really terrible old sounds wanted

[kidkunjer]

weird question, I'm working on a video project for which I need to produce a terrible soundtrack similar to the sort of thing that they might have done in the 80s or on really poor productions. You know the sound of poorly emulated instruments that you got back in the day from the default midi soundfonts stuff, or cheap toy-ish synths. The more horrible and cheap sounding the better. Not like chiptune stuff or anything that can even ironically sound good, but really nasty.

Anyone know of a VST or a sample bank (pref free as its a no budget one off thing) that can reproduce these sounds? or even a tutorial on how to use synths "badly" on purpose...? I have heard somewhere that those crappy cheap synths used samples of fm synthesized stuff, so i think it must be possible... but i can't seem to find out how to do it.

Any tips or ideas? Would be much appreciated.

[layzer]

what, like this?
https://youtu.be/WOSBA4AQPgY?t=138

just stream record it off the site. no vst or sample pack needed

[kidkunjer]

that's the right sort of sound! but i want to make my own track etc. i presume those demo songs are copyrighted in some way, and also aren't quite the right feel. Would be better if i could compose my own thing... but its a great start thanks!

[wagtunes]

Korg M1 and Wavestation might do it for you.

[Guenon]

Hit your local flea markets and garage sales and pawn shops and so on, those oldie "bordering on being toys" keyboards can be a lot of fun , and as an added bonus, you can open them up and experiment with their electronics if you're adventurous in that way, hehe.

[fluffy_little_something]

what, like this?
https://youtu.be/WOSBA4AQPgY?t=138

just stream record it off the site. no vst or sample pack needed

Holy shit


Anyway, Roland sound canvas maybe...
https://www.roland.com/global/products/sound_canvas_va/

[Guenon]

This is the one I had as a child (minus the circuit bending, of course) hahah https://youtu.be/r6ODrrkGDWI?t=142

Oh man, it makes me feel like I should hunt one of that exact model down and mod it like that.

[thecontrolcentre]

Casio VL-Tone maybe? My first hardware keyboard
http://www.polyvalens.com/blog/vl-1/

[VariKusBrainZ]

Wags has a music thread, plenty old fashioned low quality sounds in there

[sjm]

Any sort of wavestation as suggested above should be good. You could also try some OPL-type stuff. Or single (low bit?) samples mapped over the whole key range.

[DSmolken]

I love terrible movies! One of my favorite dubious 80s movie soundtracks is "Liquid Sky", made on a Fairlight that was made available to the public by New York's public library system. Basically, little time, and no studio or ability to add other instruments, just all Fairlight all the time. That's a weird one, though. Definitely not representative of what was typical in the era.

I'd get emulations of "good" early 80s synths, or even some 70s ones (for example "Robot Holocaust" had music recycled from "Laserblast" which I think was 1979), and just use them badly. Like, try to make the entire soundtrack with just a DX7, no effects other than tape saturation, and just lazily use presets with no modulation of parameters. Well, not so much lazily, as trying to get a lot of sound done very quickly. Avoid stuff that would have been new in the late 80s, which unfortunately would include the M1. And probably avoid toy synths or Casios, I don't really thiiiiink a lot of people making soundtracks in the 80s used those.

One of the beta testers of my Swirly Drums drum kit has somehow managed to befriend the guy who was responsible for the "Killer Workout" soundtrack. Though that was more rock/new wave, you could try to actually find the people who did some of those movies back in the day and pick their brains. Ask them what they actually used.

[layzer]

Korg M1 and Wavestation might do it for you.

or omnisphere, better yet

but seriouslyif you're looking for cheesy emulated instrument sounds
look no further than the old FM isa sound card sounds.
theres a vst called juceOPLVSTi for that.

https://bsutherland.github.io/JuceOPLVSTi/

[Aloysius]

Wags has a music thread, plenty old fashioned low quality sounds in there

[wagtunes]

Wags has a music thread, plenty old fashioned low quality sounds in there

Hey man, you're funny. Curious, you can dish it out (I haven't said one word to you in I don't know how long, so you started this) but can you take it?

Most bullies can't.

[Aloysius]

I think it was just a joke but I could be wrong.