Stacking a lot of saw waveforms ("superimposing" ) is a common technique to fatten up the saw sound and create a "super saw". Offsetting the same saw waveform by a fine tuning in a slightly sharp and slightly flat direction fattens up the sound and can start to emulate adding effects.

Check out this for creating a PWM where no real PWM control exists (fig 1):
https://cosinesound.com.au/blog/2015/10/31/pwm-pt1

I don't have a huge background with additive synthesis - but those that do have that experience can fairly quickly translate to how a rompler (samples) of basic waveforms can be mixed or LFO controlled to accomplish the same types of sounds.

I suppose my question is, how did those guys know to start with those "basic" building blocks when recreating Album sounds from 1973 and 1975 ?

Ahh, the 1970’s.... a lot of the *weird* sounds you hear on recordings from that era might well be synthesizers but many of them were not synthesizers at all. Particularly, when talking about a band like Pink Floyd... those were the early days of synthesizers. MiniMoog, EMS Synthi (and if you were rich a Yamaha CS80) reigned in studio recording (along with the Arp Odyssey and String Ensemble, Mellotron, etc) ...
1973-75 pre-dates the Prophet5... the Oberheims at the time were 2 and 4 voice...

But almost any and everything could be found on recordings (especially with a band like Pink Floyd... didn’t they use a bunch of wine glasses on a few songs?)... the Air Hose was a probably a toy... if you remember the Hula Hoop, well if you ever broke one, you didn’t throw it out, you swung it around and around over your head and it made this compelling sine wave Doppler effect sound that found its way on records... (some company actually made one... fads came and went quickly back then... faster than Mac Operating Systems do today.

Sound designers don’t limit themselves to just electronic sources, they would be deeply into the ‘found object’ thing - if it made a unique noise it might be used in a recording. Sound designers in the 1970’s would bang on anything — think “Star Wars”, when you find out what some of those sounds actually were — it’s amazing. Sound designers and foley artists are cut from the same cloth, made from a similar mold.

If you ever get to see a movie called “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension” (although made in the early 80’s) you’ll hear all manner of ‘found object’ sound FX that are both crazy and would eventually find their way into musical synthesizers. By the time sample-based synthesizers started to appear, they went beyond the Sawtooth and Pulse Waves of the original 1970’s synths - and many samples came the sound designer’s imaginations.

I have a good friend who triggers sound Fx from his Yamaha electronic drum kit... he did a commercial for a washing machine company, where every sound was sampled from the the washing machine... everything is fair game.

Thus things like an “Air Hose” becomes a Waveform in memory... the SY99 had a sound made from a styrofoam cup rolling around on a table... incredible sound when mic’d up and transposed across several octaves... you’d never guess what it was; truly almost anything goes.

I tend to think whatever sound you are playing from that sound library, is made by one of the programmers keenly aware of the fact Pink Floyd might have very well used an actual air hose in the studio. Certainly no modern synth should be without one (lol).

I often make the joke about my first synth (back in 1974) having just two waveforms, a sawtooth and a pulse (compare that to the 6347 in your MODX)... there are a lot of ‘found objects’ in the Wave ROM.

Sound designers are a special breed... when they listen to the world, they do so with a different approach. Just as musicians listen to music differently than non-musicians... you hear things that are unnoticed by the average person. Even when you point it out to them, they may not hear it. Well, synthesizer Sound Designers are a special breed of musician, they hear stuff other musicians may not initially be paying attention to... for them it becomes more than what it is.

BM, J.... thanks for your replies.

It made me laugh when I found out what the air hose actually was... I shall listen to it again with a new set of ears (I'm still laughing as I write this).

I had a read up on SuperSaw as well... which is now making a lot of presets make sense.

Last night I started playing with PEGs and FEGs... and different filter types. So far I've got it make some funny noises, but not what I was expecting. I'll keep at it.

Cheers

.

Found Object?

“Whirly Tube” — Google that... that’s your “Air Hose” Waveform

😀

There are some very specific type sounds I would like to emulate on the MODX. Can you help?

Its a big ask, but as ever, your input is greatly appreciated.

1) Yamaha YC45D "Squawk" - starts around around 06:15 in YT video. Robotic buzzy sound, nicknamed "The Crow Sound" where it appeared on Pink Floyd records.

2) A pitchable "Scream" sound. Can be heard right at the start of Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 (05:07)

I've read that this is a unique Vocal trick by Roger Waters called the "Inhaling Scream".

3) A "Flutey" Brass sound. Richard Wright had a Brass Lead sound for the intro of Shine On You Crazy Diamond. It has been likened to the sound of French Horns, but was an Analogue Synth Brass with a distinct "Flute Breath" in the attack. I have been playing with PEG and FEG to see if I can get close, but no cigar so far. I note some posts in here regards Breath Controllers, but such a thing did not exist in 1974/1975.

Starts around 00:42

4) Wine Glasses. Same video as 3) above. MODX "Wind Chimes" waveform useful. Better, would be an individual "chime" sound, pitchable on individual keys, to allow Gm inversions to be played (particularly through the guitar solos)

Here’s my penny’s worth on the sounds. Most of these are sound fx and will be surrounded by other audio. I am quite a stickler for these little details myself, but accept close enough in such circumstances. I don’t have all the answers for you, and the last couple are the most positive.
1) Sqwark - I don’t know
The crow sound - do you mean the bird sound. I would use 1 element only with waveform Digi Heli and experiment with a downward pitch envelope to it. It’s close.

2) Unfortunately Roger Water is not sampled in the Montage 🙂 . I personally wouldn’t attempt this programming for 1 second of song and instead get the singer to do it. The alternative is mix and matching a couple of the sound fx and musical fx waveforms or even distorted guitar fx

3) Try the presets Singleline1 and Single line 2 as starting points.

4) Try starting with the preset performance Glassbell Pindrops. You only need Part 1. Turn off the ARP, Motion Sequencer and variation send.
That’s what I have used before and sounds good in the mix

Hopefully some help?