Recreat That Sound - Lyle May /Pat Metheny - Flute Vox

Well its pretty much it! everybody that knows Pat Metheny Group alreadys knows witch sound i'm talking about. Thing is Lyle Mays can change his setup all he wants but that particular sound is always there! Anybody?

Two oscillators (triangle waves, I believe), where one of them being slightly pitch-bent from below pitch up to normal pitch on each note, and that's done using an envelope generator to modulate that oscillator using a negative modulation amount.

 

ENV settings:

ADSR -- instant attack, decay amount to taste, sustain 0, release set to the same value as decay. Or, if using an AR, instant attack, decay amount to taste

 

OSC pitch modulation: negative amount (so that the pitch is driven instantly down by the ENV and the rises back up to pitch during decay (or release). Amount is to taste, but not more than about a 1/2 step.

 

HTH,

 

Ski

hi Ski,

 

are You here still ?

trying to recreate metheny sound also but dont know form where take two oscilators - i mean should i load some logic guitar rig and then plug something in plugin section and then change env -envelope i belive and oscillator ?

 

thx cheers !

Hey Nathan,

 

Still here occasionally

 

You can use ES-2 for this, or RetroSynth, especially in Wave (wavetable) mode. You can also use any two-oscillator synth that has an envelope generator which you can use to modulate the pitch of just one of the oscillators.

 

The Metheny sound is created using two oscillators (triangle wave or filtered square wave). Detune oscillator 2 slightly to create a rolling, phat sound. Then use an envelope with a fast attack and semi-fast decay to modulate the pitch of oscillator 2 in the negative direction. When you play a key, the envelope will rise quickly (fast attack), but because of the negative pitch modulation amount you dialed in on osc 2, the normally rising attack signal will end up driving the pitch down. The pitch will return to normal at the decay rate.

 

• If you use an ADSR envelope for this, set the decay and release times to be the same, and make sure sustain is set to zero.

• If you use an AR envelope, substitute "release" for "decay" in my description.

• An ASR envelope (with a fixed, high sustain level) will not work well for this.

 

Positive pitch modulation will create a similar effect, but I think you'll find the negative pitch modulation to be more authentic to the Metheny sound.

 

Adjusting the effect to taste (from subtle to not-so-subtle) is a matter of adjusting the amount of pitch modulation (how much the pitch deviates in response to the envelope) and the envelope's decay/release rate (determines how quickly the pitch returns to normal).

My favorite Lyle Mays song is; Highland Aire from his 1986 LP.