Uptown Funk programming

andrewt · Post by **andrewt** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 6:15 am

Anyone else playing this? I'm programming a combi now. My general plan as of now is to have a pad for the intro (in the background, comes in the 2nd time before the 1st verse), the main synth sound, the portamento, and brass from the Funk and Soul Brass library.

So far Prog. UB060 "1999 Power Synth" nails the main synth sound IMO. Just add some modulation.

This thread in the Krome forum has some good info: http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... highlight=

Narf (guy with the youtube video) sampled a portamento for the synth rise in the build before the chorus ("cause uptown funk gon' give it to you"). What would be another way to do that? I'll experiment with playing the portamento live...

How are you guys approaching this?

narf · Post by **narf** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:08 am

I've got a dark EP for the intro rather than a pad... You can play around with the Pitch Envelope settings to create the rise effect with a synth. I think the one I did had too much "saw wave sizzle" rather than sounding more than an alarm. I tried the portamento initially, but that only works based on the last note you play and is a bit unpredictable. I tweaked a PolysixEx program the 80's Ana Strings to have more modulation and copied osc1 to osc2 with a slight detune. Tried this song with my band last weekend and the crowd went absolutely nuts!

beatlessDesign · Post by **beatlessDesign** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 1:19 pm

Doing this with the band since the week it came out.... great live song!!

using a X61 so real estate is a bit tight

I used the Doo Voice patch with a few tweeks for the intro, used Karma [Real Time Bend] for the pitch shift - just hold the single note and away it goes, not perfect but it gets the job done [new to programming this baby], Oooh Stereo Voices set to the top C and then synth and brass split and layered in the centre of the board works out great!!

Loving playing this at the moment!

Roadman · Post by **Roadman** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 1:38 pm

Just looking to set this up - Brass is fine, the synth patches struggling a tad, how do you get more Modulation on these, without having to use the joystick to apply it?

If anyone has a good combi set up, be delighted to get a copy!!

DaveBoulden · Post by **DaveBoulden** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 6:00 pm

Yes, playing this one with my band. I'm doing the pad & riser sound on my Fantom G7 using the D-Beam to control the pitch rise, but for the brass I'm using the "6 Trumpets ST Section" program from the Funk & Soul brass EXS.

Mister088 · Post by **Mister088** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:21 pm

I've tried my hand (s) at hand it…

http://youtu.be/ehuieZdBLMk

NuSkoolTone · Post by **NuSkoolTone** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:24 pm

I've set this up and am pretty happy with it.
Since few playing covers are worried about "copyright" and your venue should have dues that take care of this:

The very first few bars of the song has the "Doh" vocal line Naked (With a handclap) ripe for the picking. Start there.

-First I take that and loop it to set band tempo (We play live with no sequences or click)

-Then in your favorite wave editor (Wavelab for me) chop it up and make a multisample out of it (which you can get the claps out too)
Be sure to give a litle extra range to the bottom sample for the two low notes that come in the song later. Also some High range for when it goes chromatic up with the bass line. I did this an octave up from the root.

-You can even grab the "ooh". You'll get a kick with it, but process it with a highpass filter generously and it works.

Now build the Combi:

-After That Horn from the Funk Soul & Brass work well

-There is an endless rising patch out there, I forget off the top of my head, but it's public domain.

-Any 80's synth style brass patch will do. I'm using one with the PolySix Model. I trigger this with a 2nd keyboard that has a Mod Wheel that I just leave up 1/2 way for the song.

-Grab a dark EP and set it up for 2 chords. I just assigned these to my nanopad2 freeing up the keyboard space. IF you're guitar player knows his funk, this one's optional I'd say.

-Last add a drumbeat for jamming/rehearsal and tempo match to the vocal loop.

This one's a little bit of work as covers go soundwise, but the results are great!

andrewt · Post by **andrewt** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 6:28 pm

Roadman wrote:Just looking to set this up - Brass is fine, the synth patches struggling a tad, how do you get more Modulation on these, without having to use the joystick to apply it?

If anyone has a good combi set up, be delighted to get a copy!!

I used the Intensity parameter (underneath LFO select) in the Pitch Common page of OSC/Pitch. I have it at 00.30 right now and it sounds pretty close (using the 1999 Power Synth prog).

andrewt · Post by **andrewt** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 6:30 pm

I finished my combi last night. I have a rehearsal tonight and I'm going to see how it works with the band singing the dohs at the beginning. If I need to sample them then I'll have to assign either those or the 2 pad chords to the Pads since I'm out of keyboard space on my 88.

I have 1999 Power Synth with added modulation, then 6 Trumpets ST Section (good choice DaveBoulden

) duplicated with the same program an octave down, turned down in the mix. G090 "Warm Pad" seems to me to be the closest to the pad at the beginning.

I saw this video of a band covering it (although they seem to be using a backing track for some parts) and I got the idea of maybe playing my trumpet for the brass parts while I'm playing the synth on the chorus. Since we have a sax player, it might sound like a horn section...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UeRmJUyU9U

narf wrote:I've got a dark EP for the intro rather than a pad... You can play around with the Pitch Envelope settings to create the rise effect with a synth. I think the one I did had too much "saw wave sizzle" rather than sounding more than an alarm. I tried the portamento initially, but that only works based on the last note you play and is a bit unpredictable. I tweaked a PolysixEx program the 80's Ana Strings to have more modulation and copied osc1 to osc2 with a slight detune. Tried this song with my band last weekend and the crowd went absolutely nuts!

I actually did what you describe in your youtube video--sample the portamento and convert it to a program and put it in the combi, so it always sounds the same. I put it on the highest C so it doesn't get in the way of the synth glisses. It starts on the E above Middle C and goes almost 2 octaves. I did the combi of IE037 and IE039, then under Timbre Parameter/OSC, set Force OSC Mode to Legato, and Portamento to 90. It sounds about 90% there to me. Then you can sample it right from the combi and use Auto Sampling Setup to convert it to a program. There's a tutorial in the Operation Guide. Make sure you save your sampling data so the program has a sample to refer to. I use the _userbank.ksc and put it in auto-load in Global.

andrewt · Post by **andrewt** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 6:36 pm

Mister088 wrote:I've tried my hand (s) at hand it…

http://youtu.be/ehuieZdBLMk

How did you do the synth rise?

Roadman · Post by **Roadman** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:57 am

beatlessDesign wrote:Doing this with the band since the week it came out.... great live song!!

using a X61 so real estate is a bit tight

I used the Doo Voice patch with a few tweeks for the intro, used Karma [Real Time Bend] for the pitch shift - just hold the single note and away it goes, not perfect but it gets the job done [new to programming this baby], Oooh Stereo Voices set to the top C and then synth and brass split and layered in the centre of the board works out great!!

Loving playing this at the moment!

Where are you getting the Doo voice patch from, can't find one on the factory stuff?
Thanks

beatlessDesign · Post by **beatlessDesign** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 4:03 pm

not sure I have my gear away for a gig tonight so I'll try and have a look later for ya..... if you want I'd be happy to send on my version of the combi if anyone is interested [just have to figure out how to save it to a file]

Roadman · Post by **Roadman** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 4:20 pm

Yeah that would be great, just packing my gear for tonight's gig in Glasgow, funnily, only started using the kronos last few weeks, so still tweaking.
Let me know if you can send that combi

Mister088 · Post by **Mister088** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 3:08 pm

It's in the vocal section. Called. "Three way scat'

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:06 pm

Nice breakdown, NuSkoolTone. That's how I'd go about it if I had to play it more than once or twice but it saves some work with a plan to follow

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