Ep14: Synth Sounds of "Africa" by Toto | Reverb Learn to Play
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- Reverb's 2021 Holiday Gift Guide: bit.ly/3ojmKNW
Treat yourself or find the perfect gift for your favorite music maker. Toto's "Africa" is a jam that has had us blessing the rains since 1982 when the band's album Toto IV was released. But how did Toto create those recognizable #SynthSounds? We're on a safari to figure it out, led (as always) by our brave captain, William Kurk. How sure are we that you're going to dig this video? Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.
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why do I like this guy so much
They way he presents it all. So likeable.
It’s the bowser bracelet...
He's great isn't he?
Because of the high top
It's because he has a good personality
“And today... we don’t have a GS1... BUT we have a DX7, which is broke... HOWEVER we have a TX7.”
I was legit expecting the list to keep going 😂😂🤣
Love this guy. Doesn’t take himself too serious, & he knows how to have fun. Please put him on more reviews!
Toto, the Avengers of music. I like that.
It makes almost too much sense.
Toto assemble!
That’s what we’ve always called them! Never heard anybody else use that. Awesome
"Toto. One of the greatest bands on the planet."
-Eddie Van Halen
He seems so genuinely excited by playing Toto--it's infectious! Love it~~
5:54
Love to see a Synth Sounds of "What is Love" by Haddaway.
Or Howard Jones, even better 😀
Isn't Haddaway just various sounds from Korg M1?
mikosoft yes
i have that multitrack master
2:33 sounds the same ? hmm not exactly
Daniel Simon it sounds really really really similar
Keyon Kelly personally i dont think so
Daniel Simon the one on the left sounds meatier. Dense. Om nom nom
nope. i agree.
I think he has different ADSR settings for them. Don't know why he didn't change them for TV.
I could listen to this guy talk about anything. He’s great.
Super great
The average Joe ( me ) doesn't really appreciate those little parts like the kalimba when we hear the song. But when it's broken down like this, it's a magical thing.
Someday I'll travel to Africa and if this song isn't playing all the time all over the continent, I'm gonna be pissed
Didn't hear it once on safari in Tanzania this spring, but Africa is after all a big country.
The tour guides are completely sick of it, trust me
Continent. Africa is a big continent.
I'm from Kenya and I've got news for you😂😂
From Africa, can confirm. Toto on the streets, unmoderated comments in the sheets.
the pad of drums was the most lovely and funny thing in the video, i loooove it
Even if I didn't love this song (which I do), I'd still watch the video because this guy is just an awesome host!
Synth sounds of chamber of reflection
rictualfury I would fucking kill for that
rictualfury a juno
rictualfury just a juno
DUDE
YES
“There’s no party, like a synth party. And there’s no party, till we get through all the Bacardi” lmao!!! 😭😭😭
William Kampert the tracy jordan of synths lol
This very subtle expression of irony on Mr. Kurks face made this video one of my favourites this month. Very sympathetic and entertaining.
The joy on his face making this video is pure magic.
That Prophet 5 definitely sounded too mellow and pad-like. I wish you had just used the CS-80 plug-in. It had the right kind of attack you need.
Nick White agreed. There is some harmonic content in the CS-80 sound that's not in the Prophet. Maybe the Prophet could faithfully recreate that sound, I'm not sure, but the one in the video is a little off.
Clemens nails this, look up his channel.
The Prophet 5 use 4-pole filters, so it cuts more highs for the same cutoff frequency. I think the Prophet 6 has multimode filters, though...
Kyle Tekaucic thank you for this info. Appreciated and enlightening.
NP. Also, one of the things that that made the CS-80 unique is that it's like two polysynths in one (one VCO, one LPF/HPF combo, one VCA), and you can set up slightly different sounds to enrichen the tone and give it more complexity. The Prophet 5 has detunable oscillators, but they all go through the same filter and envelope. If you want to get closer to the original without a CS-80, do two separate tracks of single-oscillator synth sounds (MIDI helps a lot here), and just use similar but different patches.
I Love this song, but prbably wouldn't have watched to the end except fo the fact that William was so obvioulsy enjoying himself that it was infectious!
He looks so genuinely happy towards the end 😊 made my night
This is wonderfully presented with such joy! Your enthusiasm is infectious.
Pay this man, awesome series…your love for music radiates.
