Depeche Mode Enjoy the Silence synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase

video uploads by Obsolete Nonsense

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Playlist:
1. Depeche Mode Enjoy the Silence synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase
2. Pet Shop Boys It’s A Sin instrumental synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase
3. Erasure Ship Of Fools synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase
4. Visage Fade To Grey synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase
5. Depeche Mode The Things You Said synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase
6. Barber’s Adagio for Strings Remix synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase
7. Madonna Into The Groove synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase
8. Yazoo (Yaz) Don’t Go instrumental synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari Mega ST Steinberg Cubase
9. Vangelis Blade Runner (End Titles) synth cover Modal Electronics SKULPT CRAFTsynth 2 Atari ST Cubase

Video Descriptions:

1. Depeche Mode Enjoy the Silence synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase

All drum and synth sounds produced simultaneously by the Nord Modular without any multi-tracking.

This is my attempt at creating a ‘one synth’ cover of Enjoy the Silence, using only 4 sound patches on my Clavia Nord Modular G1 (with DSP Expansion), sequenced using Steinberg Cubase 3.1 on my old Atari ST.

Just for fun, I thought it might be interesting to use Logic Pro, synchronised to Cubase on the Atari using MIDI Time Code, to playback the original DM vocals (on track 1) in sync with the audio coming from the Nord Modular. Tracks 2 and 3 are recording the audio coming from the Nord Modular, along with reverb from my Soundcraft mixer recording on track 4.

Playlist:-
0.06 Nord Modular + original DM vocals
4.28 Individual sounds and sequences
8.03 Nord Modular instrumental

Nord Modular Patches:-
Slot A = Drums (CPU = 89.3% Poly = 1)
Slot B = Bassline and Bells (CPU = 49.4% Poly = 3)
Slot C = Vox Chords, Phaser Strings and Vox Melody (CPU = 76% Poly = 7)
Slot D = Guitar, Filter Sweep Bass and Synth (CPU = 95.7% Poly = 4)

Nord Modular audio outputs:-
1+2 = Dry / No effects
3+4 = Hall reverb from my Soundcraft mixer

The Nord Modular G1 is 16 note polyphonic (32 with the DSP expansion) and can play 4 patches at once (in Slot A, B, C and D), but when 3 or 4 patches are used simultaneously, the polyphony can quickly drop to just 1 or 2 notes per patch, depending on the complexity and CPU load of each sound patch.

I tried to include the brass sound that plays behind the guitar melody, along with some guitar pickup noise, but adding more modules to any of the patches caused the polyphony to drop and become unplayable, due to the high CPU load of the 4 patches.

The audio outputs of the Nord Modular completely mute for almost 1 second whenever a new patch is loaded, so it’s not possible to use MIDI program change messages to switch between sounds once Cubase starts playing back, so all the drum and synth sounds (14 sounds in total) have to fit into the 4 sound patches, by using as few sound modules as possible to keep the balance between low CPU load and usable polyphony.

2. Pet Shop Boys It’s A Sin instrumental synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase

All drum and synth sounds produced simultaneously by the Nord Modular without any multi-tracking.

This is my attempt at creating a ‘one synth’ cover of It's A Sin, using only 4 sound patches on my Clavia Nord Modular G1 (with DSP Expansion) and sequenced in Steinberg Cubase 3.1 on my old Atari ST.

Nord Modular Patches:-
Slot A = Drums (CPU = 97% Poly = 1)
Slot B = FM Bassline and Arpeggio Sequence (CPU = 46.1% Poly = 3)
Slot C = Synth Strings (CPU = 43.4% Poly = 10)
Slot D = Vocal Pad (CPU = 44.2% Poly = 10)

Nord Modular audio outputs:-
1+2 = Dry / No effects
3+4 = Large Hall reverb from my Soundcraft mixer

3. Erasure Ship Of Fools synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase

All drum and synth sounds produced simultaneously by the Nord Modular without any multi-tracking.

This is my attempt at creating a ‘one synth’ cover of Ship Of Fools, using only 4 sound patches on my Clavia Nord Modular G1 (with DSP Expansion) and sequenced in Steinberg Cubase 3.1 on my old Atari ST.

Nord Modular Patches:-
Slot A = Drums (CPU = 83.8% Poly = 1)
Slot B = Bassline and Pulse Width Guitar (CPU = 67% Poly = 5)
Slot C = FM Trumpet and Main Melody (CPU = 45.9% Poly = 8)
Slot D = Pad and Bells (CPU = 31.4% Poly = 5)

My Soundcraft mixer is set to the following effects for the Nord Modulars audio outputs:-
Outputs 1+2 = Short gate reverb
Outputs 3+4 = Large Hall reverb

4. Visage Fade To Grey synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase

All drum and synth sounds produced simultaneously by the Nord Modular without any multi-tracking.

