KVR Audio

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 5:54 pm

Hello everyone!

I've made this sound in ZynAddSubFX to try to emulate the Yamaha CS-80 lead from Vangelis' 'To the unknown man':

Vangelis CS-80 Sound

What do you think about the quality of the emulation?
Is it close to the original?

Cheers and Happy New Year!

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:03 pm

Wow, the lead sounds just like the original

Examigan · Post by **Examigan** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:25 pm

Sounds great

Just wondering: is that the built-in reverb?

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:32 pm

Thanks a lot for your time and replies.

The reverb was built-in ZynAddSubFX. However it's the bandwidth reverb included in the preset, as opposed to the standard Freeverb.

Actually I gave this patch for free

It's in the new VST package which I updated today. I hope I can port as much CS80 sounds to Zyn as possible.

Does anyone know a tutorial on some of the sounds Vangelis used?

That would be my goldmine.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:38 pm

jackoo wrote:Actually I gave this patch for free It's in the new VST package which I updated today. I hope I can port as much CS80 sounds to Zyn as possible.

Love Zyn, is there a link for your package somewhere?

This is an interesting in depth article from Sound on Sound about Vangelis and the Nemo studio. Could be of interest to you.

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:49 pm

@Numanoid: It's hosted on mediafire. The dl link (version 493) is in the main thread for the VST:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=268277

The patch is in the banks/VDX folder, called 'The Unknown Man'

Many thanks for the article. It's definitely an important read for me.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 7:04 pm

Yes, found it, sounds great.

The other patches in that folder, like V1 + V2, are pure Blade Runner

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 7:39 pm

jacko, you're close with the lead!
here's mine, the leads&sequences demo:

http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra2-patch-ba ... atospheres

first one cs80 vangelis fanfare, second the typical cs80 vangelis guitar preset.

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:18 pm

brok landers wrote:jacko, you're close with the lead!
here's mine, the leads&sequences demo:

http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra2-patch-ba ... atospheres

first one cs80 vangelis fanfare, second the typical cs80 vangelis guitar preset.

I like the 'fanfare' very much. Did you have any data from how Vangelis originally programmed his synths (1 to 1 clone) or did you program everything 'by ear'?

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:41 pm

jackoo wrote:
brok landers wrote:jacko, you're close with the lead!
here's mine, the leads&sequences demo:

http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra2-patch-ba ... atospheres

first one cs80 vangelis fanfare, second the typical cs80 vangelis guitar preset.
I like the 'fanfare' very much. Did you have any data from how Vangelis originally programmed his synths (1 to 1 clone) or did you program everything 'by ear'?

when it comes to the cs80 vangelis doesn't "program" the synth in a sense of creating his sound first - he "plays" the instrument, meaning, he plays not only the keys with velocity, polyphonic aftertouch, the ribbon controller and voume pedal (very big influence only with these), but he tweaks the knobs live, as he plays them (ringmodulator, etc) right during recording... the basics for the fanfare sound is the plain cs80 saw, on which he uses the polyphonic aftertouch (for filter and/or for vibrato, depending on how the global-row parameters are set up) and the volume pedal...
i know because, well, i'm a sounddesigner, plus i'm probably the biggest fan of vangelis since 1978... i "ate" everything he did and how for breakfast...

the guitar preset, which is afaik the only "preset" he uses in a sense that you can still hear that it "was" a factory preset, he also tweaks to his needs while playing it, that's why there is no "that's the perfect emulation", you can only try to match per song and ear... often he also used the cs60 for these sounds, he had several cs80/60 in use in parallel...
a lot of sounds where one might think it's actually different presets/synths are the same cs80/60, but he tweaks them while he plays another part on another instrument, then plays the cs80/60 again with this newly tweaked sound... sometimes he even tweaks on the fly, but so organic, that you don't realize the change on the instrument, but you think it's another preset... there's a reason why vangelis is a living legend, and exactly this musical/technical abilities of him are one big reason... you have to actually watch him in the studio to understand...
i don't have any links right now, check out youtube, there's quite some videos about the way he works, and even quite some where you can observe how he does it...

from the 90's on he didn't use the cs80/60 etc so exessiveley anymore... he has a custom buildt setup with one big weighted 88 keys masterkeyboard (plus some other digital keyboards) and about 20 volume pedals, where he switches/blends between his sounds, mostly orchestral stuff... still it's the shere playing of him and the organic change of the sounds he uses in realtime, that makes his music so unique... besides a lot of other things...

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:47 pm

brok landers wrote:when it comes to the cs80 vangelis doesn't "program" the synth in a sense of creating his sound first - he "plays" the instrument [...]

Wow! That was some of the most informative post for me ever! If you ever find documentaries (videos) or written articles on how he used to perform it would mean a lot to me.

Many, many thanks for that post!

ZenPunkHippy · Post by **ZenPunkHippy** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:48 pm

i don't have any links right now, check out youtube, there's quite some videos about the way he works, and even quite some where you can observe how he does it...

Here's a good place to start ...

jackoo · Post by **jackoo** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:51 pm

ZenPunkHippy wrote:
i don't have any links right now, check out youtube, there's quite some videos about the way he works, and even quite some where you can observe how he does it...
Here's a good place to start ...

[http:...]

Thanks so much!

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:52 pm

ZenPunkHippy wrote:
i don't have any links right now, check out youtube, there's quite some videos about the way he works, and even quite some where you can observe how he does it...
Here's a good place to start ...

exactly. that video is very good actually, as it's a cutop of a lot of individual videos made about him (the unknown man is one of them, you can even see the full video on youtube)... but this one ensembles the most informative sections of the many...

ZenPunkHippy · Post by **ZenPunkHippy** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:02 pm

Heh heh no problem, it was a bit of a lucky find after hitting Google

I really only know Blade Runner but after a few recent posts on KVR have discovered some of his other music. It's really cool to find some extra detail about his performance / studio techniques. Really easy to see why he's become such a legend in synth circles, and thanks brok for explaining why his signature sound is so elusive

Peace,
Andy.

CS-80 sound emulation