Polymoog Vox Humana (Thor)

[utdgrant]

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.

[Heater]

Sounds pretty close to me. Well done.

[chaosroyale]

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.

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]

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

[Trefor]

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

[Heater]

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

[huggermugger]

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!