In The Air with the Novation Peak

Continuing my personal torture to determine if one of my poly synths is surplus to requirements, here is a video looking at simple polyphonic patch creation with the Novation Peak.

[@PnPModular]

enjoying hearing your analysis of the original and your trouble shooting/sounds selection process.. great video thanks for making

[@nabooka316]

I truly enjoy your thorough approach - I would go for an old Juno for this type of sound :) I constantly find myself trying to make my synths sound like Moog & Oberheim and I've realized that if I could actually afford a Sub Phatty & an OB-6 I could avoid the torture!

[@NorfolkTraveller]

Great video. I love the Peak. I spent all Saturday night tweaking it for a chord progression and it's just so much fun. The patch was a nice warm pad similar to yours but got more gritty as the filter and osc3 filter mod ramped up over time.. Lovely as the patch sounded I don't even think that is the strong point of the Peak, which to me are really earthy organic sounds, but it can do pretty much anything and I absolutely love the digital/analogue hybrid sound and the fact that every control and be changed in an automation lane in a DAW is the icing on the cake.

[@ChazSeamus28]

Beautiful... great job Tim

[@duncanrobertson2958]

Love the opening bit. Who would have thought it, people looking at you through the interweb. The rest of the video is interesting as well BTW.

[@bennethos]

Fabfilter EQ and spectrum analysis will also help you out. They also clearly used saturation to make it warmer. There is also something going on width stereo widt and layering or panning.

[@streetdoghanoi]

Oh, you DID buy a bunch of Model D's! I saw you discuss this in a video a watched recently and you said is wasn't really realistic for filters etc, how did it work out for you? Came here because I'm waiting on a Peak arriving next week and I like how you talk about stuff, very practical.

[@bigdaddy4302]

those headphones.. they still around? used them as a dj almost 20 years ago

[@zedprophfer]

I have a theory, the synth might be a mono recording duplicated across two channels, played at a slight delay, as the note changes don't kick in at the exact same time. Such delays send the phasing off to the sides, making it sound very wide and stereo, while leaving the center of the track to the drums. There's also this other layer, sounds a bit like a binaural beat, fading in and out like a tremolo. That could be a seperate synth playing a sine wave drone, but it could also be a natural biproduct of the track delays (perhaps combined with detune?). So, square wave pad with/without a mono chorus effect, recorded, then made to sound like this through studio trickery/sampling, rather than a live synth performance. I haven't tried this myself yet, but it would be interesting how that pans out!

[@videosuperhighway7655]

A lot of people think its all in the keyboard but they forget the entire recording chain and engineer involved which contributed to the sound.

[@TRaddcliff]

bass seems like its a TOUCH more detuned to the main pad. sounds like they have a sick chorus on their mix

[@SubitusNex]

Neat vid, even if I came here a year later :D Would adding a little mod-matrix LFO to control unispread voice panning (which is really insufficient in the peak in terms of panning) get it a little bit closer to that spatial feel we hear in the original. (is it a possible destination?) It always surprises me how close the peak still manages to get. Really considering a peak for its versatility at this time.

[@RayyMusik]

a) Square + saw wave was my first idea when I heard the pad. b) Doesn‘t the Peak have a pan spread function like the Prophet Rev2? I guess this would help without using external effects. c) Do you usually detune oscillators by changing the pitch of just one? Wouldn‘t this make the synth sound detuned in a mix? I always detune half-way symmetrically, e.g Osc1 + 4, Osc2 - 3.

[@TimShoebridge]

Hi. Yes the Peak does have a pan spread facility and yes you are right on the correct way to detune oscillators to keep the overall sound close to master tune. I was just being lazy in the video and could get away with it as there were no other instruments playing other than the drum sounds ;)

[@camdenfisher7467]

i guess I'm kind of off topic but does anybody know a good place to stream newly released movies online?

[@bobborries]

I always thought the synth was a Prophet 10, basically 2 Prophet 5's in one keyboard, one hard-panned to the left the other to the right, Modulate the pitch with a slow LFO for chorus, except for the synth on the right, which is modulated by the same LFO but is inverted. The stereo chorus effect is done by the synth, not by an external chorus. I could be wrong though.

