80's Saw Sound

[Teknite]

I want to know how to achieve that 80's saw sound.

example:

skip to 0:17 for the sound

- thanks

[mkastrup]

The video is in mono so its hard to ID the synth but its probably a Jupiter 8 or Prophet 5. Most standard subtractive synths should be able to produce that sound. Keyboard players call this type of sound for Brass.

/Michael

[matt1314]

Yeah, it's some kind of 80's soft brass sound. Arturia's Jupiter-8 V has some of these and so does the OP-X PRO-II from SonicProjects which is literally loaded with these 80's sounds. Worth a try.

[olikana]

typical 80s brass chords.
the core of the sound is this
2 detuned saws or 1 Pulse with PWM (pulse width modulation creates a similar sound to detuned saws) + filter modulation (cutoff down and in the modulation envelope set the attack around 30% to create that brass attack)
play a chord (need polyphony ofc)
+chorus +reverb

[A.M. Gold]

This is great advice, olikana. Would you be willing to do a similar rundown for a classic string sound too?

[himalaya]

To be honest, for classic brass sounds, I'd always opt for two detuned sawtooth waves. PWM Pulse waves are much better for pads and strings. Brass needs a little bit of that raw quality which sawtooth waves are naturally able to provide. The actual important bit is the filter: the envelope amount + filter envelope attack/decay stages. The example in the video above is actually very simple with no special envelope settings, it just gently 'decays' with max attack stage.

[olikana]

To be honest, for classic brass sounds, I'd always opt for two detuned sawtooth waves. PWM Pulse waves are much better for pads and strings. Brass needs a little bit of that raw quality which sawtooth waves are naturally able to provide.

with a pwm pulse u can pretty much reproduce the sound of 2 detuned saws (depending on the amount of modulation u apply to the pw and if u are modulating it with a saw lfo) with an added pitch modulation to the sound for that brass vibrations (depending on how much u push the modulation) but also with the advantage that you are only using one oscillator(which allows u to use the second oscillator saw to fatten it even further).
saying a pwm pulse is not ideal for 80s brass is like saying mozzarella is not an ideal cheese for pizza .
pwm was at the heart of 80s synth brass sound (at least till mid 80s)
for example a popular poly used for brass stabs and brass chords was the juno6 which didn't even have 2 saws...was pure pwm bliss there (with modulation wheel routed to the vco)..and the pulsewidthmodulation on the juno sounded as "raw" as anything as it had a saw as lfo o modulate the pulsewidth..

[HiEnergy]

Leider ist dieses Video, das Musik von SME beinhaltet, in Deutschland nicht verfügbar, da die GEMA die Verlagsrechte hieran nicht eingeräumt hat.

[Mutant]

I am sure you will find a preset sounding just like that in one of Ann banks for Synth1.

She loves 80s

[matt1314]

Leider ist dieses Video, das Musik von SME beinhaltet, in Deutschland nicht verfügbar, da die GEMA die Verlagsrechte hieran nicht eingeräumt hat.

Had the same problem, use Youtube Proxy:

http://www.youtubeproxy.ws/index.php/10 ... d3a8e16526

[IrionDaRonin]

The best free synth for 80's sounds

Have a good day

[PAK]

It's a simple sound. But, as is often the case with these sorts of simple 80's sounds, they're pretty trivial to get close to but harder to copy really well. For example - emulating the detune, by using a chorus, probably isn't the best path to take.

Himalaya's description is mostly how I would go about it too. The main bulk of this particular sound is best achieved with detuned saws, not PWM, using decay without any sustain for the envelope, with a very short attack and release.

Btw - The deep piano sound, which you can hear itself at the start, is also part of the sound. Also, listen at 39 seconds and you'll hear the decay of another sound. Could be a small recording error they kept, or it could also be another quieter sound layered underneath which isn't obvious to the ears.

Anyway, I thought I'd see how this freebie mp3 host does and try to copy the sound with Jupiter 8 V2 because I think its default tone character is well suited to doing those sorts of sounds. Plus it allows you to layer an upper and lower sound, which helps in order to emulate the detune without requiring a chorus.

Free mp3 host isn't so good (surprise!). So I'll stick a download link up here
http://www.mediafire.com/?b2l144bauh03q0m

[himalaya]

saying a pwm pulse is not ideal for 80s brass is like saying mozzarella is not an ideal cheese for pizza .

