KVR Audio

flightlevel · Post by **flightlevel** » Thu Oct 05, 2017 7:06 pm

First post here - hi!

It is really bugging me, as i can't seem to find out what synth/piano preset is used in multiple 1990s dance/house anthems. Any 1990's fanatics out there who may be able to point me in the right direction?

First song is the well known: Xpansions - Move Your Body (Piano lead comes in at 00:24)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU4_04Wr1Cg

Second song is a very underrated song but one of my favourites. Parra Dice - Can You Hear Me (Piano comes in at 03:48)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP0WMDW ... 4A&index=1

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Ta.

tehlord · Post by **tehlord** » Thu Oct 05, 2017 7:19 pm

First one is a saw based synth stab with perhaps the Korg M1 piano underneath it, the second is the same Korg M1 piano (the preset is called 'Piano 8').

flightlevel · Post by **flightlevel** » Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:10 pm

Hmm not too sure. I have a Korg M1 workstation and also the the M1 VST and all the factory piano presets don't sound like the above. The M1 piano is very sharp whereas this is more subtle and brighter than the M1.

sin night · Post by **sin night** » Thu Oct 05, 2017 10:28 pm

For the second record, maybe a Roland keyboard could have been used in place of the Korg Piano (maybe something like JD800 or similar, perhaps with some eq to make it brighter)? I have no idea to be honest (it sounds like a pretty generic piano from any keyboard to me); anyway the AC Piano 1 preset seems to have a similar character (skip to minute 15)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiSmi-84aCg&t=15m01s

flightlevel · Post by **flightlevel** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:03 pm

To anyone who's bothered,

I've messed about with the Korg M1 house piano preset and have managed to get something similar however not exact (Obviously!) Windows 10 voice recorder has completely sodded up the EQ and makes it sound very tinny...

https://soundcloud.com/toptracks-576908725/recording-6

ninetiesman · Post by **ninetiesman** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 3:52 am

hey man - been looking for this exact patch myself ! any chance you could share your M1 preset ? thank you !

transmetropolitan · Post by **transmetropolitan** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:26 am

My feeling is also that it sounds like a Roland piano.

If you listen to the Ac piano 1 patch... That gives you the basic tone. There's a patch called Happy Piano and another called Epic House on my JX305 that from memory sound even closer (it wouldn't have been that specific machine - released 1998 - but same patches).

ninetiesman · Post by **ninetiesman** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 6:36 am

Apparently a sampled Oberheim according to this article - http://www.housecallfm.com/house-classi ... -elevation

Good read... would still be interested in your post OP !

Cheers

JCJR · Post by **JCJR** » Wed Jun 20, 2018 6:06 pm

Back then some folks who would record a lot were not much into synth programming, and after the invention of MIDI wouild buy a lot of synths and commonly layer factory presets of multiple synths or preset banks they had purchased. So it might be hard to know if you are hearing just one instrument versus a layer of 2 or more instruments.

It is not impossible could have been Roland SA synthesis piano-- MKS20, Roland/Rhodes MK60 or MK80, the "old" RD300 and/or RD1000. There is a newer piano named RD300 something or the other so searching for RD300 could be confusing results.

Maybe MKS20 module is most famous today, but all the SA pianos sounded about the same, just some models had more or less presets and bells/whistles.

At that time the SA piano was cheezier/less realistic tonally compared to samples, but it had very good tonal response to touch. So if played well by a good player with the proper mix of loud and soft notes, the "slightly synthetic" tone sounded "more real" or "more musical" than samplers or romplers of that time. And in some cases that is still the case.

MKS20 is esteemed by gospel players who tend to be good players with touch and sensitivity and ear. Youtube has lots of MKS20 examples that "sound better than the box actually sounds" because the demos are played by fellas of talent and understanding of the instrument.

But for instance if you were to play all notes at low velocity, it would be a "very synthetic mellow sound". If you were to slam all notes at high velocity, it would be a "very synthetic bright sound". I couldn't find any youtube demos clearly showing that effect of playing the thing in a sledgehammer fashion.

Here is a demo of Roland/Rhodes MK60 tones, which had fewer patches than MKS20 but sounded the same on similar patches. About halfway into the demo he starts playing the acoustic piano tones which tend to sound most-artificial if played with bad touch. The fella is playing a good mix of loud and soft notes, but note the timbre of the loud notes and imagine what slammed mechanical block chords would sound like with that bright timbre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8oxneCCD_g

Any 90s fanatic know what this synth/piano is?