Is it not possible to synthesize a saxophone?

[Ah_Dziz]

Thanks, I'll try your approach and see if I can come up with anything that sounds good.

I'm only a bit over 1/4 the way through Syntorial so I'm hardly a seasoned sound designer, but if I can figure out how to make an expressive patch with saxophone-like timbre I'd be pretty happy with it...I honestly don't care much about fooling people into believing it's a real sax, I just want to record some sexy vibes.

What you came up with sounds great! Did you use one of your own synths for it?

A lot of those sounds in those house tracks sound like muted trumpets to me, not sax. But I would look a wivi or Samplemodeling for modeled and highly controllable sax. There are some amazing articles floating around the Internet that detail how to synthesize incredibly realistic real instruments including sax. I can't remember who they are by but they used the Nord modular as the programming example, but those techniques are universal. I've also heard pretty decent results using FM for saxophone (I don't think FM synthesis gets enough credit for being able to make extremely subtle and controllable sounds). The main trick is going to be getting the playing style right. That will make anything even remotely close,to the timbre of a sax sound pretty realistic. If this is something you are planning on doing lots of then I would recommend getting the TeControl breath controller to aid you in your quest.

[llze]

Do you mean this list?

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

[Tony Ostinato]

one of the eagles guys did a song called "all she wants to do is dance" and that had dx7 saxes i think.

samplemodeling with a breath controller and/or wallander instruments WIVI is the best for now.

heres a room recording of me trying to be phil woods with the WIVI alto sax:

https://soundcloud.com/tonyostinato/wiv ... ewayyouare


as far as analog i remember zawinul would get fairly close to wayne shorters soprano in the old days but i have no idea what patches he was using. arp 2600 and/or oberheim probably.

[SoundGoddess]

(deleted duplicate post)

[SoundGoddess]

arp 2600 and/or oberheim probably

I do have the arturua v-collection, so if I could figure out how to produce a sax-like sound in one of those softsynths that would be awesome.

Do you mean this list?

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

I have that series as a PDF file...I tried to replicate some of the patches from part 26 in the mini V soft synth, but I wasn't getting anything very saxophonic.

with a breath controller

My Keylab does have a "breath controller" input on it, but it doesn't seem like anyone actually sells a compatible unit. Is the breath controller really that much more expressive than an expression pedal? Expression pedals seem less expensive, and would be compatible with my keyboard.

[Ah_Dziz]

Yamaha discontinued the unit that is meant to plug into that port. The teControl one is great and extremely affordable and unless you are a ninja the breathe controller is far more expressive than a pedal. It's as easy as breathing to get an extremely expressive part down. I use it daily with my Samplemodeling stuff.

[SoundGoddess]

Thanks, that one is only around $120, everything else I'd found was over $200. That seems more affordable, but I'd still have to factor in the cost of getting a BC-compatible sax sampler...the SM stuff is kind of pricey, but maybe saxlab2 would work for me.

Would you mind sharing some examples of stuff you've recorded with SM/BC?

[Guillotin]

http://www.hvsynthdesign.com/reaktor.php

[Aleatoriac]

Give 3D Printers about 5 years, maybe, might be able to print one right up!

[dusted william]

oops, sax not trumpet.

dw

[Tony Ostinato]

youll never get the same reaction with feet and toes and hands and fingers as you will with lips and tongue and breath. just ask.


yeah 3d printing man, and i saw a thing where you can 3d things with electronic components so maybe people will print windsynths.

i was wondering maybe someday we will be able to 3d print vinyl LP record albums??

[Ah_Dziz]

Thanks, that one is only around $120, everything else I'd found was over $200. That seems more affordable, but I'd still have to factor in the cost of getting a BC-compatible sax sampler...the SM stuff is kind of pricey, but maybe saxlab2 would work for me.

Would you mind sharing some examples of stuff you've recorded with SM/BC?

Here's one: http://m.televisiontunes.com/Black_Jesus.html

JJ

[neshel]

Wow, some impressive examples. The top synth example to me was xoxos second one, with the Xhips close seconds. Saxlab sounds good, though I think DVS is better, and the Billy Joel song example was fabulous. (I thought the stock tenor sax in SampleTank 2.5.5 was good.) That reminds me of the degree of expression Kevin Braheny got in the Steve Roach collaboration The Other side, using an analog custom-designed synth and custom breath controller. To my ear, ended up being in-between a string instrument and woodwind.

[Jace-BeOS]

I bought a Yamaha wind controller and a Yamaha VL70-m. The sounds are pretty good and very expressive, but I can't actually play a wind instrument, and that's kind of important when owning a wind controller. It cannot be used as just a breath controller and Yamaha stopped making those (second hand ones don't excite me, especially at their cost).

There's a free physically modeled wind instrument ensemble in the Reaktor user library. It's very good, but it also is best to use a wind or breath controller. https://www.native-instruments.com/en/c ... show/5331/

I'm not sure how great its sax model is and I'm not a sax player anyway, so I can't advise on realism.

If you can play a wind instrument, maybe get a second hand wind controller and VL70-m. It's not VST but it's synthesis. If you do get one, try to find one with the third party updated ROM (Patchman Turbo VL).

[Mister Natural]

OP - yeah, that's a good question . . .