Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Firecobra22]

Hi

I'm trying to create that beautifull CS-80 pad on the MicroKORG but I have'nt succed yet. Could anybody give me pointers please. Or maybe it's not even possible. But it would be very helpfull at the least if I knew wich waveform it's based on.

Thx

[Jakob BC]

Im not so much into the famous sounds of the CS-80. Do you have any soundsamples?

[Firecobra22]

Here it is. Please note that this is done on a Synthex but sounds almost exactly the same. It was played by Per Kristian Risvik so all the honours to him.

[GeeJee]

Hi

I'm trying to create that beautifull CS-80 pad on the MicroKORG but I have'nt succed yet. Could anybody give me pointers please. Or maybe it's not even possible. But it would be very helpfull at the least if I knew wich waveform it's based on.

Thx

I don't know what pad you mean, but this is a rough guide...

CS80 is famous for its pulse wave and its unique filter sound.
The above mentioned is nearly impossible to recreate,

However, this is a little recipe how to get a CS80 brassy swell sound... very vangelislike:

-Saw Wave (start with one osc, add another w/ slight detune if you feel it's too thin) - 8'
-Put ENV on the VCF with long attack
-ENV VCA: slightly shorter attack to make the sound become louder first, than grittier
-VCF (LPF): low resonance (try, depends on the synth, not more than 20%)
-delayed LFO to pitch to bring in vibrato after a few secs
-if you have a BPF, you may want to cut some low frequencies, but this is not necessary.
-try to get the osc to produce some random pitch instability, if you don't have such a parameter, put a LFO with S&H routed to noise on it...

If you feel the sound is too brassy and not much CS80s, you may try to use a width-modulated pulse wave on either one or two of the oscillators as you wish, but like I said, the CS80 pulse sounds is very characteristic and hard to reproduce. The filter has a very 'sandy', 'gritty' but 'nasal' sound, and most famously for those particular brass swells as used by Vangelis.

Hope that helps

[Firecobra22]

I feel so stupid but whats VCA and VCF?? And how do I get delayed LFO. I'll try but I don't think it's possible on my microKORG. But you have been very helpfull idd.

[Bromus]

VCA- Voltage Controlled Oscillator
VCF- Voltage Controlled Filter

[Jakob BC]

VCA- Voltage Controlled Oscillator

That's VCO

As far as I know VCA means voltage controlled amplifiers, in this case GeeJee talked about the amp envelope. VCF means Voltage Controlled Filter, so that is just the filter.

[Firecobra22]

I just made a rough sketch of the patch. I did some of the basic things you told me and if you listen carefully you can make out a cs-80 stylish sound. I'll have to tweak it tomorrow to get a better sound cause now i'm going to bed. And again thx for the help GeeJee and Jakob.

[Jakob BC]

I want demos

[Firecobra22]

Due time. It's probably going to take me a week 'fore I can record a demo. If I would record it now it would be very rough.

[Bromus]

VCA- Voltage Controlled Oscillator

That's VCO

As far as I know VCA means voltage controlled amplifiers, in this case GeeJee talked about the amp envelope. VCF means Voltage Controlled Filter, so that is just the filter.

Oh, I was writing it in hurry so I made mistake

[Firecobra22]

I want demos

And here they are. These aren't the final versions. Thats why I'm posting them here. I would like to have some feedback please. And please don't mind my bad play. It was recorded in somewhat of a hurry. Anyway, there are 4 of them. 2 are the cs-80's of wich one is a sketch and the other is the somewhat better version. One of them is a flute patch wich I created by pure coincidence when I was working on Van Halen's Jump preset. And the last one is idd Van Halen's Jump preset. I'm having trouble with this patch. Somehow I can't get it right. Please help me. Now I know that all these patches except for the flute aren't really good enough so I you would please give me some advice then that would be great.

Thank you kindly

CS-80 sketch
CS-80 real version
Flute
Jump

[AMR]

Well,

Here's a "rough" (I should say "rather way to clean") CS80 feel-a-like patch I did for the microKorg, velocity (how hard you stomp the keys) and ModWheel give it expression, and effects give it the "spaciousness" typical of a Vangelis sound, not as "dirty warm" as the real deal though, but convincing enough and "warm" in it's own way (it's not the "pad", but the "horn"):

AMR's MicroKorg Digital CS80 Horn

Since it's the only patch in the page, it ain't hard to find - Digital CS80 Horn, I believe. It's zipped, containing a file (patch) in the native's librarian for windows (free app from Korg) format, so, anyone kind enough to record a demo of the audio is welcome.

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

PS - It was designed to be used as a "solo" monophonic instrument at will and expression, altough I keep 4 keys of poly, it's ment for the "release" to work it's "spaciousness" while you solo, Vangelis like - if you start simultaneously stroking 3 or 4 keys (or 2 without finesse) you'll notice the "release" (simulating reverb) being cut harshly and it sounds... harsh.

[Firecobra22]

I'm having trouble getting it in my microKORG editor. How can I send this patch bank to my microKORG.

[AMR]

I'm having trouble getting it in my microKORG editor. How can I send this patch bank to my microKORG.

After installing the software from Korg, there will be a directory called "Korg" in your "My Documents" (Windows). Move my file to inside the microKorg which is inside the My Library dir, you can create dirs in there if you want, and move my file to inside one of them.

So it would be, for example:

Copy my .prg file to...

My Documents\Korg\My Library\microKorg\(you may create dirs here or copy to this root)

Then, once you open the microKorg librarian program, you'll see the sound there (AMR something), in "my Library" folder.

Make sure your Korg is MIDI conected In and Out to the PC, and double click my file name, in the librarian... your synth will imediatly have the sound in memory and you can start playing it, "write" it if you like it and so on.

Enjoy.

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com