Pink Floyd Sounds

Forum for Roland FA-06/08
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Neil ForestTree
Posts: 14
Joined: 13:22, 1 March 2017

Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by Neil ForestTree »

Hi

I play in a Pink Floyd tribute band and have found the FA-08 almost perfect for complex layers and studio sets needed, the sample pads, sequencer, and the lovely Rotary speaker effects which I can trigger using a non latching footswitch. These are all made for the job. I've installed the SRX expansion packs EXP02 and EXP 06. Studio (for Saxophones) and Keys (for Organs/Electric Pianos - what else?). (I say 'Almost' because I have a second slave keyboard plugged in to my FA-08 and it is difficult to set up splits on the slave keyboard, but I live with that).

Anybody else out there using the board for Floyd music and sounds and want to start sharing ideas and tips on how they get close to the different sounds and effects needed?
Joe P
Posts: 159
Joined: 21:44, 20 November 2014

Post by Joe P »

Hey Neil!

We are not a Floyd tribute but we do a pretty faithful 90 minute set. I have a great biting, nasally Wurli for Time. Uses overdrive. I use samples for the Time clock tick-tock and for the cash register in Money which I trigger with the pads. Also in Money, I have a nice deep clav in my left hand for the 7 groove with I believe T-Wah Clav in my right, with a hard Wurli above that. Richard Wright loved the Wurli!

I love playing Have a Cigar. I have the synth sound in my left hand and strings up top, both with extended releases, and hard wurli in the middle. I haven't tackled the arpeggiator in that one yet.

We do Run Like Hell. I use the osc sync with pitch and mod for that lead - it's awesome!

Bright Grand for Great Gig in the Sky (to cut through, I think the album track piano is a lot darker).

For In the Flesh, Eclipse and Time I also make heavy use of vocal chorus which is lush and thick on the FA08. I even put it down below my left hand so when I play an octave I get one note of chorus from my pinky (octave adjusted accordingly in Part View). The chorus sounds great on the Maj7 chords under "every year is getting shorter..."!

The FA08 is great for the Floyd stuff. I use it with an Electro 2 so I haven't been motivated to get the tonewheel sounds out of it. I have a great TW set up for use with my MiniVent, but it's a pain to route only the organ through the MiniVent. But I love the organ tones on the FA08.

I use the D50 organ for the beginning of Shine On with a pad layered in there, and for the synth lead I think I use one of the synth "slow leads".

Great topic! The guy in this Floyd Tribute uses an FA08 also: https://www.echoesrocks.com/

Regards,
Joe
stevel
Posts: 520
Joined: 07:08, 17 May 2015

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by stevel »

Honestly, I used a SC88ST-Pro and felt the sound were far more "appropriate for the time period" than the FA, which focuses on more modern sounds. That said, I could probably duplicate a lot of them but in the SC it was "find the right preset, go". In the FA it would involve a whole lot more setup.

We played most of The Wall, and some of DSOTM.

I had an organ sound in the SC88 for In the Flesh that was perfect (and the one for ABITW2 worked perfectly too).

What I find horrible on the FA is any "dirty" organ sounds are just a basic organ sound with a distortion effect added from the MFX, which doesn't sound that good. The SC sounds would have this as part of the sample itself, and it was much more "organic" that way.
tomkitel
Posts: 30
Joined: 14:10, 22 September 2016

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by tomkitel »

stevel wrote:Honestly, I used a SC88ST-Pro and felt the sound were far more "appropriate for the time period" than the FA, which focuses on more modern sounds. That said, I could probably duplicate a lot of them but in the SC it was "find the right preset, go". In the FA it would involve a whole lot more setup.

We played most of The Wall, and some of DSOTM.

I had an organ sound in the SC88 for In the Flesh that was perfect (and the one for ABITW2 worked perfectly too).

What I find horrible on the FA is any "dirty" organ sounds are just a basic organ sound with a distortion effect added from the MFX, which doesn't sound that good. The SC sounds would have this as part of the sample itself, and it was much more "organic" that way.
Did you try the organ sounds of the Axial Expansion 2 'Keys Collection'? I am pretty sure that you would find many of the SC88 organ presets there.

JMTC
Neil ForestTree
Posts: 14
Joined: 13:22, 1 March 2017

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by Neil ForestTree »

Your right Stevel, I found the PCM sounds from the Keys Expansion to be invaluable. There's a Harm Organ and Harm Organ 2 sound that I use, one called Leslied B3 and a dirty sound called 'gimmesomeSRX' which sounds good if you put it through the Rotary with a slow speed up and slow wind down.

