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The Cars - Let's Go


rockitman

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Hey guys.  I've had my xwp1 for a few months now and am just really lost on how to tweak patches on it.

 

I was wondering if any of you would be inclined to show me how to take the patch  SoloSynth 1  which is located at 0-1  and tweek it to sound more like the synth in the song Let's Go by the Cars.    It sounds nice as it is but it's not quite there.   If somebody could play with this and then show me exactly how he did it,  it would be a great stepping stone to help me understand how to go about something like this.

 

Here is a youtube link of the song:

 

 

 

 

 

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It's the sound of classic oscillator hard sync, in this case done on a Prophet 5. The XWs are built for this because solo synth oscillator 2 can be synced with solo synth oscillator 1. The Solosynth 1 patch uses hard sync, that's one of the things you're hearing; but there's a lot of other stuff going on too, so better off starting clean.

 

  1. In a new solo synth patch, enable oscillators Syn1 and Syn2.

  2. All Syn1 does is set the pitch, so you can leave it as a sine wave, and set it's volume to zero in the Amp menu. We don't even need to actually hear it!

  3. Syn2 is where all the action is; so, in the OSC menu, set it's oscillator to one of the Prophet 5 waves. I like 0109 P5 Pulse1-L.

  4. While still in the OSC menu, set Syn2's Sync OSC parameter to On. This forces oscillator 2 to be synchronised with oscillator 1, i.e., osc 2's wave is forced to restart its cycle every time osc 1 completes a cycle.

  5. The distinctive hard sync sound is created by pitch sweeping the slave oscillator and can be implemented by an LFO or pitch envelope. Still in the Syn2 OSC menu, set Env. Depth to +63. This enables a strong pitch envelope.

  6. Access the pitch envelope menu by pressing Enter at the Envelope line, next line down from Env. Depth.

  7. You can tweak these settings, but I rather like:
    Atk. Time      32
    Atk. Level   +63
    Dcy. Time     64

    and all the rest zero.

  8. Hard sync adds a lot of higher frequencies, so emphasise them with the TotalFilter: set Cutoff to 109, say, and Resonance to 118.

 

This should give you the hard sync sound and get you pretty close to Let's Go.

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Yes, you use the Part +/- buttons to switch between oscillators in the solo synth.

 

OK, the patch isn't perfect, but once you get close, that's when the fun really starts. Start tweaking parameters. Try Atk. Level 56 instead of 32. I said you can just zero the volume on synth1, but you can also try setting synth1 to 0108 P5 Pulse1 and increase the volume a bit, say to 72, for some emphasis of the underlying tone. Or, for slightly different sync timing, setting synth1 to one of the -L waves, such as 0109, the same as synth2.

 

Or tweak the Total FIlter cutoff and resonance. For a genuine wah-wah effect, enable a Total Filter envelope; very similar to the pitch envelope in synth2, except that it's modulating filter cutoff instead of oscillator pitch.

 

Or thicken the overall sound with some chorus or delay.

 

Or, when all else fails, realise that BradMZ has been here ages ago and just download his patch: http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/files/file/616-thecarsletsgo-solo-lead-synth-xw-g1/

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Thanks Brett.   Just downloaded it.    Sorry to say, it's not to my liking.   I sure do appreciate your efforts though!    

 

Brad has the sound nailed but it's a flat sound,  not the "baaoo baaoo baaoo"  I'm looking for.

 

SoloSynth patch 0-1,  while it doesn't sound as good as brad's,  does have some of the characteristic I'm talking about,  and in the end,  is still the more useful patch.  I wish I could tweak it a bit,  cuz it has too much fuzzy distortion in it.

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Rockitman, quite a lot of the solo synth presets use sync. Try turning off PCM1, PCM2 and the Noise waves, just leaving Syn1 and Syn2 active. Also, set DSP Edit to Bypass. This will leave you with the basic sync sound for that preset. Between these and Brad and my tones, you should have plenty of reference points for creating your preferred sound.

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  • 1 month later...

Very nice.

 

I am curious as to what parameters do not translate from the G1 to P1 in this case. Whilst I realise there is a different sample set, it seemed as though you had the basic sound. The difference would seen to be filters/modulation in nature, and I was unaware that the XW's would differ in that respect.

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