Synthwave Diva, soundset collab by The Unfinished and Luftrum

[Luftrum]

Dear friends.

The Unfinished and Luftrum have teamed to provide the Sound of Summer with their brand new collaboration, Synthwave Diva.

Like the perfect, golden child, born from a union between Jan Hammer and John Carpenter, Synthwave is one of the hottest electronic genres of the moment. Artists such as Mitch Murder, Kavinsky and Powerglove have raised its profile, with guys like TimeCop1983 and FM-84 (who have both provided demo tracks for Diva Synthwave) continue to keep it fresh and alluring. Synthwave’s influence can even be heard in the cinematic work of M83, Cliff Martinez and Trent Reznor.

Synthwave Diva provides 128 patches for U-He’s Diva, glistening with 80s nostalgia and dripping with analogue warmth. Chunky bass, smooth pads, flickering keys and lush leads, with that unmistakable synth cool. Matt and Soren have taken their love for the genre and given it their very own contemporary twist, providing all the sun-kissed retro joy necessary, but with an added touch of their own inimitable imaginations.

If your head is full of thoughts of Amigas, betamaxes and white men doing kung fu; the music of Vangelis and Tangerine Dream; films such as Breakfast Club and Beverly Hills Cop; and if you’re writing synth pop, outrun music, or just want a hint of that retro, analogue magic in your music, then Synthwave Diva is for you.

So, take a sip of your tequila sunrise, roll up your pink jacket sleeves, push the latest tunes into your eight track and drive that Testarossa deep into the heat of the night.

Synthwave Diva will be released Wednesday July 20. Meanwhile, listen to the audio demo's of the soundset and watch the 27-minute walkthrough by The Unfinished going through a lot of the presets included. Enjoy!


https://soundcloud.com/luftrum-1/sets/synthwave-diva

[Luftrum]

Synthwave Diva is out!

http://www.luftrum.com/synthwavediva/

There's a 20% discount the rest of July, just enter summersoundofthe80s in the discount field during checkout.

[aMUSEd]

Never heard of "Synthwave" but how can it have been an influence on Rezner and Martinez etc when they have been around doing their stuff for yonks and this seems to be some newly invented "Genre"? (That probably doesn't need a name if people have been making similar stuff for so long anyway) Surely if anything the influence would be from them on the new thing?

[synaesthesia]

Well, that's one of the things great artists do, they keep listening, they keep evolving, taking onboard new ideas and influences, they never stop learning.

I can't help the fact that you haven't heard of synthwave, of course, but a good listening example would be the soundtrack to Drive, which fuses synthwave artists and Cliff Martinez's electronic score together very well. It would be a bit foolhardy to suggest that Cliff, who has such a close working relationship Nicolas Wending Refn, ignored the choices of original tracks being used on the film - especially when you listen to what he actually wrote for the film.

Synthwave's burgeoning popularity over the last few years has been a part of the rejuvination of classic synth gear use across various areas of the music industry.

Influence isn't linear, it's more like a constantly evolving spidergram.

[synaesthesia]

Also...

If throwing rocks at other sound designer's commercial release threads is the done thing on KVR now, then count me out.

[ftech]

Well, that's one of the things great artists do, they keep listening, they keep evolving, taking onboard new ideas and influences, they never stop learning.

Influence isn't linear, it's more like a constantly evolving spidergram.

Yep. It's the way creative artists take influences from different areas and apply it in their own way, taking things in a new direction.

And you just have to look at Reznor's reverence of Gary Numan to see where the 'Synthwave' element comes in.

And, seeing as Synthwave seems to be where I'm at, I guess I'll be getting this to feed DIVA

[tehlord]

Never heard of "Synthwave" but how can it have been an influence on Rezner and Martinez etc when they have been around doing their stuff for yonks and this seems to be some newly invented "Genre"? (That probably doesn't need a name if people have been making similar stuff for so long anyway) Surely if anything the influence would be from them on the new thing?

So you've never heard of something, but still manage a 'surely' at the end based on an opinion on that thing you've never heard of and clearly don't understand?

