Here’s the result:

by Carlo Castellano

In this tutorial I will explain how to recreate a lead sound I realized inspired by Ozric Tentacles sounds. Technically speaking, this lead is very simple to achive (is a sync-based lead) and do not require particular skills to program it. This lead can be extremely metallic and “spacey” but it requires realtime controls to play at it best.
For the creation of this lead sound I’ve used a VA, XioSynth from Novation

Ingredients

• 3 oscillators (even 2 are good enough)
• sync between oscillators
• a 4 pole (24db/Oct) Lowpass filter
• 1 LFO
• some realtime controls
• effects (delay, reverb, chorus)

Assembling

Let’s start setting our patch as monophonic with two oscillators in sync (1>2).

Oscillators

Set a sawtooth waveform for the first two oscillators and a square wave for the third. Even if not mandatory for the “core” of our lead, the third oscillator will add “width” which can raise the lead presence in a mix. Let’s tune the second oscillator 2 octaves and 6 semitones above the first, and tune the third one only by 4 cents.

Filter

Set up a classic 4 pole (24dB/Oct) Lowpass filter. At the beginning, we can set the filter full open (cutoff value to it max) and resonance just above an half. Set Velocity as filter cutoff controller so when you strike your keys harder the cutoff value decreases. It is important to not exceed with this parameter since while resonance value is kept low, you’ll not achive the classic “filter whistle” (self oscillation). We will see further how to assign realtime controls to both cutoff and resonance.

LFO

Let’s set 2nd oscillator pitch as LFO destination. As waveform set a sine or even a triangle and set LFO speed slightly above minimum. Now we have to set the “tricky” value, modulation depth wich will affect LFO modulation amount over the pich of our second oscillator. A good value may be just above the half of LFO maximum speed range, but I suggest to set is to suite your personal taste.

Controllers

Perhaps the most important section of this lead sound. You need 3 controllers of any kind, from classic modulation wheel to knobs or sliders. I have used a lot the XioSynth XY pad, very comfortable to modulate more parameter at once. Main parameters to assign are: filter cutoff, filter resonance and LFO speed. If you’ll use a spring loaded joystick, can be useful to assign filter cutoff to this last. Furthermore can be also useful to assign other controllers for the effect section. If you can’t tweak with them because, as example, your hands are both busy, I suggest to use (if available) aftertouch or foot pedals.

Effects

A good delay is the perfect solution for every lead. I suggest to set a delay with an average time with 2 or 3 repetitions. Now add a bit of reverb and chorus to “beef up” the final sound.

Final observations

Once done everything explained, you’ll achive a sound like this one:

It is important to find out parameter values even following your own taste for both LFO and filter. This is a lead sound which should be played tweaking a lot with controllers. It can sounds good even if played by an arpeggiator, in this way you’ll have at last one hand free to tweak knobs and other controls. To experiment other kind of timbres (less playable then this one) you can try to route LFO to the first oscillator pitch instead the second.

Enjoy.

As you know, Korg X-50 provieds sound banks also available on other Triton/etc models so this sound should be easy to recreate even on those keyboards.

What we are going to do:

we will reprogram an existing program so it will sound as we need.

START

Go to soundbank “D”, program 106, and find a sound named AMSFeedback Lead (if you don’t find it, try a category search under Synth Lead).

Open ED-BASIC page.

Voice Assign: mono –> Change to POLY

Now go to OSC1 edit page

High 236: Detuned-PWM

–> change to 034 E. Organ-Perc 2 (to achive a more percussive sound)
–> change to 038 E. Organ-M1 1 (if you want a mroe legato and uniform sound)
–> or change with other organ samples if you want a different color. there are many.

THE END

You should achive a sound similar to this one (don’t mind about the background noise, but i’ve used my laptop mic for a quick recording).

http://ultima.altervista.org/ErotoOrgano.wav <– if the link won’t work, try to copy & paste to a new window.

This sound can be improved with a bit of tweaking, to suit your taste.

You’ll need:

* Jumper wires
* 100K Linear pot
* SPST Switches (On/Off)

WARNING: This bent will permanently change your pedal sound. There is no bypass here.
First of all, open your Boss DS-2 and pull out the PCB paying attention to the wires inside the box. Now you can see both “Input” and “Remote” jack sockets. If you want to put a knob inside the box, you can remove the “Remote” socket to free space. As you can see, there are two black cables soldered to a “Remote” socket plug and one of them goes to the main switch. Remove the “Remote” socket and solder the long black cable to the main switch. Now you can fit the pot into the free hole.

PCB side

Pull out the main switch while pushing the two little side “levers”. Let your SPST switch cables passing through the same path as main switch cables. Now you’re ready to solder. Using the “PCB Side” image as reference, do the following steps:

Solder one switch wire to the point marked as A and join the remaining cable to one of two lateral pot cables (see point B on the picture). Solder the center pot cable to the point marked as D and the last cable to the C point.

Solder a jumper wire between the two blue points as shown in reference picture. Now you can close your pedal and enjoy.

Further Developments

There are other interesting point around D marker. The upper blue point seems to be the signal output and can be joint with the area to the left of C point for feedback loops. Try it using a switched pot in order to activate the feedback and setting the amount. The bottom blue point seems to be into the filter section and this area can provide other interesting timbres. I suggest you to keep out from the yellow area, especially from the right side and the top power socket.

