[sdiy] Mystery synth sound

[tpuefke]

Hi Richie,

I believe I'm hearing high frequency modulation of (assuming) a bandpass filter, likely from a noise or audio source in the first example. The additional effect sounds very much like sample rate reduction indeed. Perhaps using an analog sample and hold at (comparatively) low clock speed, because it sounds very gritty. But could just as well be some kind of old school digital lo-fi effect, not sure.

In the second example I would say the filter modulation sounds a lot more regular, like from a faster LFO. Not hearing the aliasing-type effect like in the first one.

I would say both synth sounds are using at least two oscillators, and I have a feeling that square or pulse waves are involved. 

This is much fun. Very interested to hear people's suggestions.

Cheers,
Tom


On Wednesday, August 14th, 2024 at 19:42, rburnett at richieburnett.co.uk <rburnett at richieburnett.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> 
> Hi synth fans,
> 
> I'd like to pick your brains about how a particular synth sound was
> created... I've always liked this sound that features on a number of
> Jam and Spoon tracks (Rolf Ellmer & Markus Loffel) from the 90's and
> early 2000's. It sounds like a resonant lowpass filter sweep but there
> is something else to it, and I've never heard anything quite like it
> anywhere else. The resonance seems to have a dirty and distinctly harsh
> "scratchy" sound to it which I think works nicely in the genre they used
> it in. It appears all over their album "Tripomatic Fairyfales 2001"
> like it's their trademark sound! I'd love to know what piece of kit is
> used to produce this sound if anyone knows?
> 
> I'm guessing it might be the result of filter FM or some kind of
> overdriven digital filter, but I've never managed to get anything like
> this out of any of my filters, digital or analogue. Or maybe it's some
> post processing like decimation, although it doesn't sound quite like
> aliasing to my ears either.
> 
> The best example I've found is at the start of "Follow Me":
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfR7o8NI2W0
> The synth starts at 0:00 and is initially quite smooth and clean
> sounding while the filter is closed down, but gets really scratchy from
> 0:30 onwards as the filter opens up.
> 
> There are other examples in "Tripomatic Fairytales 2001" too:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvf4wwDpaCw
> The synth starts at 17:35 but getting scratchy from 18:20 throughout
> that song.
> The synth starts on another track at 49:00 but getting scratchy from
> 49:10 onwards to the end of that song.
> 
> Any ideas? This has been bugging me for about 20 years, so I'm all
> ears! ;-))
> 
> -Richie,
> 
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