Sascha: I was on www.ishkur.com last night and "spacesynth" is remarkably similar to a style from the 80s called "Italo" or "Italo disco".
I do think there's a lot of melodic content comparing it to something like Euro Trance which is what I would call "the equivilant of today". Whether they are strong melodies is of course arguable.
A new music contest have just started
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- KVRAF
- 13444 posts since 14 Nov, 2000 from Hannover / Germany
Ah well, Armadillo - might be (the ishkur site isn't loading for me right now), but then, it might also be that I just hate "Italo Disco" and "Euro Trance". Those allways sounded exceptionally cheap to me.
And the samples given by Staffan (no offense meant, btw) just sounded as cheesy. 80s sounds without any modern hint.
And btw, I just hate all genres limiting themselves to a certain tempo or whatever. In mybook this is resulting in the lack of anything new. Just imagine RocknRoll or Blues was limited to 120-130 BPM (or whatever...). Ridiculous!
And the samples given by Staffan (no offense meant, btw) just sounded as cheesy. 80s sounds without any modern hint.
And btw, I just hate all genres limiting themselves to a certain tempo or whatever. In mybook this is resulting in the lack of anything new. Just imagine RocknRoll or Blues was limited to 120-130 BPM (or whatever...). Ridiculous!
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.
Those who can do maths and those who can't.
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- KVRAF
- 2108 posts since 31 Dec, 2002 from London, UK
hmm...Ishkur is not loading here now either. It's under "House" I think. Not really important anyway. I 100% agree on "cheesy", but I'm not sure whether you are limited to 120-130 BPM. What I remember from the good old demo days was that there was also some downtempo tunes. But maybe Staffan can clarify it better than me. Those tunes posted surely had similar tempo though.
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- KVRist
- 352 posts since 8 Jul, 2003
Okay.. we're working on new webpage www.spacesynth.net (will be launched soon) and this is the definition there:
Spacesynth, synthdance, spacedance, spacedisco or whatever you want to call it is instrumental upbeat synth music that focuses on melodies instead of rhythm. Driving basslines, catchy synth riffs, sci-fi influences and futuristic track titles and album covers have always been a major part of spacesynth.
Spacesynth originated in the mid 80's. At that time synthesizers and electronic sounds had become an essential part of popular music and were widely used by such artists as Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk and Art of Noise. Synthpop hits like Magnetic Fields 2, Pulstar and Magic Fly are wellknown tracks even today.
In the meantime in Italy a music style called Italo disco was dominating discos. Basically Italo disco consists of rather simple vocals, melodic synth riffs and a four-to-floor beat. It had that recognizable 80's disco sound that people either love or hate these days.
Italo disco became popular in other parts of Europe too. At first spacesynth was just an instrumental version of Italo disco focusing on the synth side of Italo disco. But eventually it became a genre of its own. Cyber People released successful singles "Polaris" and "Void Vision" for the Memory Records label. KOTO developed his own Italo-inspired synth music style and the single "Visitors" was a big hit in 1985.
Soon after there were other similar groups - also outside of Italy. Erik van Vliet and Michiel van der Kuy from The Netherlands established Laserdance which was to become the most successful spacesynth group ever. Their debut album "Future Generation" (1987) sold approximately 150 000 copies and the singles "Powerrun" and "Humanoid Invasion" were big hits in Europe. KOTO and Laserdance could be considered the most popular spacesynth groups. They set the standards of the genre and since the golden era of spacesynth many producers have tried to replicate *that* sound.
In the early 90's spacesynth started to lose its popularity and almost completely vanhished during the 90's when eurodance, house, techno and its subgenres were dominating electronic music charts. Spacesynth was nearly forgotten until it showed some signs of recovering toward the end of the 90s. Now there's growing interest in spacesynth again as 80's melodic sound is getting more and more popular. During the last few years Hypersound Productions and AXIS Records have released a numerous of spacesynth albums from many new artists. It'll be interesting to see and hear how this music is going to evolve. Time will tell.
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
The last two ones in the excerpts are from this century. Protonic Storm is one of the most original artists in this genre.
Someone said "extremely booring" about spacesynth in another thread here, I'd say trance can be even more booring then. Spacesynth has melodies which trance usually lacks. As few of my friends coming to spacesynth from trance background said.. "now I have to compose material for 3 or 4 songs into one song!". And that's pretty true.
Spacesynth, synthdance, spacedance, spacedisco or whatever you want to call it is instrumental upbeat synth music that focuses on melodies instead of rhythm. Driving basslines, catchy synth riffs, sci-fi influences and futuristic track titles and album covers have always been a major part of spacesynth.
Spacesynth originated in the mid 80's. At that time synthesizers and electronic sounds had become an essential part of popular music and were widely used by such artists as Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk and Art of Noise. Synthpop hits like Magnetic Fields 2, Pulstar and Magic Fly are wellknown tracks even today.
