What makes those old minimal tracks rock?

**Analog.1** · 12-10-2005, 05:19 PM

Ive been listening to some oldish minimal techno and i just cant figure out how they make that special underground percussion sound, Ive got a feeling some of those tracks use bongos / congos that are filtered in a very special way so you only hear certain frequencies of the harmonics... and it makes the percussion sound like human voices..... Does anybody know what im talking about or have i just lost the plot?

**DrewDavid** · 12-10-2005, 05:45 PM

just a guess mind you...
http://www.sherman.be/fb2.htm

**Evil G** · 12-10-2005, 11:15 PM

the way we recognize that an "ah" is the same sound, no matter what note it is sung at, or an "oh" is different from an "ah" even when sung at the same note, is by the next couple of harmonics above the base frequency. these combinations of harmonics are called "formants" and a "formant filter" will make any synth or drum sound like a human voice by highlighting the required odd and even harmonics above the base note.

i don't have a chart handy that lists which harmonics are required for the different vowel sounds, unfortunately, but the info is out there.

**stjohn** · 13-10-2005, 03:15 AM

ive been reading the 1st and the 3rd post over and over trying to make sense of it all!!!!

i like the vocally sounds too tho.... closer ot the edit n all!!!

**acidsaturation** · 13-10-2005, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by Evil G

the way we recognize that an "ah" is the same sound, no matter what note it is sung at, or an "oh" is different from an "ah" even when sung at the same note, is by the next couple of harmonics above the base frequency. these combinations of harmonics are called "formants" and a "formant filter" will make any synth or drum sound like a human voice by highlighting the required odd and even harmonics above the base note.

i don't have a chart handy that lists which harmonics are required for the different vowel sounds, unfortunately, but the info is out there.

I got one somewhere... I'll try and dig it out

**Jay Pace** · 13-10-2005, 10:39 AM

Depends what you mean by minimal.

For Robert Hood type stuff - he basically didn't really use any percussion. A kick, a couple of cymbals but the rest of the rhythmic components are synth based.

Keep the middle of the soundspace free. Plenty of top, plenty of bottom, no middle.

**Analog.1** · 13-10-2005, 12:40 PM

the techno im talking about used to be labeled minimal techno back in 97 - 99, there used to be a strong analog feel to the music but very very very cleverly produced.
Ive heard some of these purist techno tracks that actually take the piss out of a certain production style and make something else out of it but you would only know its doing this if you know....

g · 13-10-2005, 07:41 PM

why don't you list some examples

**curly** · 13-10-2005, 10:02 PM

Just Found this table

Vowel F1(Hz) F2(Hz) F3(Hz)
heed 280 2620 3380
hid 360 2220 2960
head 600 2060 2840
had 800 1760 2500
hudd 760 1320 2500
hard 740 1180 2640
hod 560 920 2560
hoard 480 760 2620
hood 380 940 2300
who'd 320 920 2200
heard 560 1480 2520

Dont know if this will help

got it from

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/courses/sp...n/handout3.pdf

**V..** · 13-10-2005, 11:45 PM

Crikey, now my head is spinnin.
Cheers curly.

**sash** · 14-10-2005, 07:06 AM

Originally Posted by Analog.1

Ive been listening to some oldish minimal techno and i just cant figure out how they make that special underground percussion sound, Ive got a feeling some of those tracks use bongos / congos that are filtered in a very special way so you only hear certain frequencies of the harmonics... and it makes the percussion sound like human voices..... Does anybody know what im talking about or have i just lost the plot?

There could b 1000's of factors that make up THAT sound. I'm guessin a lot of analogue is part of it. Also a lot of downgraded samples were more commonly used. For example early akai and Emu samplers would only sample at 12bit. This grunged up the sound.

Try downgrading your sounds with a bit crusher, then filter out any unwanted noise. Not sure if that's exactly what your after though. Clever use of distortion will also help :)

**Electrictribe** · 14-10-2005, 09:09 AM

as said facotrs such as more analogue gear, less over compression for compressions sake, downgraded samples.

I love the grittiness of the old tracks i not really in to the clean crisp sounds of today.

**shpongled** · 20-10-2005, 08:21 AM

could someone list some common ways of providing formant filters on samples?

**shpongled** · 20-10-2005, 08:27 AM

could someone list some examples of how to get a formant filter on samples?

Thread: What makes those old minimal tracks rock?

Thread Tools

Display

What makes those old minimal tracks rock?

Re: What makes those old minimal tracks rock?

Posting Permissions