KVR Audio

Wildfunk · Post by **Wildfunk** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:22 pm

Hi,

i'm looking for any infos about the production techniques/sound design/effects of classic 90's eurodance tunes.

For example 7 tracks from this genre:

Masterboy - I Got To Give It Up:

Culture Beat - Mr. Vain:

General Base - Poison:

Haddaway - Rock My Heart:

Intermission - Six Days:

Maxx - Get-a-way:

Odyssey - Talk To Me:

What synths did they use at this time?

Pitched drums with reso and a little laserzap below?

The main leads are always detuned saws or?

Basslines always riding?

Vocals with big chorus and spreaded?

How much bpm?

...?

Is the main lead of "Intermission - Six Days" a preset? Because you can hear it in many tunes (like from Mr. President for example). Tried to recreate it but failed

Thanks for any infos...

tehlord · Post by **tehlord** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:15 am

I'm no expert on sound design but they're all pretty simple sounds that are used. Not knowing what equipment you have i'd suggest the following :-

Any 808/909 sample collection as they're what 99% of the drum beats are based on.

Korg Legacy Digital collection - This contains emulations of the Korg M1 and Wavestation amongst others and the M1 provided THE housey piano preset that was all over most of the 90s tracks. The wavestation and M1 also have some really bright and airy pad sounds that were used a lot as well.

Sylenth1 - probably the best VST out there for dance lead sounds, and does a good stab at basses too. I'd suggest you look at the Rob Lee soundset too as it contains 256 bread and butter dance sounds and a lot of them are 90s ready

They were very sparse tracks in the 90s and you want a very punchy bassline that is based around 16th notes for that da-da-dum da-da-dum feel that they tend to use. I'd not noticed before but there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of delay used, but plenty of reverb so be careful with that.

Oh, and thanks for the memories

dark_virus · Post by **dark_virus** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 1:41 pm

Thanks for the info tehlord! Nice post!

fvr · Post by **fvr** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 5:29 pm

Pretty nice topic

It would be interesting to talk about the kick modeling, The sexy fat kick doesn't sound as a 909 only...

Wildfunk · Post by **Wildfunk** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 6:36 pm

@fvr:

Just take a 909 and a laserzap or a pitched kick with reso.

Demo: http://www.wildfunk.com/mp3/eurodance.mp3

yellowfever · Post by **yellowfever** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 6:48 pm

Kick = layer, layer and layer again

Convolve · Post by **Convolve** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 9:53 pm

Interesting topic, I like those old eurodance classics a lot.

A long time ago I tried to recreate the lead of "Maxx - Get-A-Way" but failed. I tried it with subtractive synthesis, but I think this is a digital synth.

Basically I thought it is something like a pulse wave with delay and reverb, but there is this "dirty" or "breathy" touch to it, which I did not master to recreate.

Does anyone know if this was a preset of a synth in that era? Or is anyone able to recreate it on a VSTi?

plauto · Post by **plauto** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 10:40 pm

Maybe someone can bring in some secret back then. Today we have a universe of technology and no musical creativity, it is perhaps the most important point of this question. I know of no Synth VST capable of reproducing the timbre of some comparison. I wonder what the equipment that were used at that time, I heard that the Synth Roland SH 201 is capable of similar tones, there are some videos on Youtube that really show that.

Forgive me my English

Wildfunk · Post by **Wildfunk** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 10:51 pm

Convolve wrote:A long time ago I tried to recreate the lead of "Maxx - Get-A-Way" but failed. I tried it with subtractive synthesis, but I think this is a digital synth.

Do you mean this high square sound?

vanpet · Post by **vanpet** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:14 pm

Come on guys, these sounds are TOTALLY doable with a VST!

Don't layer your drum kick. In the 90s it was dry as hell. Just roll a 909 emulation, and you're ready to go!

Use a piano sound + a string pad and play the same stupid melody, in C major.

For the bass, start with an acid sound and make it softer, with almost no resonance, and another ADSR shape, to get that "pop" sound. Play the bass line with various velocity, so the cutoff filter goes randomly up and down, giving that dynamic effect.

For the vocal, you MUST have a black singer. That's a given!

Wildfunk · Post by **Wildfunk** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:29 pm

vanpet wrote:Don't layer your drum kick. In the 90s it was dry as hell. Just roll a 909 emulation, and you're ready to go!

No that's not enough. Just try to recreate the kick of "Power of American natives" with a 909.

Convolve · Post by **Convolve** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 6:35 am

Wildfunk wrote:
Convolve wrote:A long time ago I tried to recreate the lead of "Maxx - Get-A-Way" but failed. I tried it with subtractive synthesis, but I think this is a digital synth.
Do you mean this high square sound?

Yes exactly, the sound which plays solo in the beginning of the song.

cjshamrock · Post by **cjshamrock** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:53 pm

I'd be interested in more techniques/VSTs/sounds from that epoch.

Maybe digging up some old interviews...

dark_virus · Post by **dark_virus** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 12:47 pm

The midi file of Get-a-way uses a flute preset for the hook, to really great and similar result.

I love these tracks, but I don't think many of these tunes uses state of art technology. To me, it's all the same ordinary synths of that era, or older.

Besides maybe Haddaway (that's 90s state of art!) most artists used the very same synths, that's because we can easlily identify that tunes with each other.

OTOH, it's curious how they were so creative with so few tools.

AuthenticDan · Post by **AuthenticDan** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:49 pm

dark_virus wrote: OTOH, it's curious how they were so creative with so few tools.

The more stuff you have, the less creative you get.

I love 90's Eurodance, probably one of my favorite genres. I've never actually tried to emulate it though. What kind of ROMplers were being used in the early 90's?

Looking for 90's eurodance sounds / techniques