MODIFICATION AND SOLDERING

For this modification we need a single integrated circuit, a 4013, and a soldering iron, solder and wires. As for every integrated circuit we count pins counterclockwise positioning the little “U” shape, on the IC surface, on top. We can plug the 4013 directly on a perfboard or using a piece of carton to keep it, let pins out.

Let’s soldering some 4013 pins in this way:

• pin 7 to pin 8 and pin 10
• pin 9 to pin 12

Next we will connect separate and enough long wires to pins 8, 11, 12 and 14. We will name these 4 wires as pin numbers.

Open the lid of the Jen SX-1000 and flip up the panel.

Now we will connect the 4 wires in this way:

• wire 8 on left pin of Pulse Width pot (2nd from left, centre row)
• wire 11 on pin 9 of IC 4013 inside the Jen (you can find it between Octave switch and Vibrato potentiometer, last row)
• wire 12 to right pin on Noise switch (2nd from left, first row)
• wire 14 to right pin on PW pot (same pot we solder the wire 8)

Now place our 4013 on the Jen SX-1000 bottom using screws or glue to lock it down.

In order to activate the Sub-Oscillator we have to turn Noise switch to OFF and gently raise the Noise Level pot. You’d hear a square wave, one octave below, over the original sound. Don’t raise the level too much or the original sound will be totally covered by the Sub-Oscillator sound.

Unfortunately you can’t use Noise while using Sub-Osc, but in this way you can switch back using Noise as usual.

LINKS

http://benthack.blogspot.com/2006/03/jen-sx1000-modded.html – This mod on benthack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxGhDd4cRSU – a video of Jen SX-1000
http://www.njohnson.co.uk/ – interesting site with other Jen SX-1000 modifications

Prepare yourself for remake the sound of the most popular electromechanical instrument in the world. In this article we will explain you how to emulate the famous Hammond organ on your synthesizer.

The Hammond Organ is the most famous electromechanic instrument we know. It is an electric organ designed to give a low cost alternative to church pipe organs.

How it works

The Hammond Organ uses additive synthesis to generate its sound via tonewheels instead of electronic oscillators. Each of the 91 tonewheels generates one of the pitch of the fundamentals or overtones, of the many stops. Each stop can be controlled using the 9 drawbars which represents the most important harmonics, from left to right.

Pic. 1 – Click on each stop to hear how it sound.

Pitch	Interval	Note
16′	Sub Octave	Octave under root
5 1/3′	5th	Fifth over root
8′	Unison	Root
4′	8th	Octave over root
2 2/3′	12th	Octave and a fifth over root
2′	15th	Two octaves over root
1 3/5′	17th	Two octaves and a major third over root
1 1/3′	19th	Two octaves and a fifth over root
1′	22nd	Three octaves over root

The simplest way to emulate an hammond organ is to use Additive Synthesis, since almost all modern keyboards allows to stack many single sounds in a big combination. Each manufacturer may call it differently (Combi for Korg, Performance for Roland, Multi for Yamaha, Setup for Kurzweil and so on) but they do all the same thing. Now we will start to emulate all nine hammond stops, without taking care (by now) of clicks and leslie that will be covered after. This will be your master template, if your keyboard don’t have all physical controllers needed (sliders, buttons, etc).

Full Hammond Emulation

For a full nine drawbars hammond emulation we need to create nine single programs, each one tuned for a single stop. All programs must use those common parameters:

• Sine Wave as waveform (only one per program)
• Wave amplification level to 80%
• Filter wide open and no resonance (set Frequency to max value allowed)
• Amplitude Envelope with a short attack, full decay, full sustain and shortest release

Pic. 2 – Hammond Drawbars

Now you can tune each program for each stop. Use the image below as reference.

Once you’ve completed all programs, group them into a combination and play some notes.

Audio 1: Full Organ

If you have enough physical controllers, you can easily assign each controller to each program amplitude level. In this way you can control each stop as you’re playing with real drawbars. Set the volume level for first three stops (16′, 5 1/3′ and 8′) to 80% and silence all other. Now we have the standard 888000000 preset, a classic hammond sound. We will use this preset as reference.

A note on drawbars:
Bear in mind that on a real Hammond you can only push and pull the stops by increments of 1/8, with 0 being “all pushed in” (silence) and 8 being “full out”. To get this back to percentage, you should consider 8:100=1:x which results in 100/8=12,5%. If you can, set the controller to work on increments of 12,5%. It should also be said that each drawbar on a real Hammond does not exactly sound the same at different positions, meaning it’s not just a matter of waveform amplitude..but that’s way out of hand for the nice’n'easy approach.

Audio 2: 888 Preset

Vibrato and Chorus

A real Hammond organ (and 99% of the clones) has a Vibrato/Chorus knob, along with two on/off buttons. The knob is used to select which kind of Vibrato or Chorus is used. Available choices are: V1, V2, V3 – Vibrato (1,2,3) C1, C2, C3 – Chorus (1,2,3). The number generally indicates the (increasing) intensity of the effect, although everybody agrees there are more differences than just the intensity.

Explaining these is pretty simple: – vibrato is a form of pitch modulation, where the cycle of a sine waveform (different waveforms could be used but it’s generally close enough to a sine wave) affects the pitch. This translates into a regular, rhythmic, symmetric oscillation of pitch around the main value. – chorus is an another form of modulation where the same waveform gets duplicated and slightly detuned. The difference in frequency causes a sort of internal oscillation which gets perceived as an increase in “roundness”, “depth” and “spatial field” of the sound. Some people use the term “fat” for chorus-ed sounds and “thin” for non-chorused ones.

