Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future indeed. Released in 1976, Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle” became an FM rock radio classic. But it also showed Steve’s penchant for synth-driven space rock with the preamble to the “Fly Like an Eagle” track.
Like a lot of analog patches, this isn’t too hard to replicate, and the secret is all in the fine-tuning. This month, I’ll show you how to create the “Fly Like An Eagle” intro using GForce Minimonsta, a software Minimoog-and-then-some emulation, but almost any virtual analog synth set to monophonic mode will work.
1. Set both oscillators 1 and 2 to a medium-width pulse wave and tune to the same octave.
2. Detune oscillator 2 just a little.
3. Set oscillator 1’s mixer level at full volume and oscillator 2’s at about 25 percent.
4. Make sure the keyboard assign mode is set to mono and legato mode. This way you can simply drag your finger up the white keys to sound each note.
5. Make sure to disable the “glide” control to the left of the keyboard. (With it enabled, I was hearing too much note attack in Minimonsta.)
6. Set the filter cutoff to about 50 percent, resonance to zero, and envelope amount (“amount of contour” on a real or virtual Minimoog) to zero. You’ll have to experiment with the cutoff as you listen to the song to get it just right.
7. Set the volume envelope (“loudness contour” in Moog-speak) to a simple, organ-like on-off shape: attack and decay at zero, sustain full up, and release at zero.
Using either an aux send or an insert in your DAW software, add a delay, preferably one that can emulate the sound of vintage tape echo i.e., with EQ to damp the highs for a murky sound. If you have a plug-in that purposely emulates tape delay, such as Line 6 Echo Farm or Logic’s Tape Delay, so much the better.
Set the delay time to about 600ms and feedback almost to the point of self-oscillation — around 50 percent works well. I set the high cut on my delay to 1900Hz to keep it dark and murky. The delayed and dry signals should be equal in volume. I also inserted a low shelf EQ, rolling off about 9dB at 345Hz, to remove some low-end ringing, but you may or may not need it.
Now break out those velvet posters and turn on the blacklights. I initially thought a sequencer played the “Eagle” lines, but I was overthinking the issue. All you need to do is steadily drag your finger up the white keys, starting on A and ending on E, two and a half octaves higher. Once you get the speed right, it’ll sound exactly like the original intro. Tick, tock, doot doot doot do-do!