/slow clap

[jsp1979]

Well, I for one love the Synthwave sound. I'm also a big fan of DIVA, Luftrum, and the Unfinished so I'm not going to be able to resist this one.

I'm excited by the collaboration!

Where's Caine123 at? He's the one that kept pestering you about a Synthwave bank. He needs to get in on the action.

Edit: Since Reznor and Newman were mentioned, then I have to post one of my favorite performances of them together.

[aMUSEd]

Well, that's one of the things great artists do, they keep listening, they keep evolving, taking onboard new ideas and influences, they never stop learning.

I can't help the fact that you haven't heard of synthwave, of course, but a good listening example would be the soundtrack to Drive, which fuses synthwave artists and Cliff Martinez's electronic score together very well. It would be a bit foolhardy to suggest that Cliff, who has such a close working relationship Nicolas Wending Refn, ignored the choices of original tracks being used on the film - especially when you listen to what he actually wrote for the film.

Synthwave's burgeoning popularity over the last few years has been a part of the rejuvination of classic synth gear use across various areas of the music industry.

Influence isn't linear, it's more like a constantly evolving spidergram.

Sure, but Martinez was chosen for the score because of his earlier work, was the word Synthwave even used when Drive was made, I haven't come across it till this last couple of months? It just seems to me there's a bit of retconning going on - people associated with the new genre on the block are wanting to apply it to earlier artists to give the genre more credibility. I take your point that Martienz like any artist is also influenced by new trends, just that influence can't be a one way one, he's been making music like he did in Drive for far longer than Synthwave has been around. It's just now people want to give it a new name.

And really 'throwing stones'? Since when is asking questions - absolutely based on my ignorance and a bit of frustration with yet more genre proliferation - throwing stones? There was no intention to be malicious here, I'm a bit hurt that you would think I had such low motives. Can't we question things? I asked the question as much to learn something as anything.

[Luftrum]

Hey. There's no harm done here and I didn't read it as throwing stones either, I know Stephen isn't that kind of guy, he is a good guy and of course it's okay to ask questions.

As Matt so well put it Influence isn't linear, it's more like a constantly evolving spidergram and I couldn't have said it better myself so I won't get into any who influenced who thing.

For those who do not know the genre then Synthwave is an electronic genre that tries to capture the retro sound and mood from the mid 80's movies, TV shows, early computer games etc. with keywords like Miami Vice, drive into the sunset, neon lights, Ferrari Testarossa, Tron, summer sun, Pina Colada's, love, hot babes and Knight Rider and while the Wikipedia describes the genre I find the the best page to read about Synthwave is this lovely one by Emily Auburn - Synthwave, Rise of Electronic Music.

Let me inject you with three different Synthwave tracks that for me perfectly captures what Synthwave is all about. Enjoy:

https://soundcloud.com/daataa/mitch-murder-breeze

https://soundcloud.com/timecop1983/lets ... eflections

https://soundcloud.com/fm-attack/fm-att ... deja-vu-lp

[Ghostwave]

Congrats to both of you on the release.
I've been listening to quite a lot of synthwave lately (mainly Colin's FM-84 project, Mitch Murder, Com Truise and a few others) but the problem I have with many of the releases is that they are much too loud with the heavy sidechaining and they rely too much on gimmicky 80s elements like gated reverbs, FM basses and rich synth pads.
So I've turned back to 80s stuff from the 80s.

[Echoes in the Attic]

80's synth pop has a new name now? Huh. ok.

Next there will be a new type of music called Scruffy Rock, which will sound suspiciously like 90's grunge....

[jsp1979]

Edited out pointless genre discussion.

[bftucker]

I suppose that, since January 1st 1990, no one can make 80's Synth Pop anymore. If it sounds similar, it must still be something else. Some might argue that not only can we not play it, we can not even hear it the same way they did way back then.

[synaesthesia]

Apologies if I over-reacted, but the tone of the questions came across to me as a little confrontational and patronising, which I thought was inappropriate.

Amused, you probably got the wrong end of my reaction to a build-up of behaviour that repeatedly sours my experiences at KVR.

Thanks for all the kind words on the this thread and previous ones, but I have decided it's time for me to walk away from KVR.

All the best to those who have entertained and informed over the years.