This is my attempt at creating a ‘one synth’ cover of Fade To Grey, using only 4 sound patches on my Clavia Nord Modular G1 (with DSP Expansion) and sequenced in Steinberg Cubase 3.1 on my old Atari ST.

Nord Modular Patches:-
Slot A = Drums (CPU = 96.6% Poly = 1)
Slot B = Bassline and Synth-Bell (CPU = 87.4% Poly = 5)
Slot C = String-Pad and Intro Melody (CPU = 39.9% Poly = 9)
Slot D = Mono-Synth and FM Violin (CPU = 48.7% Poly = 1)

Nord Modular Audio Ouputs
1+2 = Dry / No effects
3+4 = Large Hall reverb from my Soundcraft mixer

5. Depeche Mode The Things You Said synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase

All drum and synth sounds produced simultaneously by the Nord Modular without any multi-tracking.

This is my attempt at creating a ‘one synth’ cover of The Things You Said, using only 4 sound patches on my Clavia Nord Modular G1 (with DSP Expansion) and sequenced in Steinberg Cubase 3.1 on my old Atari ST.

Nord Modular Patches:-
Slot A = Drums (CPU = 97.1% Poly = 1)
Slot B = Bassline and Soft Brass (CPU = 59.1% Poly = 5)
Slot C = Synth-Bells and FM Marimba (CPU = 49.7% Poly = 4)
Slot D = Vocal Pad and FM Keys (CPU = 76.8% Poly = 4)

Recorded with a medium decay ‘large hall’ reverb from my Soundcraft mixer into Logic Pro with some EQ and limiting.

6. Barber’s Adagio for Strings Remix synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase

All drum and synth sounds produced simultaneously by the Nord Modular without any multi-tracking.

Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (based on Ferry Corsten’s remix) created using 4 sound patches on my Clavia Nord Modular G1 (with DSP expansion), sequenced in Steinberg Cubase 3.1 on my old Atari ST.

Nord Modular Patches:-
Slot A = Drums (CPU = 100% Poly = 1)
Slot B = Bassline (CPU = 37% Poly = 2)
Slot C = Melody/Arpeggios (CPU = 66% Poly = 4)
Slot D = Strings/Pad (CPU = 42% Poly = 15)

7. Madonna Into The Groove synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari ST Steinberg Cubase

All drum and synth sounds produced simultaneously by the Nord Modular without any multi-tracking and recorded without effects.

Created using 4 sound patches on my Clavia Nord Modular G1 (with DSP expansion), programmed in Steinberg Cubase 3.1 on my old Atari ST.

Nord Modular Patches:-
Slot A = Drums (CPU = 91.9% Poly = 1)
Slot B = Bassline (CPU = 50.8% Poly = 1)
Slot C = Synth Chords (CPU = 53.9% Poly = 4)
Slot D = Bells (CPU = 58.3% Poly = 8)

8. Yazoo (Yaz) Don’t Go instrumental synth cover Clavia Nord Modular G1 Atari Mega ST Steinberg Cubase

All drum and synth sounds produced simultaneously by the Nord Modular without any multi-tracking and recorded with a small amount of short room reverb from my Soundcraft mixer.

Created using 4 sound patches on my Clavia Nord Modular G1 (with DSP Expansion) synth, sequenced in Steinberg Cubase 3.1 on my old Atari Mega ST.

I didn’t intentionally set out to create this cover version … it started as a basic drum patch and a ‘thrown together’ keyboard split patch on the Nord Modular and I randomly started playing the ‘Don’t Go’ bassline and main riff into Cubase, along with a basic drum pattern, just to test how the patches were working … and it just developed from there into the whole track. Even though some of the sounds are a bit rough, I posted it online as I hadn’t seen any other videos showing the Nord Modular G1 used in this way. I probably should have rebuilt some of the sounds from scratch to more closely match the original song, instead of just modifying my initial rough sounds.

Nord Modular Patches:-
Slot A = Drums (CPU = 99.8% Poly = 1)
Slot B = Bassline and Lead Synth Riff (CPU = 73.2% Poly = 3)
Slot C = Arpeggio Sequence and Oscillator Sync Solo (CPU = 91.4% Poly = 2)
Slot D = Synth Riff B and Percussive Sinewave Solo (CPU = 77.5% Poly = 2)

9. Vangelis Blade Runner (End Titles) synth cover Modal Electronics SKULPT CRAFTsynth 2 Atari ST Cubase

Blade Runner (End Titles) by Vangelis synth cover using a couple of sounds from a Modal Electronics SKULPT synth and CRAFTsynth 2.0, sequenced in Steinberg Cubase on my old Atari ST.

The 'string' sound is coming from the 4-note polyphonic SKULPT synth (mixed with some 'large hall' reverb from my Soundcraft mixer) and the baseline/white noise is coming from the CRAFTsynth 2.0 monophonic wavetable synth.