Bette Davis Eyes Synth Sound for PSR-E433 and up

[SciNote]

I've always thought that the synthesizer sound in the song "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes was unique and really contributed to the song.  I've often wondered how to go about getting that sound.  It's not quite a string sound, not quite a typical "pad" sound, and not quite a lead sound.  Well, I think I've got it here, though it is possible it could use a little more tweaking.  As I compared my rough playing sample to a video of the song on YouTube, I realized that I didn't get all the notes right, but the main idea is there to hear the sound.

https://app.box.com/s/gxz5xowwlicdn4c841qtstz9xb9ixptk

What's funny is that, for some reason, I felt that the original was recorded using a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 synthesizer.  I'm not sure why -- maybe it's because that back in 1981, when this song came out, there weren't too many other polyphonic synths available.  I don't remember previously reading that a Prophet 5 was used, but when I was checking out the video for the song to hear the sound recently, sure enough, there was a Prophet 5!

The patch is...

Main Voice -- 165 -- Saw Lead (PSR-E433; likely a different tone number on other keyboards)
Volume ....... 78
Octave ........ -1
Pan ............ 64
Reverb ...... 114
Chorus ...... 108
Attack ........ 66
Release ...... 97
CutOff ........ 69
Resonance .. 83

Dual Voice -- 464 -- Syn Str 2 (PSR-E433; likely a different tone number on other keyboards)
Volume ....... 75
Octave ........ -1
Pan ............ 64
Reverb ...... 114
Chorus ........ 40
Attack ......... 64
Release ....... 64
CutOff ......... 69
Resonance ... 83

Reverb ..... 03 (Hall3)
Chorus ....... 1 (Chorus1)

It could help to have the touch sensitivity set to soft, or its most sensitive setting, to more easily get the harmonics of the sound.

[Fantomas]

Many souvenirs with this song 

I've searched sounds to match on my PSR-E463 and I've found IMO one voice which seems to be perfect.

Voice : 492 Reso Str
Playing same sound with DUO voice at same 80 volume.
Volume is now set to 80 & 60 for Voice and Duo Voice, it is better.

Applied some tuning with knobs, here are the values :
Reverb 79
Chorus 64
Attack 64
Release 83
Cutoff 64
Reso 127

Here is the sheet : https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0108146
Don't need to pay, the 1st page can be seen, need just to magnify screen.

Here is the beginning recorded right now (not perfect, just learned the notes 10 min ago) :
http://chris021.free.fr/YAMAHA/BetteDavisEyes.wav

[SciNote]

That sounds good on that recording, but it seems to sound different when I try to emulate it on my keyboard.  Granted, I have the older E433, but that sound, with such a high number of 492, must be an XGLite voice, and I think the XGLite voices are similar among both keyboards, though the exact voice numbers won't usually be the same.  So, I have some questions...

You say the name of the voice is "Reso Srt."  Do you mean "Reso STR", as in Resonant Strings?

What type of chorus and reverb are you using?  For example, Chorus 1, or Flanger 1, or Hall reverb.

You said that you are playing the same sound with DUO voice.  What do you mean by that?  Do you mean that you are using the exact same voice and settings on both the main and dual voices?

[Fantomas]

You say the name of the voice is "Reso Srt."  Do you mean "Reso STR", as in Resonant Strings?

Typing mistake, it's "Reso STR" of course *corrected*
On your keyboard, you might find that voice under another number.
The voices numbers you are using on the 433 are different on the 463.

What type of chorus and reverb are you using?  For example, Chorus 1, or Flanger 1, or Hall reverb.

I don't understand what you mean. I don't use DSP, only adjusting Chorus with knobs (like you can also do by changing function parameters if you don't have knobs)

You said that you are playing the same sound with DUO voice.  What do you mean by that?  Do you mean that you are using the exact same voice and settings on both the main and dual voices?

Exactly

[vbdx66]

Hi Fantomas,

If you look on page 23 if the data list of the PSR E463, you'll notice that there are 12 types of reverb, 3 types of chorus and 2 types of flanger available on the keyboard. In the function menu, there is a function « Chorus type » and another « Reverb type ». The type of reverb and of chorus (or flanger) chosen has obviously an effect on the sound.
In the function menu, function 036 is the type of reverb chosen and function 037, the type of chorus (or flanger).

When you say that you are using the same sound with dual voice, do you mean that the dual voice you are using is also Resonant Strings (492), so that your dual voice is replicating your main voice, or are you keeping as dual voice the dual voice which is associated by default with the Resoannt Strings? (You can see which dual voice you are using in the function menu, dual voice is function number 020).

Regards,

Vinciane.

[SeaGtGruff]

Note that when you select any of the voice presets (voice numbers) as the Main Voice, the keyboard is programmed to automatically select certain default settings that Yamaha feels go well with that voice-- the Volume, Pan, Reverb Depth, Chorus Depth, Dual Voice Number (even if the Dual Voice is turned off for that preset), the Dual Voice settings, the Reverb Type, the Chorus Type, the Harmony or Arpeggio parameters, etc.

Consequently, if Fantomas isn't selecting a specific Reverb Type and a specific Chorus Type after choosing the voice, then he is using the default types. Yamaha occasionally changes these default parameters from model to model, but usually they're the same from one model to the next-- although the default Volume might be set a bit differently. So if you choose the "Reso Str" voice, then select the settings he indicated to the values he listed, you should get the same results as him.

[Fantomas]

I'm learning more every day with all of you , thanks !

SeaGtGruff was right, I've let default parameters :
Reverb : 02 Hall2
Chorus  : 1

About Duo Voice, I've selected same #492 voice for main and duo.