Heard a Cool sound, how's it made?

[jmusser]

When the disco era was around, I really didn't find much redeeming value in most of the music except as just background stuff to dance too, but I just heard "Get Down Tonight", and was wondering how the lead parts were done. The opening break almost sounds like guitar played behind the bridge, because it's so high. It also has hammer ons and slides in there that make it sound sort of like a guitar, but I figure it's some sort of keyboards with a sustain pedal. I haven't been around them enough to know if that's what it is. It isn't something I'd want to hear for an hour, but it is cool and unique.

[Mark Hammer]

It's a synth.  Wonderful what you can do with oscillators that go up high enough that you can have the sustain of lower piano keys on those high notes.

[Rodgre]

Really, that's a synth?

I could swear it's just a clean guitar track recorded at a really slow speed, then the tape is sped up to normal pitch and you get that sound.

Just ask Les Paul. I think he invented that sound.

Roger

[Doug_H]

I always thought it was guitar with the tape sped up.

Doug

[Mark Hammer]

Well now you may both be right.  That option hadn't occurred to me.  And even though I haven't heard it in a while, thinking about the bends in it makes me realize that they ARE very guitar-like bends.

[David]

It's a synth.  Wonderful what you can do with oscillators that go up high enough that you can have the sustain of lower piano keys on those high notes.

Was KC good enough to pull those licks off?

[Rodgre]

I believe it would have been Jerome Smith, the guitar player who played that part (if it in fact is a guitar, like I suspect.)

Sadly, Jerome isn't here to tell us. He was crushed in 2000 while working on a construction job.

Roger

[Doug_H]

It's a synth.  Wonderful what you can do with oscillators that go up high enough that you can have the sustain of lower piano keys on those high notes.

Was KC good enough to pull those licks off?

Whoever played them, they are a lot easier at half-speed.

Doug

[MartyMart]

It's a synth.  Wonderful what you can do with oscillators that go up high enough that you can have the sustain of lower piano keys on those high notes.

Was KC good enough to pull those licks off?

Whoever played them, they are a lot easier at half-speed.

Doug

Yup, they sound "exactly" like a double speed "tape" version to me, I'm
sure there was no "harmonizer" able to do an octave "in them thar days"
That's my guess ...

Marty.

[Doug_H]

Yeah, when they played it live (Yes... I actually saw them live when I was standing in line for a ride at Disney World one time.... :oops:  :lol: ), they either left that out or did some standard guitar sound for those fills.

Doug

[jmusser]

Wow, I got some head scratching out of it, Cool! I figured one of you would say that it was Mayer "Ultrasythobulator" or something. I rarely stump the experts! I had never heard them live, so I figured they always had to recreate that sound every time they played. I can believe it's sped up guitar for sure, but I actually think, it's a combination of guitar and keyboards. The opening break, sounds like high pitched guitar, where a lot of the other fill in stuff, sounds like high pitched piano chords. Like I said, KC wasn't going to be something I was going to sit down and listen to, so I had never really paid attention to what was going on there. Now that I've been building boxes for awhile, it makes you listen to stuff in a different way, to see if you can figure out the effects chain.

[ildar]

When did Jan Hammer play with Jeff Beck? He may have used those bendy, percussive sounds before KC.