analogue synths Joker uses?

[slothrop]

i had to double check myself after you said that!

so anyone got any other input on this kind of sound? other kind of synths with that characteristic whiney sound, any way i can emulate it with software or any emulations of synths joker uses?

also, am i right in calling them analogue? i did a quick google and saw that the dx 27 is an fm synth... is this a type of ananlogue synth, or is this something entirely separate?

They're all hardware synths. Analogue is always hardware, hardware isn't always analogue. And some stuff that isn't analogue recreates analogue synthesis using digital algorithms whereas some stuff uses methods that are basically unusable with analogue circuitry.

So yeah, some of them (Andromeda, SH-101 etc) are analogue, some of them (MicroKorg) are virtual analogue some of them (DX 27) are other sorts of digital.

There are about a billion VST emulations of classic analogue synths or VSTs that try to sound generically analogue (whatever the hell that means, as if all analogue synths sound the same) and a lot of them sound like someone farting into a wet paper bag, but some of them sound good enough that it's mostly only synth geeks that can spot the distance once it's covered with effects and sat somewhere in a mix... certainly they're good enough that you can make sounds that are functionally the same as the ones Joker uses, even if you couldn't identically reproduce any given sound of his.

[test_recordings]

From what I hear of joker he uses explicitly digital synths, his stuff would sound ace as if he used analogue! Same with everyone else!
Mmmmmmm, warm tape...

[slothrop]

IMHO, compared with all the other stuff that goes into making a tune - melody, sound design, arrangement, rhythm, mixing, structure - the difference between real analogue and decent virtual analogue is more or less irrelevant these days. The real thing is fine for playing a single note and cracking one off while you listen to the 'rich creamy resonance' but for a lot of people, this reverence for fairly marginal sonic properties seems to be a distraction from actually making tunes that connect with real people.

I can't write a tune for shit, but going from Skreams early FL stuff right back to Sleng Teng a lot of great tunes have been made by people using whatever tools they had to hand and getting on with expressing themselves.

[Elkie]

cheers slothrop, that was all realy useful! so if im looking to create these kinds of sounds, what soft synths should i be going for? something that utilizes fm synthesis, or something that emulates an analogue hardware unit?

theres me thinking it was all just triangle and square waves, seems im only touching the tip of the icebreg!

[jokerkhk]

Hey some how i come across this tread and i feel i should answer

None of those hardware synths mean shit

i was using reason b4 this and still had my sound

and most times my lead's/bendy synths come from any soft synth

but i just love hardware so i get it

and i have to use hardware 4 my bass or it just sounds crap










AND REMEMBER IT'S ALL ABOUT SATURATION

[Elkie]

Hey some how i come across this tread and i feel i should answer

None of those hardware synths mean shit

i was using reason b4 this and still had my sound

and most times my lead's/bendy synths come from any soft synth

but i just love hardware so i get it

and i have to use hardware 4 my bass or it just sounds crap










AND REMEMBER IT'S ALL ABOUT SATURATION

cheers for commenting man! yeah i get that its not all down to the hardware your using, but i thought the kind of gear you have would probably give me an idea of the kind of synths i should be looking at to make a similar sound, if you get me? like, all these super synths like massive seem to be able to do a bit of everything, but seeing as your sound is really distinctive, knowing what these bits of kit are is probably more useful than asking what kind of soft synths youre using.. if any of that makes sense?

cheers for the tip on saturation though man, im really new to production so any little bits of advice that seem obvious to most of you on here im still kind of learning haha!

[Mad_EP]

Hopefully now that "the MAN" himself has replied, people will start believing...

It isn't the tools that make one producer sound like this or that... it is the mind behind it. All the money in the world won't make X sound like Y. X will always sound like X. Extra money will only make X sound *more* like X.... and make Y sound *more* like Y.


I'm all for sharing production styles and tips... especially cos it STILL won't make anyone sound like anyone else. Joker could host me in his studio all day... and I still would come out sounding like me. Maybe a more refined version of me, but still me all the same. Joker sounds like Joker cos that is who he is.

Case & point- for hundreds of years composers used the same tools (ink & pen) yet they sounded soooooo different. Why? Cos of who they were inside.

[Elkie]

Hopefully now that "the MAN" himself has replied, people will start believing...

It isn't the tools that make one producer sound like this or that... it is the mind behind it. All the money in the world won't make X sound like Y. X will always sound like X. Extra money will only make X sound *more* like X.... and make Y sound *more* like Y.


I'm all for sharing production styles and tips... especially cos it STILL won't make anyone sound like anyone else. Joker could host me in his studio all day... and I still would come out sounding like me. Maybe a more refined version of me, but still me all the same. Joker sounds like Joker cos that is who he is.

Case & point- for hundreds of years composers used the same tools (ink & pen) yet they sounded soooooo different. Why? Cos of who they were inside.

dont really understand the relevance of this at all, seeing as ive said so many times im not trying to rip off or sound like Joker, but just to learn how he makes this kind of sounds, and the types of synths and synthesis the sounds are created by...

thanks though

[hd4000]

if you are looking for that:

funky worm.dr dre/west coast gangsta high pitch sound.

the microkorg has it.