I also use an EM-U PK6 because I just love the organ sounds and it's Lesley effect which is completely and has that more spacy effect to it.

I do find the Supernatural Organs not that useful. They sound too clinical and don't work well with other sounds like when using them under saxophone patch in US and Them. (I play all the Sax solos on the keys).

I also run some midi bass pedals into the FA-08 to do the bass synth sounds in Time, Any Colour You like and Sheep etc
tomkitel
Posts: 30
Joined: 14:10, 22 September 2016

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by tomkitel »

Neil ForestTree wrote:Your right Stevel....
I am not Stevel but tomkitel...

;-)
Neil ForestTree
Posts: 14
Joined: 13:22, 1 March 2017

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by Neil ForestTree »

My apologies Tomkitel.
stevel
Posts: 520
Joined: 07:08, 17 May 2015

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by stevel »

Neil ForestTree wrote:Your right Stevel, I found the PCM sounds from the Keys Expansion to be invaluable. There's a Harm Organ and Harm Organ 2 sound that I use, one called Leslied B3 and a dirty sound called 'gimmesomeSRX' which sounds good if you put it through the Rotary with a slow speed up and slow wind down.

I do find the Supernatural Organs not that useful. They sound too clinical and don't work well with other sounds like when using them under saxophone patch in US and Them. (I play all the Sax solos on the keys).
Yeah it was the other poster who you're saying is right, but yes, to both of you, I did DL the Ultimate Keys collection and in fact, that "Harm Org" sound was THE sound for In the Flesh and similar.

I do think that a lot of the SN sounds sounds "a little too real" - uncanny valley stuff. But as I said, with enough time you could make them work. It's just that the FA sounds were not "grab and go" in the way that my older synths are.

FWIW, I also DL'd Synth Legends Pure (which do not have effects on them) for the J and D series stuff, which in the Sound Canvas nailed a lot of the synth sounds for me. Again, the SC had everything I needed and the FA expansions were close - but let's say that without the expansions, the FA on its own would need a LOT of tweaking to get anything reasonable for this purpose.

Another factor about the FA was getting the effects on and off. While the E Pianos sound good, you have to manually turn on the FX on the screen or save an effected version of the patch and an unaffected one to switch between.

I figured out more recently how to use an external controller to do this, but it's just effing stupid you can't simply turn the effect on or off with a button. I mean, one of the most stupid things I've ever seen in my life. And I've seen lots of stupid things. This is like not putting a tuning machine on a guitar stupid.
Neil ForestTree
Posts: 14
Joined: 13:22, 1 March 2017

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by Neil ForestTree »

There are a couple of sounds I'm struggling to fnd

The synth lead in Any Colour You Like. It sounds fairly unremarkable but nothing I can find or create has the same tonal quality. What does anyone else use?

The leaky electrical noise from an organ (I presume) which was clearly put through a Leslie. (Probably micing it to deliberately pick up mechanical noise from the Leslie itself). The sound occurs at the end of Breathe/start of On The Run, it is also in the start of the ambient bit in Sheep. Again I can get something similar using white noise with LFO and Rotary but it's never a satisfying copy of that sound.
Firebass
Posts: 40
Joined: 01:40, 16 January 2016

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by Firebass »

My "have a cigar" Studio set is my favorite set yet..

+++ Have a cigar FA-06
++ Riders of the storm.. Close second for me.
stevel
Posts: 520
Joined: 07:08, 17 May 2015

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by stevel »

Neil ForestTree wrote:There are a couple of sounds I'm struggling to fnd

The synth lead in Any Colour You Like. It sounds fairly unremarkable but nothing I can find or create has the same tonal quality. What does anyone else use?

The leaky electrical noise from an organ (I presume) which was clearly put through a Leslie. (Probably micing it to deliberately pick up mechanical noise from the Leslie itself). The sound occurs at the end of Breathe/start of On The Run, it is also in the start of the ambient bit in Sheep. Again I can get something similar using white noise with LFO and Rotary but it's never a satisfying copy of that sound.
Neil, for ACYL my process was this for other sounds like that (we didn't do ACYL)- try to find something close (duh). If I couldn't, I would try to find what the player used originally and then find a similar set of synth patches that I could use as a starting point for tweaking - IOW, I could at least narrow it down to a type of synthesis and not waste time trying to get a Moog to sound like a Prophet or something.