The vibrato/chorus knob affects both the lower and upper manuals. You can then choose to turn it on or off on each manual (4 combinations: none, lower only, upper only, both) by using the two vibrato/chorus on/off switches. What you cannot is actually have two different vibrato/chorus effects between the two manuals.

Creating Percussion

Now we can start to create the typical percussion sound.

Some things to remember:

1. On a real Hammond organ the percussion is only available for the upper manual, not for the lower one;
2. The percussion sound is monophonic, meaning that if you play legato you will only hear the percussion sound on the first note you play, not on the others;
3. The percussion sound has two main modes: 2nd percussion and 3rd percussion. The 2nd percussion is an octave above the note you are actually playing while the 3rd one is an octave and a fifth (a perfect 12th interval) above;
4. You can hear the percussion sound by itself when you push all the drawbars in. This is also called the “vibes” organ sound, or vibe-y sound. You probably want to play with the 2nd percussion rather than the 3rd in order not to play transposed;
5. The percussion sound can sound in different ways because of two parameters that can be switched between two modes each: the first one is the percussion decay setting which can be set on SLOW or FAST, the second one is the percussion volume, which can be set on NORMAL or SOFT. This basically means you can have 8 different percussion modes;
6. The percussion sound is monophonic but is triggered on all the notes of a cluster of notes if these notes are played simultaneously (no roll);
7. On a real Hammond organ the percussion sound uses the electric contacts used for the 1-foot drawbar (the so-called “whistler”). Some people re-wire this to use a different contact, thus allowing the 1-foot drawbar to sound;
8. When the percussion is set to on the overall organ volume generally becomes -3dB softer. I am not sure but I think this can be re-wired as well and most of the time happens only on real Hammond organs (although good clones might take this into consideration).

Duplicate 4′ program (for 2nd percussion) and 2 2/3′ program (for 3rd percussion). Modify their amplitude envelope in that way:

• Faster attack (its minimum value)
• Decay to 300ms (for FAST percussion setting) or 630ms (for SLOW percussion setting).
• Sustain and Release to zero.

Add those new made programs to your Hammond combination and set their volume to zero. Raise the volume of one of them and play some notes. This is an example with our 888 preset, 3rd percussion and fast decay.

3. 888 Preset with fast decay 3rd percussion

Cheap rotor speakers

Now the hard work. We need to emulate a classic Leslie rotor speakers. If your synthesizer have an effect for that, use it. Anyway, here’s a cheap way to create a “rotor”.

Edit your “stops” programs and assign an LFO to panning stage. Set the LFO amount to 23%, LFO wave to Sine and Frequency to 0.81Hz. Assing a controller (Mod Wheel or similar) to LFO Frequency and set the depth in order to reach around 6Hz value (for Chorale) or above 10Hz (for Tremolo).

4. Cheap Leslie rotors simulation

Final Touch

Your Hammond organ is almost complete. Now you can add an equalizer, to boost bass frequencies, and an Overdrive. Feel free to experiment with those settings and share your results.

5. Horace Silver – The Preacher

Challenging aspects of Hammond organ emulation

A little background

(The first part is a quote from the Albert-o-pedia)

“..Organ clones and software emulations have improved over time, greatly. In the ’90s, with the development of PCM sampling and its constant improvement companies and developers started to use sampling as a method to reach new heights of musical instruments emulations. Software samplers led the way to new, unprecedented results but the equation “more Mb=more quality” didn’t last long. In the last few years developers re-aligned their research from “dozens of Gigabytes” and “640 notes polyphony” to “better algorithms” for emulating different aspects of acoustics. This change of approach influenced organ clones, as well.

There is, in fact, a vast number of events that cannot be technically captured and re-created by using sampling. Sampling by definition means capturing an acoustic event into a digital equivalent (the sample). The sample can then be sent to a speaker in order to convert digital information back into physical acoustic vibrations of air (= sound). Since the content of a sample (=binary data) cannot be changed but only played back by the sampler (that is, during the playback phase, of course), it’s easy to understand that events which dynamically change or which “might” get affected by other variables are not free to “behave” and react like they would in nature, once they are captured in a sample.

One of the most famous examples on this subject is the resonance happening in an acoustic piano. When you play the piano the sound you generate vibrates and travels through the surrounding air pretty much in all directions. These vibrations affect the wooden furniture, other strings and elements inside the piano. When you press the sustain pedal down and play exactly the same thing, a lot more resonance will happen since the dampers will be lifted up and won’t push on the strings anymore, leaving them open just as it happens in a guitar or in any other string instrument (the opposite is a “muted string”). If we had to sample such a phenomenon we would have to duplicate the information into two separate groups: “pedal up” and “pedal down” groups. This was pretty much impossible with first-generation samplers because of their limited memory but it later became a common method when software samplers were created based off modern, more powerful computers (an example was Nemesys Gigasampler with the famous 1Gb GigaPiano library).

Even with this new trick up our sleeves, things are far from being realistic: hit the piano hardly with a chord you like, hold the notes down and THEN press the sustain pedal. You’ll hear resonance filling in the sound and that’s because you lifted the dampers and the open string became stimulated by the ones that where playing already (thanks to your fortissimo chord). This is impossible to achieve with sampling because, in all truth, it’s like having a mega-jukebox that pushes “play” on each sample depending on what and how we trigger it. It is not able to change things on the fly, just play it back. “but, wait.” developers said: “we can use crossfading to bring the pedal up samples down and the pedal down samples up in amplitude.” The result was not bad but still not natural as it is not what happens in a real piano.

