How to get the "PBS Sound"?

[polar sky]

This is the sound you are looking for right?

Yamaha • CS-70M
http://www.vintagesynth.com/audio/cs70m_mix.mp3

Yup. Again though, not sure how to make that...

Hey, watch this guy from the Radiophonic Workshop adjust his synth. You can see how he gets what he wants by adjusting different things. At 4:00 he plays his ARP Odysse and you can see him adjusting the ADSR and then he adds some glide and echo.

[Emmer]

Thanks for your tips everyone.

Slowly I'm getting a better idea of what I should be looking for... Analog, LFO, Mono, tape decks...


I'll do some experimenting, but the only synth I have right now is a TAL Bassline (which supposedly is a great emulator of the Roland SH-101 that BoC uses) so I guess that will have to do.

I'm also trying to get a free Mini Moog emulator to work. Maybe I can coax some neat sounds of out of that.



Also, does anyone know of software that can emulate the tape deck effect? I have a tape deck somewhere in my basement but it seems like I wouldn't really be able to make any changes to it. :/

[polar sky]

Also, does anyone know of software that can emulate the tape deck effect? I have a tape deck somewhere in my basement but it seems like I wouldn't really be able to make any changes to it. :/

If you can't use the real thing, there are plenty of recording programs out there that have plug ins for that sound. I know Reason has that Scream 4 Distortion Filter and it has a tape setting, it's pretty cool.

[Emmer]

Well I'll root around for something in Soundbooth (I have that) but I would like to find a plug in for Ableton so that I can hear it and make adjustments without having to render audio.

[Totopatter]

meh you guys are still going on about Tycho muahahah

[isawdrones]

Well I'll root around for something in Soundbooth (I have that) but I would like to find a plug in for Ableton so that I can hear it and make adjustments without having to render audio.

try the vinyl distortion effect, you should definitely have it

[Emmer]

Well I'll root around for something in Soundbooth (I have that) but I would like to find a plug in for Ableton so that I can hear it and make adjustments without having to render audio.

try the vinyl distortion effect, you should definitely have it

Yeah I've been using that on every one of my tracks, but only because of the clicking popping sounds. I haven't been able to get the lo fi tape effect from it yet.

I guess more experimentation is in order.

[isawdrones]

Well I'll root around for something in Soundbooth (I have that) but I would like to find a plug in for Ableton so that I can hear it and make adjustments without having to render audio.

try the vinyl distortion effect, you should definitely have it

Yeah I've been using that on every one of my tracks, but only because of the clicking popping sounds. I haven't been able to get the lo fi tape effect from it yet.

I guess more experimentation is in order.

Yeah mess with some parameters on there, try distorting different frequencies, add very subtle distortion etc

[nev]

This is the sound you are looking for right?

Yamaha • CS-70M
http://www.vintagesynth.com/audio/cs70m_mix.mp3

Yup. Again though, not sure how to make that...

It just depends what kind of timbre you want,..Polars advice is good for that type of bubbly lead sound, but the oscillators on Analog aren't as rich as the ones on the cs 70 and other hardware units so there are a lot of subjective things to consider. Programming a sound like the pad on "everything you do is a balloon" for instance, is going to be a completely different process then programming that vintage mono lead sound.

I take it from context you haven't worked very much with programming synthesizers. Polars advice is good, It's much more efficient and rewarding to learn yourself, no one is going to have a complete answer for you because there are so many subjective factors that go into the production of a sound, it takes time and patience. All we really can give you is advice at producing general characteristics but the magic comes from somewhere else.

Tell us when you get analog and we'll talk about programming

Hi there, if it's not too cheeky to ask, I would appreciate any synth programming tips you might have for analog and BOC style type sounds.

I've been pulling apart some of the great presets in Carbon (Reaktor Ensemble), but am always interested in tips for this style of programming.

Many thanks,
nev

[Numerator]

here's a nice BoCish lead
sorry for my un-professional instructions
you may need to modify them slightly for use on whatever synth your using
anyway, here goes

first oscillator: sawtooth - detune -15 cents
second oscillator: triangle - -1 octave lower than the first oscillator

LFO: have this modulate the pitch, I set the level of pitch modulation to about 7 and set the rate fairly low at about 23, this will give the sound a distinctive droning quality that many of BoC's sounds possess

filters: set the resonance fairly high (I set mine about 86) and set the filter cutoff/frequency to about 68

fx: a bit of reverb and a tiny amount of chorus

here's one I made earlier
bocishpatch.mp3 - 0.16MB

[nev]

here's a nice BoCish lead
sorry for my un-professional instructions
you may need to modify them slightly for use on whatever synth your using
anyway, here goes

first oscillator: sawtooth - detune -15 cents
second oscillator: triangle - -1 octave lower than the first oscillator

LFO: have this modulate the pitch, I set the level of pitch modulation to about 7 and set the rate fairly low at about 23, this will give the sound a distinctive droning quality that many of BoC's sounds possess

filters: set the resonance fairly high (I set mine about 86) and set the filter cutoff/frequency to about 68

fx: a bit of reverb and a tiny amount of chorus

here's one I made earlier
bocishpatch.mp3 - 0.16MB

That's nice.

Thanks very much for the ideas/advice, will go away and see what I can come up with...

thanks again.

Nev

[aorta]

So in the future are people going to be looking for that "youtube" sound? Like "Remember how 20 years ago you could get that compressed sound from a low quality youtube video?"

[nev]

So in the future are people going to be looking for that "youtube" sound? Like "Remember how 20 years ago you could get that compressed sound from a low quality youtube video?"

Hee hee you never know...

Actually joking aside, I'd be surprised if someone hadn't referenced that sound already somewhere ?
Maybe in an Rn'B song perhaps.

I guess it's partly about the nostalgic feelings these sounds imply to us and the fact that to copy things means you don't have to re-invent the wheel each time. I guess they help place songs/pieces in a certain mental space for people, or certain sounds become fashionable for a time, like the 8 bit sound etc.

[Negamuse]

Its subtler than that as far as BoC is concerned anyway. They're not just using the old synths to make old sounds, they artificially age the recordings so that they sound like they were produced in the right era. Hell, even the melodies they play with the sounds are often authentic to the period they're going for. A lot of people trying to copy the "BoC sound" seem to miss this, which is why it doesn't sound quite right.

[dono]

Hey everyone.

So I've been writing music for a while now but there's a certain sound I'm trying to get which I've heard described as the "PBS sound".

I'm sure everyone here has heard it, I know it's used a lot in BoC tracks. It's also the little hook at the beginning of OoT Vol 3.

How would you guys achieve this sort of muted, retro, analog sound? I haven't really been able to get anything that sounds like it from the Ableton Live 8 instrument racks.

Other examples include:
Under The Coke Sign
Everything You Do Is A Balloon

You can do it quite easily in Logic with any number of the synths, the es1, or es2 would be good for this. Add a little bit of clip distortion, tiny tape delay, and some slight ring modulation but select frequency shift, slap a filter bank on there, tweak a little bit and there and there you have it.

That or go buy an sh-101 or mc-202.

[polar sky]

It's all about the The ARP ODYSSEY!