By Andy Skuse aka Dr Raven
Posted to the newsgroup alt.music.rush Jan 2003. The intro has been updated and edited here for clarity.
Mar 2008 - Updated this document with instructions on how to download my Tom Sawyer growl sound patch for the Roland SH-32 synth (see bottom of document).
Dec 2003 - Updated this document with information about the Roland SH-32 synth.
MAR 18 2008 - SH-32 PATCH DOWNLOAD - After reading my article below about the Tom Sawyer "growl sound", fellow Roland SH-32 user Joe emailed and asked me if I could send him a copy of my Tom Sawyer patch from my SH-32. With a little direction from Joe, I dug through the SH-32 manual a bit and eventually managed to get the patch data downloaded from the synth to my computer and saved it as a .MID file and as an .SYX (SysEx) file. I then made the files available on my server here. If you have a Roland SH-32 here's how to use the file.
There are 2 ways to get the sound into our SH-32.
METHOD 1 - .MID FILE - After downloading the ts_sh32patch.mid file to your computer, load it into your favourite sequencer program and then connect your computer's MIDI interface MIDI Out port to the SH-32's MIDI In port. Next, set your SH-32 to Device ID 17. My SH-32 was set to ID 17 when I dumped the file so yours will have to match it for the upload to work. You can change it back after the upload is completed. There is nothing else to configure on your SH-32 for the upload. It will receive the patch data automatically. Next, set the patch number of your SH-32 to a blank patch or to a patch that you won't mind losing. The uploaded patch will overwrite whatever patch your SH-32 is currently set to so if it's an important patch then copy the current patch to another patch location or choose a different patch number. Next, press Play on your sequencer program and watch the patch number window of your SH-32. You should see one dot flicker briefly in the bottom right and then a dot will appear in the bottom left to tell you the patch has been altered. Stop your sequencer program. Verify that the Tom Sawyer sound is now occupying the patch by playing your controller keyboard connected to the SH-32. If you're happy with the Tom Sawyer sound then use the Write button to save the patch to your SH-32.
METHOD 1 - .SYX FILE - If you find that the .MID file method doesn't work for you, try this method. The instructions are essentially the same but instead of using a sequencer to playback the MIDI System Exclusive data you will use a SysEx Librarian program to upload the ts_sh32patch.syx file to your SH-32. For Mac OS X users, I found the "SysEx Librarian" from snoize worked very well. It's free and you can download it here. For Windows PC users, Joe suggested "MIDIOX" which can be downloaded here. To use either of these programs, load the .SYX file, then "play" the file to upload it to your SH-32. As per the .MID method there is nothing to configure on the SH-32 to receive the file. It will receive the patch data automatically. Remember, set the patch number of your SH-32 to a blank patch or to a patch that you won't mind losing. The uploaded patch will overwrite whatever patch your SH-32 is currently set to so if it's an important patch then copy the current patch to another patch location or choose a different patch number. If you're happy with the Tom Sawyer sound then use the Write button to save the patch to your SH-32.
Voila! You now have, IMHO, a pretty cool sounding Tom Sawyer growl sound! If anyone has any questions or problems downloading the file drop me a line.
DEC 2003 - GROWL SOUND ARTICLE - Okay, this "growl sound" as Geddy has nicknamed it... it starts off the song Tom Sawyer with a very identifiable and unique sound that just about everybody who has heard Rush will recognize instantly. So how was it done and which synth did Geddy use to make the sound?
Let's start off with which synth Geddy used and then we'll dig in to how he made the sound. But to find out which one of the many synths that Geddy has owned & played we have to think like a detective.
