KVR Audio

[The]Windy[Season] · Post by **[The]Windy[Season]** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:48 pm

I've always wondered how a particular synth sound on the Steve Miller Band's song "Fly Like an Eagle" was made. It has a quickly swirling upward, ethereal quality to it. It sounds kind of like an arpeggiation played at rapidly increasing pitch on a simple keyboard tone, but I'm not sure exactly what it is, it's kind of harmonically complex. It's used in the chorus, and kind of as a fill at the end of a bar and at the beginning of my audio example. Towards the end of my example, I repeat it once, then twice with a noise removal plugin to better isolate the sound i am referring to.

What exactly is this sound? What synth produced it? How can I learn more about it? How can I emulate it?

Here's the example, it should be clear what I'm talking about:
steve_miller_band_-_fly_like_an_eagle_excerpt.mp3 - 0.27MB

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:11 pm

I saw a show "Steve Miller 30 Years After Book Of Dreams" or something like that, where I think he said it was a small Moog + effects. I recorded it so I can dig it out if no one else comes up with a definitive answer.

It was very interesting to learn how he works. He writes the songs and then searches for the treatment. A lot of the songs on Book Of Dreams went through 3 or 4 versions. He brought in a band recorded the basic tracks and then overdubbed for a year or so..

It's a great album no matter how he got there but I thought that the whole approach was strange.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:01 am

It probably was a minimoog fed through a long delay (0.3 secs was very long for that time, could be a tape delay unit) with lots of feedback...

Laurent wild · Post by **Laurent wild** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:30 am

moog (or korg?) + arpeg + delay + pan

Waker · Post by **Waker** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:46 am

It's a Arp Odyssey through a echoplex.

[The]Windy[Season] · Post by **[The]Windy[Season]** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 1:48 am

Thanks Waker, I guess thee vid is pretty clear. I'm just wondering how exactly that would be played. Is he just going up every octave hitting every note very quickly, or is he playing certain notes to fit into a key? (again in rapid upward succession)

Waker · Post by **Waker** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:04 pm

around 5 minut mark...

[The]Windy[Season] · Post by **[The]Windy[Season]** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:05 pm

Waker wrote:

around 5 minut mark...

Thanks waker you kind of know everything haha.
What's is the best VSTi emulation of the Odyssey in your opinion? (Im sure there are several right?)

Waker · Post by **Waker** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:31 pm

...Don't know really, but this one is nice with some classic delay:
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/353.html

[The]Windy[Season] · Post by **[The]Windy[Season]** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 8:05 am

Waker wrote:...Don't know really, but this one is nice with some classic delay:
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/353.html

cool thanks for your help

mutron3k · Post by **mutron3k** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:55 am

Waker wrote:
It's a Arp Odyssey through a echoplex.

Hmmm... They show a picture of an Odyssey while he says "I had this very cheap little synthesizer" "and that's when I did the space intro... all these things".

Sounds like they tried a few different synths on the sessions, but then look at 1:57 on and you can see the track sheet on the back of the tape box. It has Track 3 Roland I, Track 14 Roland III (Wind), more Track 11, 12, 13, 14 all Roland. So which Roland? Probably the SH-1000 or SH-2000. Which even fit the gesture he makes with his hands when he is saying "cheap little synth".

They show another back of box track listing at 3:00 with "Wind" on 1 and Roland III on track 10, and then back to the first track listing...

And to emulate the Echoplex a very simple delay with feedback should do the trick.

Didn't mean to burst any bubbles, just doing some research for a sound I am trying to recreate!

1970s Steve Miller Band's Synths