os mutantes wah sound?

[doug deeper]

ok there hasnt been a mutantes question in a while.
anyone have a good idea of where to start if one wanted to emulate the wah sound in the song "ave, lucifer"?
(perhaps munky has a schematic  )
i feel its somthing i need!
thanks in advance.

[Marcos - Munky]

I don't know if it's the same "wah", but Sergio used to record the Mutantes' songs using a synth made by his brother Claudio (which you already knew ). In this synth, there was an "moog-like" VCF. I have the schematic for it and the trigger that was used. I need to search for the schematics, but I think I can post them today.

[doug deeper]

that would rules!

[Steve Newton]

This thread made me dig up the Mutantes FX stuff I downloaded from here (or Ampage or whatever...) in CHM format ages ago.

I've ripped the images out of those chm files and zipped the whole lot up here -
http://rapidshare.com/files/6919477/mutantes_fx.zip

The effects in there are Oitavador Octaver, Phaser, R-VIII Fuzz, Sustainer looks to be an OTA compressor, and the modular Synth in 3 parts. They all need translating from the original Portuguese for those of us who are too stupid to be able to read it. There's 2 PDFs in the zip from where somebody on these boards has started to do just that.

These have sat unnoticed on my computer for ages until this thread reminded me to look for them. An looking at them now there's a load of good and different ideas in there.

[doug deeper]

awesome! thanks!

[doug deeper]

cool stuff,
i think it aplys more to the later mutantes sound, but still a good read!

[Marcos - Munky]

I didn't downloaded the files, but I believe they are the same I have. And maybe the PDFs are the ones I translated, but like I said, I'm not sure because I didn't downloaded the files.

[Steve Newton]

Hi Marcos,

Just checked the PDFs, Translated by Marcos at the bottom.
The files in the zip are the original compiled help files -

Oitavador.chm
Phaser.chm
R-VIII Fuzz.chm
Sustainer.chm
Synth - parte I.chm
Synth - parte II.chm
Synth - parte III.chm

Translated PDFs -

mutantesfuzz.pdf
mutantesoctave.pdf

And all the individual page images extracted from the chms. Worth downloading to save yourself the trouble of extraction and to have the whole lot as JPGs.

[doug deeper]

hey marcos,
any chance you could translate the other articles if you ever get a load of time on your hands?
the two you did were great reads!

[GFR]

The Phaser is like a MXR Phase 90 with a couple of mods (a manual knob, or an external pedal instead of the LFO).

The Sustainer is exactly a MXR Dynacomp (the only change is he uses 10V instead of 9V battery).

The Octave is the most interesting pedal of the batch, good stuff.

The fuzz is a nice, raw sounding fuzz.

Believe me, translating the synth articles won't help very much. The articles are not a step-by-step or how-it-works, he (CCDB) just throws the schematics, says experienced technicians should be able to fill the gaps (and non-experienced ones should not bother to try something so complex). The rest of the text is some self boasting, how his "synth" is better than anything else, he talks about flying saucers, escolas de samba, etc.

CCDB is quite a creative guy, but he is surely a character.

The "Wha" in the synth is a moog VCF, 4 poles, transistor ladder, you can use a pedal or a mix of envelope, lfo, and noise. You can set it into self oscillation to use it as a carrier  to a ring modulator.

The wha in early mutantes (psychodelic era) problably was a Cry Baby, perhaps an italian Mr. Cry Baby. That's what could be most easily bougth here in Brazil at the time.

[Marcos - Munky]

Yeah, GFR is right, the other articles aren't too interesting. I don't remember well about the phaser article, but the sustainer article is basically he telling the story about the compressor Sergio got in a trip and wanted him to clone and mod. And in the synth articles, Claudio just threw the schematics and block diagrams. The block diagrams are in portuguese, I believe it will be easy to understand, but if there's interest I can translate the block diagrams and the other two articles, but like I said, there's not too much technical info in the other articles.

[Mark Hammer]

Those .chm format files can actually be reduced considerably in size.  If I recall correctly, they turn into TIFFs, which are extremely inefficient.  They can probably be translated into PNGs of about 1/10 the file size without loss of critical detail.

[doug deeper]

yeah i just wanted to read the synth articles to here him boast anyway!
(i have a rather large mutantes obsession)
so im basicly just being a fanboy

[doug deeper]

im pretty sure the filter sound im thinking of is a synth type lowpass.
it goes from really low and resonant to really thin. not a notch filter sound at all.
thanks again!

[Marcos - Munky]

Then it's the moog-like VCF at the Synth - parte X.chm (sorry, don't remember the number, but I believe it's II) article you're looking for.

[zelasa]

Hi friends! I know this is an old thread, but does you have the zip file (mutantes_fx.zip)? The Rapidshare service is down...

Thanks!!!

Luis

[Steve Newton]

Here's all the mutantes files I have on disk -
http://www66.zippyshare.com/v/UCakdcdn/file.html