Knob Twiddling....

[richards]

Hello,

I'm Richard... I've not posted here before.
I first heard of Ozric Tentacles in the school playground in the 80's... But typically for me
I only really 'discovered' them about 5 years ago, but since then I've become a bit of a fan.

Whilst I wouldn't call myself a musican, I do 'play' the guitar, and spend a lot of time faffing with Ableton Live.
I've been trying to make something approaching an Ozrics style track for a couple of years now...
As I suppose have most of you...

One of the sounds I'm most interested in is the sort of very high pitched descending fill noise.
I went to the Nodens gig in Doncaster the other week, Silas seems to be making these
noises on the supernova, sometimes there'll be a rising one and a descending on that interfere in pleasing ways.

Somewhere else on the forum I've seen it described as 'bubbles'?

Does anyone know of a good VST that can do this sort of thing?

Thanks

[etherealise]

Hi Richard,

You might want to look through this thread for some suggestions: ozrics.proboards.com/thread/1400/ozric-sounds-synthesis-synth-geeks

Most analog/virtual analog synths should be able to make those sounds, and VSTs as well if they are broadly replicating an analog sound. It is easier to do with an interface though...

Back in the 70's the sounds you can hear in Hawkwind, Gong or Klaus Schulze would probably be that of the EMS VCS3 synthi:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMS_VCS_3

[richards]

That's great! Thanks.
I've found a VSC3 VST named 'The Putnie' which looks like it'll do some pretty amazing things with relative ease.

I also discovered this whilst I was researching..

Making bubble sounds using standard ableton plugins :


Do you have any idea what time signatures to use?
A lot of the more uptempo Ozrics stuff seems to be roughly in 4/4 but more like maybe 16/16.
Do you think there is a time signature which is distinctively Ozrics?

[etherealise]

At first I didn't get what you meant by time signatures and posted about how I don't sync up bubbles. But I'm guessing that's just a general question?

Most Ozrics is in 4/4 but with quite a lot of syncopation. There are some odd times here and there but not often.

Don't think 16/16 is actually a time signature but I guess you mean 16th notes played over a time signature of 4/4?

[richards]

Yes sorry... 4/4 but with extra space to add tricky high hats (the syncopation)
My DAW calls it 16/16.

I've noticed with a lot of Ozrics (and now particularly the Nodens stuff) that you'll be tapping your foot firmly in 4/4 but then all of sudden your foot is lying to you for reasons you can't understand.
I put this down to them using a complex time signature in which they're mimicking 4/4 until such a time as they decide to twist your melon. The 16th notes stay the same length, but everything else slides out, so you really should be tapping your foot to the high hats
But even then... Often that doesn't work either.

This is the beauty of Ozrics for me.. It's so accessible as to be bathtime music, and yet if you choose to engage your brain and try to inspect the music it suddenly becomes absolutely inaccessible.

Anyway.. I ramble.. thanks for the infromation

[strepp7]

Hey richards, new to the forums but a long time fan of Ozrics. I've just created a Vital (it a super awesome free VST) patch that I think exactly matches what you were after. If you ever read this reply tap me up and I'll send you the patch.

In essence though use a single oscillator with an envelope set to increase the pitch over a really slow attack (mines set to around 20 seconds). At the same time you want to use an LFO (I've used a down ramp but a sine or triangle would also work) to also lightly 'wobble' the pitch. Then set eith another lfo or as I did, the modulation wheel to affect the lfo's frequency so it goes from a slow ramp to an extremely fast rate.

Peace peeps!