) didn't include enough high frequencies, the reverb wasn't deep enough, and I found that some delay helped the sound.

And after all that, I'm wondering if the sound I have in mind is the actual one used in the opening sequence of the movie. It sounds similar, but the one I created has more in common with the one in this video where he almost does the same steps as me but in a different order and with just 2 oscillators, and this also doesn't sound (to me) exactly like the one in the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fne0oIE ... e=youtu.be

Anyway, this is all just for fun as I'm learning to program Serum, though I'll include it in a free sound pack at some point soon.

[fluffy_little_something]

Don't so many waves take that cutting, piercing sound of the original away? Maybe Serum is not the ideal synth for that kind of sound, it is not known to sound overly analog, very much unlike the original Yamaha synth.

[Chris-S]

and this also doesn't sound (to me) exactly like the one in the movie.

That is very close IMHO, but I have bad ears.

To sound exactly like the maestro is of course very difficult....
Also we don't know which processing took place in the mixing stage.

[garryknight]

Don't so many waves take that cutting, piercing sound of the original away?

Not really. I've got Osc A with 7 voices and detune of 0.03 and Osc B with 5 voices and detune of 0.09, both with blend at the default 75. With that combination it gets a slightly more analog sound (IMO) and avoids most of the beating you get with detuning just 2 oscillators. And I've got Serum's built-in EQ with the high set at 2041 Hz and Macro 2 controlling the gain on it at about 70% in the patch, and allowing it to go up to 100% for the cutting, piercing sound.

Maybe Serum is not the ideal synth for that kind of sound, it is not known to sound overly analog, very much unlike the original Yamaha synth.

It can sound quite analog if you up the drive on an analog emulation filter, add some distortion, use some slightly messed-up waveforms (eg saw with some 'noise' on it), and vary the pitch by a very small amount using either a non-synced LFO or the Chaos 2 generator. Next time I get some time to play around, I might have a go at recreating the Vox Humana patch.