(dons Sherlock Holmes hat and pipe)
Okay, all of my materials (books, pictures, interviews, videos etc.) tell me that right up until the Moving Pictures album Geddy had an Oberheim 8-voice polyphonic synth and an OB-1 for Oberheim synths, and a MiniMoog and Moog Taurus pedals. Here's an awesome pic of this setup from the Moving Pictures tour book:
An interesting and very relevant fact about Rush's tour programs; the pictures we see in the programs are almost always from the previous tour. Why? Well, the programs are printed up before the tour so you can't have pictures from a tour that hasn't happened yet can you? ;) This fact tells us that the picture of Geddy's synth setup above was taken during the Permanent Waves tour. This picture is a great source of "secret" info for those who know what to look for in the picture. Update 2004: There is a very cool picture in the 30th Anniversary Tour Program of this exact same synth setup taken from another angle which yielded fresh answers to some questions I still had such as where the sequencer was that was used for Spirit of Radio. Because of the angle of the earlier photo we couldn't see the sequencer hiding underneath the OB-1 on the left side of the synth rig!
In the picture above we see the OB-1 on Geddy's left, and the Oberheim 8-voice and Minimoog are on his right cleverly fitted into his ultracool custom keyboard stand made by Jack Secret aka Tony Geranios. (Side-note: Note that the "brain" section for the Oberheim 8-voice is detached from the keyboard and is behind the OB-1).
The most important thing to note in that pic is the location of each synthesizer. Remember them.
Next, here are a couple of pics of each of the two individual synths for reference. Note the markings and layout of the knobs:
Now, some here have suggested the MiniMoog and/or the Moog Taurus pedals may be the possible source for the growl sound, but in the book "Merely Players" on page 242 Geddy is quoted from an interview as saying an Oberheim was the source for the growl sound, but he doesn't specify which one. To find out exactly which Oberheim synth he used we need to look at three key pieces of evidence.
EXHIBIT A: obx.jpg
EXHIBIT B: jack_secret_mp.jpg
EXHIBIT C: The Chronicles video or DVD. Song: Tom Sawyer. DVD Time location 16:21.
First look at Exhibit A and you see an Oberheim OB-X.Very nice. Note the various markings and the layout of the knobs. Now look at Exhibit B and you'll see Jack Secret aka Tony Geranios posing in front of Geddy's synth setup for a picture from the back of the Signals tourbook (which means this pic was taken during the Moving Pictures tour... remember they always use pics from the last tour). Note the location of the synths in this horribly grainy and dark picture. The OB-X has replaced the OB-1 on the left side, and the Oberheim 8-voice and MiniMoog are on the right, still fitted cleverly into the ultracool custom keyboard stand. (Side-note: Note that the "brain" of the Oberheim 8-voice is now located slightly off-stage left). Now, watch Exhibit C--the Tom Sawyer video from the Chronicles DVD-- and at a few points we see Geddy playing this very same synth setup with the OB-X at his left hand and the Oberheim 8-voice and Minimoog on his right in the ultracool keyboard stand. At precisely 16:21 on my DVD player's counter we see Geddy play a note with his left hand on the OB-X. At the same time we hear the growl sound playing the B note. Aha! And if you keep watching you will see him play what I call a "string synth" sound on the Oberheim 8-voice during the bridge sections, a synth lead sound leading into the guitar solo on the Minimoog, and the Taurus pedals are used for the verse sections.
Elementary! ;)
(removes Sherlock Holmes cap and puts the pipe away)
As to how to recreate the sound itself, with newer digital synths you may get close but you'll always be frustrated because something will be missing and you just can't put your finger on it. So, ya gotta get an analog synth. Or do you?
I used to have an old Oberheim Matrix 6 and a Matrix 6R and both managed to make a pretty fair "growl sound" but they were never quite right to my ears. One big reason was because the Matrix 6 series was a hybrid synth that used analog and digital technology. The result was that were not purely analog synths which made them sound a bit too clean and not as "warm" as a real analog synth. Very close, but no cigar. This was going to be tough.
My "quest" to reproduce the growl sound gradually turned into an obsession. The more I listened to the song the more I felt I had to find a synth that would nail the sound exactly. Well, the research I did to find out which synth Geddy used for the sound (see above) led me to start chasing Oberheim OB-X's on ebay, but I gave up after 8 months due to the high prices ($1000 USD and up for a good 8 voice model) and the astronomical cost of shipping for such a heavy item, not to mention the cost of maintenance for such an old synth and the fear of it getting damaged if I were to use it for a gig. So now what?
