MOTM

Speaking of strings, does anyone know if the killer strings Tomita
synthesized on 'Snowflakes Are Dancing' was due primarily to the Moog String
Filter, or were other factors at play? (Don't tell me it was Mellotron,
because it isn't!)

I heard the Moog String Filter was just a big bank of very narrow bandpass
filters, with alternate bands going to L & R stereo outputs. Anybody know
anything about this box?

Dave Bradley
Principal Software Engineer
Engineering Animation, Inc.
daveb@...

My understanding is that he used a lot of oscillators with PWM, and fed that
through some Roland delay units for that super-space string sound. I don't
know much about the Moog String Filter.

I haven't played his "Sound Creature" album in about 20 years... I'm pretty
sure he 'explains' on that album how he gets his classic string sound.

If we're talking about the same sound, it's definitely not Mellotron. In
fact, the only easily-identifiable Mellotron sound I can think of on Tomita
albums is the occasional male chorus.

If it is a bunch of narrow-bandpass filters with separate outs, mightn't we
make one from a battery of MOTM Triple-Resonant Filters...?

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Dave Bradley [mailto:daveb@...]
		Speaking of strings, does anyone know if the killer strings
Tomita
		synthesized on 'Snowflakes Are Dancing' was due primarily to
the Moog String
		Filter, or were other factors at play

> My understanding is that he used a lot of oscillators with PWM,
> and fed that
> through some Roland delay units for that super-space string sound. I don't
> know much about the Moog String Filter.
>
> I haven't played his "Sound Creature" album in about 20 years...
> I'm pretty
> sure he 'explains' on that album how he gets his classic string sound.
>

Not familiar with "Sound Creature". Does he actually speak on it, and talk
about his synthesis technique? Have you got this album?

> If we're talking about the same sound, it's definitely not Mellotron. In
> fact, the only easily-identifiable Mellotron sound I can think of
> on Tomita
> albums is the occasional male chorus.
>

He does use (briefly) the Mellotron string sound, heavily phased, along with
Clavinet on Cosmos.

> If it is a bunch of narrow-bandpass filters with separate outs,
> mightn't we
> make one from a battery of MOTM Triple-Resonant Filters...?
>

Maybe. You can't manually adjust resonance amount on the 410, though. And it
would take like 10 modules, because I think the string filter had 30 bands
or something.

Matter of fact, I just went up on the Moog Custom Engineering site, and he
still offers it for sale - rack mount for $1345, describes it as a "36 band
VC-Resonant Multi Filter."

Tuning it would be a bitch!

Dave Bradley
Principal Software Engineer
Engineering Animation, Inc.
daveb@...

>Matter of fact, I just went up on the Moog Custom Engineering site, and he
>still offers it for sale - rack mount for $1345, describes it as a "36 band
>VC-Resonant Multi Filter."
>
>Tuning it would be a bitch!


The original design is a bitch, because of cap tolerances and the small
GB (gain-bandwidth) of the op amps used.

Today, we use OP275s, 2% caps, 1% resistors and tuning is not so awful.
And, the MCE version has about $60 of parts in it. Sheesh.

Paul S.

(Dave Bradley) writes:
>> Speaking of strings, does anyone know if the killer strings Tomita
 synthesized on 'Snowflakes Are Dancing' was due primarily to the Moog String
 Filter, or were other factors at play? (Don't tell me it was Mellotron,
 because it isn't!)
 I heard the Moog String Filter was just a big bank of very narrow bandpass
 filters, with alternate bands going to L & R stereo outputs. Anybody know
 anything about this box?<<

Tomita does not own or use the Moog String Filter.  His string sound is made 
up of a bunch of detuned oscillators with vibrato, a short delay that slurs 
the sound from one note to the next and also thickens, stereo chorus, and 
really heavy reverb with something like a 75 percent reverb to dry mix.  I 
have been synthesizing the Tomita string sound for ages, and a lot of the 
thickness, smoothness and/or realism comes from the sound of the reverb.  As 
stated by other members, the "Sound Creature" album steps through each stage 
of Tomita synthesizing his string sound from a single osc to the final thing. 
 The Moog String Filter is for getting a woody body resonance, but that is 
not present in Tomita's sound.  I read an interview with Micheal Bodicker a 
while back, and he is the only one I know of who used a Moog String Filter in 
a recording.  I had Guitar Center connect one up once so I could hear what it 
sounded like.  There was so damn much gushing noise coming from the thing 
that it was virtually useless.  Formula Sound also made a 24 band String 
filter, but from what I heard, they only made one unit.  I still have the 
advertisement I cut out from Keyboard Mag 20 years ago.  It is the kind of 
unit/module I would like to see someone make today.  Hint.

-Elhardt

Elhardt@... wrote:

>  Formula Sound also made a 24 band String
> filter, but from what I heard, they only made one unit.  I still have the
> advertisement I cut out from Keyboard Mag 20 years ago.  It is the kind of
> unit/module I would like to see someone make today.  Hint.
>
> -Elhardt

Funny you should mention this...
I have it--I bought it from an AH list member last year. The faceplate says it
was custom made by Formula Sound for Patrick Gleeson. There are 24 resonance
sliders and each slider has a 3 way "A/B/AB" toggle switch to send it to the
outputs. There is a builit-in LFO that can be overridden by an input CV jack on
the front and a drive knob so you can overdrive it. It sounds pretty nice but is
also noisy as hell--it would probably be considered unusable by most, but I like
the noise and  I am using it as the world's most expensive distortion box :-) The
guy who sold it to me was going to have his Tech draw up schematics for it,
although I never received them. I should try and hunt him down for these so I can
share them with all you techie-types.

ben@... writes:

>>Funny you should mention this...
 I have it--I bought it (Formula Sound String Filter) from an AH list member 
last year. The faceplate says it was custom made by Formula Sound for Patrick 
Gleeson. There are 24 resonance sliders...<<

Actually, it is funny you should mention it too.  I almost bid/bought it 
myself.  I wondered who ended up with it.  I was also surprised to find out 
that only one was ever made.  No wonder I only ever saw it advertised once, 
and then it vanished from public mention for 20 years.

-Elhardt