This made people go back to their 4Mb stock piano ROM sound from their beloved keyboard from the ’80s. It just had more character and vibes than a huge amount of pre-recorded events being triggered.

When the tide went down again, developers, musicians and technicians realized sampling was not that much of a deal without physical modeling. That’s the word and it means: turning physical, natural events into mathematical expressions. For as easy as it sounds, it’s not. In theory, everything should be mathematically explainable but practice is going to give us the bad news. The world we live in is so complex and full of variables that even the most powerful calculator would go against what’s commonly called a “combinatorial explosion”..too many variables, boom…”

Back on track

Don’t worry, no developer actually gave up and they’re still here, trying to figure out the perfect equation. In the meantime, let’s see what makes our Hammond sound so beautiful and hard to replicate, so that you know your enemy in advance and either start loving it or plan things so that you can nail it down.

this section needs expansion, for the moment I can just write down a nice list and then go to bed.

* Tonewheels leakage;

Generally related (but not always) to the age and condition of the organ itself, “leakage” is term used to describe the quantity of electromagnetic information a pickup gets NOT from the tonewheel it is meant for but from others nearby.

* Tubes in the pre-amplifier;

The Hammond organ uses real tubes to drive a pre-amplified signal out to the speaker. This introduces what is commonly called “tube distortion”.

* Tubes in the rotary speaker;

Vintage and high-quality rotary speakers use small tube amplifiers (e.g. the 10W amp in Leslie amps) to amplify the input signal. Tubes are generally used, meaning: more tube distortion.

(note: “Tube Distortion” does not mean armageddon distortions. It has more to do with “saturation” and gentle waveform compression than that. Unless you crank everything to 11.)

* Age and general conditions of the organ (aka: mouse shit in your garage-parked B3);

* Horn rotation in the rotary speaker: high rotor rotation VS low rotor rotation and combinations between the two (only happens in a dual motor rotary speaker);

* Power fluctuations when more notes are played;

* Impossibility to predict where the (single or dual) horn/s will stop when you put the rotary on “brake”;

That’s all for now, there’s way more but I will try to explain the most common ones, at least the ones that organ clones tried to replicate and use to make the instrument something more than a piece of electronic devices.

Famous organs, clones and organists

Tonewheel organ clones became very popular in the last years. It should be said that – exception made for the original, real tonewheel organs – the Hammond company became the first company to develop organ clones when they stopped manufacturing tonewheel organs in the mid ’70s in favor of the – much more futuristic at that time – electronic versions. They basically became the first company to clone the original Hammond sound: they cloned themselves.

Famous Hammond organ models:
- Hammond B3
- Hammond C3
- Hammond A100

Famous Hardware organ clones:
- Hammond-Suzuki XK-1 and XK-3
- Korg CX3
- Clavia Nord Electro
- Clavia Nord C1
- Roland VK-7, V-Combo and VK-7m
- Voce V5 and V5+
- Viscount DB3

Famous Software organ clones:
- Native Instruments B4 and B4 II
- Linplug Organ 3
- Emagic EVB3
- Guido Scognamiglio’s Organized Trio and VB3
- Ultimate Sound Bank Charlie

Famous organists: (a partial list in random order)
- Jimmy Smith
- “Brother” Jack McDuff
- Jimmy McGriff
- John Medeski
- John Lord
- Joey De Francesco
- Lonnie Smith
- Sam Yahel
- Richard “Groove” Holmes

Thanks to Alberto Rizzo Schettino and Carlo Castellano for their collaboration to this article. Hammond organ big picture by Keary Ortiz, Barjack Photography.

Hi all and welcome to this new issue of Lead Sculpting. This time we are going to talk about Jordan Rudess’ Liquid T Lead and we will try to reproduce it.
As you know this tone was made on a Kurzweil K2*00 keyboard using its VAST synthesis engine. VAST uses a semi-modular approach to synthesis combining algorithms with variable DSP blocks.

DISCLAIMER:
If you want the closest sound available to JR Liquid T Lead you have to own a Kurzweil and load the Liquid T Lead preset from a K2600 bankset. If you have a Kurzweil with Contemporary ROM, change Keymaps for Layer 4 and 5 to DistortedGuit: it sounds way better.
In this article we are going to try and replicate this sound with special attention to non-Kurzweil owners. I repeat once again: IF YOU WANT THE LIQUID T LEAD, GET A KURZWEIL.
Always remember these aren’t mandatory rules about how to create a Jordan Rudess lead tone: it’s only an intepretation. Feel free to use other sounds and techniques in order to obtain the same results or better ones.

Special thanks, for their contribution, to:
- Alberto Rizzo Schettino
- Andrea “Overlord” Vergori
- Luca “Firestorm” Di Gennaro

You’re great, guys.

Since I owned a Kurzweil K2500 I know how this patch works. Originally, this patch is made using 10 layers. Most of them are used for feedback and to add more harmonic content to the sound. Anyway, this is the most complex lead to explain and re-create.. when I started to write this article my first thought was on how to show this sound: should I compare Kurzweil layer samples with custom made ones trying to achive the same result? Should I show a complex patch using parameter tables, Oscilloscope captures and so on?
There are lots of variables and lots of words to write in order to show this patch at its best but I’ve chosen to keep it simple so that noone gets bored with tons of parameters. I’ve created two patches in order to give a lot of fun to either those who love tweaking and to those who don’t.

