ghostbusters

im sequencing the track by ray parker jr as part of my coursework at college. its got some synths in, and i was wondering if there are any particular ensembles in the user library that would do well at emulating those instruments used in the track.

on a side note, if anyone happens to know what instruments were used in the original recording i would be most grateful, so i can work on getting some samples of them.

while it would be nice to slowly build my own synths to do what i need for this track, as time is always limited with 3 pieces of sequencing coursework and 1 piece of recording coursework due for may.

apologies if what i've said above doesnt make any sense, i know what i was trying to say but im not sure if i succeeded.

 

OK, while tracks like this tend to make one's flesh crawl in this day and age, I'll have to admitt that I have a soft spot for some of these wretched 80's creations. . .reverb-drenched Phil Collins drums and all.

First things first, bothering to build a synth in reaktor that can make any of the tones in this track is a complete waste of time (IMHO of course), as the core sounds are completely banal and easily reproduceable with a number of readily availible vst pluggins. I'm definitely one who appreciates the retro thing, don't get me wrong, but most of these sounds are tones that have already been repro'd in countless vsts released throughout the years.

So. . .

1. The bassline - - I'd put good money on this being a minimoog. . though you could probably even get a pretty good approximation with the Juno emulator in the factory library. So look for a minimoog emulator, juno emultor, etc. . a juicy, but easy-to-achieve tone.

2. The opening pad - - I've got no clue. . it's just a classic "strings" pad. The song predates the first Romplers (D-50, M1, etc). . so it must have been milked from a big polysynth. Download the Pro52 demo and see if anything comes close. . . or see if you can find a Roland Jupiter 8 emulator. I'm not familiar with what samples came with the Fairlight workstations around at the time, but I doubt it came from one of those beasts.

3. Guitar sound - - it's a live guitar with compression, distortion, etc. . you're on your own on that one.

4. Drums - - definitely a Simmons kit or a Linn LM-1, 9000, LinnDrum. My money is one it being a Simmons kit. . .the Miami Vice drums are Simmons, and this sounds about the same. . . just put a rediculous gated plate reverb over any old drum sound and your half way there already. I don't know much about the sound generation of the Simmons drum brain. . . there are "cult synth" sample CDs that can help if you just want to use samples. . . the discontinued Waldorf Attack VSTi had a simmons kit preset as well if memory serves.

5. Brass sounds - - good gawd. . . it doesn't get much worse than that, does it? My thoughts are the same as the opening pad sound on this one. . . either a polysnth onpar with the Jupiter 8 or a surprisingly warm and lively yamaha DX7 . . a quick download of the FM7 demo might help narrow things down. . . sounds like there is some live sax in there as well.

OK, suppose that's enough for now. Feel free to get more specific with the questioning. . . I've got a friend that is waaay into early industrial (front 242, Nitzer Ebb, etc), so I've been trying to help him track down the exact source of some of these really dated sounds as of late - - I sent him a bunch of links to Linn and Simmons samples recently, I'll see if I can track that down. . . . and anyone that thinks my guesses above are off, should definitely chime and say so. . . I was playing with Transformers when this movie came out, not laying down tracks in a studio, so what do I know?

Oh, BTW - - "Ghostbusters" was written as an "approximation" of "I Want a New Drug" by Huey Lewis and the News. . . the film's producers wanted to use that track, but couldn't get the rights. . so the hired Parker to write a track that came as close as possible to "I want a new Drug". . if you listen to both, you can see why Lewis sued Parker (resulting in an out of court settlement). Maybe you could sequence both tracks for extra credit? They're pretty darn close.

hope this helps,

wh

 

excellent thanks mate, that should get me started enough with it. i had read in my research of the link with the huey lewis song. havent got much by huey lewis though, only fore!
shame you dont like all that 80's stuff. i love it. relaxing and funny. hahah. last year i recorded sweet transvestite from Rocky horror, that was funny.
but yeah, thanks for the instrument help, now just a bit more of the long slog of slowly sequencing it and then polishing it.- last night spent about 3 hours doing the tempo track for it on cubase. totally synced to the audio now, every beat. just work it all out by ear now and articulation and everything. goodie.

