What's The Synth...

[Annabelle]

I wonder, what synth was used in the intro of Phil Collins' song, Another Day In Paradise? Specifically, I'm talking about the part that sounds like someone trying to tune a trombone? Phil Collins - Another Day In Paradise [Audio HQ] HD (youtube.com)

[Patrick Wichrowski]

Roland S-550?

[Annabelle]

19 minutes ago, Patrick Wichrowski said:

Roland S-550?

Is that the one that sounds like someone trying to tune a trombone? What specific patch is that?

[rsinger]

Maybe a Korg Wavestation? I don't know which patch.

[Annabelle]

I mean the part at the very beginning, where you hear what someone thought was car horns, but sounds to me like a trombone being tuned.

[OutrageProductions]

On the original album release and support tour, one of the pads (they are layered) just before the sticks start the click were done on a 1990 tour with an Oberheim OB-8. (I knew the keyboard tech from those days.)

That airy pad is pretty easy to emulate with any other modern synth.

Edited December 31, 2023 by OutrageProductions

[Annabelle]

34 minutes ago, OutrageProductions said:

On the original album release and support tour, one of the pads (they are layered) just before the sticks start the click were done on a 1990 tour with an Oberheim OB-8. (I knew the keyboard tech from those days.)

That airy pad is pretty easy to emulate with any other modern synth.

Are you talking about the sort of spacy sound that starts side 2 of "...But Seriously"?

[OutrageProductions]

You asked about the pad sound on the fade-up intro to "Another Day in Paradise", just before the stick cliks enter.

[Mr No Name]

Yamaha DX7

 

[Annabelle]

3 hours ago, Mr No Name said:

Yamaha DX7

 

I wonder if that's where the "tuning trombone" sound comes from. Or is that a sample someone put into a synthesizer?

[Mr No Name]

the DX7 has digital emulations of real instruments, brass ones included, it has a tuning slider on the front of the synth that can be used for "detuning"

I don't think it is a sample someone put into a synthesizer.   It's more than likely a "detuned trombone" patch and saved to the synth.  

 

Is that a sample?  a resampled patch?  a trombone with a sock stuffed into it?  who knows.

[Annabelle]

34 minutes ago, Mr No Name said:

the DX7 has digital emulations of real instruments, brass ones included, it has a tuning slider on the front of the synth that can be used for "detuning"

I don't think it is a sample someone put into a synthesizer.   It's more than likely a "detuned trombone" patch and saved to the synth.  

 

Is that a sample?  a resampled patch?  a trombone with a sock stuffed into it?  who knows.

The tune apparently is played approximately two-thirds of a quarter tone sharp from A440, and what I hear is someone blowing into a mouthpiece of a trombone, then a ratchet, then several shorter notes in the same mouthpiece. This happens a couple more times as more synth notes are added.

[Mr No Name]

29 minutes ago, Annabelle said:

The tune apparently is played approximately two-thirds of a quarter tone sharp from A440, and what I hear is someone blowing into a mouthpiece of a trombone, then a ratchet, then several shorter notes in the same mouthpiece. This happens a couple more times as more synth notes are added.

 

Having listened to the HD version you quoted in your first post you could well be correct.

Having first listened to the official version on Phil Collins Youtube channel, and then listened to the HD version, it appears it does sound like an out of tune trombone.

 

 

 

[Mr No Name]

But......., The two intros are obviously different.  one is 12 seconds long and one is 35 seconds long. Different intros. 

[Annabelle]

20 minutes ago, Mr No Name said:

But......., The two intros are obviously different.  one is 12 seconds long and one is 35 seconds long. Different intros. 

I think the version on the music video, the one with the 12-second intro, is actually the radio edit version. The one I was referring to in the HD video is the album version.

[Mr No Name]

1 hour ago, Annabelle said:

I think the version on the music video, the one with the 12-second intro, is actually the radio edit version. The one I was referring to in the HD video is the album version.

 

It's a difficult one Annabelle, I say it could well be a real life trombone player.

 

 

[bitflipper]

I zoomed in on a live performance to see if they'd show the keyboards - it was a Roland RD-700, a digital piano / sampler. 

But it's a fairly generic-sounding patch. I'd expect to be able to find a pretty close match in Omnisphere. Like maybe "Early Chromaphonic Pad 1".

[David Inglesfield]

In a 2011 discussion of this topic on another forum, someone said (and I think they are likely correct) that they believed it was a Roland D-50 patch:

'A lot of D-50 in "Another Day In Paradise". That long strange breathy intro sequence with bells and random horn sounds, for example, is a D-50 patch.'

https://forum.vintagesynth.com/viewtopic.php?t=60399

[Annabelle]

10 hours ago, David Inglesfield said:

In a 2011 discussion of this topic on another forum, someone said (and I think they are likely correct) that they believed it was a Roland D-50 patch:

'A lot of D-50 in "Another Day In Paradise". That long strange breathy intro sequence with bells and random horn sounds, for example, is a D-50 patch.'

https://forum.vintagesynth.com/viewtopic.php?t=60399

I wonder what that patch sounds like. Is there a demo of it somewhere?

[Mr No Name]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Satterfield

 

1989  ....But Seriously, Phil Collins, Pop rock, soft rock, Studio Virgin, Atlantic, WEA,  Trombone