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The readers' synth sound page. This month's featured instruments include the Roland JX3P, Yamaha DX9 and Korg Poly 800.

Readers send in details of their own synth patches and how they can be played...

Here's another chance to show off your latest sonic creations and share some favourite patches with fellow readers... If you feel like blowing your own trumpet, send your offering on a copy of an owner's manual patch chart (including a blank one for artwork purposes) to Patchwork, E&MM, (Contact Details) .

ROLAND SH101 - 'Monsoon'

John Gibney, Australia

This 'rainfall' patch was so realistic, our Publisher immediately grabbed a passing umbrella and launched into a tasteless Gene Kelly impersonation... Seriously though, this is a surprisingly realistic patch that varies from being a thunder-like rumble at the bottom end of the keyboard to the sound of tumbling water at the top. Additional distant thunder can be introduced by adding more Noise, while the rain tends to become heavier and closer as the filter's cutoff frequency value is raised, say, to about 7. Sceptical? Try it and see...

(Click image for higher resolution version)

ROLAND JX3P - 'Mandolin'

Franklyn Heine, London SW4

This one suffers from something of a musical misnomer, as it sounds to us more like a cross between a mandolin and a lute. And like many patches that seek to imitate acoustic tones whose pitch is not controlled from a keyboard, the exact sound that results from this set of parameter values will be influenced by your playing technique to quite some degree. For instance, holding the keys down briefly to complete the short decay period to zero sustain produces short plucked sounds (use the Hold button as an alternative to this method), but playing staccato style allows the long release time to give the effect of strummed chords. And as an additional bonus, using the 3P's Chorus on/off and Env on/off for DCO2 pitch modulation adds four alternative textures to the basic sound.

KORG POLY 800 - 'Tibetan Sample'

Bill Coopland, Sheffield

Although Bill meant this patch to be a complementary sound to another synth linked via MIDI, we feel Tibetan Sample' stands up on its own as a lead sound. It comes across initially as a warm, fat voice, but the pre-programmed delayed vibrato quickly takes effect. Still, feel free to edit parameters and personalise the sound to your own particular needs and tastes, something that goes for all featured patches.

(Click image for higher resolution version)

YAMAHA DX9 - 'French Horn (Muted)'

Steve Howell, Cardiff

Although it's still considered by many to be the poor relation of the same company's DX7, the humble 9 is still capable of providing some excellent sounds, another of which is reproduced here courtesy of E&MM contributor Steve Howell (someone really ought to break it to him that contributions to Patchwork are not financially remunerable). This patch utilises Operator 4 set at an odd frequency to give the gentle 'blurt' that's a characteristic element of the horn sound, but you can adjust the parameter indicated on the chart by brackets to increase or decrease this effect.

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