how do you get this keyboard sound? OCEANS 11,12,13

[andygabrys]

like in the new trailer listing for Successful Film/TV Music Placement/Licensing Company needs SUPER COOL, UPTEMPO INSTRUMENTALS for the TRAILER for a new Hollywood Feature Film. From the company, "We're looking for slick, cool and cheeky instrumentals a la David Holmes' 'Oceans 11, 12, 13' film scores.

and this tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMvAGxZd8-g

at about 0:55 there is a descending keyboard line. tried a deep fast tremolo on an organ but didn't quite get there.

what is that instrument, or what effect? can it be replicated in Logic or Protools with any stock plugins? any third party ones?

[mojobone]

That's just a Hammond with percussion and delay; it sounds funky because the delayed repeats are coming back at about the same speed as the thumb gliss. Sounds like about four repeats that are almost in tempo. Pretty slick. Hmm, I thought I didn't have anything to fit this listing, but those beats are straight outta seventies Blue Note. There's a series of records called Blue Breakbeats with all the cool Blue Note stuff that got sampled on later hiphop records; you might find 'em instructive, I know I did.

[Kolstad]

Hmm, to me it sounded more like a piano or mallet, highly compressed with lots of top end rolled off, and perhaps a short delay.. then again, it might just be a preset in some synth

[andygabrys]

cool thanks for the ideas. I thought it might be a hammond sound, will do more digging. it shows up pretty frequently in the various tunes.

reading about the guys they had on these sessions, I am pretty sure they did used all analog stuff, probably not a bunch of ITB synths and stuff.

true the beats are all from yesterday, but mixed to sound like today. I like it, its fun music to me. I dig the 70's blue note stuff.

[sethlit]

Oh man, thanks. Very helpful. It does sound like a Hammond. Looks like it's gonna be an all nighter tonight.

Listening to those break beats, it makes me really wish I had purchased en electric kit by now. It would be a lot easier playing them then tweaking midi for hours. It's super hard to get those grooves on midi. And I would stay far away from using the samples. Any contemporary drum mixing ideas on this one anyone? It sounds like some kind of squashy compression with lots of short room verb? Just a thought.

Seth

[andygabrys]

yeah good point. I am thinking parallel drum comp like 10dB with an LA-3A or similar and pretty dry and punchy. I think most of the room is coming up just from being squashed.

[manninghollow]

Hey Guys Remember Farfisa organs. That sound is unmistakable

[andygabrys]

so I got the "far feezer" preset in logic's EVB3. and a tape delay on it set to 16'ths.

But I think the real deal is the tremolo

at 1.02 of "not their fight" the is an upward gliss followed by a held note.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9719334/Oceans_tremolo.png

tremolo set like that seems pretty close. automate the rate control to something on your keyboard and then you get the organ melody like in "sounds Phoney" especially at the end.

[sethlit]

Andy thanks man! I'm squashing the crap out of my drums with a UAD 1176 and it sounds great. Absolutely right about the verb. Bass next, then onward to my battle with the organ.

farfisa huh? My organ knowledge is nill. Gonna check it out.

Seth

[mazz]

Basically it's just a "thumb gliss" on a keyboard, all white keys descending with lots of echo. The key is to have a percussive sound, fast attack, fast decay, no sustain, no release and make sure the echoes are the same volume as the dry sound so it all blends together. As Mojo said, a Hammond with percussion would do it, a Rhodes with no sustain pedal down or a Clavinet with the mute engaged (for a mellower effect). Even a synth sound could be a good raw sound for this.

Another thing to try would be to use something like a tape delay or a digital delay with the ability to roll off the highs from the repeats. The delay sound, while the same volume as the original, should be slightly darker in tone so as to not be an exact copy. In the 70s we had either tape delay or analog delay, neither of which gave back an exact copy of the original sound. In nature, echoes never have the amount of high frequencies that the original sound does, so that may be why we like the sound of tape or analog delay.

Have fun!