4 years for an update to one of my favorite synth covers of all time is much too long. In my opinion, this is the closest that you can come to the Van Halen - "1984" sound using an Alesis Ion synthesizer.
Many people have asked me over the years how I get the sound...and it's not an easy answer, lol. I actually created the new patches from scratch, so they're nothing like the patches in my original video, located here:
• Van Halen- "1984" play...
I had to tweak a lot of settings that most people don't even drill down in to, and other than posting a MIDI SysEx dump of the patch for the program bank, you kinda just have to write an instruction manual for each modulation section.
In a future video I'll go over all of the settings to satisfy everyone. =]
Here's a quick summary of the most important settings :
The Ion is tuned down to 434.19 hz and is using two parts, one for the lower swell and one for the string sound. The filters are actually both set as "Moog 4-Pole Lowpass." I use all three oscillators on both parts (slightly detuned against each other) and use a small amount of frequency modulation to make everything play nice. Analog drift is set at 40% and other than the tube amp drive effect, used on the output, and a small amount of external reverb, the sound is uncompressed (at least at the time of the recording.)
I kept the levels a little low to make you turn the sound up and experience it the way it's meant to be heard.
28 сен 2024
