Situation - Yazoo (Analog Synth Remake) 

I'm actually missing that classic "laugther" indeed... somehow I was expecting it

Thanks Adrian, good choice, the J60 is still one of my favorites.

Yep I know a few songs by them, will have to remake one in the future.

Michael Mitchell They really are, I’ve tried many vsts and digital gear and although convenient they don’t have the same character and nuances that come with the instabilities of the discrete analog circuitry used. Plus I enjoy the more hands on programming rather than clicking with a mouse on a screen. It’s a shame they have entered the collectors realm now, and are not affordable by any means anymore. Kinda like classic cars, no one drives them. People seem to buy these and not really put them to work for the world to see and hear.

I only ever used VST's for ideas but when it comes to recording i switch over to my synths and drum machines. Im currently sat next to a Roland D-550, CR-78, JX-8P and Juno 106. VST's are ok but programming is a real pain and some emulations are terrible.For me there's nothing like hearing and playing the real sounds out of hardware. Fairly costly but well worth it.

Michael Langley nice gear! Same I use vsts when away from, although I have aly James’ linn lm1 vst and I can say he faithfully recreates it, sounds identical to the original one (and since the original one was digital as well you don’t really lose any analog “charm”. There seems to be a night and day difference with analog synths vs vsts, although I will admit vsts have come a long way, but still not perfect!

Id settle on a VST Linn LM1 because the an actual Linn LM-1 is so rare and expensive. Im currently writing a song. Using a CR-78 and a JX-8P at the minute.

OnKeyboards that’s actually exactly what I did. What I’m missing is the reverb in the chain before the delay, it would create a more pronounced special effect, especially if there was a low pass filter applied on top of it.

Gracias!

Thanks Josh!

Zeproo thanks! It sure does!

Michael Langley almost every artist and producer back then used sequencers to quantize. It was very rare to have an actual live performance recorded from a synth, mostly only bass lines and such were played “live”. I always record everything all the way through from start to finish because I am very old school, but I do quantize most of the parts otherwise it wouldn’t sound authentic. 80s synth pop is very precise and quantized (although I do play some of the tracks without it to give them more feel, one of them is the “quack” sound. When I do different styles that require Rhodes, piano, bass, or a killer synth bass line (for example my salsa video) I always play them in one take as quantizing loses the feel and makes it sound very robotic.

I like sequencers but it would make me feel more like a programmer than a writer. I wouldn't rule out using one though. Ive always wondered what Vince Clarke actually does when Erasure plays live. Im not so good when it comes to doing stuff in one take. I either mess up or haven't figured out the next section. One day ill be to do something in one take.

Michael Langley well I don’t really program a sequencer, I play it all from the keyboard but I have the ability to have it locked to the nearest 16th more. Also because my moog synth is basic and sustain only has a switch, I need to manually adjust note lengths sometimes so the sound has the right amount of sustain since the control is omitted from the synth itself. One take can her very difficult, sometimes I struggle with hard parts but in the end it’s worth it because it doesn’t get more authentic than that!

Michael Langley also most live performances are completely prerecorded, not even sequenced. I’ve seen some videos of erasure for songs where Vince played guitar and there’s not even a guitar in it!

Vince would look silly if he stood still in a video ha ha. He played a guitar on the Sometimes video and the song itself doesn't have one. I suppose its to give him a role of some sort.

mikouni dalara thanks for the comment! Mixing tends to be a very subjective topic , and I actually thought the original mix could use a few improvements as well. Your friends cover was pretty neat but it didn’t sound like it was mastered and the mix/effects and sounds didn’t seem that accurate to me as well. I guess to each his own! :)

Yep. True. After all, back at the 80s artists hadn't much of the mixing tech we can have in our homes today not to mention the sound degrade quality from old vinyls and youtube compression.

808 samples

@@RonnieAugeri did you use what instrument?

Felipe Reis samples from the roland tr 808 drum machine

@@RonnieAugeri I asked you what equipment you used for play samples of TR808

Felipe Reis inside of Cubase, my recording program. There’s a VST that lets you trigger samples from a keyboard.

AnalogSynthMuseum i know, I did this long before I had the prophet. I was surprised how well the juno and moog did

@@RonnieAugeri i am glad you got a prophet 5 i have it since a long time and it is the funk synth king as you know.

AnalogSynthMuseum I’ve wanted one for many years and finally found one. Although I had it restored, it arrived dead to me so I had to fix it myself. She was a bit temperamental at first but I seemed to sort out all the issues. This synth is most definitely the king of funk. Amazing bass and brass.