Loving this. Can definitely tell you've found your voice for the new season and know what you want these videos to be.
More from this guy - he needs his own TV show! Too funny! Nice work!
I love how much this makes him smile. Because it makes me smile the same!
This guy deserves a raise and his own series.
the lick 6:33
noah v someone call Adam Neely
GET NEELY ON THE PHONE
Neely - _oh no not this shit again_
Also at 6:21
No not even close lol he only played the last 3 notes b
Love how you didn't forget those drum toms that lead the song into the chorus !
You could tell he was having so much fun with this one. Love it.
"There's no party like a synth party" - LOVE IT!!
5 years later, Steve Porcaro used Arturia CS-80 to show the sound of Africa
Just a legendary sound.
I absolutely love this song....and I like the way he keeps looking at the camera like,"I'm killin this shit right!" Everytime I sit at a piano I play this or Dont Stop Believing first to get the blood flowing...the 80's were fuckin awesome!
He’s really wearing a Members Only jacket… Gotta show my Dad!!
That flute sound is awesome!
“I think we’re landing” I love this guy! 😂
That absolutely fire solo at the end 😍
I love this guy so much because you can really feel his joy whenever he starts grooving. So real.
Um omg!! This is the coolest nerdiest most musicalicious thing on the internet. Things on RUclips have never been cool enough for me to subscribe to...until today!!
I've been in many cover bands. And every time they brought up this song, I said: "hmnaah, let's skip this one. You're underestimating it". Ofcourse I was the lunatic, so we practiced. Always the same outcome; "ok, let's skip this one" :):)
Heh, sorry. Fortunately my buds in our 3-piece band are going to give it a shot. The guys have the vocal chops. All I've got to do is approximate these tones in some registers on a Casio CTK-7200, and be able to play simplified versions of the brass and synth lead. The guitar player is covering the marimba parts. Oh, and I play bass on the left split. Uh, and sing the low lead and harmony on the rest.
*sigh* I'm still not quite sure how I get into things like this, but it's nice having band mates that are capable of pulling off almost anything and making me not suck. I think this will kick ass, and NO cover band in this area does it that I can think of! Maybe they're just smarter than we are.
I honestly would watch this guy do a video on pretty much anything. Always has me laughing throughout these videos, and I learn stuff to boot.
That flute sound just made my whole week. Amazing.
I wish i had friends like this dude. Would be cool to just hang out and jam on the synths and keyboards.
Wow ! Legend !... "There's no party until we get through all the Bacardi !"... Thanks !
William Kirk - the host with the most. This channel is the epic nest of warmth and tranquility.
the Krang immitation just killed me. Nice vid!
(plays chord using CS-80 plug-in) (plays chord using Prophet 5) "Sounds the same!" *Doesn't sound the same*
Alec Bicknell shut your whining
your trying so hard
Your smile when you play the flute part… 🙂
Lukather does amazing 12-string and electric guitar work on this. Deserves to be acknowledged
This guy is talented and looks like he is having a ton of fun making these videos, playing synths and learning and teaching about music. Love it. And love Africa!
You have so much joy making music. What a pleasure to watch.
OMG - I laughed WAY harder than I should have when you switched to the drum machine with that big ol grin!
What an infectious song! Also an infectious personality it was a pleasure to see this video. Love your Insight and your presentation. Was a cool video to wake up with!!!!
Learning to play this from what's clearly a MIDI is beyond backwards.
This might just be the best episode yet. Krang reference was tops!
He just looks so happy when he’s playing at the end like I think it’s funny
This song makes me want to go shopping in a mall from the 80s
Me too. It's crazy how Eye can see the colors are all different. But yes! Me too!
Even though I hate the song, and the synth sounds are really corny, I couldn’t stop smiling throughout the video because of this dude
This beat, tone, song just makes one happy. Beat bobber!
Despite the few nitpicky things people point out in this presentation, you had me at Krang. 🤣 First I've seen of this series and absolutely loved it. I like that you put the settings used up on screen, improvise where needed (some of these machines are super rare and expensive), and make great references to dice up some humor, on top of being a great player. Well done I'll be back for more!
You can see the happiness in his face
I love it!!! Thank you for this video. William Kurk RULES!!!!
