AW: Kitaro 'octave glide'

[Haible Juergen]

>If you have ever listened to Kitaro's music (e.g., Silk Road), he tends to
>use, for lack of a better phrase (?), an 'octave glide' (sometimes to the
>point of overuse imho).  I've been attempting to figure out how he does
>this using my MS-20, but I'm not satisfied with any results so far (maybe 
>this is not the right synth to use).  I've tried using pitch bend,
>portamento (dynamically), and the trigger switch activating mg with
>appropriate attack and mg/ext level amounts.  Any suggestions?
>
> Do any of you know 'exactly' how he has done this?

The Minikorg (700) has a unique glide circuit indeed.
First, it does make a difference whether you're using portamento
on a V/Oct or on a V/Hz system. (You cannot emulate the
V/Hz portamento by switching a V/Oct portamento from
linear to exponential glide, btw. It's not exactly the same courve.)

Now, *that* part could at least be emulated by a V/Hz synth like
the MS-20.

But the special feature of the 700 is a circuit that has a series
resistor (like any exponential glide circuit), a capacitor to GND,
*and* a second resistor in series with the capacitor. The second
resistor being the same value as the first, the keyboard CV is
divided by two in the first moment after a new key is depressed.
Division by two means transposing exactly one octave down
in a V/Hz system. Then the cap is slowly charged, and the note
glides up one octave.

It would be very difficult to emulate this on a V/oct synth.
It might be a fairly workable mod for a MS-20, though.

(... and didn't we just talk about unlimited possibilities of
     modular synths ?! )

JH.