That's right, to me the sawtooth is the better option. The single osc PWM Pulse brass gets too 'churning' at higher LFO rates for my taste, and at lower LFO rates the pulse waveform's timbre gets revealed too much, making it less 'sawtoothy', hence, yeah, I'd choose two sawtooth waves, carefully detuned (and here it's all about taste, either do a pseudo Vangelis slow phase brass, or a creamy ensemble brass sound with stronger detune). There's a certain smoothness and rawness in sawtooth based brass that I prefer.

One sawtooth and one PWM Pulse based brass is certainly a nice combination, giving a more ensemble like sound.

But funny you should mention mozzarella, as I hate the stuff (seriously, I had a mozzarella sandwich and almost vomited, but I digress).

for example a popular poly used for brass stabs and brass chords was the juno6 which didn't even have 2 saws.

I'd venture a guess that its popularity wasn't due to a great brass sound, but due to its price, which was cheap, hence most musos could afford it, but I bet most would rather get their brass from something like the OBX series, or Jupiter8 or the Prophet 5, or the MKS70/80 or even the mighty CS80, if they could afford it.

edit-typos

[Ingonator]

To be honest, for classic brass sounds, I'd always opt for two detuned sawtooth waves. PWM Pulse waves are much better for pads and strings. Brass needs a little bit of that raw quality which sawtooth waves are naturally able to provide.

with a pwm pulse u can pretty much reproduce the sound of 2 detuned saws (depending on the amount of modulation u apply to the pw and if u are modulating it with a saw lfo) with an added pitch modulation to the sound for that brass vibrations (depending on how much u push the modulation) but also with the advantage that you are only using one oscillator(which allows u to use the second oscillator to fatten it even further).

Hi,

i am currently working on a bank for the Moog Slim Phatty which i got around two weeks ago and i have already done some Brass sounds for it which were all based on Sawtooths. Anyway i wanted to try your hint and replaced the detuned Sawtooth (2 OScs) with a single Pulse and slow PWM. Modulation amount was around 50% and the rate quite slow. This sounds a bit like the "phasing" of 2 detuned Sawtooth waves i have to admit. I have used a Triangle at the LFO, will try the Sawtooth later.
More interesting was the result when i added the second oscillator with one octave lower. That one sounds really interesting and could not be achieved with the other method.
I also found that a Pulse with the right width (without PWM) could be a nice replacement for the Sawtooth in some Brass sounds.

Anyway for the "standard" Synth Brass i'll still prefer two Sawtooths as soon as they are available. in my Blofeld soundset in some cases i also used a single Sawtooth with 2 voice Unison and a slight detune because this resulted in a "cleaner" detuned Sawtooth without to much phasing.
If available also a Hypersaw with adjustable amount of Saws (like in the virus TI) could be helpful for those sounds.

BTW for my factory sounds of Synth Magic Jen SX3000 (Kontakt synth) i used a single Sawtooth and an Unison (2 voices) for such sounds as there is only 1 oscillator (+ Sub-Osc) in that synth.

In the Juno 60 also the Chorus could be used to replace a second oscillator AFAIK. I remember some time ago i was reading an article where someone reprogrammed the Blade Runner Brass this way.


As a conclusion there are several ways of obtaining a detuned Sawtooth sound:

1.) 2OSCs with a sawtooth each (obviously...)
2.) 1 OSC with a Sawtooth and an Unison (2 voices)
3.) a Hypersaw oscillator with adjustable Saw amount (2-3 Saws)
4.) 1 Oscillator with a Chorus FX (like in e.g. the Juno 60)
5.) 1 Oscillator with PWM like proposed i this thread

From all those 5 IMO No. 5 is the worst result except for the example i wrote above with using two oscillators with one octave detuning.

BTW for a Synth Horn sound you'll need a single oscillator anyway.


Ingo

[bwwd]

gotta LOVE KVR, debate started, why it always has to be like that ? Someone will write something and someone will overreact and twist some words to makup up fast keyboard fight and another thread is destroyed.
Anyway SQ8L is great for this type of sounds but i hear 2 sounds there not only brassm its brass and saw lead.