Fatboy Slim thoughts about software synths

[mztk]

i'm gonna be a bad egg and take a punt on this..
Norm' was probably referring more to his fondness
for his general creative environment - and, eg: even
where he puts his ashtray - than any specific instrumentalism.

since he is happy with reaching over to push/twist button/knobs
on various devices, and gets the sounds he wants, he doesn't need
to sit hunched over a laptop ('wrenching a mouse'), trying to get
the sounds he already has.

and if YOU are happy with your own environment, so be it. i just
want someone to show me how to do those vibrato/pitchbend chord
trills they did on funk/etc records in the 80s, on a VST plugin.
examples please. (plugin, midifile, patch, etc.)

[GeckoYamori]

i just
want someone to show me how to do those vibrato/pitchbend chord
trills they did on funk/etc records in the 80s, on a VST plugin.
examples please. (plugin, midifile, patch, etc.)

That's easily accomplished in just about any plugin either by using the modwheel on a MIDI keyboard or by programming/automating the mod setting (Midi CC 1). Just make a pitch LFO assigned to the modwheel.

[mztk]

well, that is what i figured
example?

[mztk]

can't think of the best examples right now, but there
are some good ones in The Message.

[Synth Buddha]

My bank for the Blofeld was selling very well and i still sell a few copies after around 18 months.

Hi Ingo, correct me if I'm wrong here, but didn't you state on another thread a while ago that the Blofeld bank had only made you around €1,000, and that it was selling some ten copies per month at that stage? I seem to recall something like that. If that is considered "very well" then... there REALLY isn't much money in sound design, is there?

BTW, I use your sounds (not the ones for Blofeld, because I don't own one - yet) on a highly regular basis, and hope you continue to make them.

[zerocrossing]

I also want to point out that there are a lot of hardware instruments I've rejected because I didn't think they sounded all that special or even very good. DSI Tempest (Tremor better)

This was such a missed opportunity IMNSHO. I think the biggest problem here is that Dave Smith is more a product designer than an analog engineer. He has seemed so attached to throwing the PA-397 at everything that I think that he didn't realize that it's not always (in my opinion, never) the right tool for the job.

The Tempest is like a super casio drum machine with some neat real time controllers, but it still lacks cohesion as a product as well as depth in sound. There were/are valuable lessons to be learned from Roland, Tamma, Simmons, Akai, Jomox, and Elektron here that were completely missed.

On Edit, as much as I dislike DSI products for their same-ness and the lackluster 80s synth embedded in their core, this guy uses some DSI synths to great effect. Not my style at all, i.e., I'm not buying his records anytime soon, but, jittery and interesting, at least until almost the end.

This is one of those times I just can't resist trotting out that old line from Ghost: "Baby...what you do to yo hair???"

I think that's a pretty good example of interesting sound design and composition masking mediocre sound. I like my MoPho but I've heard very few demos of the Tempest that impressed me much.

[osiris]

[Doug1978]

Failing anything else (like relevancy!), here is a recent interview with Norman Cook:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sh ... ooler.html

[jens]

I kind of agree with da boy. Especially the point about the digital effects / glitchiness etc ... These modern dance styles like complextro or other styles with those annoying effects, lazer, fireworks, etc, gets boring really fast. f**k those effects

god, please stop this stupidity by hitting these guys with flashes or rocks.


No one-one forces you to make "glitches" or whatever else using plugins... ^there is NO connection between certain music genres and software vs. hardware.

You can make whatever with whatever. If for Norman Cook the plugins he tried sounded all "samey" to him then that is because he made them sound like this. And if they sounded shit, well then...


If I want to play an electric piano type of sound, I can use my Hohner Electra, I can use my Z1, I can use Mr. Tramp or I can use 4Front Rhode - neither will sound "glitchy" yet they all will sound a bit "samey", because - obviously - that's what I want them to sound like. I can then use this sound to play something funky or some balladish pattern or whatever. In any case the listener will later not be able to tell what kind of tool I really used.

The same goes for organ-sounds, for all kinds of synth-sounds, for drum-sounds, whatever - you name it. Plugins don't sound this way or that way.

Norman Cooke imo sounds like a major fool in the original quote of this thread, who appears to direly need to learn a few basics. I'm just wondering under what rock he seems to have been hiding all these years.

[Arglebargle]

I kind of agree with da boy. Especially the point about the digital effects / glitchiness etc ... These modern dance styles like complextro or other styles with those annoying effects, lazer, fireworks, etc, gets boring really fast. f**k those effects

god, please stop this stupidity by hitting these guys with flashes or rocks.


No one-one forces you to make "glitches" or whatever else using plugins... ^there is NO connection between certain music genres and software vs. hardware.

You can make whatever with whatever. If for Norman Cook the plugins he tried sounded all "samey" to him then that is because he made them sound like this. And if they sounded shit, well then...


If I want to play an electric piano type of sound, I can use my Hohner Electra, I can use my Z1, I can use Mr. Tramp or I can use 4Front Rhode - neither will sound "glitchy" yet they all will sound a bit "samey", because - obviously - that's what I want them to sound like. I can then use this sound to play something funky or some balladish pattern or whatever. In any case the listener will later not be able to tell what kind of tool I really used.

The same goes for organ-sounds, for all kinds of synth-sounds, for drum-sounds, whatever - you name it. Plugins don't sound this way or that way.

Norman Cooke imo sounds like a major fool in the original quote of this thread, who appears to direly need to learn a few basics. I'm just wondering under what rock he seems to have been hiding all these years.

+1

[jens]

b.t.w.:





Sane interview with two sane guys who exactly know what they are doing - they are much older that Norman Cook yet they are so much more open to the recent advances in technology.

"even live... we all use laptops on stage" - Midge Ure

"it's more convenient, it's more reliable" - Warren Cann


and then, straight to the point of this thread:

"is there any equipment that you used thirty years ago that you are using on this new record?" - "yeah - but not per se - usually it's the software version of it"


and even:

"we dumped it the moment we got something that had memories"

[munchkin]

b.t.w.:





Sane interview with two sane guys who exactly know what they are doing - they are much older that Norman Cook yet they are so much more open to the recent advances in technology.

"even live... we all use laptops on stage" - Midge Ure

"it's more convenient, it's more reliable" - Warren Cann


and then, straight to the point of this thread:

"is there any equipment that you used thirty years ago that you are using on this new record?" - "yeah - but not per se - usually it's the software version of it"


and even:

"we dumped it the moment we got something that had memories"

While they might be using all the latest software now they were making much better music 30 years ago. Is there any correlation?

[braj]

Personally I think age has something to do with that, originality often involves a certain level of inexperience. An old tree's branches are not as flexible as a sapling's.

[jens]

While they might be using all the latest software now they were making much better music 30 years ago. Is there any correlation?

correlation?

Only facts can corellate. You however just stated your personal opinion - with which I completely disagree b.t.w. ... my opinion is that there will always be a significant number of people who will always claim something was better in the past, no matter what... my suspicion is that you would have said they "were making much better music 30 years ago" regardless of what Brilliant might ever be sounding like.

I have this idea because I am a huge Ultravox fan myself, I love all the classic albums and all the classic fan faves and I think Brilliant is full of great typical classic Ultravox. I think it is one of the best albums they ever made. In other words: I don't think it really sounds any different from what I and other fans always loved them for. So if they still make what they always made, how could it have been "much better 30 years ago"? That doesn't even make sense.

[VaporAddict]

Fatboy knows his stuff, thanks for the post