Your enthusiasm in your smile just shines.😀
That smile is infectious. Looks like fun.
There's a speaker in the middle of Sahara desert, charged by solar panels, that plays continuously this song for eternity. Imagine how surreal.
To everyone commenting that the parts are wrong, here's my take on it: I'm pretty sure it's intentional to avoid copyright claims from RUclips's algorithm which primarily combs through audio to find copyrighted material. As this video is "The Synth SOUNDS of" it's focus is helping you recreate the synth tones used on these famous recordings and not the actual synth parts. I could be wrong but that's what I think is going on. Anyway, great video.
You couldn’t be more wrong
DR8855 How is he wrong? Plenty of room for you to explain.
Thanks. Africa is still on my "songs always runnin' around my head" playlist.
One of the greatest songs in life and death. Periodtttt!!
Love your style 😊
Dude, that smile on your face playing the solo... 😂
When he snuck over to the other keyboard to play the drum turnaround I literally almost spit out my drink trying to rewind to watch that again LMAO!
Synth of led zeppeling "all my love"
wilson sandoval arros Isn't that just a Mellotron?
It was played on Benny Andersson's, Yamaha GX-1. It was a permanent installation at Polar Studios, where "In Through the Out Door", was recorded ,which was owned by Benny, and Bjorn Alvaeus, of ABBA. The GX-1 was a hybrid of an organ with some synth modules built into it. They were extremely expensive, at the time, and ridiculosly expensive today. There were less than 75 made, and they needed constant maintenance, especially when used for touring. JPJ purchased one from Yamaha, in early 1979, and used it live on their European dates from that year, though, "All of my Love", was not performed live. In the mid-80s, Jones sold the GX-1 to Keith Emerson, who used it at times during the late 80's and early 90's, and still owned it at the time of his death.
Yamaha never built an updated version of the GX-1. None of their keyboards following it, had the same sound or feel as it did.
Wow! Aren't we lucky we were here to get that information? It seemed extraneous at the time.
Nah but srsly this is cool and I'm glad you taught me something
tiny b I believe the only living musician that still owns their original GX-1 is Stevie Wonder.
REVERB is making my life better!
I like this guy style on explaining, is not only dead serious talking about a song, it actually made it funny, like the vid :D
If I was only listening and not watching this video, I’d swear Hannibal Burress joined the Reverb crew.
An Oberheim synth would've been a better brass sound because of the 12 dB/oct filter. The CS-80 uses a 12 dB/oct filter so the brass sound is brighter than the Prophet 5 as heard in the video. The OB-6 would be my choice. Also Steve Porcaro loved his Matrix 12 so that would work too though it's a bit newer than the CS-80 .
I liked the rounded-off sound for a change. Kinda like how I liked the bit of wow on the brass sound for a change.
The song is so good, they named a continent after it. Wow!
I'm at work right now, as i saw this at my notification. I punch for early break so fast and ran to the restroom.
Looks like he's finally enjoying makin these videos, well done my friend!! My fav by far
Im a simple man...when i see Africa by toto... Instant click
Thanks, William! That was a fun trip!
Toto guys played together years before they became the session aces.
Love the old school members only jacket lol
I love this guy! Haha more of him please Reverb!
Who needs all the avengers when you have this guy?! Super Bacardi party Man
Africa is one of the best songs recorded in the 80s
My mans looks so smug playing that solo i love it
This guy has the best job, thank you for these
Its clear how happy he is for doing this video hahaha nice
5:54 I love how much Kirk loves this!
Given that everyone always comments on your t-shirts... how has no one commented on a Mario Bros does Abbey Road t-shit??! Great video as always. You and Joe Shahid are the reason I am still subscribed to Reverb on RUclips.
Also, the prophet does not do as good of a job as the Arturia Cs-80 VST. Just sayin.
I’m a simple person. I see Africa by Toto, I click.
I don't even play synth and I loved this! Good work William Kurk!
Really love the joy on your face as you play this, wish I had the skill to play that well.
Love how much fun you're having. Great video.
You should bring this series back!
I love how much fun he has with these lmao
5:53
That is the face of pure joy
thank you sooo much for bringing light to these and other HIts songs please do continue doing so !!!! respectS!
3:19 best part of the video 😂😂
Salute, man! Thanks for doing justice to this great piece.
This series is SO GOOD.