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Filters - the subtractive core
Overview The voltage
controlled filter is the subtractive core of the analog synthesizer, shaping the sounds of the oscillators to give a unique sonic signature, giving each synthesizer it's unique character.
AM Filters I have a soft spot
for filters....they are sonically so different and full of character that I can't stop building new ones and replicating old ones....Well I started with an ARP 4023 back in 2002 and went on to many more. Here is the list:
AM8005 This is a hot one. Made famous by the Ozric Tentacles, this is a whole set of filters from the Roland SH-5. A smooth band pass, a voltage controlled high and low pass filter, where the LPF is a unbelievable 4 pole "diode" filter.
AM8012 This is the ARP 4012 4-pole LPF, much loved in early ARP 2600's and pretty similar to the ARP 4006 in the ARP2500. A close copy of the Moog ladder design, which is so warm and powerful
AM8023 Now this is an edgy one. The 2-pole LPF from the early Odyssey. It simply screams! The resonance cranks up the volume , the reverse of a 4-pole dumbing down.
AM8035 Back to the 4-pole LPF and a Moog ladder. This one made it into the Mark 2 Odyssey, and boy does it sound good! Law suits seem to have stopped this filter in the Odyssey, but its brother the 4034 was the core of the ARP Explorer for many years.
AM8040 Onto the legendary SSM2040 chip and Dave Rossum's contribution to analog filtering. The ultimate low pass filter, with infinite character and prescence... Famously used in the SCI Prophet 5 Revision 1.
AM8044
In the mid 1980's the last stand of the analog poly synth brought us the SSM2044 in the Korg Poly Six, as well as the PPG Wave and even the drum machine SP1200. This
filter is the production sound of 4-pole LP filtering. AM8075 Smooth as velvet, the ARP 4075 4 pole LPF from the later Odyssey and of course the Quadra. This is such a polite filter, which works well with strings and organic sounds.
AM8090 This is a descrete circuit with 2 and 4-pole Low Pass Ffiler
and a High Pass Filter, inspired by the Roland filters in the Jupiter 8 and Juno-106. AM8106
This is the 4-pole low pass filter and the High Pass Filter in the Roland Junmo-106, it uses a D80017A clone chip. AM8109
More Rolandness... This is the 2 and 4-pole Low Pass Filter from the Jupiter 8 using a real IR3109 chip. Compares well with the Rossum SSM2040 ultimate filter
with its airy prescence. AM8121
This is the one-pole HPF and 4-pole Low Pass Filter from the Roland 100M modular analog synthesizer. Very similar 4x OTA design to the LPF filter in the mightly
Roland 700M and some early Roland mono-synths. AM8320 The cutting filter from the infamous SCI Pro One. Very carefully cloned with some extra care to make this a truely edgey 4 pole LPF. Works well with ultra short ADSR timings.
AM8372 The massive Oberheim Matrix 12 filter that has 16 different filter types based on the CEM3372 chip, it transcends any other filter on the planet with it's ability to subtract and modify.
AM2140 A very nice Dave Rossum 2-pole multi-mode filter which just
is soo smooth. A true classic design that appears in the E-mu Systems Audity as well as the E-mu Systems Modular, very rare!
So what have I have missed out? Well there is the NJM2069 in the Korg DW synths, and various 2-pole designs such as the Oberheim SEM as well.
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