I am going to split this article into three main sections:

- Analysis of Kurzweil sound
- JR Lead Lite Version: Analog Emulation using 4 Layers.
- JR Lead Full Version: Analog Emulation using 8 Layers.

Before going deep inside programming, keep in mind that we will use a lot of layers so – unless you have a synth that gives you the possiblity to use more than two voices per program – I suggest you to make a single program per layer and then group it inside a Combi/Performance. You also need a good effects section. There are some effects (mainly saturations and distortions) that you need to use inside the program while others can be used even with external effects processors.

- Jordan Rudess’s Liquid T Lead Analysis -
This is one of my favourite leads. It fits everywhere. You can use it for your shredding wild solos as well as on slow ballads. It has a unique sound and it is hard to get on other synths because it was created on a Kurzweil VAST based synthesizer.

Let’s look inside with a quick review of VAST Engine.
VAST (Variable Architecture Synthesis Technology) is the core engine for Kurzweil K2*00 series. It uses a semi-modular environment combined with both PCM sampled sounds and DSP based single cycle waveforms. You can choose an algorithm with a prefixed block displacement, and you can choose a different DSP function for each block. One of Kurzweil peculiarity is the way filters sound. They aren’t warm and cannot self-oscillate when you rise their resonance to the highest values but they surely have their own character. Every Kurzweil sound can fit into a mix without too much efforts but, its also true, that it is very difficult to make warm analog sounds with those filters. This is why, sometimes, a Kurzweil programmer needs to create “ghost tracks” (some very quiet layers) that have only certain frequencies and, in this way, shape the sound like a sculptor shapes his creation from a block of wet clay.

Kurzweil users can benefit of this patch without too much effort. In fact is a K2600 factory preset and it could be loaded even into a K2500 or even into a K2000. This patch is 10 layers thick and uses a wide range of sound processing. For non Kurzweil owners, here is how this program looks like. The following sounds come from a modified LTL preset, using Contemporary ROM keymaps.

Click on each layer to hear how them sounds.

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Layer 1 – Algorithm #4 – Keymap: 14 – Flute
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Layer 2 – Algorithm #4 – Keymap: 152 – Dull Saw
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Layer 3 – Algorithm #5 – Keymap: 151 – Sawtooth
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Layer 4 – Algorithm #1 – Keymap: 814 – Distorted Guitar
———————————————————————

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Layer 5 – Algorithm #1 – Keymap: 814 – Distorted Guitar
———————————————————————

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Layer 6 – Algorithm #4 – Keymap: 14 – Flute
———————————————————————

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Layer 7 – Algorithm #4 – Keymap: 134 – Partials 1&2
———————————————————————

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Layer 8 – Algorithm #5 – Keymap: 151 – Sawtooth
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Layer 9 – Algorithm #4 – Keymap: 163 – Sine Wave
———————————————————————

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Layer 10 – Algorithm #1 – Keymap: 1 – Grand Piano
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Now you can have a better idea about what lies behind this lead tone. If you have a PCM based synth (a so called rompler) you can also use similar sounds as source voices and then filter them according to what is explained in the next pages.

- JR Lead Lite Version (4 Layers only) –

I’ve found that we can get a usable sound using only 4 layers. Two of them are the core sound, one is dedicated to feedback and, the last, is used both to add harmonic content and feedback.

Let’s start with our first layer. We need a detuned Saw Wave. I’ve used +12 cents but you can modify it until you find a suitable value. Make a program and put this wave as oscillator, then add a 2 Pole Lowpass Filter.

Note:
Since the original Kurzweil patch uses Steep Resonant Bass in this layer, we need to achive a similar result using a 2 Pole Lowpass filter and a Peak EQ (or Bass Boost) since we need to pump up low frequencies.

Set the filter cutoff to a low value, around 73Hz, and raise Resonance to an high value (in a scale from 1 to 10, you have to set it around 7). Set the Velocity as controller for the filter cutoff. Set it to a value around 30%. Don’t forget to set the Keyboard Tracking (or Keyboard Follow) to 25%. Now we need to boost the low frequencies a bit. Choose a Peak EQ, set its frequency to 150Hz and pump the gain over 10db. At least, we need to waveshape it with an Overdrive/Distortion. Put it into your effects chain, as insert, and tweak it to achive a sound like this one.

Fig. 1 – Our first layer. Click the figure to hear how it sounds.

Now go on your AMP page. We have to set this sound to low its amplitude when we use aftertouch in order to make our feedback layers to be heard clearly. This layer have to be 77% of total amplitude and going down to 50% when aftertouch is used. If your synth uses 0-127 values, set the amp to 99. Now assign aftertouch control to Amp Level and set its gain to -35. Remeber that we’re using a 0-127 scale. In percentage, you’ve got to lower the Amplitude by -27%.

Now we have to set the Amplitude Envelope. A standard ADSR setting would be a fast Attack, Decay of 450ms, Sustain to 3/4 of its full range and a little Release of 6ms.

Note:
The Amplitude Envelope settings are the same for all layers.

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Our second layer is similar to first one. You need another detuned Saw wave, this time by +4 cents. As filter we use a 2 Pole Highpass, with same Velocity control as our first lowpass filter, and we will set its cutoff to 58Hz and its resonance to 3/4 the whole range. Set Keyboard Tracking to 100%. You also need to saturate this layer a bit so an Overdrive with a light setting is what we need to finish the job.

Fig. 2 – Our second layer. Click the figure above to hear how it sounds.

Apply the same Amp settings as first layer, even for Aftertouch and Envelope.