300 bucks of win that thing is.....

[Mad_EP]

dont really understand the relevance of this at all, seeing as ive said so many times im not trying to rip off or sound like Joker, but just to learn how he makes this kind of sounds, and the types of synths and synthesis the sounds are created by...

thanks though

i know you said you aren't trying to sound just like him... my point was that there are lots of different ways to get those sounds, not just by using xyz synth.

it is more than instrument choice... it is how one arranges their instrumentation, how they work their mixdown, etc etc. basically, one will use whatever tools they have available to them to achieve the sounds they have in their head. i'm willing to bet you could lock joker in a room with nothing more than a rubber band, a dictaphone, and a tambourine and he would still be able to rock a track that sounds like him.

wasn't meaning to sound harsh.

[Elkie]

im not saying "ok, how do i write a Joker tune?"

im saying, "how do you achive this kind of noise?"

surely the way the sounds are arranged doesnt really change the actual noises, the sounds that the synths are making?

you really think that that g-funk whine kind of sound can be made using an elastic band and a tambourine? surely not. maybe he could write an incredible tune using what you say, but at the end of the day its still going to sound like a little plinky noise and a bit of a jingle too.

if these sounds are achievable on any sound producing instrument, care to explain to me how i would go about producing this sound with a grand piano? a saxophone? a steel drum? thought not.

im sure you werent meaning to sound harsh, ive seen a lot of your posts around on here and you seem like a very knowledgable guy with a deep understanding of music theory etc whos up for helping people out. just thought i should probably explain myself a bit better, people tend to get shut down on here rather swiftly as soon as the forum masses start to pick holes in their questions, and this threads been really useful to me so far so id rather try and make it stay that way! maybe not everything ive found out is directly applicable to my production at the minute, as i cant afford to drop serious money on gear like that, and like you say, it probably wouldnt be very useful to me at the minute as i have no clue how to create it, but it has proved interesting regardless, and to a certain degree, pretty inspirational!

again, sorry if i came across as a bit of a dick!

[Mad_EP]

A lot of the GFunk whiny synth sound is achieved through tweaking the resonance and using portamento (the sliding sound between notes). You can replicate something similar on almost any soft synth, whether it be a hardware emulation like Arturia's Moog or a new school synth like Rob Papen's Predator (I'm sure there are plenty of freeware options as well). Sometimes instead of programming portamento into a patch I'll manually control the sliding with the pitch wheel (takes a bit of practice to be reliably accurate!). There are lots of ways to achieve similar effects- but the best is to play around with it and develop your own method.

And that underlines what Joker said: he had the same sound when he was using soft synths in Reason.

[wormcode]

Hey some how i come across this tread and i feel i should answer

None of those hardware synths mean shit

i was using reason b4 this and still had my sound

and most times my lead's/bendy synths come from any soft synth

but i just love hardware so i get it

and i have to use hardware 4 my bass or it just sounds crap

AND REMEMBER IT'S ALL ABOUT SATURATION

Yeah man, it's definitely not so much about their sound anymore as it is just having them. Synth geekery ftw

[Littlefoot]

also, only one of those is Analogue (i think!)

[jokerkhk]

also, only one of those is Analogue (i think!)

3 analog

Alesis andromeda A6

Macbeth MX3

Yamaha SK20

and 2 digital analog-modeling

roland sh 201

Korg micro korg


and 1 digital fm shizznit dx 27

[xiy]

I remember him saying he uses a Mac Pro, which I didn't see in the pic.

If i'm not mistaken, that's the new tiny tiny macbook pro on the left no?

[scooterjack]

AND REMEMBER IT'S ALL ABOUT SATURATION

[jokerkhk]

I remember him saying he uses a Mac Pro, which I didn't see in the pic.

If i'm not mistaken, that's the new tiny tiny macbook pro on the left no?

yes


but there wont be a mac pro on the table willl there lol

its on the floor

[deadly_habit]

also, only one of those is Analogue (i think!)

3 analog

Alesis andromeda A6

Macbeth MX3

Yamaha SK20

and 2 digital analog-modeling

roland sh 201

Korg micro korg


and 1 digital fm shizznit dx 27

ah that is the sk20
fuck i'm just about to call a guy about snagging on this makes me want it a tiny bit more now

[jokerkhk]

also, only one of those is Analogue (i think!)

3 analog

Alesis andromeda A6

Macbeth MX3

Yamaha SK20

and 2 digital analog-modeling

roland sh 201

Korg micro korg


and 1 digital fm shizznit dx 27

ah that is the sk20
fuck i'm just about to call a guy about snagging on this makes me want it a tiny bit more now

ive not evan used it yet its ronis sizes and its got some usa adapter and wont work when i try turn it on some mad shit