Studio One: Exploring Mai Tai

Alien Squirrelscape: modulating an electric‑piano‑style patch beyond recognition using the Mod Matrix.

We breathe some new life into the Mai Tai synth, with some creative patches for you to explore.

It is time to revisit Mai Tai, the often‑overlooked Studio One synthesizer. While it may be named after a cocktail, this 32‑voice polyphonic virtual analogue synth has little to do with propping up a tiki bar on a far‑flung tropical beach and more to do with sumptuous pads, fat basses and penetrating leads. It’s a classic subtractive synth and has a huge amount of character and versatility. It has a traditional architecture, plenty of modulation opportunities and a bunch of effects.

So, for this workshop, we’re going to initialise a patch and set to work on putting together some patches that lean into the different strengths of Mai Tai in the hope that it will encourage further exploration of your own.

Alien Squirrelscape

One of the best things about creating your own patches is that you can call them what the heck you like, and no one can do anything about it. So, let’s kick off with the wild chaos of Alien Squirrelscape. This is not a workshop for the squeamish.

The purpose of this little beastie is to dive head‑first into the Mod Matrix and push things around in an alarming manner. But we should start with an initialised patch. So, drag in an instance of Mai Tai to create a nice new track, click on the patch list where it currently says ‘default’, and select ‘+ init’. You will be faced with a simple singular sawtooth sound. Let’s get to work.

• Osc 1: Set to a sine wave and enable RP (random phase).
• Osc 2: Enable, set to sine wave and dial the octave down to 16’.
• Noise: Turn the level down, although you can always add this back in to taste.
• Character: Enable and set to Voxii for a bit of a strangled vocal vibe.
• Filter: Disable Soft, put the Drive up to 9 o’clock, Res to just past noon, Vel to 2 o’clock and Key all the way around. Set Cutoff to 1 o’clock.
• LFO 1: Enable, set to triangle, enable Key and Free and set the rate to about 10 o’clock.
• LFO 2: Enable, leave on sine wave, disable all three buttons and set the rate to about midnight
• Amp Env: Leave Attack at zero, put Decay to 11 o’clock, Sustain to 2 o’clock and Release to 3 o’clock.
• Env 2: Bring Attack up to 2 o’clock, Decay to 4 o’clock, Sustain at zero and Release to 1 o’clock.
• Env 3: Attack to noon, Decay to 1 o’clock, Sustain and Release to nothing.
• FX A: Enable Delay and increase the time to 1 bar. Enable Reverb and increase the Size to noon and the Mix to about 10 o’clock. (If you can’t see the Modulation and Effects section at the bottom, click on the MOD/FX button at the bottom left.)

You will hopefully hear an unexpectedly beautiful electric piano with a ghostlike, distant and ambient quality. We are going to mess that up entirely with the Mod Matrix.

Now, give it a play. You will hopefully hear an unexpectedly beautiful electric piano with a ghostlike, distant and ambient quality. We are going to mess that up entirely with the Mod Matrix.

Click on Mod A and add the following modulations to the first six slots. The upper slots (above the modulation amount sliders) are the modulation sources, and the lower ones are the destinations.

• Slot 1: Source LFO 2, Destination Osc 1 Pitch. Push Amount to about 75 percent.
• Slot 2: Source LFO 1, Destination Osc 2 Pitch. Amount 100.
• Slot 3: Source Env 3, Destination LFO 1 Frequency. Amount 100.
• Slot 4: Source Env 2, Destination LFO 2 Frequency. Amount 100.
• Slot 5: Source Env Main, Destination Filter Cutoff. Amount 25.
• Slot 6: Source LFO 1, Destination Character Sound. Amount 75.

You can probably see that the basic idea is to modulate the pitch with the LFOs and use the envelopes to modulate the speed of the pitch modulation. It creates a wonderfully vibrant and strangely organic explosion of animated, long‑release events. Groovy.

Mountain Webbing

Mountain Webbing: a simple yet effective string pad patch.

This is probably the finest string pad I’ve ever come up with; it’s just lovely. The patch is actually quite simple and is based upon slightly detuned sawtooth waves, a cinematic envelope and a delayed bit of modulation. Start with the init patch.

