MOTM

At 12:56 AM +0000 2003/05/04, John wrote:
>Does anyone know how those distorted steal drum sounds were made in
>the 2nd Impression in Karnevil 9.  They sound amazing.  Anyone got
>any ideas?

I don't have an MOTM patch for this sound, but I've got two other patches.

1. On the back cover photo of the WBMFTTSTNE live album it sure looks 
like a MiniMoog on top of Keith's grand piano. It's too small to see 
on the CD version, look at the vinyl version (for those old timers 
that still have their vinyl albums). Since he played that steel drum 
sound and the piano at the same time on the second impression, it's 
likely that he used a MiniMoog.

Also, in the MiniMoog patch manual there's an "Emerson's Steel Drum 
 From Brain Sald Surgery" patch:

Osc 1: range=2', wave=sawtooth, mixer level=10
Osc 2: range=2', tune=0, wave=sawtooth, mixer level=10
Osc 3: range=16', tune=7, wave=sawtooth, keyboard control=off, mixer level=0
Oscillator modulation=off

Filter: cutoff=-2, emphasis=5, EG amount=5
Filter EG: a=0, d=10ms, s=0
Filter modulation=on
Filter keyboard control=1+2

Amp: a=0, d=400ms, s=0

Glide=off
Decay=on
Mod Wheel=up all the way

2. I made a similar sounding patch for a Pro-One many years ago. It 
uses FM on the oscillators, rather than the filter, to produce the 
steel drum sound:

Osc A: wave=sawtooth, pitch=10, octave=1
Osc B: wave=triangle, pitch=2, octave=1
Mixer: osc A=10, osc B=10
Filter: cutoff=3.95, res=3.0, envelope amount=4.2, keyboard amount=4.8
Filter EG: a=0, d=3.8, s=3.8, r=5.0
Amp EG: a=0, d=5, s=0, r=5

Modulation From:
Filter EG: amount=1.95, route=direct
Osc B: amount=5.15, route=direct

Modulation To:
Osc A Freq=direct

The two oscillators are not tuned to any standard musical interval. 
Osc A is FM modulated by Osc B and the filter envelope. Osc A must be 
tuned while playing the patch to get the appropriate enharmonic (sp?) 
overtones that steel drums produce.