In the meantime in Italy a music style called Italo disco was dominating discos. Basically Italo disco consists of rather simple vocals, melodic synth riffs and a four-to-floor beat. It had that recognizable 80's disco sound that people either love or hate these days.
Italo disco became popular in other parts of Europe too. At first spacesynth was just an instrumental version of Italo disco focusing on the synth side of Italo disco. But eventually it became a genre of its own. Cyber People released successful singles "Polaris" and "Void Vision" for the Memory Records label. KOTO developed his own Italo-inspired synth music style and the single "Visitors" was a big hit in 1985.
Soon after there were other similar groups - also outside of Italy. Erik van Vliet and Michiel van der Kuy from The Netherlands established Laserdance which was to become the most successful spacesynth group ever. Their debut album "Future Generation" (1987) sold approximately 150 000 copies and the singles "Powerrun" and "Humanoid Invasion" were big hits in Europe. KOTO and Laserdance could be considered the most popular spacesynth groups. They set the standards of the genre and since the golden era of spacesynth many producers have tried to replicate *that* sound.
In the early 90's spacesynth started to lose its popularity and almost completely vanhished during the 90's when eurodance, house, techno and its subgenres were dominating electronic music charts. Spacesynth was nearly forgotten until it showed some signs of recovering toward the end of the 90s. Now there's growing interest in spacesynth again as 80's melodic sound is getting more and more popular. During the last few years Hypersound Productions and AXIS Records have released a numerous of spacesynth albums from many new artists. It'll be interesting to see and hear how this music is going to evolve. Time will tell.
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
* http://www.spacesynth.net/files/excerpt ... rpt%29.mp3
The last two ones in the excerpts are from this century. Protonic Storm is one of the most original artists in this genre.
Someone said "extremely booring" about spacesynth in another thread here, I'd say trance can be even more booring then. Spacesynth has melodies which trance usually lacks. As few of my friends coming to spacesynth from trance background said.. "now I have to compose material for 3 or 4 songs into one song!". And that's pretty true.
jouni - www.markvera.net - Stardrive Studio - Orionology
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- KVRist
- 352 posts since 8 Jul, 2003
Linndrum, 808 for drums, toms. Syncleads, sawstabs, bells. Wavetable sounds (eg Korg M1, D-50), FM synthesis. Juno-106 for Laserdance alike bass, or then the Koto bass which is easier to reproduce with software - italo bass is usually FM bass. Lots reverb and delay. Vocoders and spacy sound fx.
Can't get wrong with those ingridients if used right.
There are few freely available song from me in my page (signature - synthpop). Look for Spacesynth genred songs.
Can't get wrong with those ingridients if used right.
There are few freely available song from me in my page (signature - synthpop). Look for Spacesynth genred songs.
jouni - www.markvera.net - Stardrive Studio - Orionology
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- KVRist
- 38 posts since 9 Jul, 2002 from Helsinki, Finland
Spacesynth is all about 80's cheese. You either love it or hate it. Yes, most songs are between 120-130 BPM but there's slower and faster stuff as well.
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- KVRist
- 352 posts since 8 Jul, 2003
You nailed it quite well there. mindXpander likes to make faster Spacesynth songs. Also my Rainbow Racer is actually 163bpm if I remember correctly now.LauriT wrote:Spacesynth is all about 80's cheese. You either love it or hate it. Yes, most songs are between 120-130 BPM but there's slower and faster stuff as well.
The tempo thing is mostly due the "traditional" bassline sequence which is 16th notes, and it tends to sound very/too fast if tempo raises.
jouni - www.markvera.net - Stardrive Studio - Orionology
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- KVRAF
- 13444 posts since 14 Nov, 2000 from Hannover / Germany
Wow, this is incredibly slimey!
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.
Those who can do maths and those who can't.
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- KVRist
- 352 posts since 8 Jul, 2003
The contest results are online now and some selected songs will be compiled into compilation cd. I noticed there were few participations by people from here kvr. That's great 
The results are:
1. Dreamtime - Before the Dawn (clip)
2. Samurai - Star Of Happiness (clip)
3. Mark Vera - Twilight Imperium (clip)
4. Sakke - Afterburner (clip)
5. Staffan Öhman - Point of no return (clip)
Rest result songs from the official contest results page:
http://www.spacesynth.de/Free_Music/Con ... ntest.html
Prizes have probably already reached the winners, atleast I got my mp3player and refx vsti license.
The results are:
1. Dreamtime - Before the Dawn (clip)
2. Samurai - Star Of Happiness (clip)
3. Mark Vera - Twilight Imperium (clip)
4. Sakke - Afterburner (clip)
5. Staffan Öhman - Point of no return (clip)
Rest result songs from the official contest results page:
http://www.spacesynth.de/Free_Music/Con ... ntest.html
Prizes have probably already reached the winners, atleast I got my mp3player and refx vsti license.
jouni - www.markvera.net - Stardrive Studio - Orionology