# Can you identify this synth patch from 1970?



## creativeforge (Mar 4, 2017)

I'm trying to identify - and find! - this synth patch/sound from 1970. It is used in a song based on a poem by Arthur Rimbaud, by a singer from Quebec, Robert Charlebois. 

Here is the video of the song. You can hear the sound I'm referring to as a sort of "bubbling" Moog sound (Solina?) at 0:54, 2:12, 2:23, 3:21, 3:28, etc.



Thanks!


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## synthpunk (Mar 4, 2017)

Definitely not Solina, that's a string machine. My best guess initially is a Moog of some kind going through some pretty severe delay.


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## storyteller (Mar 4, 2017)

Paging @JunoVHS ...


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## alanb (Mar 4, 2017)

It sounds very similar to the swirling sounds at the end of the Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle." By all accounts, SM did that with an ARP Odyssey played through an Echoplex:


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## lux (Mar 4, 2017)

if the song is 1970 can't be Solina or Odissey, I'm with Synthpunk here, my guess is that's probably a processed Moog


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## creativeforge (Mar 5, 2017)

I'm not the first who wondered... 

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=227054

The answer seems to be either an Odyssey with Echoplex, or a Roland SH-1000 or 2000.

This, for your troubles!


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## creativeforge (Mar 5, 2017)

Close! 30 seconds in.


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## wst3 (Mar 5, 2017)

I think it is just a very bright and somewhat percussive patch sent through a pitch shifter and delay with the pitch shifter in the feedback loop of the delay. But I could be wrong, you could, I suppose, program it into a sequence...


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## synthpunk (Mar 5, 2017)

1970 was also the year the Mini Moog was released so that could fit.

Andre I think today you could get close with any number of hardware analog or modular synths or even a good virtual synth such as U-he along with a sequencer/arpeggiator and good delay and pitch shifting plugin.


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## kavinsky (Mar 5, 2017)

yh, thats a slightly overdriven moog with triangle wave and mixed in pulse for brightness(optional), set the filter almost all the way up and add some resonance to boost the sparkly highs.

there is a zillion other ways to do it in this day and age, doesnt have to be a moog emu at all, anything will work just fine.


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## chimuelo (Mar 5, 2017)

I've been doing that tune using Solaris and Zebra2 HZ and the HX-3 Hammond Organ FPGA Module.
Seems like a 3 Oscillator synth was used which could have been a Moog or the ARP 2600S.
On the licks above the ending was played, then the Beginning of the song recorded started up.
He skipped ove the parts that definitely used LFO Repeat that the Odyssey and 2600Ss had.
It's a function that sounds like a killer delay effect when the note is released.
But then on the Hammond parts and other synth parts they actually use a great delay.
Tricky bastards.
Spent hours learning to program 4 synth presets, but days getting the excellent B3 parts learned.
At least 4 tracks of keys on the album, if your counting the Noise preset and the separate bleep at the end as 2 tracks.
When I moved out here I was involved in Months of recording and pre production, after that job finished I had offers to do various tribute groups.
We grew weary of those in the 90s in Nevada, but the Midwest loves it rock traditions and actually fill 3000 seat theaters for 25-50 bucks a pop. ASCAP/BMI even gets in on the action.
But 3 x different 70s tributes where Yes, ELP, Genesis, ELO, and just about any 70s era band you can think of I had to learn.
Keyboardists back then are a must to emulate.
A truly prolific era.


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## creativeforge (Mar 5, 2017)

chimuelo said:


> I've been doing that tune using Solaris and Zebra2 HZ and the HX-3 Hammond Organ FPGA Module.



Have you been able to reproduce that "space bubble" effect?


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## chimuelo (Mar 5, 2017)

Please explain...?
If you mean did I cop the sounds, yes of course.
It's my job as musical prostitute.
I automate Vocal FX for singers, so that rare job description, chops, ears and gear keep me working.
The bubble you speak of might be the 5ths tuned LFO Repeat ARPs had and can be heard right as the real recording gets played in the video above.
Most synths can do this.
It's really an effective way to get repeats (delay) without the muddies a real delay effect creates. That's why I called the original keyboard player a tricky bastard as he used both. 
I think the bubble you speak of is that sound as it rises and has a stuttery rising quality to it.


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## creativeforge (Mar 5, 2017)

chimuelo said:


> But 3 x different 70s tributes where Yes, ELP, Genesis, ELO, and just about any 70s era band you can think of I had to learn. Keyboardists back then are a must to emulate. A truly prolific era.



Indeed! I grew up more with ELP, Yes, Strawbs, Gentle Giant, Ekseption and Genesis. Adding Zappa, Chick Corea, it was a golden era. Each album release was an event...

You got video online of some of them gigs?


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## creativeforge (Mar 5, 2017)

chimuelo said:


> Please explain...?



Oh, I'm referring to my original post, trying to reproduce or approximate the sound effect heard here on this song (it's cued).


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## chimuelo (Mar 5, 2017)

And no videos as I fear asassination.
I prize privacy and hate unauthorized shitty videos.

The sound you seek is a preset and Rick Wakeman uses it on the tail end of Yours Is No Disgrace. David Bowie also used something similar on Major Tom. Bowie note selection sounds more like the sound you want. Wakemans was more chromatic.

Do you have Zebra2?
If so I am programming an event with yet another new Tribute for April.
Spent last night getting a Dunlop Talk Box effect for Aerosmith Sweet Emotion, programming Maracca and Vibraslap.
The groups Guitarist is too cheap to buy one, and the drummer has no percussion, the singer can't even play a tambourine in time but has Robert Plant and Steve Tyler dialed in.
My job is to fill in the blanks these rock gods overlook.

I could make a preset possibly using MSEGs.
I nailed the Looping EG sound Townsend used in Baba ORiley last year with a Who tribute. So this might be easier than that one.


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## creativeforge (Mar 6, 2017)

Thanks for the offer, but sadly, no Zebra. I only have (cough) Zebralette. Hmmm... I didn't check to see if it could do this with it. Rick's sound seems to be layered with something else, but you're right, there it is.

And no video, understood.  But I'm truly curious, now. I'd love to hear your work.


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## chimuelo (Mar 6, 2017)

creativeforge said:


> Thanks for the offer, but sadly, no Zebra. I only have (cough) Zebralette. Hmmm... I didn't check to see if it could do this with it. Rick's sound seems to be layered with something else, but you're right, there it is.
> 
> And no video, understood.  But I'm truly curious, now. I'd love to hear your work.



It's definitely in Major Tom by David Bowie.
Had to verify my memory banks.
It's used beautifully and leads into the Melotron/String cluster.


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