Polymoog Vox Humana (Thor)

Need some fresh sounds? Want to show off your sound design skills? Here's the place!
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utdgrant
Posts: 35
Joined: 14 Dec 2020
Location: Dunfermline, UK

Post 21 Feb 2021

I've been using a NN-19 multi-sample of a genuine Polymoog Keyboard for years to get that classic Gary Numan 'Vox Humana' sound.

I recently bought the Cherry Audio 'Polymode' plug-in, which fully recreates the Polymoog (and adds quite a few bonus extras). Using Polymode as a guide, I translated the Vox Humana preset into a Combinator patch, using two parallel instances of Thor. I used two Thors because the original sound requires three independent LFOs operating at different rates (2 x pitch mod, 1 x PWM).

I've uploaded a video to YouTube with examples of the three different approaches. I think they're all pretty magical in their own way.
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Grant Middleton (records as "Under the Dome")

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Heater
Posts: 919
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

Post 21 Feb 2021

Sounds pretty close to me. Well done.

chaosroyale
Posts: 735
Joined: 05 Sep 2017

Post 21 Feb 2021

Nicely done. The Cherry Audio sounds thinner and brighter than your patches, but I wonder how an actual hardware Polymoog, not a multi-sample, would compare. All sound good and would be very usable.
utdgrant wrote:
21 Feb 2021
I've been using a NN-19 multi-sample of a genuine Polymoog Keyboard for years to get that classic Gary Numan 'Vox Humana' sound.

I recently bought the Cherry Audio 'Polymode' plug-in, which fully recreates the Polymoog (and adds quite a few bonus extras). Using Polymode as a guide, I translated the Vox Humana preset into a Combinator patch, using two parallel instances of Thor. I used two Thors because the original sound requires three independent LFOs operating at different rates (2 x pitch mod, 1 x PWM).

I've uploaded a video to YouTube with examples of the three different approaches. I think they're all pretty magical in their own way.

matthewwood
Posts: 1
Joined: 15 Feb 2022

Post 15 Feb 2022

Great sounds! My Vox Humana patch is missing from the NN19 library, which I don't understand. I remember it being there a fair while back.
I have the Cherry audio VST as well so all is not lost :)

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Trefor
Posts: 169
Joined: 28 Jan 2015

Post 17 Feb 2022

Checked out the video. You did a great job of recreating the sound with Thor. Nice work.

Heater
Posts: 919
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

Post 17 Feb 2022

I think the Thor recreation sounds closer than the Cherry one. Well done.

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huggermugger
Posts: 1547
Joined: 16 Jul 2021

Post 17 Feb 2022

The Thor version releases too slowly, compared to the samples and the Cherry version; there's too much overlap between notes. Too slow release or maybe too much reverb. I agree that the Cherry version is a lighter sound than the original Polymoog samples, but it's impossible to know what the sampling process added to the sound. Personally, as a fan of modelling synthesis, I'm impressed by Cherry. That said, your Thor version is excellent!

vcovcfvca
Posts: 2
Joined: 13 Nov 2020

Post 09 Mar 2024

Cool! Very well done

Worker 13
Posts: 60
Joined: 10 Mar 2022
Location: East Bay

Post 09 Mar 2024

Nice patch!

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