KVR Audio

DAW_Wannabe · Post by **DAW_Wannabe** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:07 am

I have very little / no experience programming synthesizers. My band is covering 'Just What I Needed' by the Cars and I'm trying to design a synth program to recreate the hooky synth line. To my untrained ears, it sounds like a triangle waveform with a lot of portamento, but simply doing that yields a very lifeless patch.

Can anyone offer me any suggestions or hints? I'd prefer to use a free synth like synth1 or Oatmeal.

Thanks.

Mister Gibson · Post by **Mister Gibson** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:17 am

I believe he used a Prophet-5. Try syncing 2 square waves w/detune and a bit of distortion.

Mister Gibson · Post by **Mister Gibson** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:51 am

You can always ask him directly.

http://greghawkesmusic.com/

afreshcupofjoe · Post by **afreshcupofjoe** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:15 am

The first time the synth comes in it sounds like it's a low passed square layered with a saw 1 octave higher with some chorus. Then it comes in later with just the filtered square. Try using a 12db LP filter filter instead of 24. Roll off quite a bit of the bottom end mud with some eq if you can.

brouculy · Post by **brouculy** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 1:52 pm

No. it's not from Prophet-5.
AFAIK, the lead was from miniKorg 700S.

dreaddd · Post by **dreaddd** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 2:26 pm

if its of any help, on Greg Hawkes site there s the Live Aid live performance of the song, with some occasional close up on GH's kit at the time

http://greghawkesmusic.com/ytp.php?titl ... CXkAN28urU

Peace

brouculy · Post by **brouculy** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 2:45 pm

dreaddd wrote:if its of any help, on Greg Hawkes site there s the Live Aid live performance of the song, with some occasional close up on GH's kit at the time

http://greghawkesmusic.com/ytp.php?titl ... CXkAN28urU

Peace

Well it's not that time. Anyways in the video Greg plays Roland Jupiter-8 for the lead.

However the lead from Just what I needed is still Minikorg 700s.

For your reference:
http://get-that-sound.blogspot.com/2005 ... eeded.html

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/a-li ... n-07/32715

http://forum.thenewcars.com/viewtopic.php?t=218

Just also try with Google by keywords, 'Greg Hawkes+Minikorg 700'. You will find a bunch of clues.

dreaddd · Post by **dreaddd** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:16 pm

damn! i wasnt aware of the death of Ben Orr

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:25 pm

dreaddd wrote:damn! i wasnt aware of the death of Ben Orr

This is sad indeed. I did know about the death of Todd Rundgren's career though.

acidblue0 · Post by **acidblue0** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 1:56 am

Ok I'm gonna clear this subject up. That lead was done on a 1973 minikorg 700 and NOT the 1974 minikorg 700s. How do I know for sure you ask? Look at every video or pic of Greg playing it. On the left side top all you see is a flat piece of wood. That is the minikorg 700. The minikorg 700s has extra sliders and buttons on top left cause it had 2 VCO's and the minikorg 700 only had 1 VCO.

sergevoluminous · Post by **sergevoluminous** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:15 am

How about the synth in It's All I Can Do? My old band used one of Greg Hawke's synths @ Q Division in Boston around 1999 or so. Don't know what it was though.

acidblue0 · Post by **acidblue0** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:02 am

sergevoluminous wrote:How about the synth in It's All I Can Do? My old band used one of Greg Hawke's synths @ Q Division in Boston around 1999 or so. Don't know what it was though.

I'm gonna make a guess but it's a good guess on that song. It's one of 2 synths 1973 minikorg 700 OR 1979 Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 REV2. I'm sure it's the minikorg 700. The first 2 albums he recorded with that minikorg like crazy. Everyone was using a minimoog so he wanted to be differnet and use a minikorg. After 1979 Most of the main synth riffs was on a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5.

solovox · Post by **solovox** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:12 am

Definitely the miniKorg...when my band did it I came up with two pretty decent presets for it using Synth 1. The closing square-wave lead was also quite useful for 'Bargain' by the Who. If you are a Synth1 user I can find the presets somewhere...

sergevoluminous · Post by **sergevoluminous** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:31 am

I just found the minikorg in the Kontakt Retro Machines soundpack. I own it but haven't really used it yet.

acidblue0 · Post by **acidblue0** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:47 am

sergevoluminous wrote:I just found the minikorg in the Kontakt Retro Machines soundpack. I own it but haven't really used it yet.

Ahh cool

Synth line from The Cars - Just What I Needed