80′s Synths, Drums ‘n Pop Stars
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
It’s official, and has been for a long time.. The 80′s are cool again. The decade of synths, mullets and miners strikes is enjoying a resurgence not only with the ’40 something’ populace, but the kids too are getting it on to 80′s electro-pop. I’ve just recovered from a ‘Wilde’ weekend in Manchester with some of the ‘Here and Now’ tour artists, namely Kim (and brother Ricky) Wilde, Howard Jones (pictured) and Kid Creole (with his ‘Coconuts’).
What really interests me and countless others though is the ‘sounds’ of these electronic pop ditty’s. The sonic characteristics of synths and drum machines of that period are massively popular again. So what can you do to get that sound?
Synth wise, surely the Roland Jupiter 8 is a prime contender. I’ve been using the Arturia emulation Jupiter 8V and what a soft synth it is. 
Added to the faithful reproduction with presets of the original keyboard is the wonderfully creative LFO module, ‘Galaxy’, an advanced step sequencer and new dynamic effects. In fact, to sweep the biggest and best synth sounds of the 80′s, (minimoog V, Moog Modular V, CS-80V, ARP 2600 V, Prophet V, Prophet VS and the above Jupiter 8V) it may be wise to just cop for the lot in Arturia’s Analog Factory V2.
And the drum sounds of the 1980′s? Well, we had the boom ‘n snap of the Roland 808 dominating electro and rap, the [Roger] Linn Drum, Emu SP 1200 and Oberheim DMX appearing on everything from UK (PWL) pop records to New York underground mutant disco.. The machines and references are literally endless. The current batch of Akai Drum machines and indeed Native Instruments new kid on the retro block, ‘Maschine‘ (discussed here on a ‘Musical Notes’ earlier blog), easily access and deliver some great sounds of this incredible, musically and genre defining decade. For sample libraries to integrate into your Rompler, why not try the uber cool and high quality Goldbaby samples? These are selected, iconic individual (TDM- Tape Drum Machine) samples, but at exceedingly high quality with analogue tape warmth to boot. I bought vols 1 & 2 and there’s plenty more 80′s classics on there to check out and abuse.
For me, the Eighties was the defining musical period of my root music making sensibilities.. for you, possibly a different decade.. I’m just glad that today, there are a multitude of software and hardware solutions which can help reinterpret the sonic graffiti of your favoured musical time period. For now dear reader, I shall ‘Fade to Grey’…..
Tags: Analog Factory V2, arturia, drum machines, Eighties, Goldbaby drums, Here and Now tour, howard jones, Jupiter 8V, kid creole, kim wilde, native instruments