Duran Duran were the poster children
of the ’80s with a string of MTV-era hits that
still rock the clubs today. Nick Rhodes’ mix
of swirling atmospherics and percolating
arpeggios went a long way toward establishing
the band’s hitmaking sound. Let’s make
the signature arpeggio of “Hungry Like The
Wolf,” originally played on a Roland Jupiter-8
and recreated here using Arturia’s Jupiter-8V
soft synth. Almost any virtual analog synth
will work, as long as it has an arpeggiator
with a “random” note order setting.
S
tep 1. We’ll use two oscillators, both
set to square waves. Oscillators should
be tuned in unison with the fine-tune
knob at about one o’ clock — enough
so a bit of chorusing happens.
Step 2. The Source Mix knob should
be smack in the middle for an equal
blend of each oscillator.
Step 3. The highpass filter (HPF) isn’t used, so turn its
slider off. Cutoff is mostly closed down, because we’ll
use the filter envelope to control the frequency. Set the
cutoff to 322Hz, and cutoff envelope mod amount to
.667 (just over halfway). Make sure the switch next to the
mod slider is set to ENV1; this lets ENV1 modulate the
cutoff frequency while ENV2 affects amplitude. Set the resonance at zero, and
add a little key follow to brighten higher notes.
Step 4. Now set ENV1 as
shown: A = zero, D = 234ms,
S = zero, and R = 1,324ms.
Step 5. ENV2 shapes the amplitude of the sound.
A = zero, D = 4,761ms, S = zero, and R = 2,556ms.
These may seem like long times for such a quick
sound, but the sound actually does ring for a bit,
though the release phase is muted by the rapid
filter envelope.
Step 6. Now for the fun part. Set the
arpeggiator to random mode (RND) and
the range to two octaves. Lock up the
timing by setting your host’s tempo around 127 bpm, and set
the arpeggio rate to sixteenth-notes. Set the neighboring sync
switch to external — this locks the arpeggiator to your host’s
MIDI clock. Add a little reverb, hold down some E and D major
triads, and you’ll be off and running!
Online Extras - Audio Examples and Sound Programming Notes!
Here are some notes on my Duran Duran "Hungry Like The Wolf" patch, created with Arturia's Jupiter-8V virtual analog synth.
hungry_osc1_2.mp3 - This is both oscillators set to square waves with the filter wide open, and should help you set the amount of oscillator detune ("fine tune" on Jupiter-8V) properly.
hungry_filt_env.mp3 - This is the same sound with the filter cutoff, envelope amount and envelope settings in place.
hungry_filt_amp_env.mp3 - Same as above, but now the amp envelope settings (i.e. ENV2) are set (in the above example, ENV2 sustain is full up).
hungry_arp_full.mp3 - The entire patch with the arpeggiator on. To accurately play "Hungry Like The Wolf", be conscious of octaves and chord inversions; Nick Rhodes is mainly playing simple root-note triads. There's very little voice-leading going on.
Verse chords:
E | D
Chorus chords:
C | G | F | Bb | C | G | F | D
ms_duran_hungry.j8e is the patch for Arturia's Jupiter-8V and should work swell on Mac or PC. To load it, just click the IMPORT button on the front panel above the keyboard; it will appear in the list of presets. Download it by going to the "Hungry Like the Wolf" directory at my mirror site -
CLICK HERE. Have fun.
Mitchell Sigman/Keyboard Magazine
mitchell@celebutantemusic.comwww.celebusite.com