Sound of the 80s

[fluffy_little_something]

I don't think it is really about the time a synth came out, but the kind of sound it is associated with. Dave Smith's stuff makes basically 80s sounds, but his products are new developments.

[BlackWinny]

Ok, so here are those that I know which are essentially focused on the reproduction of the styles between 1977 to 1994 (not before, not after):

Since when 1994 belongs to the "80s"?

While i love the Wavestation it's not a 80s synth for me, opposing to it's predecessor which is the Prophet VS and quite nicely emulated in Arturia Prophet V.

Having a look at that list i don't know why e.g. Circle should be a 80s synth. If we are talking about wavetable synths PPg Wave 2.V and even more PPG Wave 3.V (which is a much better emulation) are proper choices.


Ingo

It was just a way to make a transition between two very different epochs in the music. A huge change has come more around 1993 than at the exact 1990. In 1992 many musicians made still the music of the 80's. And to take the example of the Wavestation, it is one of the latest in that list but I couldn't take it away because it was produced from 1990 to 1994 with in the developers mind a style which was still in use. And as I said just above, it is in this year 1994 that the music has really begun to change to a totally new era. And... it's precisely one of the reasons why the Wavestation, despite its huge success, had ceased to be produced in 1994.

[BlackWinny]

I don't think it is really about the time a synth came out, but the kind of sound it is associated with. Dave Smith's stuff makes basically 80s sounds, but his products are new developments.

It's exactly that.

[beely]

And to take the example of the Wavestation, it is one of the latest in that list but I couldn't take it away because it was produced from 1990 to 1994 with in the developers mind a style which was still in use. And as I said just above, it is in this year 1994 that the music has really begun to change to a totally new era.

I regard the M1/Wavestation and that rompler, thick layered sound more reminiscent of "90s" pop/chart/rock music - this sound basically began in the late 80s with the arrival of the D50 (suddenly, those DX7 basses and analog pads weren't in vogue anymore, everyone wanted to chiff!) and really became popular between 88/92-ish in mainstream music (not talking about EDM of the time).

But really as has been said "80s" is a weak definition, because synths were used in new romantic stuff, prog rock, electro-pop, disco, funk, pop, and a whole bunch of other genres, and each had different defining characteristics.

All you really need to do is understand what instruments were being used, and get emulations which do a decent enough job of achieving the sounds you want, whatever genre floats yer boat!

[BlackWinny]

Musically, the 80's ended around 1994. And the began around 1977. See the total transformation of styles and gears by the musicians of Genesis, Pink Floyd, Camel, Alan Parsons which created his "project" in 1976, Tangerine Dream, ELP, Jethro Tull, Yes, Eloy...

The musicians who decided to make a new style of music at a time when they were although at the top of their success is unnumerous.

And in 1977 had born the Punk... which quickly moved to the New Wave style around 1980. it's not fortuitous, by the way, this name "New Wave"... A true landslide, this new wave, yes!

1975 is also the date of the conception (not the birth) of the Metal-prog style with the album Caress of Steel, from Rush.

Etc.

So the years 1977-1980 was a period of transition, as well as the years 1992-1994. That's why I have taken these years instead of the strict 1980-1990 spread.

[ENV1]

Ok, so here are those that I know which are essentially focused on the reproduction of the styles between 1977 to 1994 (not before, not after):

Since when 1994 belongs to the "80s"?

While i love the Wavestation it's not a 80s synth for me, opposing to it's predecessor which is the Prophet VS and quite nicely emulated in Arturia Prophet V.

And since when is the VS the predecessor of the WAVESTATION?

(Relax, just pulling your leg.)

If we are talking about wavetable synths PPg Wave 2.V and even more PPG Wave 3.V (which is a much better emulation) are proper choices.

Cant stand the 3.V personally. I am however quite fond of the 2.V, that is at least as far as its sound is concerned. (The fact that it is probably in the top 3 of the clickiest envelopes ever kind of spoils the fun with fast attack presets.) Whats cool though is the 'sticky-keys trick', i.e ADSR2 Attack higher than 47.

If anyone wants to check out a pretty cool Riser, (one of the best sounds ive gotten out of 2.V so far), download the attachment. Load it, hit 3 or 4 keys, but not all at once, i.e. delay every next key a little. Since the keys will 'stick' youll get a very nice transitioning effect.

(Slightly offtopic, yeah, but what the hey, its sunday.)

SlowRiser1.zip

[BlackWinny]

This discussion on our impressions is really interesting, really enthralling. We are talking a bit of our past, each one.

It's that, what I really like in forums (where discussions are cool even if we sometimes have a different way to see things).

[fluffy_little_something]

I read that about the VS and the Wavestation as well some time ago. Korg hired the entire VS development team...