 

Well that explains it.. The Rocky Horror show is from 1973... The comparison isn't quite fair either!

Andreas

 

ok ok, not just 80's stuff. it may not be fair, but i class it all together- brilliant, amusing, catchy.
you cant blame me for getting these years wrong, i like the stuff and all that, but it was quite a way before i was born hehehe

 

oh I was just trying to be funny. I wouldn't have bothered to try and list every sound in detail if part of me didn't have a soft spot for that kind of 80's production. Parker supposedly also produced some of New Edition's early stuff, which is a recent obsession of mine. . . "Cool it Now" and "Candy Girl" are great sugary Jackson-Five-esque tracks in a deliciously (hilariously?) perverse kind of way. After I posted the above, I tried to look up Mr. Parker, to see if he could be contacted to give you exact details. .. and then realized. . . . "hmmm, didn't I just post a bunch of paragraphs having lots of fun at his expense?". . . I shouldn't be so harsh, regardless of how funny I think it might be at the time. People are always going to get the wrong idea about where I'm coming from. If I really didn't have respect or affection for the song in question, I would have kept my negativity to myself and not posted anything.

Good luck with the recreation, let us know if you hit any roadblocks,

-wh

 

damnit i really need to start understanding humour. well. normal humour. i have my own weird brand of humour and only recognise other peoples if its labelled explicitly. most likely comes from going to boarding school where my dorm mates had very..... odd ideas about humour.

but yeah, thanks for the help. i dont think i'll hit many road blocks with the sequencing. the sounds are the hardest. musically its quite simple. the drum break at one point might be a bit tricky, but its all fun. thankfully im obsesssive about this stuff. few weeks ago i had to stay up about 40 hours straight to finish a cd at night (for a uni application) and go to college during the day. heheh

 

Well, it looks like the links to vintage non-roland drum machines that I promised didn't include any simmons kits. . . but like I said, the Waldorf Attack vsti is the way to go for simmons emulation. . you could probably program quite a few pre-existing subtractive-synth drum machines in the library to make Simmons-like sounds, but you'ld need a reference either way. As I'm sure you know, Waldorf is no more, so you'll need to find someone that can get you access to thier copy of the Attack vsti.

http://www.emulatorarchive.com/DrumMachines/DrumulatorOverview/drumulatoroverview.html

there is a link to a .zip pack on the right.

http://www.electrongate.com/dmxfiles/linn/


good luck,

weeklyhaircut (at) yahoo (dot) com

 

http://www.versionist.com/samplepack/3946/detail
i think i found a sample pack of simmons kit hits. whether it actually sounds like a simmons kit or not i have no idea, but for the moment im using that.
yeah, i'll look into the waldorf vst. theres a ton of stuff that the tutors at college have so they may be able to help me out. its a shame about waldorf going, as im a tiny (hehe) bit too young for the whole proper old hardware stuff. which is a shame. i now look on the hardware at college with awe as, apart from the obvious stuff like monitors, keyboards, screens and computer generally, i do everything using software. and with no real life input - instruments, or players (maybe one day i'll get round to damn vocals)
shame it all costs enough to make you want to rob a bank, though i do accept its a smaller bank that when everything was just hardware. a medium size towns bank or two instead of the national gold storage. hehehe
on the idea of programming some sub synths for drums - i've done quite a bit of synthesis now and programming the things (comes from being too obsessive about it all, about two people at college understand what im talking about when i start dribbling over the idea of some lovely new synth or sample mangler i've thought of) but im totally shocking at programming drum sounds. ah well. thanks wh

 

There ya go, nice find. Ought to get you started. . now you just gotta find the right 80's gated drum verb to go with it. Don't give up on the Waldorf Attack though for future use, especially if your into the vintage drum thing. Given that this is thread is veering OT at this point, you're welcomed to email me directly re: how it all turns out.

-wh

weeklyhaircut (at) yahoo (dot) com