OT Need Synth Guru Help

[Cary B. Cornett]

For the musical that I am doing sound for, I need to come up with an "effect", basically a "heavenly choir" singing "ahh" as a first inversion G flat major chord, sustained for perhaps 10 or 15 seconds. This doesn't have to be actual human voices, necessarily: a decent "synth choir" patch would do, as long as it creates the impression of a heavenly choir. :rolleyes:

I expected to be able to use my old Alesis QSR for this, but with the short samples it uses the looping artifacts are distracting. I don't have access to anything like GigaStudio, so the only other solution available to me is a modular synth emulator program called Dr. Synth.

If I knew exactly how do set up a big analog modular synth to do this, I could duplicate that patch with this program. I tried this last night, even doing a little online research looking up some examples of formant frequencies for vowel sounds, but so far my efforts are less than successful. :(

Any advice or help on this would be greatly appreciated...

[Pedro Itriago]

If you don't have physical synths, there are two things that can occur to me.

If you have a soundblaster, or even better, if you don't have a soundblaster but have (either yours or free) a soundfont player, I can send you some free mellotron choirs and/or sample analog synth choirs. I would tell you to look for them yourself on the net, but last I checked the page wher eI found them is down. If you want to buy those sondfonts you can go here (http://www.sonicimplants.com)

The other one is to go the KVR and do a search on free softsynths, there are tons in there.

After these two (the fast & cheap), there's only buying softsynhts

[MMP]

Try the wave below....

Stacking a couple of the included inversions might help the loops disappear.

http://www.mm-pro.com/MP3/gflatmajor.wav

(16.2 meg/24bit/44.1)

Regards,

MM

[Sean McCoy]

Before adding any gear or plugs, I'd suggest first trying to stack your QSR's angel choir patch with another "analog-pad" type patch. The loop points aren't likely to coincide, so that may mask the problems and fill out the sound at the same time. You could also use your modular synth plugin for this.

[Lance]

For the musical that I am doing sound for, I need to come up with an "effect", basically a "heavenly choir" singing "ahh" as a first inversion G flat major chord, sustained for perhaps 10 or 15 seconds. This doesn't have to be actual human voices, necessarily: a decent "synth choir" patch would do, as long as it creates the impression of a heavenly choir. :rolleyes:

I expected to be able to use my old Alesis QSR for this, but with the short samples it uses the looping artifacts are distracting. I don't have access to anything like GigaStudio, so the only other solution available to me is a modular synth emulator program called Dr. Synth.

If I knew exactly how do set up a big analog modular synth to do this, I could duplicate that patch with this program. I tried this last night, even doing a little online research looking up some examples of formant frequencies for vowel sounds, but so far my efforts are less than successful. :(

Any advice or help on this would be greatly appreciated...

Cary;
In a modular synth, the best way to approximate voices is the following:
Signal path is 3 oscillators into a Voltage Controlled LPF - 24db rolloff. VCF to VCA. 2 ADSR env. generators, one to VCF and one to VCA. You need an LFO set for sine prepared to modulate the VCOs. Ideally, one LFO per Osc. Keep the input feed of the LFO at 0 until ready to use.

Osc 1 should be a Triangle wave at the pitch. Osc 2 and 3 should be a variable pulse, one set at about 40%, the other at about 60%. Each should be detuned slightly in opposite directions.

The VCF should be set so that the cutoff is somewhere between your fundamental frequency or an octave above. So for middle A, set it somewhere between 440 and 880. This will cut out most of the overtones. Then take the resonance and bring it up until it is close to oscillation. Also adjust the Q so that it is a high Q. This will create your resonance at the fundamental frequency, simulating the vocal resonance, adjusting the Q to taste. Now it is important that you add Kbd voltage tracking so that the filter tracks up and down the keyboard in sync with the pitches. This keeps the resonance accurate as you play notes. Otherwise the notes will get more dull and muted as you play up the scale.

On the VCA Envelope, use a slow attack, slow decay, and about a 30% sustain. Voices run out of air. Release should be about 20%. Adjust all parameters of course to your taste.

On the VCF Envelope, Attack should be fast, Decay should be about 20-30% and Sustain should be about 95%. This should cause a slight pitch chiff when key is first depressed, but it will be very low in volume because of the slow attack on the VCA.

Here are the tweak points:
The pulse width will give you your timbre and you should adjust for taste.
Detuning will give you the degree of chorusing.
Adding slight LFO to each osc, will add a slight degree of vibrato, adjust speeds for taste.
Resonance and Frequency combined with pulse width will give you the type of Ahhh or whatever, within limits.
Adding a little filtered noise in a sidechain can also add to the effectiveness of the simulation.

This is really a starting place for tweaking and your results may vary.

Hope this helps.

Lance

[AudioAstronomer]

Be careful detuning Pulse waveforms, depending on their width it can cause some problems.

Also like to add to lance's wonderful explanation that if you are playing within the same octave, actually turning off keyboard tracking will have a more realistic imitation... and keep your lfo's shallow (not deep).

[Lance]

Be careful detuning Pulse waveforms, depending on their width it can cause some problems.

Also like to add to lance's wonderful explanation that if you are playing within the same octave, actually turning off keyboard tracking will have a more realistic imitation... and keep your lfo's shallow (not deep).

Robert is absolutely right on the Pulse waves. This is why the Triangle should be your fundamental and use the pulses for your overtones. Try different ratios of the pulses in the mixer to the VCF.

I wouldn't necessarily turn Kbd tracking off, but certainly lowering the amount of kbd tracking can achieve a better result.

Tweaking is the key... do what sounds good to you. Hopefully, this points you in the right direction for what you're looking for.

Lance

[Cary B. Cornett]

Thanks to all for your tips and help. I downloaded MM's files, and they should be very helpful. I will probably be experimenting with the synth patch suggestions soon. For now, I'm scrambling with equipment tests and preparations for adding SFX to tonight's rehearsal.

[AudioAstronomer]

If you have the ability to use 2 filters, placing them in serial, having filter 1 not track, with high resonance and filter 2 track hard with a low resonance and frequency, you can acheive some very deliberate vocal sounds.

Filter 1 acts, depending on how well you set it, somewhat like a formant while filter 2 will allow for proper range across the board.

Just tried this on an alesis Ion and it worked very nicely. A little bit of noise and ooohhh ahhhhhhh. Even nicer if you have a flexible filter envelope you can really start to carve out your vowel sounds if you have control over any unisons per voice