Lyle Mays Lead Sound

hearttimes · 25th March 2008, 02:51 AM

how might one approximate that bitchin' lyle mays lead sound - the one he uses on offramp, for example? damn that is cool. iheard it was an oberheim 2 voice.

chrisso · 25th March 2008, 04:55 AM

He has a few lead sounds.

One is kinda droopy - I think that's some kind of Ensoniq synth. Then he has the slightly dodgy harmonica emulation.
His warm analog lead is an Oberheim 4 voice. I've seen him using it live.
The 4 voice is a collection of 4 x SEM's. You could get a similar sound with a 2 Voice or something similar even with a single SEM.

Mays is playing 4 Voice with his left hand in this live vid:
YouTube - Pat Metheny Group - Are you going with me?

hearttimes · 25th March 2008, 11:12 PM

thanks chris, what do you think the settings are on that patch?

fross · 26th March 2008, 01:43 AM

The classic Lyle mays sound can be done.
If you have a synth that does a square wave, you can tweak til you get close.
Roland use to have a keyboard, JX-8P I believe, that had a similar patch, named after Mays.
The harmonica, well it's the harmonica
And the rich pads, can be found on most synths and tweaked to taste.

chrisso · 26th March 2008, 07:56 AM

It's just the thick sound of the OB oscillators (each SEM has 2) and the nice LPF.
The Oberheim Matrix 1000 (very cheap) has some similar sounds.

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25th March 2008, 02:51 AM	#1
hearttimes Gear Head Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 46	Lyle Mays Lead Sound how might one approximate that bitchin' lyle mays lead sound - the one he uses on offramp, for example? damn that is cool. iheard it was an oberheim 2 voice.

25th March 2008, 04:55 AM	#2
chrisso Lives for gear Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Oz Posts: 3,168	He has a few lead sounds. One is kinda droopy - I think that's some kind of Ensoniq synth. Then he has the slightly dodgy harmonica emulation. His warm analog lead is an Oberheim 4 voice. I've seen him using it live. The 4 voice is a collection of 4 x SEM's. You could get a similar sound with a 2 Voice or something similar even with a single SEM. Mays is playing 4 Voice with his left hand in this live vid: YouTube - Pat Metheny Group - Are you going with me? __________________ Chris Whitten

26th March 2008, 07:56 AM	#5
chrisso Lives for gear Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Oz Posts: 3,168	It's just the thick sound of the OB oscillators (each SEM has 2) and the nice LPF. The Oberheim Matrix 1000 (very cheap) has some similar sounds. __________________ Chris Whitten

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25th March 2008, 11:12 PM	#3
hearttimes Gear Head Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 46	thanks chris, what do you think the settings are on that patch?

26th March 2008, 01:43 AM	#4
fross Gear addict Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: NYC Posts: 459	The classic Lyle mays sound can be done. If you have a synth that does a square wave, you can tweak til you get close. Roland use to have a keyboard, JX-8P I believe, that had a similar patch, named after Mays. The harmonica, well it's the harmonica And the rich pads, can be found on most synths and tweaked to taste.