u-he

GruvSyco · Post by **GruvSyco** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 6:53 pm

I am looking for some ideas on how to achieve this sound from Kraftwerks Neon Lights. It comes in right around 1:59. I've always called it "Bionics" because it reminds me of the sound they used on the TV show 6 million dollar man. I've heard other pop artists (like Ladytron) use similar sounds.

xh3rv · Post by **xh3rv** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 7:24 pm

I'm pretty sure the core of the effect is just a tempo-synced 16th-note tremolo.

One way to dress up this effect - get some movement before the tremolo. A filter sweep or a modulation effect which is arcs over a few seconds or something like that can add a lot of character.

Tempo-synced delay after the tremolo can also help add some depth and smear out the tail.

(Alternative - this is kind of hit or miss - grab a small child and fly them around the room going 'ch-ch-ch-ch-ch'.)

[e] - I've got a preset in Uhbik patches in my sig 'Strobotic' that's pretty good for this

GruvSyco · Post by **GruvSyco** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 9:27 pm

Well the effect you're describing I was assuming was something like an LFO on the VCA. I was more interested in finding tips on getting the metallic underlying sound. Is it FM? That's what I usually associate with metallic but, I don't seem to be having much luck trying to get there.

I appreciate your input though.

hollo · Post by **hollo** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 9:35 pm

I don't think is FM, sounds very Jupiter type, this was the typical bright synth
sound with release.

Cheers

xh3rv · Post by **xh3rv** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 10:02 pm

GruvSyco wrote:I was more interested in finding tips on getting the metallic underlying sound.

Kinda was thinking that myself right after I posted

hollo wrote:I don't think is FM, sounds very Jupiter type, this was the typical bright synth sound with release.

I'd agree, there's some peaking LFO sweep in here too to my ears - that could just be synth filter, or maybe a phaser?

Just a suggestion, I don't know if it's accurate to this specific sound - I've gotten some nice brilliant sorts of sounds with an EQ that cuts fundamentals a bit more than moderately and a medium to small-bell boost - several to a dozen db maybe - to upper harmonics, before a modulation effect. I think there's some point where if the ear can't quite focus on the fundamentals, it chooses the harmonics instead and that's ideal for metallic types of stuff.

hollo · Post by **hollo** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:40 am

I tried something:

Neonlight

That belly sound come from the resonance, from osc2 (bright saw)
i put some bell type on osc1 too, you can hear the differences
between them by the Pitch Bender.

Try to play legato chords or staccato,
if legato - mostly the arpeggio working,
if staccato - then the delay

Many more things happening there, distortion, fx, but the basic should be
like this IMO.

Cheers

xh3rv · Post by **xh3rv** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 1:37 am

hollo wrote:I tried something:

Neonlight

Getting a 'Page not found' problem

(btw thanks for the Jump set

)

GruvSyco · Post by **GruvSyco** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 2:06 am

Hollo,

I really appreciate that!

xh3rv,

there's an extra / on his url. try this

hollo · Post by **hollo** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 3:18 am

I hope it's working now:

Neonlight

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:36 am

There's also a very nice preset for TyrellN6, using the Env-Triggered-By-Lfo function, IIRC

GruvSyco · Post by **GruvSyco** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 2:56 pm

Urs wrote:There's also a very nice preset for TyrellN6, using the Env-Triggered-By-Lfo function, IIRC

"The Man Maschine"?

I was playing around last night with this exact functionality in Zebra. The mod matrix usually scares me (so many parameters to route from/via/to) but, it wasn't too bad.

hollo · Post by **hollo** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:54 pm

Thank you Urs,

This is one of the reason why i'm in love with Zebra, you want something,
and you can get there many different ways.

I checked the LFO-Env and LfO-Vol ways, with MSEG to get the litle downbeat accent.
Both LFOs and the Arpeggio are in the same link:

Neonlight

Cheers

GruvSyco · Post by **GruvSyco** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 9:16 pm

I know it's probably not an FM thing but here is a metallic sounding patch with LFO on the VCA.

Bionics1 (Zebra)

*Edit*
adding some patch evolution.
Bionics2 (tweaked the comb filter, Modwheel on LFO speed)
Bionics3 (added Phaser)
Bionics4 (removed phaser, added VCF)
This will probably be my last one
Bionics5 (tweaked FM amounts, envelopes and waveforms)

GruvSyco · Post by **GruvSyco** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 9:39 pm

Probably should go back and listen to the original again. At this point my mind probably hears something different than what I was originally shooting for,

GruvSyco · Post by **GruvSyco** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:08 pm

Big oops. For any spectators in this sport that may have downloaded my examples, they weren't tuned. You can either download them again or tune both operators to -24.00