Tim Truman's gear?


Touch of Class

Recommended Posts

I thought I'd just start a speculative little discussion in the dusty Tim Truman section. Does anyone know what instruments were used in the production of Season 5's soundtrack?

 

I find many of his compositions (i.e. those in the style of 'Over the Line' and 'Drives Up') to be atmospheric, lush and of quite high fidelity. Besides the signature electric guitar, the drums and occasional piano, which I assume are acoustic, his sound feels very sampler-heavy.

 

I mean, for the choral/synth elements, would he still be using a Fairlight at this late stage of the '80s?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know, I was wondering whether he used a D-50. Do you know which parts of 'Miracle Man' are in fact the Roland? I have a D-50 myself, and am familiar with its percussive possibilities (and drones of course), but I would be delighted if it could produce the strings and choirs such as those on the track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I must admit I'm not familiar with Truman scoring as I am with Jan's, having studied and sometimes transcribed his parts, sequences or patterns.

 

Back in the days, I've also been trying to decode his signature sounds and programming. I didn't do the same with Truman. I always found his scoring less interesting to me. I'm not saying it's bad, It was well written and produced, it brought the soundtrack a rock edge, more in tune with the overall feeling of the last season. I just think it had less personality.

 

More, Jan did a massive use of instruments that had a strong character and unmistakable color like the DX7 and the drum machine Roland 808, just to name a couple. Being the Fairlight mostly a sampler, it doesn't have a color on its own, if not for the factory presets, like the "pitched timbales" he used a lot in the first 2 seasons and in the MV Theme. Jan used DX7 for a huge variety of sounds from steel and jazz guitars to fuzzy solos, from bell-ish sounds of any kind, to a wide range of pseudo-oriental stringed instruments like in Golden Triangle and a lot more.

Last but in no way least, his unmistakable guitar-like phrasing when soloing, along with the sounds he got by filtering analog or FM sounds into guitar FX.

 

That's why it's a bit harder to figure out what kind of equipment Truman used. We hear a lot of guitars, effects, samples which can virtually come from well more than one specific piece of gear. Sure he used some of the mentioned gear (D50 and DX7), but he did a more ordinary use of them.

Edited by Jerry Beck
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fat Synth chord in the beginning and the high plucked sound which starts at 00:03 are from D-50

https://app.box.com/s/e5mofqd7c3stsascam6e0cq2li01jb7h

Jan used a Memorymoog with a Rockman distortion generator to create great guitar sound. (He did the same thing with Jazz Guitar from DX-7) It can be heard in Crockett's Theme, in the final scene Of Golden Triangle Part 2 when Castillo says goodbye to his ex-wife, When Irish Eyes Are Crying when Crockett arrives to meet with Eddie Kaye and in many, many other tracks.

Jan also used Memorymoog for fat synth chords which can be heard when something happened https://app.box.com/s/936njbboogrlvq4908pb7dmges91f4u4 (Hammer trademark) and low synth sounds (for example: slow

arpeggio sound in Gina Theme

https://app.box.com/s/9ji32a10l09ewb5bx5108005hqmxu7s3 Ending Of New York Theme https://app.box.com/s/bsf39gfe4fnov0y0qb17bzofeqdfq6ef Heart Of Darkness https://app.box.com/s/njmmwrum807fdr5h8sokkl9bgb4ah2n6

Edited by Crockettt
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tim Truman wrote us on the old .org forum several years ago which instruments he used. I looked around but could not find the post as .org is gone now. Most (drums, strings, ...) were synth instruments except for the electric guitars that were played by Michael Thompson instead of Tim.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I just found in my archive of .org forum what synths were used by Truman to score Season 5 :

Sequenced with AKAI MPC60

Sustained bass from Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter

Pads from Prophet VS

He also used two AKAI S1000 samplers, two AKAI S900 samplers, Korg MI rack, Yamaha TX802 (rack version of Yamaha DX-7 II models) and a few sample playback units.

Reverbed with EMT-250 unit.

Edited by Crockettt
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, thanks for following this up, Crockettt. A Prophet-VS! Now that's an interesting piece of hardware. I certainly didn't consider it as a possibility. 

 

Otherwise, Tim seems to have had a versatile range of sample playback options; quite a different setup from Jan Hammer's, considering that most of Tim's instruments are rack-mounted.

 

Now this thread is available as a resource for anyone interested in the topic.

Edited by Touch of Class
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

 

What about guitars? I assume he was using something with a humbucker. The guitar work on those tracks is absolutely amazing 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

vor 10 Stunden schrieb Tony_MontanaCDL:

 

What about guitars? I assume he was using something with a humbucker. The guitar work on those tracks is absolutely amazing 

But the guitars were played by Michael Thompson, not Tim Truman. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Speaking of Roland D-50, hasn't John Petersen brought it to Vice as well? I'm pretty sure I've heard the famous "Digital Native Dance" sound on "Missing Hours", when Trudy is in the boat and discovers she has a mark on the neck.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Crockettt said:

Do you mean this track?

https://app.box.com/s/yt5hjuiuinh1bs6w5f01qvr4d8xgqg7g

Yes, Petersen used D-50 to score Season 4

I'm not sure now if that's the exact moment. Very cool, though (actually, this clip made me realize that Missing Hours music is not bad at all!). I was thinking about that scene in which, if my memory does not betray me, Gina and Trudy find Mrs. Akers body on the boat, and then they find the abduction mark on Trudy! In a short moment of that scene one hear the percussive component of "Digital Native Dance". It took me years to learn that that sound came from the D-50. I remember hearing it also on the track "Catembe", from Miles Davis' album "Amandla" (already in the Catembe's first 10 seconds the sound is there).

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.