What is the best Reason synth or RE to create PPG Wave 2 type sounds

[crimsonwarlock]

I'm talking about the kind of sounds that Tangerine Dream used to do with the PPG Wave.

First step is obviously to get the Wave 2 wavetables. I already got most of them. I also know Thor has some of them available in its wavetable oscillator. Question is, are there any Rack instruments that are better choices for this than others?

Or maybe there are RE instruments that can do PPG Wave -like sounds on their own without the need to load the original wavetables. I picked up Vibro in the last sale and some presets do have that Wave 2 kind of sound to them.

The obvious VST options are out, as I moved to Reason to get rid of popup windows.

[ArcoZ]

Yeah, it's an interesting question.
But ... you must understand that "PPG sound" does not exist.
If you are in blindfold test over PPG and ... Serum you will fail it. No doubt about it.
Wavetable synthesis is one of the easiest synthesis possible to achive. The rest is ADSR, filters so on and so forth.
So stop talking about PPG unless you talking about analog signal path in PPG hardware synth. This is able to make .. maybe an unusual sound. In my opinion unrelevant.

[BRIGGS]

Thor

[jam-s]

You could put the wavetables into europa, grain, or tribute (or any other synth that can load wavetables) and have a go at it.

But as ArcoZ said to get sounds like Tangerine Dream should be pretty possible with almost any of the currently available hybrid/WT synths.

[Pepin]

Thor's PPG wavetables are also available in Parsec, fwiw.

parsecppdg.png (232.64 KiB) Viewed 1168 times

[crimsonwarlock]

But ... you must understand that "PPG sound" does not exist.

I understand your perspective, but I like to disagree. The PPG Wave sound has a lot to do with the specific wavetables. That's why I mentioned 'getting the PPG wavetables. Besides that, I agree that most wavetable synths, that are capable of loading the PPG wavetables, can get too 'that' sound. However, the Wave also had very fast envelopes, so that comes into play. For the more digital sounds, what TD used the PPG for, the analog filters are not that influential tmo.

You could put the wavetables into europa, grain, or tribute (or any other synth that can load wavetables) and have a go at it.

Yep, I already did some trials with Grain. Also with Oberon. But before I'm putting in a lot of time to try to emulate some specific sounds, it would be nice to know which synth has the best options for it.

Thor's PPG wavetables are also available in Parsec, fwiw.

I didn't know that. Haven't used Parsec enough yet. Will have a look what that can do.

[turn2on]

Our huge collection of internal wavetables in WTFM synthesizer include PPG waveform selection in operators

[dusan.cani]

Or maybe there are RE instruments that can do PPG Wave -like sounds on their own without the need to load the original wavetables. I picked up Vibro in the last sale and some presets do have that Wave 2 kind of sound to them.

Try Skrock's Orbis and Aurora synthesizers. They can produce PPG like character of sounds.

[madmacman]

Well, there's even a debate regarding PPG descendants (Waldorf synths) which undoubtedly have the same wavetables, but don't sound like the "original".

Question is: how close you wanna get? Most tips and suggestions given here are valid. E.g. you can easily recreate the gnarly ooh voice from Depeche Mode's "See You" with a Thor. Other sounds might be more difficult, and it's not only a matter of the right wavetables.

If you want a "cheap" solution, then outside the RE world the Waldorf PPG 2.V or 3.V VST's are a good option. From time to time you can find sales for them.

[crimsonwarlock]

Our huge collection of internal wavetables in WTFM synthesizer include PPG waveform selection in operators

Thanks for your suggestion. WTFM is on my list to get eventually, not specifically for those wavetables, though. As I mentioned, I have most of the PPG's wavetables available to load into anything that takes them.

But if WTFM has some other options that can help, besides the wavetables, then let me know. It might make me move the possible purchase to the front of the queue.

Try Skrock's Orbis and Aurora synthesizers. They can produce PPG like character of sounds.

Aaah, I have Orbis as I got it for free at some time. Haven't actually played around with it. Thanks for the heads-up. Skrock's synths are great by the way, I've bought several of them as well.

Question is: how close you wanna get? Most tips and suggestions given here are valid. E.g. you can easily recreate the gnarly ooh voice from Depeche Mode's "See You" with a Thor. Other sounds might be more difficult, and it's not only a matter of the right wavetables.

If you want a "cheap" solution, then outside the RE world the Waldorf PPG 2.V or 3.V VST's are a good option. From time to time you can find sales for them.

I'm not looking to get the exact result of a PPG Wave. For that, the obvious route is to get a PPG Wave clone VST. I have the original Waldorf PPG 2 VST, never even updated it to the newer 64bit version. It was one of the first VST synths I bought, together with Pro52, after selling all my hardware synths. There even is a free one (that I also have) and it even emulates the completely crazy user interface of the original. As I said, I'm trying to get/stay away from VST plugins. Suggestions so far are very useful, I'm going to trial Tribute while I discarded it before as 'not a useful addition' to my arsenal.