• Osc 1: Set to a sawtooth wave and enable RP. Turn Spread up to 3 o’clock, Sub up to 9 o’clock and push the Fine‑tuning knob left just a little bit to ‑9.00.
• Osc 2: Enable, set to sawtooth wave and dial the octave down to 16’. Enable RP and Sync. Push Level up to about 1 o’clock and the Fine tuning to the right to 13.00.
• Noise: Enable and set Level to 9 o’clock (adjust to taste) and Colour all the way up.
• Character: Enable and set to GrandClass with Amount all the way up and Sound set to L14.
• Filter: Disable Soft, put the Drive all the way up, Punch to 8 o’clock, Res to zero, Vel to 1 o’clock and Key to 2 o’clock. Set Cutoff to 2 o’clock.
• LFO 1: Enable, set to sine wave, disable all three buttons and set the rate to about 10 o’clock. Set the Delay to a little past noon.
• LFO 2: Leave disabled.
• Amp Env: Put all four knobs to just past noon.
• Env 2: Put Decay to maximum and everything else to zero.
• Env 3: Unchanged.
• FX A: Enable Chorus, Delay and Reverb. The default settings are pretty good, but maybe the delay mix should be reduced slightly and the reverb mix could be increased to almost 3 o’clock.
• Mod A: The modulation is much simpler here, with Env 2 controlling Filter Cutoff at about 40 percent, and LFO 1 set to Osc 2 Pan at 100.

Have a go, and hold some chords. I hope you find it as delicious as I do.

Abrupt

This patch, named Abrupt, is great for dramatic build‑ups.

Here’s a simple but dramatic patch: a phenomenal build‑up followed by an abrupt drop. Simple things can be awesome...

• Osc 1: Set to a square wave, put PWM on 11 o’clock, Spread to 10 o’clock and Sub all the way round.
• Osc 2: Enable, set to square wave, put PWM to noon and nudge the Fine tuning to the right a tiny bit.
• Noise: Leave disabled.
• Character: Enable and set to CharacterSaw, with both Amount and Sound set to noon.
• Filter: Turn Soft on, put the Cutoff to zero and the Res to just past 1 o’clock.
• LFO 1: Enable, set to sine wave, enable Key and Free and set the rate to about 11 o’clock.
• LFO2: Leave disabled.
• Amp Env: Set Attack and Release to zero, Decay to just before 9 o’clock and Sustain all the way up.
• Env 2: Set Attack to 3 o’clock, Decay up a tiny bit and everything else to zero.
• Env 3: Unchanged.
• FX A: None
• Mod A: In slot 1, set Env 2 to control Filter Cutoff at about 100 percent; in slot 2, set LFO 1 to control Osc 1 Pulse width at 75.

Persistent Eyebrow

Persistent Eyebrow: a patch that combines a guitar‑like plucking sound with ethereal washes.

To highlight Mai Tai’s versatility, here’s a sound that has electric guitar‑like elements combined with a subtle ringing feedback and washing ephemeral emphasis:

• Osc 1: Set to a triangle wave, Octave to 4’ and enable RP. Put the Level all the way round, Spread to 10 o’clock and Sub to 9 o’clock.
• Osc 2: Enable, set to sawtooth wave and dial the octave up to 2’.
• Noise: Enable and set the level and Colour to 9 o’clock.
• Character: Enable and set to Spherical with Amount all the way round and Sound set all the way left.
• Filter: Put the Drive and Punch to noon, Res up a little bit, and Key to 10 o’clock. Set the Cutoff to 10 o’clock.
• LFO 1: Enable, set to sine wave, enable Free and set the rate to just past 9 o’clock.
• LFO 2: Leave disabled.
• Amp Env: Put Attack to zero and set DS and R to 1 o’clock.
• Env 2: Keep Attack at zero and put Decay to 10 o’clock, Sustain and Release to 11 o’clock.
• Env 3: Unchanged.
• FX A: Enable Chorus, Delay and Reverb. The Chorus should have its speed wound up to 2 o’clock and the Depth reduced to 11 o’clock. For Delay raise the Low/High to 10 o’clock, set time to 1/8, FB to 2 o’clock and Mix to just past noon. Set PingPong to Panned and enable the Reverb button. For the Reverb set the Damp to maximum, Size to 3 o’clock, High to 10 o’clock and Mix to 1 o’clock.
• Mod A: Env 2 controlling Filter Cutoff at about 80 percent and LFO 1 is also set to Filter Cutoff at 70 percent.

