Earlier this year, designer Roman Filippov (Sputnik Modular) introduced the Deckard’s Dream – a new 8-voice polyphonic analog synth design, inspired by the sound of the Yamaha CS-80 and its use on the Vangelis soundtrack to Blade Runner.
Ever since then, readers have been wondering how closely the Deckard’s Dream can match the CS-80 – and especially some of the iconic patches Vangelis used on the classic Blade Runner soundtrack.
Wait no longer.
Sound designer Paul Schilling shared his take on the classic ‘Blade Runner Brass’ sound, played on his own DIY version of the Deckard’s Dream. His synth currently only has a single voice of eight – but it still sounds pretty massive:
Schilling demos his synth by using it to recreate the lead of the Blade Runner Main Titles theme, and then goes on to do some extreme LinnStrument-controlled MPE pitch bends:
Check out the demos and let us know what you think!
Pricing and Availability
The Deckard’s Dream is available both assembled for US $3,749 ($1,199 pre-order deposit), and as an advanced DIY kit.
A monophonic CS-80? I’ll wait for the poly demos.
Yeah that’s pretty darn close.
BOO-YAH!!!!!
I would love to have this. Unfortunately the assembled price is definitely too much for me and I cannot trust to my DIY skills enough to risk it.
U-He Diva and a decent PC would get you there or close enough, imho. Awesome synth tho. Great job!
If you want to do it on a hardware synth, the Dave Smith / Tom Oberheim OB-6 can do it. Check out patch 016 in GeoSynths’ OB-6 patch set, which has a demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNFEOgLWdoQ#t=9m50s
Ok so maybe the release envelope could be tweaked a little, but this sounds incredible. The idea of getting one of these and being able to play it expressively with an MPE controller has me giddy as a schoolboy on the first day of summer. wow wow wow.
Amazing. Love those slides!
Not so close.
I’m using the ME80 here :
https://soundcloud.com/denmakesmusic/vangelis-blade-runner-main-titles-cover
Paul’s demo is great, it really shows the incredible expressive sound potential of this instrument.
I did a test with a self-built Deckard’s Dream playing the Blade Runner theme on top of the original Vangelis soundtrack by repeating the same notes (sometimes before, sometimes after). It’s nearly indistinguishable to the point where the differences can be attributed to performance. This is played live using Kurzweil Midiboard, which has polyphonic aftertouch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUGIxaQsXjY