11 thoughts on “Iconic Pink Floyd Sounds On iVCS3”

  1. Meh. Not very impressed.
    These patches don’t really sound authentic to me and they don’t have that saturation and depth that the original sounds had.
    The “On The Run” patch from [0:54 – 1:13] in the video wasn’t even very accurate. The “on the run” patches on the Novation UltraNova and Korg Radias sound more authentic than this.

    1. This is a $15 iPad app. While it’s not a perfect emulation of the real thing, it definitely does a good job of mimicking the essence of the VCS3 sound with the same whistling filter sound. And let’s not kid ourselves – the original instrument can be mind-bendingly random to actually program. The best sounds from it were happy accidents.

  2. Nicely done! Floyd is one of my favorite bands of all time, and while it isn’t an exact recreation of these sounds, it is pretty cool to see you can get so close using something downloaded from the App Store. At the tribute concert, no one is going to care about those minor differences or what instruments made those sounds. They’re going to be, as they should be, rocking out to the sounds of one of the greatest bands to ever do it.

    1. I’m also very impressed. James Edwards clearly knows his way around the VCS3! I’m unable to address the accuracy of the recreations as I haven’t listened to Floyd since university but I suspect it’s nothing a little judiciously applied EQ can’t fix. Well done!

  3. I admire cover bands who tackle the classics of prog groups, because the musical load is pretty heavy. I’ve heard a few who definitely got it right. I’d also feel personally foolish to hold down a key, “Make A Floyd Noise Here” and grin over it. “On the Run” is the obvious big offender, but its also hard to avoid the O Lucky Man lead or the Vangelis pad monster from “Blade Runner.” No problem, because I enjoy starting there and modifying it until its my sound rather than a copycat move. The iVCS3 impresses me, ’cause Jarre used to carry FOUR of the original hardware synths in an angled mega-case. You can still see one onstage here and there.

  4. One of my fav apps. Use it all the time. We spent more on breakfast the other day than what the app cost me lol. JFTR, I love my iPads and all the apps I use. The amount of sound making power we have access to and can carry anywhere we go in these little devices is so fucking cool, cheers to James Edward, nice patches!

  7. I spend 2 years with a couple of VCS3s and a Synthi whilst at college in ‘80-82 … and I loved Floyd. 1977 Animals concert was one of my all time favourites … until today I thought on WYWH that the best (musical) sounds were from a MiniMoog and the EMS kit was mostly just sound effects .. I just didn’t think and no one I saw using VCS3 in those two years made me think anything musical sounding could come from them … way to unpredictable and idiosyncratic…

    So I down loaded these presets and tried them out and then listened to Welcome to the machine. Good god.
    THAT Moog isn’t. It’s a VCS3 …. my world has been completely turned upside down.

    I don’t know how many people out there sharing their thoughts have actually tried to wrestle with a real VCS3 but at least from my expeience this is a work of genius … if you have modern synths and you can reproduce Floyd tones … good on you but I would challenge anybody to get closer on a real VCS3 than this guy has done.

    Bloody marvellous. I can not express how blown away I am by this … the bass and leads sounds are awesome -something I couldn’t ever imagine writing before today. It’s taken Over forty years to see what was right there in front of me.

    1. Wow Andy! Your message has made my entire recreation experience totally worthwhile! Many thanks for your kind words, it is very much appreciated. :o)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *