Ableton Forum

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

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....

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

rolfski 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

was it ever dead? seems to be still all around the one way or the other

3phase wrote:

rolfski 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

was it ever dead? seems to be still all around the one way or the other

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?

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

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

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.
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.

rolfski wrote:

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

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.
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.

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.

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...