u-he

MrMoneypenny · Post by **MrMoneypenny** » Sun Mar 10, 2019 7:45 am

I am trying to come close to the synth sound of Steely Dan's song "Hey Nineteen". Listen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J7IrPV ... tu.be&t=10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J7IrPV ... u.be&t=221

One mentioned, that Donald fagen played the solo on a Prophet 5, described in music sheets as Harmonica sound.

So I tried to find that or a similar sound in the preset list of Repro 5 but could not fnd any similar preset.

Does anyone have an idea how to create that sound with Repro1/5 or another u-he synth?

Thanks, Bastian

muki · Post by **muki** » Sun Mar 10, 2019 6:34 pm

not sure, but have a listen in
RePro 5
1978 Historic > 34 High Strings

cut the release down
sounds imho kind of similar...

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Sun Mar 10, 2019 8:20 pm

More 27 Reed Organ, plus delay and reverb I reckon. Try using Drench and Lyrebird

knowix · Post by **knowix** » Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:20 pm

Same synth sound is more heavily featured at the end of IGY by the way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sogYgHlNnqo

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Sun Mar 10, 2019 10:24 pm

^ That one remonds me of the synth harmonica in "Blade Runner Blues".

MrMoneypenny · Post by **MrMoneypenny** » Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:43 pm

Thanks, I will check your your ideas... will come back here!

MrMoneypenny · Post by **MrMoneypenny** » Wed Mar 13, 2019 11:54 am

muki wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2019 6:34 pm not sure, but have a listen in
RePro 5
1978 Historic > 34 High Strings

cut the release down
sounds imho kind of similar...

Hi and thanks again for your response.

34 High Strings comes a little closer now. I am looking for the option to use my modulation wheel with LFO but a sinus wave. I only find rectangular, sawtooth and square.
Is there a way to combine those to come close to sinus wave. At least the modulation in Hey nineteen sounds more like a sinus LFO...

scoplunk · Post by **scoplunk** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:53 am

Try this patch. It's not perfect, but it's in the ballpark. A lot of what makes the original solo work is all the pitch wheel and mod wheel work. Fagen often bends from below into a note, but he also does quick bends up, as well. And the whole time he's doing that, he's also playing with the mod wheel to keep lots of movement in the sound. In the original P5, we had no control over the range of the mod wheel (or pitch wheel, for that matter), but I set the range to be a little smaller in this patch. Just adjust it to where it feels comfortable, but my guess is that Fagen didn't have to move it up much before he got a pretty deep filter modulation. Just subtle movements of both wheels will get the right effect. Anyway, you can play with the filter, envelopes and the pulse width of both oscillators and probably find something that will work for you.

Steely Harmonica.h2p.zip

MrMoneypenny · Post by **MrMoneypenny** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 11:51 am

Hey scoplunk, fantastic, I will try your patch. Thanks for sharing with us!

Best, Bastian

Chris-S · Post by **Chris-S** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:47 pm

Nice one, thanks for rebuilding this sound.

aaron aardvark · Post by **aaron aardvark** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:21 am

scoplunk,
Thank you for sharing! I will check it out later.

scoplunk · Post by **scoplunk** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:39 am

You guys are welcome. Everyone is so generous in this community and I'm usually too busy to contribute as much as I'd like to. I had just happened to make a different harmonica patch for myself, modeled after a sound I used to use on my original Prophet 5. I thought it might work as it was, but it actually used sync and had a much quicker envelope. It only took me a minute to realize I was going to have to do some editing to make something more like what Fagen was using, but it was fun learning the solo and sculpting the sound more in that direction. I hope it works for you, but if not, just start turning knobs until it does!

MrMoneypenny · Post by **MrMoneypenny** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:40 am

scoplunk,

thanks so much. Works great now to play Hey Nineteen. Also the effects work fine. I added a little tape saturation (more juicy) and set the attack value of the amplitude a little bit. To play e.g. the intro it needs my left hand on both wheels!

scoplunk · Post by **scoplunk** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 5:07 pm

I just left the effects I had on the original harmonica patch I started with. I figured you'd change them to suit your setup and mix. Yes, the wheels are definitely where the action is when you're trying to make a sound like this work. The good news is that once you get the hang of it, you can do synth harmonica solos whenever you want to - or at least until you start getting annoyed looks from the rest of the band.

MrMoneypenny · Post by **MrMoneypenny** » Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:37 pm

scoplunk wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2019 5:07 pm I just left the effects I had on the original harmonica patch I started with. I figured you'd change them to suit your setup and mix. Yes, the wheels are definitely where the action is when you're trying to make a sound like this work. The good news is that once you get the hang of it, you can do synth harmonica solos whenever you want to - or at least until you start getting annoyed looks from the rest of the band.

u-he

KVR Audio

mayday, mayday: synth sound of "Hey Nineteen" by Steely Dan