Alberto Balsalm synth?

Hi guys,

I'm trying to "recreate" the synth on Alberto Balsalm. Anyone have any ideas as to how it was done? Being a beginner (please don't go to hard on me) only things I think I hear is a combination of quite low and high frequencies and a little chorus. I hope you guys have some ideas!

Thanks!

I tried to do this a while back and I don't think you'd need anything fancy. I wouldn't bother with the chorus, the reverb soak and the filter modulation (especially the envelope changes) seems to be the trick.

Thanks for the insights! I'll see what I can do with my Boutique JU-06 :p

We had a thread about sheet music for this awhile back...

http://forum.watmm.com/topic/69727-alberto-balsalm-sheet-music/

And here are some guitar tabs of Aphex Twin songs, including Alberto Balsam:

http://www.echoesofmars.com/aphex_tabs/

Definitely a polysynth. Sounds like it was run through a flanger and a filter. Beyond that, it's probably infused with ancient magic or something.

I get sounds a lot like Alberto balsam when I jam with U-he Diva using the roland JP-8 templates, its got that feel to it... try dialing in a 2osc pluck sound with a mild filter env and then modulate cutoff and res by hand. thats how i imagine this was done. Kinda sounds like a Korg mono/poly or poly 6 though too... let us know how you fair and post your results!

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Definitely a polysynth. Sounds like it was run through a flanger and a filter. Beyond that, it's probably infused with ancient magic or something.

Anyone know the best VST for ancient magic?

what a track

Sounds like it could be FM, though?

i always though it could be some ensoniq (sq80?) or analog poly with xmod (jx8p?)

My guess is its a sample library synth from his Casio FZ1 with the filter and velocity used. The filter sounds FZ1ish to me. The metal snare sound, kik and sissors (hats) sound like the FZ1 also and the looping voice is lofi FZ1 sounding. You could change the sample rate of the FZ1 to get a grainner sound eg the looping voice.

I cant edit my response above but SAW2 heavily features the Casio FZ1 or(10m) in Richard's case. Some synth sounds are FZ1 loads of drums and vocals are fz1 so I dont see why Alberto isnt as well.

  On 4/26/2016 at 11:30 PM, amni said:

 

My guess is its a sample library synth from his Casio FZ1 with the filter and velocity used. The filter sounds FZ1ish to me. The metal snare sound, kik and sissors (hats) sound like the FZ1 also and the looping voice is lofi FZ1 sounding. You could change the sample rate of the FZ1 to get a grainner sound eg the looping voice.

 

 

 

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Yes I agree. Didn't he say he kept most of his gear at his folks and would record sample libraries when he was visiting? Think that coincides with icbyd times.

As for synth samples, I vote some kind of roland jx or mks.

The sampling was for space/convenience tho I reckon, you could recreate this just on a poly, or get close anyway. Keep experimenting :)

  On 4/26/2016 at 11:38 PM, amni said:

 

I cant edit my response above but SAW2 heavily features the Casio FZ1 or(10m) in Richard's case. Some synth sounds are FZ1 loads of drums and vocals are fz1 so I dont see why Alberto isnt as well.

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which vocals are u talking about are FZ1? Any example track?

  On 4/27/2016 at 12:47 PM, Chris Toffer said:

 

  On 4/26/2016 at 11:38 PM, amni said:

 

I cant edit my response above but SAW2 heavily features the Casio FZ1 or(10m) in Richard's case. Some synth sounds are FZ1 loads of drums and vocals are fz1 so I dont see why Alberto isnt as well.

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which vocals are u talking about are FZ1? Any example track?

All the female voices sound FZ1/ filter. I doubt they are library sounds more his own sounds.

I do see a correlation in the types of sounds used on ICBYD and SAWII. The great thing about Aphex Twin's music is although some of the sounds such as the synth in Alberto sound like standard poly stuff, you'd be hard pressed to mimic the sound exactly. Let me know if you can, I'd be interested to hear it.

On a side note I recently picked up an FZ-10M for cheap....based pretty much solely on it's use by AFX. It was also used by Reload on their - collection of short stories album which I think is pretty cool as well.

i have it on good authority the synth in question is a Yamaha Jupiter Cool with a David Smyth Outer Space Echo Compressor.

lush thanks

  On 4/30/2016 at 5:33 AM, killabyte11 said:

I do see a correlation in the types of sounds used on ICBYD and SAWII. The great thing about Aphex Twin's music is although some of the sounds such as the synth in Alberto sound like standard poly stuff, you'd be hard pressed to mimic the sound exactly. Let me know if you can, I'd be interested to hear it.

 

On a side note I recently picked up an FZ-10M for cheap....based pretty much solely on it's use by AFX. It was also used by Reload on their - collection of short stories album which I think is pretty cool as well.

Hangable Autobulb, ABB5 and the Ventolin remixes, too, I think, all of which was my favorite era of Aphex.

What kind of deal did you get on the FZ-10m? Does it have that same kind of weird dry tone the Aphex stuff has?

  On 4/30/2016 at 6:16 AM, sweepstakes said:

Hangable Autobulb, ABB5 and the Ventolin remixes, too, I think, all of which was my favorite era of Aphex.

 

What kind of deal did you get on the FZ-10m? Does it have that same kind of weird dry tone the Aphex stuff has?

 

Paid $150 from a seller on ebay. So far I'm loving the character, what comes out almost always sounds a bit different than what I sampled in....in a good way. The filter is multi stage so it's different than your average filter and definitely has an interesting quality to it. Here is a bit of info on that...http://www.buchty.net/casio/dcf.html

  On 4/25/2016 at 2:54 AM, Brisbot said:

 

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Definitely a polysynth. Sounds like it was run through a flanger and a filter. Beyond that, it's probably infused with ancient magic or something.

Anyone know the best VST for ancient magic?