Analog Keyboards and Space like Sounds

T

terrellmoragne

New member
I was wondering what keyboards do a lot of the westcoast producers and most of your R&B artist use for production. Dr Dre uses it on the Chronic 2001 on a lot of his songs. DJ quik also used it on the song( Put it on me). Battle Cat usesd it on (We can Freak It). What board or boards are these people using.I saw a video with DJ Quik and Nate Dog in the Studio. They showed a board that was making those sounds but I could not see the name of it. They showed a Kurtzweil but I do not think thats the board that would make sounds like that.I was wondering was that keyboard a Access Virus ,Moog ,Andromeda or just one of the the old analog vintage keyboards. Also R&B artist Donnell jones used those sounds on the song(You know that I love you). I really would like to have that keyboard for those sounds. Check out these You Tube links to the videos to see what I'm talking about. Thanks in advance for anybody that can help me out.



Check Out these links...
Dr dre/DJ Quik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwxqW66bRk8

Donnell Jones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbbNN-DbPNQ&feature=related

Kurupt-produced by DJ Battlecat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULCEA9BWjpo

DJ Quik and Nate Dog in the studio showing the keyboard that making the sounds. They do not show the name of it though.The Recording process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlRHiA6cN8M
 
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terrellmoragne said:
I was wondering what keyboards do a lot of the westcoast producers and most of your R&B artist use for production. Dr Dre uses it on the Chronic 2001 on a lot of his songs. DJ quik also used it on the song( Put it on me). Battle Cat usesd it on (We can Freak It). What board or boards are these people using.I saw a video with DJ Quik and Nate Dog in the Studio. They showed a board that was making those sounds but I could not see the name of it. They showed a Kurtzweil but I do not think thats the board that would make sounds like that.I was wondering was that keyboard a Access Virus ,Moog ,Andromeda or just one of the the old analog vintage keyboards. Also R&B artist Donnell jones used those sounds on the song(You know that I love you). I really would like to have that keyboard for those sounds. Check out these You Tube links to the videos to see what I'm talking about. Thanks in advance for anybody that can help me out.



Check Out these links...
Dr dre/DJ Quik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwxqW66bRk8

Donnell Jones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbbNN-DbPNQ&feature=related

Kurupt-produced by DJ Battlecat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULCEA9BWjpo

DJ Quik and Nate Dog in the studio showing the keyboard that making the sounds. They do not show the name of it though.The Recording process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlRHiA6cN8M
Click to expand...

Moog is THE Westcoast sound. Groups like Parliament, GAP, and Zap & Roger made it so with their liberal use of the MiniMoog. Then Westcoast hip hop groups continued on with that trend.

In the DJ Quick video that you posted, he has a Studio Electronics ATC-1 rack, which is an analog synth with Moog derived oscillators and filters.
 
Array said:
Moog is THE Westcoast sound. Groups like Parliament, GAP, and Zap & Roger made it so with their liberal use of the MiniMoog. Then Westcoast hip hop groups continued on with that trend.

In the DJ Quick video that you posted, he has a Studio Electronics ATC-1 rack, which is an analog synth with Moog derived oscillators and filters.
Click to expand...
I appreciate you coming back. I checked out the studio electronic stuff. I have actually heard of SE before thanks to this forum.I would like to see what the Access Virus and the Andromedia stuff sounds like. I wanted to get into some sounds not really used down south. Thanks for the information man. I really appreciate it.

Ground Zero

http://myspace.com/projectzeropro
 
terrellmoragne said:
I appreciate you coming back. I checked out the studio electronic stuff. I have actually heard of SE before thanks to this forum.I would like to see what the Access Virus and the Andromedia stuff sounds like. I wanted to get into some sounds not really used down south. Thanks for the information man. I really appreciate it.

Ground Zero

http://myspace.com/projectzeropro
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you've heard the Virus before, as its sound is pretty ubiquitous. It's used on everything from trance, to hip hop, to big budget film scores (Hans Zimmer swears by the Virus). The Virus is a digital synth which approximates the sound of analog circuitry in software. It has a lot of built in effects and, as of the TI version, has a number of different oscillator types to choose from, so you can dial up quite a wide array of textures. The one big draw back of the Virus, in my opinion at least, is that there are not enough modulation sources, so it becomes difficult to get much movement out of said textures.

The Virus also offers a digital model of the aforementioned Moog filter. While it isn't an exact replica, manufacturers have a hard enough time nailing "that" sound in the analog realm, let alone digital, you could probably come up with some patches that will fool the average-Joe-listener.

If you want to check out how the Virus sounds on its own, here are some demos, though very well produced, are a bit on the trancier side:





A neat demo of the Virus B doing analog emulations:



And a cool Virus TI solo:



The Andromeda, at least in my eyes, is a bit more of an interesting synth. What happened is that a bunch of synth geeks were working at Alesis, and imposed their will on the marketing department to let them go through with making what they deemed would be the ultimate analog polysynth. At the time, Alesis R&D was swimming in funds from massive sales of their QS series of ROMplers, and they caved in. Once these developers got the go ahead to develop such synth, they had to decide on a feature set. What they did is they listened, and played, all of the classic analog synths of yesteryear, and picked the components that they liked best. As a result, the Andromeda has, on a per voice level, two oscillators derived from the Moog Modular design, a Moog Modular 24db lowpass filter, and an Oberheim SEM style multimode filter. Features from other ubersynths like the CS-80 also made it into the final design. Most importantly, at least to us synth geeks, is that everything is under analog voltage control.

I dont know how much you know, or care, about 70's and 80's electronic music, but when you think of the Oberheim sound, think of the Scarface and Terminator soundtracks, as well as Van Halen's Jump. The sound of the CS-80 was made popular by the composer Vangelis (Bladerunner Soundtrack). Of course, the Andromeda isn't an exact replica of any of these synths, and very much has its own sound, but its not too hard to approximate those old timbres.

Here's a video of the Andromeda doing some nice vintage sounds:



A video of the Andromeda (and the Virus) being used in modern hip hop production:



And, just to prove that the Andromeda can do "modern" and "cutting" sounds, just like the Virus, here is an awesome trance demo:



As far as stuff thats not being used in southern hip hop beats, both of these synths can be found on those recordings. In the end, it'll come down to how you program them and how you use them in the mix. That said, the Virus probably comes with the most sounds that can be used right out of the box, while the Andromeda really needs to be programmed well to get the most out of it.
 
Thanks man for the info. You have been suck a great help. I do listen to trance and techno . The way do do production is crazy. again thanks very much.

Ground Zero
 
No problem! It's always a pleasure when someone comes to this forum to discuss something other than ROMplers :D
 
another keyboard question

What about the keyboard used on Battlecats song BLUE 64 or WATERDROP, OR FROM jayo Felony Watcha gonna do? Thx in advance guys
 
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