[@TimShoebridge]

Hi Bob, Yes that Prophet 10 was a beast! PC actually used a 5 for the recording but I'm sure you can achieve exactly what you describe with two takes layered on top of each other. Here's a an old recording of PC's first TV outing to promote that single... kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqWrZGZtbcx2pNE

[@sonousrecords]

That keyboard isn't even pluged, so the one in the record can be anyother else... I guess...

[@DestroyER82]

Its hard to beat those vintage synths spot on and I think its not really goal with theese new synths. They are about their own sounds / timbres / charisma. I dont own Peak (im thinking to get one, thanks for your very informative videos!), but have BS II for years and really it pretty have nice own charm and charisma thats really different from other instruments. My personal experience as "particular sound hunter", I was trying for months to reach old Yamaha CS serie sound on various instruments and VST's and it simple wasnt possible. So I "surrendered" and bought 40years old piece of hardware and it was so worth it... ;-)

[@sK3LeTvM1]

It's not hard to 'beat' vintage synths at all. If you know how...It has been proven by blind tests in studio's that people can not define differences between analog and digital sounds in final musical mixes. On top, youngsters nowadays listen to MP3 shit sound.

[@thegimpsometimes5937]

Id like to see you recreate the synth sounds from the beginning of pink floyds pigs (three different ones) on the peak

[@bennethos]

Love this video, this is exactly why I invested in studio grade fx through UAD plugins. It turns copper into gold . Basically came to the same conclusion and am not using onboard fx anymore since.

[@OffworldRecords]

Roland Dimension D chorus on the original perhaps

[@skyreadersociety6183]

like your rather dry humor - and still having a knack for the peak: Did you consider that they might have layered? There is this pulsing, very low volume bass sound. Simple sounding stuff those days was mostly not so straightforward done.

[@TimShoebridge]

Hi, Yes i definitely think that layering would be a technique they would employ. And certainly they would record the bass line separate to the chords and EQ them differently too...

[@shaft9000]

Dimension D or Marshall Time Modulator is the sauce you seek

[@garygimmestad4272]

Two years later . . . I saw a video last night by Ricky Tinez in which he very enthusiastically revealed a beautiful pad effect on the Peak. I won't attempt to describe the process other than that the warmth was achieved by off-setting the phase point for each LFO. It's obviously very much like what happens with a section of string players. Perhaps you're already aware of it but here's the link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHq0amSwnt6Dapo

[@sselvatico]

Dear Tim,try to use a prophet 6 or even a Rev2, you will find it easier to recreate that...

[@ivanglushko4232]

Please tell, how you d connected the peak such a way, that you could wright midi and then tweak the sound?)

[@TimShoebridge]

Hi. The Peak was simply connected via a midid cable to my PC which is running a DAW. (Midi OUT from PC to midi IN on Peak.) The chords being played are recorded as a midi sequence in the DAW which is looping and keeps sending the midi data to the synth. I hope that answers your question?

[@ivanglushko4232]

@@TimShoebridge great! Thank you for the answer and all your videos!:)

[@architectofechoes4]

I hear a slight bell tone pulse in the original.

[@TimShoebridge]

Yes, I think it might actually be a guitar playing some little inflections in the background. It was the only place in the original track that I could sample without too much else going on other than the drum machine and Prophet 5...

[@duncanrobertson2958]

I think that's why producers are well thought of. There's a lot going on in the background, almost subliminal, that lift the whole composition. In a live setting, you wouldn't know either way. I watched a video recently about a British producer reworking a song by Alexander O'neil. I think there were five plus bass tracks alone. Just try working that out though a pair of headphones!

[@DoctorJezz]

Yes, that sound also seems like it may have it’s own spatial/delay effect that might enhance this track psychoacoustically to the pont that you’ve risen to even more of a challenge that at first it might appear. This isn’t a criticism since I bought a Peak while back after to listening to your demos many times - rather it’s a thank you for some quality output. Much appreciated Tim 👍👍

[@videosuperhighway7655]

The Peak is a damn fine instrument, I recieved the Peak and Rev 2 16, and the Peak wins out. I am surprised at NCOS from an FPGA beating out analog DCO oscillators

[@aandarcom]

Lets see if i will get this right before finishing the video and hearing your version: 2 saws, detuned by about 8 cents. Chorus, reverb.

[@aandarcom]

Haha, i was wrong. Good job. :)

[@ineffable_potentiality_01]

yours sounds better than the og, bro