The TOTO - AFRICA brass sound tutorial

Very simple, but effective brass type synthesizer sound, in this video recreated on my new Clavia Nord Lead 2X synthesizer, but the video applies to most if not all analog and virtual analog synthesizers.

The result is a fair forgery that can be further tinkered with to personalize the sound, and it works both in Africa covers (xD!) and other applications.

Gear used:
Clavia Nord Lead 2X virtual analog/subtractive synthesizer
Shure SM57 microphone for voice
Ableton Live 8 for recording synth/voice
Apple QuickTime for dubbing

Category:

Music

Tags:

• toto
• africa
• synth
• synthesizer
• tutorial
• how
• to
• create
• analog
• subtractive
• music
• 80s
• brass
• brassy
• steve
• porcaro
• david
• paich
• analogue
• how-to
• tut
• FAQ

[nat2078]

Your voice annoys me, if you want people to learn how to use a synthesizer then atleast speak in lateral terms thats much more bloody easy to understand!! :@ Im a musician myself n even i cudnt here what on earth you wer on about!!!

[syntesen]

@nat2078

Sorry... I don't know quite what you mean... oscillator, low-pass filter, contour, envelope etc are pretty generic terms...

but for the case of improving myself, i'd like some examples of what you mean! thanks for the honest comment though :)

[htinge]

Sorry, but this is not the africa brass sound.

Listen to the original! That is much warmer.

And the original key is A and not Ab ;)

[DuaLeaD]

Building on what htinge said: The vintage synths used in the recording are going to sound warmer because they are true 100% analog synthesizers....Despite being the best Virtual Analog synth out there, Nords are still just that....VIRTUAL analog....Can't beat the real thing baby!!

[ORGANISER61]

not even close in my humble opinion !

[wildnites558]

CS80 or CS90. The newer Yamaha S90s,Motifs and MOs all have that "Africa" patch in the Brass category. No synth or "ROMpler" should be without it.

[comandante583]

it´s close, but the original sounds differently.

consider: This sound was made by Steve Porcaro on CS-80.

You can not create such a special sound in 6 minutes. Steve was an expert

[kurnilse]

It´s hard to copy the original sound from the mighty CS-80 used on Africa:-)

[FrederikMeyer]

Close... but not close enough. 

[PooPooOnMyNewShoe]

@sacredgeometry Right. I'm not familar with the Dunning-Kruger effect yet but I'll look it up. I just get annoyed when someone takes time to post something that may be informative to us, and then some bone head says that he dosn't like the guys voice.???? WTF. :)

[sacredgeometry]

@PooPooOnMyNewShoe Its the curse of the idiot, to think everything/one else is in the wrong. I think its called the Dunning–Kruger effect.

[PooPooOnMyNewShoe]

@nat2078 Idiot

[simon4tw]

Really like the sound - but this aint Africa.