I like the synth sound I hear in the song "Thunderbolt" that opens Björks last album. This is the song:
I'm afraid that in Youtube is not easy to appreciate the beauty of the sound. It enters in 1:40 but during the song you can hear it in different registers and with some changes. Listen the whole track because after that is much better. After 4:36 you can hear it in the lowest register. I also like the composing of the synth line based on this strange arpegios which I find very unexpected. I find it great because it's almost vulgar, almost too evident, but... with a very good (and strange) taste, which makes it (in my opinion) a genial and very original choice. I'm not sure I can describe it correctly. Maybe it's only my point of view.
Anyway, has someone of you any idea of which Synth or Software is used? Unfortunately I don't have the album here to read the CD notes.
I have seen this in another video, with a "tesla coil synth", but I'm not sure that this is the one used in the album (I don't like this sound as much as the other). Or maybe it's because of the crappy camera microphone or a different production. I don't know:
It's a very nondescript sound and could be produced by nearly any analog or analog-emulating software synth. The filter would be wide open with no modulation at all, so the sound is basically just a raw oscillator going through the VCA with modest attack and release settings on the VCA envelope.
My guess would be the Moog Taurus with a realistic sounding reverb with no obvious use of the Moog filter - why because the bass seems like a really solid elecronic wave down low in the end part. Again just guessing. I also hear what sounds like pipe organ. So maybe real Tesla coil sounded too scratchy for the album. Real pipe organ bass isn't tight or bright so they went for something known for strong bass.
As for the Tesla Coil, my understanding is it was discovered in the 19th century that one could produce an electrical arc with enough of a pitch that it hit and hold a note and then change the frequency for a different note. Recently it's a showpiece for a few artists to MIDI one up. So it only does that one sound but until people become jaded it is impressive to see and hear in a live performance.
One of my friends is a longtime admirer of Tesla and I might have been the one to tell him some years back that artists are rigging them to create pitched sounds. So some months later I get his new concert DVD and sure enough he's got a Tesla Coil setup.
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