I had sold both Matrix synths (though looking back I should probably have kept the Matrix 6R) in the hopes of buying an OB-X but when that didn't pan out I did a lot of research over the next few months on the web and eventually found this little gadget:
Doesn't look like much, but the more I read about it and the more I heard it via some samples on the web the more I felt I'd found what I was looking for. But wait a sec, you ask... "isn't that one of those analog modelling synths? Isn't that like a hybrid synth?" Sorta but not. Analog modelling synths basically use a digitally sampled waveform to create the main part of a sound which is the way most synths have been making sounds for the past decade or so and the results have always been mixed on how good the resulting sound was. But the engineers at Roland have worked really hard to go the extra mile with their latest crop of synths that use analog modelling to get really close to the sound of a real analog synth. If you ask an analog synth purist about analog modelling synths he'd likely just laugh. But as I found out with my OB-X goose-chase I can't afford to be an analog purist anyway, so I just went with what my ears were telling me; that this synth had the sound I wanted, and other great analog sounds as well.
Once I'd made my mind up I started checking out websites that sell the SH-32 and was surprised to see that a lot of them had marked the SH-32 down to around $199.99 USD! A lot more affordable than $1000! The low price made me wonder if maybe it was one of those things you buy because it looked like a great deal but you end up eventually being disappointed. But after reading a lot of positive reviews at Harmony Central and other review sites I snapped one up anyway and a couple weeks later it arrived. I set it up and connected it to my MIDI patchbay and started playing with the sounds. Many of the preset sounds were clearly designed for hip-hop and techno type music which wasn't really surprising considering a lot of techno artists use old analog synths on their recordings these days. But very quickly I could see the potential this little synth had to recreate many of the old analog synth sounds that Rush used. And with all the knobs and controls it was very intuitive to tweak the sounds and quickly put together a sound I was hearing in my head.
But what about the growl sound? Here are some samples I made from the SH-32 of the 4 notes (updated Oct 2006):
ts_growl_E.wav 892 KB
ts_growl_A.wav 660 KB
ts_growl_B.wav 752 KB
ts_growl_G.wav 876 KB
Here's how it sounds in the song (courtesy of the "Digital Men"):
I love my SH-32 and strongly recommend that anyone into analog synth sounds pick one up before they disappear. But let's say you already have a synth or two and want to use what you've got to try and recreate the growl sound. Well, because it's not really a sophisticated sound most synths can approximate the sound using basic synth technique. I italicized the word approximate because many modern digital synths don't use the same method of synthesis (Subtractive synthessis) that was used in the older analog synths, so if you own a modern digital synth using PCM-based sample synthesis like a Roland D-50 then you might be disappointed. Ideally you need a synth that allows tweaking of it's oscillators and filters. Scott from the alt.music.rush newsgroup wrote up a detailed follow-up to my article above on how to cook up the growl sound using basic synth techniques. In his example he used an Oberheim Matrix 1000 (close cousin to the Matrix 6) to make the growl sound but the terms he uses should apply to most synths capable of recreating basic analog synth sounds:
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"Its really fairly simple. The filter close should be obvious. Just set the cutoff freq. fairly low, and turn the "cutoff modulated by envelope" all the way up, and set the release for that envelope (and the amplitude envelope as well) to be fairly slow. Turn the resonance way up too, but not high enough for it to oscillate. The oscillators can be anything you want, other than sine or triangle. Probably best if both were sawtooth, but one can be a wide pulse. That will add some extra low end to the sound anyway. Detune them a wee bit and set the octave low. I set them both the same as opposed to one an octave higher than the other. So, a fairly basic synth sound. The tricky part is the modulation. There's an xmod button on the OB-X which may be how Geddy originally did it, but Im not sure. I really havent read anywhere exactly how he did it. Actually, the minimoog could do it as well, I believe. But keep in mind, every synth sounds different! I was playing around with my sequential circuits Six Trak and although it does the modulation routing, it definitely sounds different! But here's how I do it. Fairly simple. Modulate the cutoff frequency with oscillator 1. In other words, you're modulating the filter at an audio frequency. The same frequency as the note