KVR Audio

omissis · Post by **omissis** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:12 am

Good point, Tronam; now, back on topic, one has to decide if he needs to sound like Vangelis, but he must realize that he'll sound "likely" Vangelis unless he's not Vangelis in person, or he has got some precise ideas about how a synthesizer should sound and how that synthesizer should interact with the performer: should it behave like a piece of a laboratory or like an instrument? CS80 was and is the only synthesizer that made you feel you were playing an instrument and not a scientific tool; Vangelis himself claimed it had neither a large sound palette and it was temperamental sometimes ( and that's why he got 9 of them if you consider also the first one had on loan for recording "Spiral" ) but that was the ONLY synth you could consider as an instrument. Of course I love its tymbre too but I'm confident that it will take years until we will get "that" sound and that behaviour again; after a paradox, the CS80's most important things to consider when emulating ( or dying trying to

) are:

1. it was not a synth with many voices but rather 16 mono-synths playing together under a wooden panel.

2. the Oscillators are the most important thing into the sound module itself: if you care about it you'll see that a CS has almost mathematical waveforms and it's crazy that yesteryear the engineers tried to cath with analog means what now they're trying to avoid with digital means!!

3. most important thing: the CVs !!!! most of the control voltages there were subject to soft-clipping phenomenon which plays a role ( listen how's the envelope of the ring modulator!! )

That's all, former or actual CS80 users will anything but not confirm what I'm saying .

reflekshun · Post by **reflekshun** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:09 pm

I must say, that a simple way to get Vangelis sounds is to choose your send fx carefully. The right reverb / delay combination can make many softsynths resemble alot of Vangelis leads (a long clean reverb after a delay in the chain). If you want to use softsynths I would recommend the companies that concentrate on emulating 'analogue' nature of synths - Arturia is a good example.

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 5:59 pm

omissis wrote:Good point, Tronam; now, back on topic, one has to decide if he needs to sound like Vangelis, but he must realize that he'll sound "likely" Vangelis unless he's not Vangelis in person, or he has got some precise ideas about how a synthesizer should sound and how that synthesizer should interact with the performer: should it behave like a piece of a laboratory or like an instrument? CS80 was and is the only synthesizer that made you feel you were playing an instrument and not a scientific tool; Vangelis himself claimed it had neither a large sound palette and it was temperamental sometimes ( and that's why he got 9 of them if you consider also the first one had on loan for recording "Spiral" ) but that was the ONLY synth you could consider as an instrument. Of course I love its tymbre too but I'm confident that it will take years until we will get "that" sound and that behaviour again; after a paradox, the CS80's most important things to consider when emulating ( or dying trying to ) are:

1. it was not a synth with many voices but rather 16 mono-synths playing together under a wooden panel.

2. the Oscillators are the most important thing into the sound module itself: if you care about it you'll see that a CS has almost mathematical waveforms and it's crazy that yesteryear the engineers tried to cath with analog means what now they're trying to avoid with digital means!!

3. most important thing: the CVs !!!! most of the control voltages there were subject to soft-clipping phenomenon which plays a role ( listen how's the envelope of the ring modulator!! )

That's all, former or actual CS80 users will anything but not confirm what I'm saying .

i do.
you pretty much nailled it, i was stating similar in other threads about vangelis ...
thing is, if you have the following:

1. a keyboard capable of transmitting polyphonic aftertouch
2. a va-vsti that is capable to recieve polyphonic aftertouch with a decent mod matrix, a routable rm/am
3. a volume/expression pedal

you _could_ just easily sound like vangelis, there's just some important things that have to be understood:

1. his way of thinking/feeling
2. his brilliant performance

and that is most likeley where most musicians fail deeply ... IMO ...

omissis · Post by **omissis** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 9:13 pm

you _could_ just easily sound like vangelis, there's just some important things that have to be understood:

1. his way of thinking/feeling
2. his brilliant performance

Not forgetting...

3. Vangelis plays mostly presets all the time , and even the 80% of the sounds coming from his CS80s are quite just presets

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 9:46 pm

omissis wrote:
you _could_ just easily sound like vangelis, there's just some important things that have to be understood:

1. his way of thinking/feeling
2. his brilliant performance
Not forgetting...

