July 23, 2024
by GForce Software
Koryu Audio (formerly Sonic Space Lab) is based in the UK and has been creating music and sound since 1992. He’s contributed patches to OB-X, Axxess, impOSCar3, and more, and had releases on labels he’s forgotten the names of. He loves sampling, the rough sound of 90s techno, a long 100% wet reverb, and his sausage dog, Poppy.
Do you have any tips for getting great-sounding patches?
I have a few out-of-the-box ideas that I use, one of which is a list of patch names on my phone that come into my mind at any given time – these are great when you want to make something but inspiration isn’t striking, just pull up a name and imagine what it sounds like.
Another is randomisation, where you can assign the parameters to controllers in your DAW and randomise those controllers to find a starting point. Ableton Live is great for this. You end up with sounds you’d not make otherwise.
Otherwise, it’s a lot of use of LFOs to vary the patch – a favourite is something as simple as a square LFO to 100% of a VCO’s level when you are using more than one VCO. With a long VCA envelope release and a filter set to slowly close on release, you create a nice fading cascade of sound as you play up and down the keys. This is extra interesting if you use different LFO speeds on different VCOs.
Which of your impOSCar3 patches do you consider your personal favourite?
I think it has to be the patch ‘Wire Choir’, as it gets a really nice choir-like sound from the wavetable scanning and my hand-drawn waves. It’s clearly not a real choir, but it’s a very nice synthetic one that is rooted in the 80s, and has that PPGesque quality of grit and glitter.
Is there anything, in particular, you liked about impOSCar3 or that it is great at?
impOSCar3, and the OSC OSCar itself, is a fantastic little odd box from a time when the pro audio world was getting its head around digital and combining it with traditional analogue. If the PPG Wave was the Prophet 5 of Analogue meeting Digital, the OSCar is the MS-20; it has that same glassy sheen that can sound a bit like samples, or you can stick to traditional subtractive but still stand out with the unique dual filters. That you can now get deep into the wavetables (not only for the oscillators but also the LFOs) makes this 80s synth very up-to-date.
What’s your favourite synthesiser, and what makes it uniquely suited to your work?
The one that made me fall in love with the sound is the Moog Modular from my parents having Tomato’s Snowflakes are Dancing LP when I was young (especially the FM bells). The one that I think is my favourite is harder – in terms of hardware, there is something special about the MC-202 as it’s the sound of the 1990s, but I’d now go for the Intellijel Atlantis as it has the ghost of a SH101/202 inside but is so much more. In terms of poly, I fell in love with the Waldorf M as, like the SH202/101, sounds of the 90s fall out of it. But on a desert island, I’d have to really plump for Emu samplers as they are what I learned on and to this day there’s something that amazes me about sampling and manipulating sound. If anyone wants to donate a working Emulator III, I can give it a good home.
In terms of software, there are the usual suspects (though Axxess and OB-E are taking things to the next level). However, some of the most overlooked are those AUv3 synths on the iPad (and Apple Silicon). Of those, Moog’s Model 15 sounds fantastic and lets me live my Tomita and Tangerine
Dreams out. Beep Street’s Zeeon is one of the best-sounding polysynths I have ever heard, full stop. Their Dagger mono is nearly as good a companion too, and has fantastic drive and filter modelling.
Where can readers find more info about you?
At the moment, I’m building up to releasing more patches and the main business of a series of sample libraries, with the intention of them being like old-school single sound sample CDs for your modern groove boxes – none of this massive multisample stuff! Koryu Audio will be launching in the future
with a few Decent Sampler freebies as well, but for now, you can drop me an email at: input [at] koryuaudio [dot] com.
Tell us more about the Koryu Audio sound pack for impOSCar3?
The pack is a little collection of 16 sounds for the impOSCar3 that ranges from 80s digital-like (‘Alias Wave and Table’, the aforementioned ‘Wire Choir’) to sounds with a more 90s, trancier feel. In fact, some are my attempts at recreations of patches used by the band Underworld, as Rick Smith is a known owner of the hardware and impOSCar patch contributor. You’ll have to guess which tracks they are based on though!
Download the “Koryu Audio – impOSCar3 patches vol 1” Pack Here