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Our third layer will be a detuned Square Wave this time. Detune it by +4 cents and add a 2 Pole Lowpass filter. Set the Cutoff to a value around 2.60KHz and a low resonance. Don’t use Velocity control and Keyboard Tracking at this stage. Add a light saturation to this layer and go to the Amp page. Set the Amp Envelope as the other two previous layers. Amp Level, this time, must be half the maximum and the Aftertouch has to be raised by +32% (or +21 in a 0-127 scale).

Fig. 3 – Our third layer. Click the figure above to hear how it sounds.

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Now is the time to make our feedback layer. You need a Sine wave tuned one octave above (+12 halftones) and a little saturation or clipping. You don’t need any filter, but if your synth doesn’t let you bypass it simply turn the cutoff to its maximum value with no resonance. Go to Amp page. Set Amp Level to minimum and assign Aftertouch to raise its level up to the maximum.

Fig. 4 – Our feedback layer. Click the figure above to hear how it sounds.

——————————————–

The sound is almost complete. We need to group these single programs to a Combi/Performance and add some effects to it. Set the global pitch bend to -12/+2 so you can go one octave below when you do a pitch bend down and a whole tone above when you do a pitch bend up. Take a breath and check your actual result. Now your algorithm should be like this:

Fig. 5 – Our patch without effects. Click the figure above to hear hear it sounds.

——————————————–

Open your new made Combi and go into your Global Effects page. There are two effects that are mandatory: a Stereo Chorus and a Stereo Delay. In my patch I got a more populated FX chain using a little saturation, a stereo chorus, a 6:1 compressor, a stereo delay and an hall reverb. If your synth gives you the possibility to build such complex effects chain, experiment with those effects.

Fig. 6 – Effects Chain

The Stereo Chorus, as you can see, is needed to give a more presence to whole sound with a little detuning. Set its Dry/Wet to 60%. Now set the Stereo Delay to 400ms and a little feedback. Set the Dry/Wet to 20%.

Save the work and test it. It would be sound like this one.

Download MP3 Now!!!

——————————————–

- JR Lead Full Version (8 Layers) –
Now, for those who love tweaking and tricking with parameters, we can try to achive a better result by adding other layers. No time to chit-chat.. let’s go.

Make a new program and use a detuned PWM Saw wave. Detune it by -1. If you don’t have a PWM Saw, you can use the trick explained in past Lead Sculpting issues. Add a 2 Pole Lowpass filter with no resonance and set its cutoff to 3.5KHz and a Keyboard Tracking of 25%. Assign the Pitch Bend as cutoff controller and set it to +10%. Remember to use same Amp Envelopes as existing layers and set Amp Level to 80%. Assign Aftertouch to modulate Amp Level. You need to low its value by -25%.

Fig. 7 – Our new layer. Click the figure above to hear how it sounds.

Note:
Remember to disable global effects before comparing your sound with ours.

————————————–

Next two layers are almost identical. For the first one you need a detuned (by -1 cent) Saw wave and a 4 Pole Lowpass filter without resonance. Set the cutoff to 185Hz and assign Keyboard Tracking to 50% and an Envelope as modulator with depth of 55% (70 in a 0-127 scale). You just need the Decay value so set it to almost 10 seconds and set other values to 0. Go into the Amp page and set the Amplitude Envelope with same values of other layers. Set the Amp Level to 77% of the maximum and assign Aftertouch as controller, again, to low the gain signal by -27% (-35 in a 0-127 scale).

Fig. 8 – Our 2nd new layer. Click the figure above to hear how it sounds.

———————————-

Now copy the last layer and do this little modification: Set the detune to -4 cents, the filter cutoff to 174Hz and change the Amp Level. Set it to 15% (20 in a 0-127 scale) of the total amplitude. Yes, this one is very quiet because it is a feedback layer. Set – once again – Aftertouch as Amp Level controller and set its value to max.

Fig. 9 – Our new feedback layer. Click the figure above to listen how it sounds.

———————————-

Now the last one. Make a program with two voices (Double for Korg synths) and use a Square wave and a Saw wave. Detune them by +5 cents. Amp Level for this program is around 60% and no controller is assigned to it. Note that this is the gain for the whole program. Inside of it you have to mix your two voices properly since the Saw needs to be half the amplitude of the Square wave.

Fig. 10 – Our last layer. Click the figure above to hear how it sounds.

———————————-

Now do as you did with the Lite version of this sound. Create a Combi/Perfomance, put all sounds into, set the proper Pitch Bend values (-12/+2) and add the same effect chain. Your algorithm should be like this one:

Fig. 11 – The full patch. Click the figure above to hear how it sounds.

That’s all, folks. I hope you all can enjoy this article so much.
Feel free to ask questions, comments to this article as well as mp3 of your attempts.

Musically,
Luca

In this thread we will speak about how to obtain a Wah lead (famous for Derek Sherinan Monster Lead) for Korg Triton/Karma. This topic will be also “axiomized” for apply the tips i found tweaking to all “general” synth.
So thanx to “uncle” Axiom (Luca Capozzi) in advance.

NOTE:
When you see quotes in this color, are Axiom’s notes to original author’s writing. Check them out for all general programming hints for non-Korg boards.

DISCLAIMER:
The following material is the totality of some tips and ideas i’ve found “tweaking” in order to make MY OWN wah lead sound. (You can find the Whaster F@B lead in the Korg Patches Area). Anyway i didnt invented nothing new…

Lets Go.

