Blade Runner Theme Jam/Cover: Sequential OB-6, Alesis MIDIVerb II, CME XKey 37 with Poly Aftertouch

video by thesrabbit

"Like the title says, the music is obviously from the movie Blade Runner, the legendary soundtrack by the mighty Vangelis. This isn't really intended to be a cover per se, but more of a Blade Runner Theme inspired jam to check out some new gear that I acquired over the weekend. I don't even know if I'm playing the right notes or if I'm in the right key, so please don't be offended if I have butchered some things. In fact, I may have borrowed from the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack without realizing it, since I watched that movie recently. So I'd better give props to all the greats: Vangelis, Hans Zimmer, and Benjamin Wallfisch.

Background:
Fresh in over the weekend is the Alesis MIDIVerb II rack unit and CME XKey 37 (with poly aftertouch). Tonight I turned on the MIDIVerb II for the first time and quickly found preset 29, "XLarge Warm 15 seconds". It seems to work very well with the Sequential OB-6 on the GeoSynths 016 preset. Is the MIDIVerb II a poor man's Lexicon 224? Probably not, but I think it still sounds very nice and has that thing called "character". It's definitely very digital and very 80's. The CME XKey 37 is plugged straight into the MIDI In port of the OB-6. This is my first time ever trying to play anything with polyphonic aftertouch. For those who are not aware, the keyboard of the OB-6 does not transmit polyphonic aftertouch, but the synth responds to it over MIDI. I set the sensitivity on the XKey as low as possible (I think), but as you can see (and hear), I still struggled a lot to control it, and that's with hardly any aftertouch depth dialed in on the synth, like 2 semitones of pitch bend at maximum pressure. The effects on the synth are turned off and there are no other effects besides the MIDIVerb II. The mix on the MIDIVerb II is approximately 45% dry and 55% wet. There is no additional processing. The sound you're hearing is straight out of the MIDIVerb II's outputs directly into a Focusrite audio interface, recorded to a single stereo track.

I think it sounds pretty good. Imagine what it would sound like played by someone who can actually play.

For OB-6 owners, you can find the GeoSynths preset here as part of the Evolution Volume 1 set: https://www.geosynths.com/dsi-ob6​"