Commodore Remix

I recently swapped a KORG ESX-1SD for a Waldorf RackAttack drum synthesizer.

The RackAttack is a digital drumsynth, but I wanted to test if I could recreate the famous Minipops 7 that Jarre used on his probably most famous tune from Oxygene.

Here is a sample of the result:
What do you think? is it accurate enough?

Bass is a MOOG Slim Phatty, Lead synth an Ensoniq ESQ'm, both with a tad of chorus from a BOSS CE-300 analog chorus.

The hardest of the sounds was actually the Quijada ... but this is also the signature perc sound of exactly this oxygene track... took some time to get this right by studying a raw sample of the original.

Sounds cool!

Still not fully satisfied with the levels and the Quidjada... I'll have to make some corrections.

I'd say that is awesome!!

Just like Jarre.

Made some changes to some of the sounds... think I got a little closer this time... above link is now only the drums which is the fokus of this test.

The Quidjada is better, but still not quite right compared to the original, but I think you are where it'll need side by side comparison to hear it unless you're a die hard MP7 fanatic.

The "Drrrr" sound in itself is actually rather easy to make... it's just a simple Square waveform fed through a highpass filter... with the cutoff set just right, and the resonance cranked up right too, you'll get that "Drrr" sound. The trick is to use a very low frequency of the square waveform, and let the resonance create the "click tone"... the Square waveform only works as an "exiter" of the filters self oscillation. A VCA envelope then takes care of the volume contour, but it should be exponential in it's curve.

But this is not enough though it sounds pretty much like it... the first few microseconds of the MP7's Quidjada has a second pulse added very shortly after the first, giving it sort of like a "clap" like sound, it's subtle but clearly makes a difference, and this is the hardest part to make on a Waldorf Rack Attack since the ADSR's do not have a delay parameter to offset a second oscillator... only way I achieved something close was to pitch this second oscillator a few notes from the other, which created sort of a delayed version, and it works alright... but it's not quite like the original.

Also, the real deal I think was using 12db filters, while the Rack Attack can only do 24db filters... this makes the real thing sound a little more "nasal", but not much... also the punch of the kick is more "spoingy!" (in lack of better words) than the RackAttack, but I think this is down to the fact, that this IS a digital recreation, and to believe you can sound exactly the same is probably a little too optimistic... together with other synth sounds I think you would not really hear it much.

I'm just a bit surprised at how close I eventually could get to the real deal... I always wanted the MP7 because I'm a Jarre fanatic, but they are not cheap, and are rarely seen (though I've seen them for sale a couple of times)... but the real deal does not allow MIDI control or anything like patch/sequence storage, so they're quite limited.

I'm beginning to think about recreating other analog drum machines too now... 808, 909 and others... it's fun, and it teaches a lot about how early drummachines was made electronically, and what simple but clever techniques were used to create the sounds.