Pacific String Chord Debate...

[PatFromCanada]

Hey there,

This mainly for Pacific Reefer in his pursuit in closely matching that definitive chord sound in Pacific State.

I tried doing a cover of it as well. What helped me was I read a really early interview in a great book called 'The history of House' where Graham explained how they achieved the Strings Chord in Pacific.

(This was a re-printed interview from the Quadra-state dayz)

They sampled a 'warm strings' patch (I'm assuming) off a D-50 into a Casio sampler keyboard. A C major 7th. Then replayed that chord off the Casio one key at a time. Graham mentioned being inspired by that method to get a very 'techno' sort of sound doing it that way.

I of course had to try this in a crap bossa nova "Bossa Tres Jazz" track I was working on a couple years ago. Except I sampled my D-50 into my Casio SK-1. (had to sample the higher pitch c major 7th to get the right length playback on the Casio's lower keys...)

It was pretty dead on to that sound with a dash of 'verb off my Yamaha spx-90 rack.

I also have a Juno 106 and it's not quite the same. The strings off that board I prefer over the D-50 anyday. But I loooove how a D-50's brightness on some patches cut through a mix of analog synths so well.

Anyway... great pacific mixes naturally from the reefer!! Maybe i'll be brave enough to send Markus my Bossa Tres Jazz-esque cover version soon.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeers!!!!

Pat From Canada (currently buried working on the Too Human trilogy for the X-Box 360... keep you posted on that when we get close to release!)

[graham]

im suprised how much we did use the D50 back then , its because as you say it sticks out of a mix , it has a nylon quality to it that was fresh back then , Ive still got one but all the presets are un altered ,we use to have a programmer unit for it but did nt get any good results , we used the pitzicato preset a lot (firecracker,cobra bora) the harpsichord strings (in yer face) and as you say the warm strings on pacific sampled into the casio fz1 with a bit of filter
and the reverb would have been a quadraverb on quadrastate (probably where quadra in quadra state came from)

[PatFromCanada]

Yeah man, the PG 1000. I have one for my 50 and it's a lot of fun once you get yer head around it. ( I had to get a booklet ) I also own all the Roland cards for mine and there is a TON of stuff from that sound set that you definately hear in early 808 records. Like the intro bit in State to State.

Did you ever get the Voice Crystal cards? I have only the Keith Emerson signature one so I could get all 'Tarkus' with it. (kidding, i'm no where near that skilled) But there's some goodies on there like the LA synthesis version of some moog patches.

Anyway, cheers man!

Pat From Canada