What do you need for this lead sound.

- 2 oscillators (featuring a saw wave and a pulse wave possibly at 33%)
- an extra program with a sine wave that will act as feedback sound
- 2 filters
- 2 amps
- 2 lfo
- HEAVY EFFECTS. (flanger,phaser,hyper overdrive,delay)

[BASIC]

Oscillator Mode: Double
Voice Assign Mode: Mono
Enable the “Legato” option and set “Priority”: last

OSC1: high rom 264 “Saw-MG3″ at Octave: -1 [16']
OSC2: high rom 270 “Pulse-33%” at Octave: -1 [16']

For Both Oscillators:
Level: 127
Transpose: +00
Tune: +0000
Delay: 0000ms

[PITCH]

JS (+X): +12
JS (-X): -24
Set that values only if you want to make some crazy bendings and slide…

Tip: for some rock effect gradually put up (+Y) for “wah2 doing contemporary a (-X) bending. SHOWTIME! LISTEN TO THIS MP3

The Feedback layer
If you want to give your lead an extra, add a feedback layer using another program (or another layer) with an unflitered sine wave tuned one octave above (Coarse pitch +12). Go to Amp page of your synth and put the level of this sound to minimum. After that select a controller for Amp Level and choose aftertouch. Tweak with modificator amount to find a suitable level.
Now do the opposite on oscillators created before. Go on Amp page, set Aftertouch as controller but put a negative value for that.

In this way we will do a crossfading between the main sound (Osc1+2) and the feedback sound (sine wave).
Please note that those values are only for example purpose. Check your synth owner’s manual to know how to assign a controller to a parameter.

[BREAK]

[FILTERS]

Filter 1
Type: Low Pass Resonance
Trim: 99
Frequency: 40
Resonance: 05

EG:
S:+00 A:+99 B:+99 S:+99 R:+00
A:+00 D:+99 S:+99 R:+00

Filter 2
Type: Low Pass Resonance
Trim: 99
Frequency: 90
Resonance: 00

EG:
S:+05 A:+00 B:+10 S:+00 R:+05
A: +00 D:+05 S:+00 R:+05

Fig. 1 – Oscillators and Filters

Note: Please note that each column in Fig. 1 stands for a single voice/program/layer of your board. If your synth doesn’t let you use two separate voices with two separate filters, do different programs that you will package in a combi/setup/performance later.

Tip: To have a good response everywhere on the keyboard you’ll have to work on the Keytracking (here the values for the Trion’s series: Key Low F4, Key High C1)

[AMPS]

-Amp1:

Level: 100
Pan: C064
AMS:Note No.
Intensity: +00
Amp Mod: Velocity Int: +35

EG:
S:+00 A:+99 B:+90 S:+99
A:+00 D:+99 S:+99 R:+01

-Amp2:
Basically put the same values of amp1…try to change slowly the values to give your “own” touch…

Fig. 2 – ADSR Amp Envelope

[LFO]

Select a basic Triangle waveform and set the cutoff/frequency at 60/70,no offset. Fade on 0 and Delay on 0.
The first control on the frequency modulation must be : Note Number and the second to JS+Y.

At this point, without effects your patch will sounds like this one.

[BREAK]

[EFFECTS]

Okay, here comes the huge work…
Your effect chain must be something like this:

flanger -> phaser -> hyper overdrive/wah -> pitch shift modulator -> phaser -> delay ->>> master EQ gain[db]

Note:
If your synth don’t let you use an effects chain like this one, you have to use a filter trick to achive a wah sound. If you can put two filters in series on a program, add a resonant bandpass filter with a CutOff of 220Hz. Assign a physical controller (Mod Wheel, Joystick and so on) to its CutOff and find a suitable value. On your effects page, then, add a distortion. If you can only use one filter per program, change them from Lowpass to Bandpass. Set their Resonance high, but not higher. Remember to don’t apply any filter to feedback layer.

On the Triton’s series we will use the IFX for the 4 first effects.

[IFX]

1) 020 St.Flanger

LFO Wave: Triangle Delay: 0.0ms
LFO Phase: +90 deg Depth: 50
Freq: 0.50Hz Feedback: -50

Wet/Dry: -50:50

—————————————-

2) 023 St.Phaser

LFO Wave: Triangle Manual: 90
LFO Phase +90 deg Depth: 30
Freq: 0.70Hz Resonance: +40

Wet/Dry: 50:50

—————————————-

3) 092 OD/HyprG Wah (this particular effect take a double slot)

Wah: On (of course… )
Sweep Range: -10 Source: JS+Y
Mode: HyperGain Drive: 120
Pre Low-Cut: 5 Level: 8

internal equalisation:
Lo: 1.00Khz Gain:+12dB
M1: 3.60Khz Q:2.0 Gain:+12dB
M2: 11.00Khz Q5.0 Gain:-3dB

Direct Mix: O Speaker Sim: OFF

Wet/dry: WET

————————————–

4) 039 PitchShft Mod

Pitch Shift: -5 cent
LFO Wave: Square
Freq: 1.00Hz?Depth: -5
Wet

—————————————–

[MFX]

1) 023 ST.Phaser (i find this cool to put after the PSM) Rtn:127

LFO Wave: Tri
LFO Phase: +90 deg
Freq: 0.94Hz
Manual: 90
Depth: 96
Resonance: +73

W/D: -10:90

———————————

2) 043 LCR Delay (have i told you that delay works better than rev….oh f..k i’m boring …) Rtn:036

L delay:300ms level 30
C delay:500ms level 30
R delay:200ms level 30

———————————-

MEQ:

Low Cutoff: 80hz gain-2db
Mid Cutoff: 3.20Khz Q.1 Gain-2.5db
High Cutoff: 8.00Khz Gain+1.5db

Your Sound Is Finished CONGRATS! and it sounds like this MP3.
Dont forget to post some samples of your results.

