How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
Re: How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
i actually would like to know how close the emulators are theese days...
many years ago we compared a real pro5 against the first version of NI´s emulations..
... we was laughing out loud rolling on the floor... was really funny the little ugly duckling plug with its queeeeek queeeekk..against the powerfull mayesty of a real pro 5..
was really a joke..
never did the test again.. we have 3 generations of NI emulations now.. and the aturia.. how close are they now?
are the voices individually tuned now? or is it still the same flat digiphon synthesis that just has identical sounding voices with some random flucuations?
what is actually a cheap way to simulate analog behaviour in the digital domain..
in reality the voices of an analog polyphon synth dont do anything random and even the temperature drift is minimal... but each voice is an individual synthesizer...with an individual sound...
Thats the main reason theese old analog poly synths sound so alive
but back to topic.. its true that the style of mr cowley is just his style while the sounds wouldnt do much without the associated sequencing and rhytmic melodic aproach...
but i defenetly wouldnt say that any plug can do them... he has a good sound design that rivals moroders wall of moog pretty well.
The recordings defenetly have more going on than just a pro 5... you hear the vocoder.. sequenced phasors !! echos..aso..
the prophet 5 dont has an inbuild sequencer..the pro one does.. but there was a stand alone sequencer from SCI.. similar to the one inside the prophet 10...
the seq&string stuff actually really sounds like prophet . 1,5 or 10 dont makes much difference..similar boards..only very old prophet 5´s had different filter chips.. actually better sounding ones..
At this time nobody was using syths without fx units... was the high times of delay units.. reverbs was the expensiv shit..but delays was all around...
and phasors.. no disco without stereo phasing
many years ago we compared a real pro5 against the first version of NI´s emulations..
... we was laughing out loud rolling on the floor... was really funny the little ugly duckling plug with its queeeeek queeeekk..against the powerfull mayesty of a real pro 5..
was really a joke..
never did the test again.. we have 3 generations of NI emulations now.. and the aturia.. how close are they now?
are the voices individually tuned now? or is it still the same flat digiphon synthesis that just has identical sounding voices with some random flucuations?
what is actually a cheap way to simulate analog behaviour in the digital domain..
in reality the voices of an analog polyphon synth dont do anything random and even the temperature drift is minimal... but each voice is an individual synthesizer...with an individual sound...
Thats the main reason theese old analog poly synths sound so alive
but back to topic.. its true that the style of mr cowley is just his style while the sounds wouldnt do much without the associated sequencing and rhytmic melodic aproach...
but i defenetly wouldnt say that any plug can do them... he has a good sound design that rivals moroders wall of moog pretty well.
The recordings defenetly have more going on than just a pro 5... you hear the vocoder.. sequenced phasors !! echos..aso..
the prophet 5 dont has an inbuild sequencer..the pro one does.. but there was a stand alone sequencer from SCI.. similar to the one inside the prophet 10...
the seq&string stuff actually really sounds like prophet . 1,5 or 10 dont makes much difference..similar boards..only very old prophet 5´s had different filter chips.. actually better sounding ones..
At this time nobody was using syths without fx units... was the high times of delay units.. reverbs was the expensiv shit..but delays was all around...
and phasors.. no disco without stereo phasing
mac book 2,16 ghz 4(3)gb ram, Os 10.62, fireface 400,
Re: How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
Hey Rolfski,
I like what you do on soundcloud and also the edit idea.
BUT: There is much more to it then "what synth was he using" if you whant to recreate the Cowley sound.
Forgive me for going back to the basics but s distinct sound is created by:
- the player(s) feel and style (much of the electronic drums and synth were played and not sequenced back then)
- the instruments (here synth)
- the recording equipment
- the sound prozessing equipment and style of mixing
- the mastering
- the music media (here record)
No wonder a emulation of one part of the chain will not help too much...
That's why people sample or do edits in the first place. Not sure how close you want to gett. I am sure it is possible to make emulated sound and a real Cowley sound stand next to another, but it will take some time and effort....
I like what you do on soundcloud and also the edit idea.
BUT: There is much more to it then "what synth was he using" if you whant to recreate the Cowley sound.
Forgive me for going back to the basics but s distinct sound is created by:
- the player(s) feel and style (much of the electronic drums and synth were played and not sequenced back then)
- the instruments (here synth)
- the recording equipment
- the sound prozessing equipment and style of mixing
- the mastering
- the music media (here record)
No wonder a emulation of one part of the chain will not help too much...
That's why people sample or do edits in the first place. Not sure how close you want to gett. I am sure it is possible to make emulated sound and a real Cowley sound stand next to another, but it will take some time and effort....
Re: How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
Of course I know this won't be easy, especially as said above, it takes more then just the right synth patch.
Would be great though being able to get this great Patrick Cowley sound back to life
Would be great though being able to get this great Patrick Cowley sound back to life
Last edited by rolfski on Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
was it ever dead? seems to be still all around the one way or the otherrolfski wrote:Of course I know this won't be easy, especially as said above, it takes more then just the right synth patch.
Would be great though though being able to get this great Patrick Cowley sound back to life
mac book 2,16 ghz 4(3)gb ram, Os 10.62, fireface 400,
Re: How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
Although he has always been a cult hero, I still would love to see more elements of his style represented in nowadays music though, because I think it would fit in really well. Which temporary artist do we actually know that have mastered the skill of recreating his trademark style and use it creatively in today's music setting?3phase wrote:was it ever dead? seems to be still all around the one way or the otherrolfski wrote:Of course I know this won't be easy, especially as said above, it takes more then just the right synth patch.
Would be great though though being able to get this great Patrick Cowley sound back to life
Re: How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
Get analog synths
Then you can come as close as this Dutch clone of Cowley:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2gwWqW3YJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3hqP4sZ5_s
Then you can come as close as this Dutch clone of Cowley:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2gwWqW3YJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3hqP4sZ5_s
Re: How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
Thanks but I'm not planning on spending lots of money on an original Prophet 5. I still have good hopes that a proper software emulation should get the job done.drako wrote:Get analog synths
Then you can come as close as this Dutch clone of Cowley:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2gwWqW3YJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3hqP4sZ5_s
Also keep in mind that there is a distinction between the pre-Midi age Hi-Nrg sound of Cowley and the Midi age Italo music that this artist is mostly cloning.
Re: How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
Zulke dikke bassen chords leads komen alleen maar uit analoge synths,( als je net dat rauwe randje wil als cowley ) tip, check een juno 60, die kosten bijna net zo veel als een goede plugin Of een waldorf pulse voor bassen, allemaal erg goedkoop te krijgen als je een beetje gaat speuren.rolfski wrote:Thanks but I'm not planning on spending lots of money on an original Prophet 5. I still have good hopes that a proper software emulation should get the job done.drako wrote:Get analog synths
Then you can come as close as this Dutch clone of Cowley:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2gwWqW3YJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3hqP4sZ5_s
Also keep in mind that there is a distinction between the pre-Midi age Hi-Nrg sound of Cowley and the Midi age Italo music that this artist is mostly cloning.
-
- Posts: 167
- Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:22 pm
Re: How to make that Patrick Cowley sound
You can use any modern vst synth plugin that offers some waveforms, envelopes and filters to get that sound.. it's all in the programming + mixing...