Portamento on Eyes without a Face

9 Jul 2026, 00:08

I need serious help with recreating the portamento synth sound (I think) that’s at the start of Billy Idol’s Eyes without a Face. I’ve been literally pushing buttons and messing with settings for hours. I think it’s a portamento, because it has a glide, however, I cannot seem to get it on my keyboard. Btw, I have the Roland Fantom 06. I know I’ve dialed up a good patch, but I’m stuck with the effect. Please help me, I’m struggling.

Re: Portamento on Eyes without a Face

9 Jul 2026, 08:33

A quick Google search brought me this.

Re: Portamento on Eyes without a Face

10 Jul 2026, 07:39

Layer two synth sounds/oscillators: One oscillator without pitch change, and one oscillator that holds the pitch for one bar and then drops gradually over the next bar by one octave.

There are a number of ways for achieving the pitch change. Automatic with envelopes or LFOs or manual with the pitch or modulation wheel or lever.

For this song, the timing of the effect does not need to be accurate. Because of that, I would use a step LFO, enable Key Trigger Sw and Tempo Sync Sw and set the rate to a whole note (that means each LFO step matches 1 bar). In the step LFO, use a step length >= 3, the first step is flat, the second step linearly drops to -72, and all remaining steps are flat -72. Change the LFO pitch depth so that it does down approximately 1 octave (about +51).