Have you tried the Synth Legends Pure sound set?

There's the "pure" which has no effects, and then the "caffeinated" version which does. I went for the non-effected ones - easier to add than take off IMHO.

It covered a lot more "classic" sounds for me. You can add it in in addition to the Exp 02 and 06. It stores in user banks (and theoretically you could add both the SL and SLP and even some other things from Axial, but it uses up all your internal user slots after a while - SLP seems to be the bulk of them anyway).
Neil ForestTree
Posts: 14
Joined: 13:22, 1 March 2017

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by Neil ForestTree »

Thanks Stevel

I didn't know I could install those extra sounds in addition to Exp 2 & 6. I did see one of the YouTube videos showed a cheat to import some others but everything seemed to be trance stuff etc. I'll look for the synth pure legends. I've had many goes starting from a sound close and editing it but never been satisfied with the end result. (Nobody else in the band ever complains, so maybe I'm being a perfectionist - but I know when it's not quite right).

I never have that much success going for the sampled original instrument on almost anything. Solina SRX doesn't work for Shine On even though they used a Solina for the intro. The Farfisa samples don't sound right even though that was used on everything up to Dark Side. I can get a better Wurlie sound for Time than any of the actual Wurlie patches. 76 Stage seems closer than anything for that and already has a good 'bark'.
stevel
Posts: 520
Joined: 07:08, 17 May 2015

Re: Pink Floyd Sounds

Post by stevel »

Neil ForestTree wrote:Thanks Stevel

I didn't know I could install those extra sounds in addition to Exp 2 & 6.
Yes. The Synth Legends Pure is "installed" in a different way than the EXP sets. In fact, IIRC I did one from a USB and the other from the SD Card.

You can download ALL of the Exp packs to your computer, but you can only have a maximum of 2 installed at once. But in theory, you could switch them out for gigs as necessary. I'm never big on technical workarounds that involve what equates to a "hack".

One thing about the Exp sets is they all are pre-designed with specific Program Change numbers so they can be selected by an external controller or patch script, etc.

The Axial sets like Synth Legends Pure are found here:

http://axial.roland.com/category/integra-7/

and there are instructions on how to install to the FA.

In theory, you could install as many as you have user memory slots for.

I wasn't really interested in all the EDM sounds as I felt like the FA already covered those pretty well. I was looking for more of the "classic" or "vintage" sounds. I asked here, and apparently, the Synth Legends banks include all of the other Jupiter, Juno, D, SH and TB banks together. So you only need Synth Legends to get them all (128 sounds). Again, the "pure" version is the same patches, without effects already on them (which I prefer).

One major difference here is they don't go in a specific memory slot. You could download 2 of them and put them in 1 at a time, and whichever you put in first would be in User Preset 1. So you have to know which ones you installed where to get to them remotely. So since I only have SLP, it went in user memory 1-128, which I can get to with MSB, LSB, and PC messages from my DAW or from a controller, since I know which slots they went into (there's a list of the order that comes with the DL).

Another difference is that you can select which of the Axial sounds you want to import, so you don't have to do all of them. You could in theory do a portion from the EDM bank, and a portion from SLP, and so on.

It wasn't difficult at all, and I can't remember if it was USB or SD Card but I bough myself a little USB Card Reader for my computer that lets me transfer information back and forth which is pretty handy.

This all makes me wonder though, what would happen if you installed Exp 02 and altered a patch and saved it and then deleted your Exp 2 and installed a different Exp in there. Would the saved tone stay?

Could you, "transfer" the sounds from your installed Exp sets to user memory, then load in more Exp sets?

I think you probably can't, because the Exp sounds may use different samples and can't call upon the internal samples of the FA but it would be an interesting experiment.

At any rate, I'd say having the SLP is definitely worth doing. Gives you a lot more options at least in that "family" of synth sounds. Again, they're "legendary" Roland synths, not Moogs or Prophets or Solinas, but maybe at least some will be closer to what you need or more configurable.

FWIW, you probably are being too picky :-) I was the same way and the audience would never know. But at the same time, I find it fun and challenging and rewarding to try to get them pretty darn close.

But I have also heard tribute acts who use sounds that are so out there that they clearly didn't care and to me, it bothers me. So, in order to appease the muso gods....
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