Help me create repeating chord sound from Genesis Mama.

[Robert Bone]

Hi - I have no idea how to build a preset to take the notes of a chord and repeat them as 1/16th notes, like the chord pad sound in the intro/verses of the Genesis song, Mama. In the song, Tony plays that haunting Synclavier lead sound with his right hand, while his left is holding down an Em chord, and a D, etc... and though the chords are held, the notes of the held chord are repeated like 1/16th notes, the whole time a chord is held.

Obviously, I could sequence it up in a midi track, but I would like to play it live.

I have the Arturia V Collection 6, Native Instruments Komplete 11 Ultimate, and some Reaktor Quadra ensembles from the user library, as well as the Synth Magic Quadra Kontakt library, as well as the EastWest Composer Cloud Plus libraries and instruments.

I think Tony Banks likely used an Arp Quadra to create that repeated chord sound, but I have never done much at all with tweaking sounds on that synth (either hardware or this Kontakt instrument).

Can anyone give some pointers on creating this sound?

Thanks, 

Bob Bone

[msmcleod]

You basically need an arpeggiator.

CbB has one on all MIDI tracks, but some of your synths will no doubt have one too.

FYI Synthmaster 2.9 has this sound (SQ Mamy) along with the lead (LED Mamy) included in the Nori Ubukata Historical Synth Giants Collection Vol.1

To me it sounds like a very quick and highly resonant sweep from high to nothing in the space of 1/16 of a note. Synthmaster seems to be using a pretty complex FM wave to produce this.

[abacab]

+1 for Nori Ubukata Historical Synth Giants Collection Vol.1 (and anything else programmed by Nori).  He nails some classic synths with his sound design. That bank has some great Floyd and Genesis sounds!

Since I have that bank in my SynthMaster, I was already starting to search my patches when I saw the post above from @msmclead with the spoiler about those two "Mamy" patches. Time saver! Thanks!

In SynthMaster, Nori recreated it with using one oscillator with a an unidentified asymmetrical single cycle wave from the synth oscillator library. Then it runs through a single low pass virtual analog filter, and finally uses the SM arpeggiator as a step sequencer to cause the notes to retrigger while being held.

The volume envelope is a fast attack, with medium  linear decay, no sustain, and a fairly short release time.  The filter envelope settings are a close match with the volume envelope, but with a bit of added sustain.

I don't see any synth FX being used here.  I think the sound could use some minor tweaking, maybe some FX, to be closer to the sound in the recording. But the arp sequencer pattern works well.

Now that lead sound seems very close!  I like that one!

 

[Robert Bone]

 

7 hours ago, abacab said:

In SynthMaster, Nori recreated it with using one oscillator with a an unidentified asymmetrical single cycle wave from the synth oscillator library. Then it runs through a single low pass virtual analog filter, and finally uses the SM arpeggiator as a step sequencer to cause the notes to retrigger while being held.

The volume envelope is a fast attack, with medium  linear decay, no sustain, and a fairly short release time.  The filter envelope settings are a close match with the volume envelope, but with a bit of added sustain.

OK - THANKS, first off.  

I have the Synth Magic Arp Quadra library for Kontakt, which is supposed to have all of the functionality of the original hardware Quadra, so in theory, I should be able to manufacture this sound within that Kontakt emulation.

For sure there is an arpeggiator within this Quadra emulation, so I will try to decipher the information you provided in your post (quoted above).  Perhaps I can figure out how to do this within the Quadra.  I am ABSOLUTELY clueless on the Quadra architecture, and am trying to get up to speed on it all, going through the manual, etc...

I may look into just picking up the Synthmaster you both were referring to, since it may well have the patches.

Thanks - I will post back on my adventures, later tonight, after dishes and more dishes.

Bob Bone

[Robert Bone]

Is there any chance either of you two could record a little snippet of whichever Mamy sound from Nori Ubukata Historical Synth Giants Collection Vol.1 emulates the repeating chord sound from Mama, and send it to me or put it online and post a link to it?

I would like to hear how closely it represents that Genesis sound, prior to my laying out the cash for the Synthmaster plugin and the expansion pack.

Thanks SO much, 

Bob Bone

[msmcleod]

Synthmaster do a showcase of the sounds on soundcloud, The Genesis ones can be found here:

https://soundcloud.com/kv331synthmaster/expansion-nori-ubukata-1?in=kv331synthmaster/sets/expansion-nori-ubukata-1

The Mama sounds come in around 26 secs in.

Its worth listening to the full playlist though, the pink floyd sounds are excellent too.

[abacab]

What  impresses me most about SynthMaster is its synthesis capabilities. It isn't intended to be a replica or emulation of any particular synth, but in the hands of a capable synthesist it can sound like anything, or be competent with basically any genre of music. Nori Ubukata's banks really show off the power of this synth.

Nori has worked as a sound designer for Yamaha (DX-7 and others), Korg,  and Arturia.

Interview – Sound Designer Extraordinaire, Nori Ubukata

http://soundbytesmag.net/noriubukatainterview/

[Robert Bone]

Thanks - I too was blown away by the capabilities of the Synthmaster plugin. It can really stretch in a bunch of directions, to provide a wide set of really different kinds of sounds - I was just amazed.

I cannot afford to pick it up this month, but WILL be doing so, when feasible.  In the meantime, I will continue to try to find a way to create the needed Genesis sound with the various synths I already have.  Or, maybe I can do it by first creating a midi track with any synth that gives the basic short sort of sound like in the song, sequence up the repetitions of it, and then sample that audio output and map/script it into a Kontakt instrument.  I have only tried anything like that once in the past, and that was quite a few years back, but I think that might work, if there isn't some easier way I can find without resorting to that.

I am certainly open to ANY assistance with coming up with a way to create this sound.  It doesn't seem very difficult of an undertaking, so I will keep digging into it and see what I can come up with.

I GREATLY appreciate you guys helping me out with your replies. 

 

[msmcleod]

Here's a Kontakt version. You'll need to configure an ARP to repeat the sound.

http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MamaNKI.zip

 

[Robert Bone]

4 hours ago, msmcleod said:

Here's a Kontakt version. You'll need to configure an ARP to repeat the sound.

http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MamaNKI.zip

 

I thank you - I just finished adding in the Kontakt arpeggiator, set to Retrigger at a rate of 1/16th note, and saved it all up.  I then loaded an instance of Kontakt into my VST hosting software for live performance (I use Brainspawn's Forte and am transitioning to Cantabile).  I then adjusted the tempo/bpm in Forte, down to 84, and BOOM, works like a champ.  WAHOO!

Now, I just need to learn the evil Phil laugh and build the drum pattern.

Bob Bone