Re: How to get that helicopter type effect used in Planet Earth by Duran Duran
2015/08/15 21:43:53
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Without having tried to to recreate it I'd start with a pretty narrow pulse wave from a VCO which is then passed through a filter that's being frequency swept by an LFO and possibly adjusted by hand as well. After which it heads for the VCA which is also being swept by a square-wave LFO to create the tremolo chopping.
Another technique is no VCO wave at all, just a resonating filter which is heavily swept by a pretty fast LFO saw or square wave to create the chopping, a slower LFO sine or triangle to create a little in-time pitch movement then turning the filter knobs as required. Very easy on an analogue synth, even a Korg Monotron can do this sort of thing very well.
Basically it's a similar idea to how Pete Townshend created the filtered and tremelo on the organ at the opening of "Won't Get Fooled Again" by passing sustained organ chords through a VMS synth's modulated filter and VCA.
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