3. Vangelis plays mostly presets all the time , and even the 80% of the sounds coming from his CS80s are quite just presets

well, on the newer albums, where he uses mainly romplers, yes ...
but on the cs80 - no way, he uses the cs80 the way it was designed for:
as a playable instrument, highly perormable ... besides his special view on composition, exactly that performance is the key to his sound ...

omissis · Post by **omissis** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:23 pm

brok landers wrote:
omissis wrote:
you _could_ just easily sound like vangelis, there's just some important things that have to be understood:

1. his way of thinking/feeling
2. his brilliant performance
Not forgetting...

3. Vangelis plays mostly presets all the time , and even the 80% of the sounds coming from his CS80s are quite just presets
well, on the newer albums, where he uses mainly romplers, yes ...
but on the cs80 - no way, he uses the cs80 the way it was designed for:
as a playable instrument, highly perormable ... besides his special view on composition, exactly that performance is the key to his sound ...

Heh I was joked too but if you look closely , even the CS80 sounds are just the presets tweaked on the flight during the performance, obviously giving honor to the man for having crafted them to his purposes....

Examples? too much to mention in a short reply ,anyway....

Beaubourg:
FUNKY1-3-4 , GUITAR1-2 (latter with SO speed mod), BRASS2,FLUTE.....all covered with ringmodulator!

The "famous-Chariots-Blade-and-all-the-others" brass:
BRASS1+BRASS2

On "The Mayflower"
STRINGS2, ELECT. PIANO, BRASS1+2

etc. etc.

omissis · Post by **omissis** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:25 pm

...which sounds like geinus since you can NOT modify the presets on the CS80 with the panel, you can just tweak something with the Performance controlers!

payt69 · Post by **payt69** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:07 am

Hi people

I'm new on this forum,and it seems like you people have a lt of knowledge to share. Since i have a knack for Vangelis occasionally as well, the inevitable hadto hapen; a track in a mood reminiscent of blade runner, featuringa bit (or rather a lot) of CS80V as well

Enjoy this track:

http://moonbase69.nl/mp3/Frogtears.mp3

Dayl · Post by **Dayl** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:14 am

This is no dig.

But, who is this Van Gelis Guy and why sound like him?

lavoll · Post by **lavoll** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:54 am

the guy playing the keyboards in the woods is vangelis

but my love for him started with something rather different: the soundtrack to bladerunner.

lavoll · Post by **lavoll** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:57 am

ooo.. some 666 stuff on youtube:
you might have heard that song before as samples in an enigma song?

Dayl · Post by **Dayl** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:08 am

lavoll wrote:
the guy playing the keyboards in the woods is vangelis but my love for him started with something rather different: the soundtrack to bladerunner.

A huh, The guys a legend. Never new the name behind the movie. Did he do all the atmos also?

pivvi07 · Post by **pivvi07** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:51 am

payt69 wrote:Hi people

I'm new on this forum,and it seems like you people have a lt of knowledge to share. Since i have a knack for Vangelis occasionally as well, the inevitable hadto hapen; a track in a mood reminiscent of blade runner, featuringa bit (or rather a lot) of CS80V as well

Enjoy this track:

http://moonbase69.nl/mp3/Frogtears.mp3

good track! thanks!

Boulotaur2024 · Post by **Boulotaur2024** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:48 pm

payt69 wrote:http://moonbase69.nl/mp3/Frogtears.mp3

Nice track. Are strings also Cs-80v

Btw, the drums are very unenergetic, almost "out of place" (yea in french it means they're not very efficient, should be worked further to fit the mood imo). In other words, to me it is a loop that sounds too much like a loop, but that's my opinion. Otherwise, very nice hommage to Lord V.

payt69 · Post by **payt69** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:59 pm

Boulotaur2024 wrote:
payt69 wrote:http://moonbase69.nl/mp3/Frogtears.mp3
Nice track. Are strings also Cs-80v

Btw, the drums are very unenergetic, almost "out of place" (yea in french it means they're not very efficient, should be worked further to fit the mood imo). In other words, to me it is a loop that sounds too much like a loop, but that's my opinion. Otherwise, very nice hommage to Lord V.

Thanks

Yah the strings are CS-80, as is the 'piano' sound and the mandolin like thingy. The horn is actually pro53 with just 2 slightly detuned saws.

As for the drums; they're not a loop as in a looped sample. I did play them myself, and umm then looped them. lol. They were supposed to just give a hint of rhytm, not to take too much attention to what is otherwise a pretty busy piece already. Looking back, i think i could have mixed things a little better, but since my pc crashed since i made this tune, i'm not sure if i can just load the midi file and continue where i left off without having to recreate a lot of stuff. I think a few plugs are missing.

Anyway, thanks for listening

Van Gelis Sound.