you're playing. Thats where this sound can be tricky because not all synths have this modulation routing. If you can modulate the cut off with the LFO that'll work too, as long as you can tune the LFO to that low E. The problem is, he uses that sound again in the "The world is the world is love and life are deep" part and in there you have to play B A and G notes, and the modulation frequency has to be the same as the fundamental frequency or it sounds really weird, messy. Thats why its best to just use osc 1 or 2 to modulate the filter. After that, add some delay (outboard delay unit), around 120ms. When I was experimenting with this the other day I found that the initial thump gets echoed and sounds kinda weird, like a double hit, but Ive done it before and it sounded fine... not sure how! But if you listen closely to the original (not the live version), especially in headphones and compare it with the basic sound compared to the echoed one, you can hear the difference. Adding the second one (the echoed one) makes the sound a lot more juicey!" |
Scott provided some great fine-tuning ideas such as adding a second slightly delayed duplicate of the sound to thicken it and give it that doubling effect that you can hear on the album. Because my SH-32 has onboard effects I was able to try what Scott talked about and you can hear the delay in my samples above. Also, below you'll find a copy of the Matrix 6 data sheet for the Tom Sawyer sound that I was using before I picked up the SH-32. This chart may also be useful to others who don't have an Oberheim synth:
A couple of notes to add on *playing* the sound: In the bands that I've played with in the past that played Tom Sawyer we always opened the song with the growl synth sound, drums (obviously), *and* the bass and guitar also playing the low E to emphasize the note. And watching Alex in the ESL video seems to confirm that he at least does sound the low E on his guitar and lets it slowly feedback. But recently, the drummer for the band I'm in now asked me why we were putting the bass and guitar note in at the start since only the growl sound and drums are heard on the original album. A little stunned, I listened to the song again and sure enough he's right. At the very start it's just Neil and the growl sound. No bass or guitar. And it makes sense too, because the impact is much greater when the guitar and bass jump in shortly after. For some reason I'd always assumed that Alex and maybe Geddy had played that note, most likely because every Rush tribute band I've ever seen makes this same mistake and I assumed they were right.
And as for the decay of the note, it's important not to let the sound just fade out once it has been played. Listen again to the samples up above and listen carefully to the long sustaining section at the end, how it rumbles around and resonates. At the point that the sound reaches the very low rumbley part it should stop decaying and sustain, to be held for the entire time that Geddy is singing over the sound. And as it is held it should slightly modulate randomly, so that the sound is not a perfectly flat smooth tone. And it should be monophonic (might be called "solo" or unison" mode on other synths) so that the sound is cut off when a following note is triggered otherwise it all just mushes together when playing the B, A and G notes under the line "The world is the world is...".
It's interesting to note that on the last couple of tours the growl sound is now a sample of the original sound from the album. Geddy still uses several synthesizers as well as samplers (Roland S-770 then later the Roland XV-5080), but from the keyboard lists and pictures I've seen, the synthesizers, with the exception of the back and forth appearances of the Minimoog and Taurus pedals, are newer digital types not really capable of producing the growl sound very accurately. And a few tours back (pre-CounterParts) you could very distinctly tell that many of the older synth sounds were different than the sounds we heard on the albums including the growl sound in Tom Sawyer. I suspect they were using the newer synths to try and approximate the old sounds and didn't really worry too much about getting the sound exact. A big reason for this would likely be because it's just not practical to carry around old fragile analog synths on tour any more (though some bands still do). But now with the advent of more powerful samplers capable of storing longer samples with higher sampling frequencies it is easier to sample old analog sounds. A very revealing article written by Jack Secret himself for EQ magzine back in 1997 details the process which Jack used to dig into the master tapes and sample the old analog sounds. He doesn't specify which sounds but certainly those old familiar synth sounds were back in full effect for the TFE and VT tours. And they sounded great :)
If you have any questions please email me. Thanks for reading!
- Dr Raven
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