Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hi Mitkom,

I'm familiar with Enigma's synthesized flute sound, at least from their early recordings.  A shakuhachi, it isn't.  You're going to have to resort to electronics, as Enigma did, to create their "flute" sound.

There are three possibilities they used to generate such a sound...
1) it was a "shakuhachi" preset, heavily modified
2) it was an original flute recording they made or acquired, heavily modified
3) it was modelled (a common model of that era was FM -- not very realistic for wind instruments), and heavily modified

I suggest posting your question also in Enigma or recording engineer circles, otherwise you're unlikely to find the magic sequence of hardware, data, and knobs that made that sound.

And a little more synthesized "shakuhachi" history, more on the MIDI side...  "Shakuhachi" became a fashionable preset name in MIDI synthesizer gear in the late 1980s.  To standardize things among manufacturers, the General MIDI standard in 1991 made "shakuhachi" program number 78, which means basically every sample-based synth engine since then (and some before) include a "shakuhachi".  Each manufacturer and potentially each model will have its own interpretation of what "shakuhachi" is.  They all used differnt source samples.  Some didn't even use samples, but math models like in an FM synth (think DX7, but that was pre-GM).  They all sound different.  On top of that, every synth engine has its own parameters to tweak such as filters, eqs, ADSR, and effects and most let you layer multiple sounds together and mix or trigger them according to velocity or aftertouch or anything else you can sweep with a pot or fader.

That's if it was a sample-based MIDI patch.  If it was an original sample or model, then the sky's the limit.

Then, as Phil says, you throw in a producer and engineer and their own preferences and expertise, and what started as a low-resolution shakuhachi approximation has now morphed into something that you'll never be able to press a button to reproduce.  Sometimes the artists and producers want it that way.

Back to your question...  Enigma's early pieces and pieces like Sledgehammer pre-dated General MIDI.  This doesn't mean it wasn't a "shakuhachi" preset, but it makes it less likely and either way, this was also the era of sampling workstations like the E-mu Emulator so any of what you're hearing may have been an original sample, heavily modified and layered.

So the easiest way to "play" Enigma's sound, if that's what you really want, is to find an extractable sample of it in their music.  Put that sample into a sampler (software or hardware), and map it across a couple of octaves of a keyboard.  Or even a wind controller.  You might find a small USB music keyboard and some free sampler software for $100 and be sampling and playing away.  (With your own effort to record and extract the flute sound from their music.)   That's if you really want to reproduce -their- sound.

Another fun diversion into synthesized wind instruments, if you want to make your own sound (and you don't want it to involve bambooo)...  Yamaha's VL series of engines can produce some really cool wind sounds, with wide pitch and timbre controls that allow more natural expression and variation.  A wind controller isn't as cheap as a keyboard, but they're around.  Not to imitate the shakuhachi, but to have some fun...

-Darren.

If you're not familiar with Enigma (or you're just a masochist that wants to hear a nasty shakuhachi approximation), I grabbed a sound byte from a CD.  Yes, I own it... the shame of it all...

Enigma "Sadeness" (excerpt)

Keep in mind you're listening to 1989/90...  When dancing in acid wash jeans to Gregorian chants mixed into club music was popular...  Oh, the shame...

Where is my inside voice when I need it?

-Darren.

i was not sure if this question was a joke or not. Especially the Michael Bolton part. That guy sounds soooo incredibly constipated when he sings. Does he use shakuhachi samples in some of his dreadful songs?
It should be fairly easy to tell the difference between a canned, artificial shakuhachi like in the enigma recordings (yeah, i admit i have heard that dreck) and a real shakuhachi. One has life, one does not.  Sort of like the difference between a canned  beet and one fresh from the ground. Hard to imagine that one cant tell them apart.