The pad background was created with the Roland VP-03 strings to emulate Vangelis’ gorgeous VP330, and some Rhodes flourishes were added. Since it is not directly derived from the CS-80’s preset buttons, as many of his other go-to patches were, and especially because it has so many expressive nuances, it is not a straightforward patch to recreate.Īfter many hours of fine-tuning every possible parameter on the CS-80V3 and much A/B comparison, this is the closest I have gotten. Among other things it features sensitive and fine-tuned velocity and aftertouch response, with quite different settings for each of the two synth lines. The Blade Runner Blues lead / harmonica patch is one of the most expressive patches Vangelis ever did on the CS-80. Here’s what he has to say about the patch: Sound designer Paul Schilling has made an amazing free version of this for Arturia CS-80 emulation. The “harmonica” sound is all F# minor blues scale on a very expressive CS-80 patch. The string sound is likely from a Roland string synth like the VP-330. Quite a simple CS-80 improvisation on just two chords, F#m and D. And it was famed for its unstable tuning, making it fantastic for pads, brass, strings and leads with a natural, almost living character. The ability to store up to twenty two presets and four storable user patches, a ribbon strip and various other modulation sources made this an extremely flexible yet powerful and expressive sounding synth. The synth itself has two independent channels, each with four notes of polyphony running into its idiosyncratic voltage controlled resonant multi-mode filter. Manufactured between 1977-79, this polyphonic beast is one of the most sought-after sounds in electronics music. Vangelis’ weapon of choice is the Yamaha CS-80, an instrument almost synonymous with him. A musical glimpse of the dystopian foresight found in much eighties sci fi whilst sounding oddly timeless, the film’s indelible mark is echoed in the countless examples of the soundtrack being liberally sampled and re-purposed, particularly in the future-obsessed end of drum’n’bass and jungle. Whereas some sci fi soundtracks have dated badly, Blade Runner has aged gracefully. The all-analog sound design coupled with Vangelis’ idiosyncratic haunting harmonies has resonated through the ages. All this is over a backdrop of a (shortsightedly near future) 2019 Los Angeles megalopolis, accompanied by a strangely optimistic Vangelis soundtrack, which is arguably as renowned as the film itself. Perhaps releasing it two weeks after Spielberg’s E.T didn’t help.īlade Runner raises existential questions about what it is to be human and artificial intelligence, as well as drawing parallels to the Atlantic Ocean slave trade. Scott had just come off the back of the hugely successful 1979 Alien, however Blade Runner grossed just $33.8 million (a drop in the ocean compared to other films of the same year) and the film wasn’t seen as triumphant, but its cult status has cemented its place in cinema’s history. We follow Deckard (portrayed by Harrison Ford), a Blade Runner tasked with retiring four escaped replicants, which are genetically engineered bio-robotic androids superior in strength, agility and intelligence, designed by the Tyrell Corporation to labour on other planets deemed unsafe for humans. Similarly to how Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey had done previously, and how later The Matrix would, the genre could never be the same after Blade Runner. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? changed science fiction forever. Ridley Scott’s 1982 Cyberpunk film-noir adaptation of the 1968 Philip K.
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