Queen - Radio Ga Ga

[hipogrito]

1st place of ksetlist Challenge!

Hi,

The winner is the great Malc from the Czech Republic. In his own words:

I've been synthesising for many years, starting back in the 80s on Jupiter 6's (yes I had two - stereo!), then stopping to have a life, and then happily stopping that life to get back to making sounds again a few years ago. Ok not stopping, but trying to fit it in. I came across a way to make the Fairlight Sara voice, without resorting to an external sample, but using additive synthesis in the PC3 and now 4 years later I have a website where each sound was a lot of blood sweat and tears. The site and sounds are still under construction.

The Radio Ga Ga sounds were also a lot of work and are actually the hardest thing I've done. Its one thing getting a good sounding generic bass and strings, but quite another to match the bass, voices and other sounds on that record. I tried hard to match the record without using external effects, and my effort is still not quite there. I will still be tweaking it and will no doubt upload another version in a years time!

Check his awesome sounds at http://enjoythesirens.com

Please congratulate Malc by having a visit at his website. Thanks!

[hipogrito]

2nd place of ksetlist Challenge!

igloo1976 take on Radio Ga Ga.

Thanks!!!

[hipogrito]

Awesome work Malc!

I'll have lots of fun working with this.
Martyn (Igloo1976)

[hipogrito]

Thanks Martyn! Can't wait to try yours!

For anybody downloading the file, my entry to the challenge has drums, an arpeggio synth, pads, voices, chimes, and most of the sounds needed (but no elec guitar) to play or sequence Radio Ga Ga.

There are NO samples in the file, its all done with the PC3's synthesis (VAST) and built-in waveforms.

How to load a file into a PC3:
http://kurzweil.com/knowledgebase/pc3k6 ... _mode/315/


Under the hood there are 10 original, blood-sweat-&-tears sounds. They use multiple layers / filters, are built from the ground up, and represent a ridiculous amount of work, even though my demo doesn't show it!

I even had a go at recreating the classic 80s Linn Radio Ga Ga "drum+snare" sound in VAST. It uses several layers and the FX are crucial. There are some smooth, very gentle "voices" and the dry, mournful sounding Jupiter 8 string pad, in semi mono as on the original. There are some very intense "oo ee" voices which you can mix in on slider C. These and the "Ah Fluts" are mimicking some very rich Emulator samples, a cross between flutes, voices and uber rich square waves.

The mysterious harpsi "chimes", (debated on forums as to what on earth they were created on), in my analysis turn out to be an analog synth set high up. I have pushed the piano as far as I can towards a hard rock piano (but probably mixed it too low in my demo). The synth bass arpeggio follows the Jupiter 8 original, and is deliberately understated as on the original. This was the hardest single sound, as the original has a very nice fast envelope which I struggled to get. I failed to get the resonant bass effect, but I had a massive go and you can try the fail for yourself on sliders A and B.

And finally there is a fully tweakable string/pad synth in the style of a 4 osc-per-voice Jupiter, with 11 live controls for filter, pulse width, shape, oscillators etc.

I REALLY hope you enjoy messing with these. There are some minor tweaks I will be making and I'll update with a new file here.


The PROGRAMS:

00 (R-GaGa spare pad sound not in setup)
01 R-GaGa drums+snareM (these play in a seq/riff in the setup)
02 R-GaGa Voices
03 R-GaGa Pad J8
04 R-GaGa AhFluts (in Setup on slider C)
05 R-GaGa oo ee (F4-C6 only)
06 R-GaGa J8 Bs (The arpeggio bass in the setup, sliders A,B)
07 R-GaGa Piano Oc
08 R-GaGa Piano Chimes
09 R-GaGa Puls Bell
10 R-GaGa E-Bass M
11 EnjoyTheSirens (an extra synthesiser with 11 controls)


In SETUP Mode:

- C2 key starts the drums (press this first). (To stop press the Stop button).
- Left keys trigger the synth bass arpeggio. 1 note at a time. (To stop press the ARP button).
- The right keys play the voices, pads, piano and chimes, optionally the puls bel.
- Use the sustain pedal to hold the pads, so you can play piano chimes (higher up).
- Bring the Ahs/flutes in at the appropriate moment on sider C


More info in the pdf, as soon as I can attach it!


Malc

enjoythesirens.com