Once you start playing, you’ll immediately push into the pluck sound, but if you hold some notes, you’ll encounter the rising tide of the slowly modulated filter.

If it’s feeling a little bit light and fluffy then click on FX B, and let’s give it some excitement. Enable Gater, set it to Slackjoint at 1/2 speed. Enable Distortion, set it to Soft Tube 2 and push up the Drive. Hold a wide chord and play some lead over the top. You might want to increase the voice count to 32 to prevent note stealing. Change the Distortion settings to taste.

Muffin FM

This patch, called Muffin FM, demonstrates Mai Tai’s frequency‑modulation abilities.

Frequency modulation in Mai Tai is not exactly nuanced. You can’t modulate one oscillator from another, but the LFO goes up into audio rate, which gives us possibilities. I’ve fought with it quite a bit and can only offer you this patch as a place for experimentation within the context of a malfunctioning telephone exchange:

• OSC 1: Set to a sine wave
• OSC 2: Enable, set to sine wave.
• Noise: Disable
• Character: Disable
• LFO 1: Enable, set to sine wave, enable Key and Free and set the rate to around 3 o’clock.
• LFO 2: Enable and set to a sine wave at 9 o’clock.
• Amp Env: Put A, D and R to zero and set Sustain to maximum.
• Env 2: Unchanged.
• Env 3: Attack to between 9 and 10 o’clock and Sustain to maximum.
• FX A: No effects.
• Mod A: Set Voice Pitch to LFO 1 Frequency, LFO 1 to Osc 1 Pitch and then again to LFO 2 Pitch, all at 100 percent. Set Env 3 to LFO 1 Frequency at ‑25 percent and LFO 2 to LFO 1 Frequency at ‑25 percent.

Play with the LFO 1 Rate and the Env 3 and LFO 2 modulation amounts to find your favourite clangy sounds.

Demented Wurzel

Demented Wurzel is a Multi Instrument patch comrising four instances of Mai Tai.

Lastly, let’s look at a really simple way to combine multiple Mai Tais in a cacophony of sine waves. The idea is to use eight sine‑wave oscillators in an unholy drone. Sadly, drones are not possible without holding notes down, because there’s no direct access to the VCA.

Drag in a New Multi Instrument from the Instruments browser. In the Multi Instrument panel, click on ‘+ Instruments’ and add a single Mai Tai. Load up the init patch, enable both oscillators and set them to sine waves, and increase the Release on the Amp Env to about 12 o’clock. Now we’re going to duplicate the Mai Tai and make some small adjustments to give us our Demented Wurzel organ. To create multiple Mai Tais, simply hold Ctrl and click‑drag the Mai Tai into space. Do it again until you have four side‑by‑side. Then set them as follows:

• Mai Tai 1: Set Osc 1 to 16’ and Osc 2 to 32’. Nudge the Semi on Osc 1 to the left two semitones. Enable all three effects under FX A and set the delay time to 1/8D.
• Mai Tai 2: Set Osc 1 to 8’, nudge the Semi left one semitone and increase Spread to 10 o’clock. Set Osc 2 to 16’. Enable the FX A effects and set the delay to 1/2T.
• Mai Tai 3: Set both oscillators to 4’. On Osc 1 push Semi right to 7 semitones and Spread up to 10 o’clock. Enable the FX A effects with the delay set to 1/4D.
• Mai Tai 4: Set both oscillators to 2’. Pull the Semi down four semitones on Osc 1. Push the Spread up to 11 o’clock. Turn on the same effects and set the delay to 1/2.

Play single notes for some nicely disturbing organ sounds. We can make this more interesting by adding an Arpeggiator. You’ll find one under Note FX in the Multi Instrument window. Make sure it sits in the chain above the row of Mai Tais. Set it to Random, set it to 1/4 time and a two‑octave range and you will start to appreciate all those offset delay times we put in.

I hope that’s given you some ideas for your exploration of Mai Tai.