[BlackWinny]

And who today think to the awesome Proteus Emulator II (and its immediate successor Emulator III) when we talk about the music of the second half of the eighties?

It was one of the most used at this time between 1985 and 1990.

And now it is totally forgotten in the historical limbo.

Although E-Mu has made us a wonderful gift by recreating it in VST... and free (Proteus VX)!

[Ingonator]

And to take the example of the Wavestation, it is one of the latest in that list but I couldn't take it away because it was produced from 1990 to 1994 with in the developers mind a style which was still in use. And as I said just above, it is in this year 1994 that the music has really begun to change to a totally new era.

I regard the M1/Wavestation and that rompler, thick layered sound more reminiscent of "90s" pop/chart/rock music - this sound basically began in the late 80s with the arrival of the D50 (suddenly, those DX7 basses and analog pads weren't in vogue anymore, everyone wanted to chiff!) and really became popular between 88/92-ish in mainstream music (not talking about EDM of the time).

But really as has been said "80s" is a weak definition, because synths were used in new romantic stuff, prog rock, electro-pop, disco, funk, pop, and a whole bunch of other genres, and each had different defining characteristics.

All you really need to do is understand what instruments were being used, and get emulations which do a decent enough job of achieving the sounds you want, whatever genre floats yer boat!

For me the first popular use of the Wavestation was the "We Can't Dance" album of Geneis from 1991 (Did i ebver tell Geneis is my favorite band...). Tony Banks seemed to have used it on stage until the last concerts Genesis had done.

The Wavestation is also shown in the "Hold On My Heart" video (you see it nicely around 3:00):
http://www.clipfish.de/musikvideos/vide ... -my-heart/

The Lead sound in "Fading Lights" is a modified factory preset called "Mini Lead".
In the hardware Wavestation EX it'S No. 4 at the ROM bank, in the plugin No. 4 at ROM11.
The patch/sound starts around 4:13 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXKLSX05jWw

BTW this seems to be one of the examples where the hardware Wavestation sounds superior IMO and in fact the software even sounds quite different in this case.


Ingo

[fluffy_little_something]

Sounds like a pretty ordinary lead there in the Genesis song. Actually, I like the pad. Genesis never really was my cup of tea, but they used to have a few good songs before they were huge, mostly Mama

There are live versions, where they also use the Emulator live:
hhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbO6aKayNIA

[Ingonator]

Cant stand the 3.V personally. I am however quite fond of the 2.V, that is at least as far as its sound is concerned. (The fact that it is probably in the top 3 of the clickiest envelopes ever kind of spoils the fun with fast attack presets.) Whats cool though is the 'sticky-keys trick', i.e ADSR2 Attack higher than 47.

It is possible that personally you prefer the sound of PPG Wave 2.V but PPG Wave 3.V in several ways is a more proper emulation of the real thing (and around 2 years ago i had the opportunity to play with a real one after which i could mor or less confirm this...).
A quite crazy thing is that in PPG 3.V there is actually an emulation of the aliasing of the real thing which also increases the CPU use. Usually in modern synth developers do everything to eliminate aliasing. Besides that the improvements also include the filter and enveloeps besides proper bit-reduction with the 2.2 and 2.3 True PPG Modes.

Some sample libraries like the PPG library do sound far too clean to sound like the real thing.


Ingo

[ENV1]

It is possible that personally you prefer the sound of PPG Wave 2.V but PPG Wave 3.V in several ways is a more proper emulation of the real thing.

Oh yes, i absolutely believe this.

But then it wouldnt be the first time that i actually find myself preferring an older version of something...one that immediately springs to mind is Arturias CS-80, which i think totally stinks in version 2 but is absolutely alright in version 1.6

(Although this might actually be a bad example in this case. Hearing that immense difference always made me wonder if they really believe themselves that V2 is actually closer to the original, because if i had to guess i would say its probably not. Why: Because the Cutoff and especially Resonance behavior strikes me as rather unrealistic (or at the very least unusual) considering the synth/architecture that is being emulated here. The behavior of 1.6 on the other hand is much more 'buyable'. The difference between the two is in fact so gigantic that a lot of the V1 factory presets are but a mere shadow of their former selves when played in V2. So one of them has to be very far away from the original and i have little doubt that its V2.)

[BlackWinny]

Another product has just arrived in the KVR database today:
VLinn LM1 Drums.

And if I have well understood with my average English, it seems to be by physical modelling synthesis.

To try...

I liked the Linn Drums.

[T-CM11]

Since when 1994 belongs to the "80s"?

Depends on where you are... when I visited Prague in 1995, early 80s hair metal was all the rage there.