Assignment 02 - Creating a synthesis replication

In spending time with logics ES2 Synthesiser, I decided to attempt to recreate the very subtle and classic lead line from Kraftwerk's 1983 single "Tour de France" -


An incredibly classy sounding lead line, it carried a whole ream of nuances hard to put a finger on exactly what to do, however, I motored on and started as follows.

Made up of at least three oscillators, I decided to start with a blank analogue ES2, this means loading from the "Analog Saw Init" preset, to clear the ES2 of any pre-determined settings.

After playing in the melody to logics sequencer, I started with a basic triangle wave in oscillator 1, followed by a Square in oscillator 2

Note: I detuned oscillator 2 to -12, an octave below it's brother, the triangle wave in Osc 1

During experimentation with filtering and cutoffs, I found it very tricky to remove the buzziness of the two, and decided to add a sine tone set two octaves lower, to create a more hollow, wooden tone to the synth

This, when mixed correctly, created a closer tonality, but I was still left with a very staccato synth tone, and so, I decided to then add decay and sustain to the signal. This, I suppose, was an attempt to replicate the reverbrial nature of the synth tone featured in the original track.

By removing most of the resonances and cutoff frequencies, I was able to colour the tone back to a totally natural, fuzzed guitar-like timbre.

I added an operation to subtly extend the note glissando.

The final synth patch:

and the most important part, a clip of how it sounds!

First ideas towards synth creation

In researching synth sounds to recreate, i got a chance to go through my old school techno and electronic music libraries, and figure out what would be a challenge to make but within reach.

I started looking at the obvious pop records with Brian Eno at the helm, and am considering either Ladytron by Roxy Music's very huge, wishy washy opening synth section intro.


Or, the very cool and personal favourite early Techno record, Tour de France by Kraftwerk.

Synthesis Handbook/Glossary.

In class, we discussed:

Tuning Oscillators by various cents off each other to create a phased effect.

Square wave: Closest to the traditional 8Bit tones, hollow, and fuzzy.

Triangle Wave: Somewhat thinner and more nasal than the Square, more distorted in nature, featuring Odd harmonics.

Sine Wave: round, full and "pure" tone - used in conjunction with other waveforms to add body or a naturalness to the tone.

Envelopes can be triggered by a signal or by an LFO (low frequency oscillator) to sculpt the tone.

LFO: Useful for creating a rhythmic pulse on a waveform. Generally bombards it with frequencies beneath our hearing (20hz or less) and causes a throb.