"Thriller" MT-60 Frog Bass

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utdgrant
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"Thriller" MT-60 Frog Bass

Post by utdgrant »

Anthony Marinelli is a great source of authoritative information on the recording of Michael Jackson's Thriller album.

He recently uploaded a couple of videos to YouTube explaining the origin of that spiky / croaky bass sound in the title track:

MJ's Thriller Frog Bass - The Search

MJ's Thriller Frog Bass .... Found!

It turned out to be a Casiotone MT60 home keyboard. I sampled the sound at C#, which is the key of the song. I then imported it into Sampler 1 and adjusted the root note down a semitone.

Here is a single cycle of the waveform:
MT60FrogBassSingleCycle.jpg
MT60FrogBassSingleCycle.jpg (24.8 KiB) Viewed 9073 times
Here is the VM patch:
Thriller MT-60 Frog Bass.voltagepreset
(48.25 KiB) Downloaded 588 times
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Re: "Thriller" MT-60 Frog Bass

Post by utdgrant »

Of course, the next challenge is to synthesize that waveform from first principles using Voltage Modular! :o

Here's the original sample to help you with your analysis:
MT-60 Frog Bass.mp3
(11.27 KiB) Downloaded 685 times
FrogBassFullSample.jpg
FrogBassFullSample.jpg (19.65 KiB) Viewed 9071 times
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Re: "Thriller" MT-60 Frog Bass

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Here's my first attempt at synthesizing the sound using VM.
Thriller Frog Bass Synthesized.voltagepreset
(23.39 KiB) Downloaded 539 times
FrogBassSynthesized.jpg
FrogBassSynthesized.jpg (374.21 KiB) Viewed 9067 times
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Re: "Thriller" MT-60 Frog Bass

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OK, I think this is as far as I want to take this patch. In this variation, I've utilised a Crossfade module to provide a simple envelope-controlled wave-blending function. This mirrors the Casiotone "Vowel-Consonant Synthesis Method".
Frog13VowelConsonant.jpg
Frog13VowelConsonant.jpg (369.59 KiB) Viewed 9014 times
Frog 13 Vowel-Consonant.voltagepreset
(22.24 KiB) Downloaded 478 times
Frog13VowelConsonant.mp3
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Re: "Thriller" MT-60 Frog Bass

Post by utdgrant »

OK, absolutely, 100% my final take on this patch. This time, I've used only free-of-charge modules:
Frog 13 Free.voltagepreset
(23.74 KiB) Downloaded 447 times
Voltage Modular Nucleus

Oscillator x 3
Envelope Generator x 2
Amplifier x 2
Glide

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Simple Amplifier x 3
ACE Compare x 2
ACE Constants

Synthetic Future X R_Ware

Micro NOP x 2
Frog13Free.jpg
Frog13Free.jpg (310.23 KiB) Viewed 8534 times
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Re: "Thriller" MT-60 Frog Bass

Post by utdgrant »

Demo of Frog 13 Free patch with a General MIDI backing of Thriller:

You Tube link
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