DISCLAIMER:
The following material is not intended to be “How Jens made his sound”, because only Jens knows. We are – however- going to analyse his sound in order to make our own using those core characteristics. All the following is mine interpretation of Jens lead sound. Feel free to criticise, blame and give your contribution.

**************
* Jens tone Lead *
**************
Check Jens lead tone here: Offsite link to Jens page. This is an excerpt from Heavy Machinery. Listen at 42s or 1:17

If you want to listen it better, check Jens jam over Alberto Rizzo Schettino Horizon.

Amazing, isn’t?
Well, one of things that we can notice immediately is that each note seems “picked”. This is because this lead, other then monophonic, is not legato. The difference between legato monophonic and Jens tone are due to Amplitude Envelope Triggering. When you use legato, the envelope is triggered first time you play a note and is not retriggered until you don’t fully release the key. When you don’t use legato, envelope is retriggered each time you play a note. This is also called staccato.

Quote:

This tone lead is a monophonic staccato. It don’t use any legato nor glide settings. Each note will retrigger the Amplitude Envelope which have a fast attack, a long decay, full sustain and no release.

Another thing we will notice immediately is that this lead use distortion. As far as I know, Jens used a Morley JD10 Guitar Amp Emulator which is a stompbox made by Morley and seems to be a very rare item to find.

The use of a distortion pedal lead us to another important thing about lead sculpting.

*************
* Other Details *
*************

Jens’ tone is very expressive. The attack sound varies because of a velocity controller applied to the filter cutoff. It is also possible to hear some variations in the harmonics even when a note is just sustaining. This is due to a detuned saw oscillator combined with a Pulse Oscillator with PWM, controlled by a slow LFO.
The most difficult thing to achieve is the fast vibrato that sometimes he uses. You can notice what I mean listening to end part of Jens Jam over Alberto Rizzo Schettino Horizon.

In the next page, we will try to achive a staccato tone lead using core characteristics we have learned so far. I can tell you that all you need are two oscillators, a couple of LFOs, an envelope and a distortion.

I’ve thinked how to explain all following settings in a manner that almost everyone can replicate this lead on its keyboard. The choice is to use modular environment due to the fact that, in this way, we can break the sound from its basics and, then, the modular environment permits to use bricks that can be found on any subtractive synthesizer.

Let’s go!

Here follows a breif check list of what we need to make this sound.

Check List

• #1 Pulse Oscillator
• #1 Saw Oscillator
• #1 resonant filter
• #1 assignable LFO
• #1 Amplitude Envelope
• a Chorus
• a Distortion

Don’t worry if you don’t have effects on your board. You can add them at the bottom end of chain, so you can use external outboards for that.

We have to fit in our mind that this sound seems to be originally made on a Korg Polysix. A Polysix let you choose only one waveform between a saw, a pulse with manual pulse width and a pulse with PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). At least you can add some presence using Unison assigning all six voices to one note bringing the board to be monophonic. A staccato monophonic. You can also have an inboard effect to choose between a soft chorus, a medium phaser and an heavy ensemble.

Now go into your synth Voice section (or Oscillator, Keymap or whatever is called where you can choose a waveform). Pick a Pulse oscillator.

Fig.1 – Click above to listen this Pulse waveform

If your synth permits you to choose pulse width, set it around 33%. If you don’t have a pulse, search for a waveform which sounds like this one.

Now choose an LFO with a sine waveform, set its range around 0.10Hz (very slow) and assing it to Pulse PWM.

Fig.2 – Click above to listen Pulse PWM

If your synth don’t have pulse width modulation, take a look to Gordon Reid’s article about PWM and how to replicate it.

Now add another voice (or Layer) to your program and choose a Saw waveform.

Fig.3 – Click above to listen this detuned Saw waveform

Fine detune it by 3ct (cents of halftone). In this way the harmonic content of the resultant will change slowly, adding a flange like effect to the mix.
Now your algorithm should look like this:

Fig.4 – Click above to listen Pulse PWM and Saw mix.

Remember to save your work

Now is the time to filter those waveform. Go into your synth filter section and choose a Bandpass filter. I know that Korg Polysix only have a resonant 4 pole lowpass filter and its modulated by an envelope, but choosing a resonant 2 pole bandpass can give you a good tone without lot of complications.
Choose a CutOff around 130/200Hz and set, if you can, Velocity as modulator for CutOff. If you can’t set it, choose an LFO as modulator. Use it very softly.

Fig.5 – Click above to listen filtered oscillators.

Now your patch is almost complete. You need to set the amplitude envelope so… go into your synth Envelope page and set it with a fast Attack, no Decay, full Sustain and no Release.

Fig.6 – Amplitude ADSR Envelope.

Save your patch. Now your algorithm should look like this:

Fig.7 – The Lead Patch without effects.

It sounds cool, but you need to add some effects so… go into your effects page and select a light Chorus and an Overdrive (or Distortion). Tweak them until you don’t get a tone you like. Rember Jens’ advise about soloing for equalization settings.

Fig.8 – The Lead Patch completed

Save your work and start playing.
Feel free to ask question and add some sound sample of your results.