80s music plug-ins?

[kevinmathie]

Hi all,

I'm finding myself needing to create some authentic 80s music. Mostly early 80s; so nothing too techno. I have bass and drums covered, I believe, with Trillian and Abbey Roads 80s Drummer / Battery 3. But, I need some of those very distinctive early-80s synth sounds. Along the lines of Human League, or "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell.

When you have to recreate 80s music, what are your favorite plug-ins?

Thanks! In the meantime, I'm going to rummage through my synths to see if they have any retro sections....

Kevin

[andygabrys]

well i guess Native Instruments has retro machines for Kontakt ( I have it) but haven't really used it much, and I suppose you could probably program Massive or the like to get close

Arturia has some good stuff in their replicas of classic analogue synths. I got their moog free version a while back when they were offering it. they do lots of different ones. http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products#Analog

for drums - i know you had it covered, sometimes some obnoxious 80's stuff comes from 8bit kit in BFD2. Linn, 808, 909, simmons etc.

[cardell]

This is my favorite: http://bitley.laconicsounds.net/
Bitley Sounds & ReFills (also has Kontakt)

Just awesome!! Try not to sound 80's with this guys products.

Stuart

[kevinmathie]

Ah! Andy, I just found out that I have Retro Machines mk 2 as well, and it's perfect for what I need. I've never really explored that library before. I guess it's hard to explore everything thoroughly enough when you purchase Kontakt's Komplete Ultimate! I've been exploring Retro Machine's sounds, and so far they seem very authentic. And there seems to be quite a nice wide variety. At least so far. I've only scratched the surface. I guess I know what I'll be doing the next couple days. Exploring sounds.

And Cardell, thanks for the link. I'll definitely check it out.

Kevin

[elser]

You've probably got enough with Retro but you've also got Reaktor 5 and in that is an instrument called Junatik which is a virtual Roland Juno 60. I think it sounds great but if you're not familiar with Reaktor it might not be worth the effort. Just another option.

[kevinmathie]

You've probably got enough with Retro but you've also got Reaktor 5 and in that is an instrument called Junatik which is a virtual Roland Juno 60. I think it sounds great but if you're not familiar with Reaktor it might not be worth the effort. Just another option.

Thanks Elser!

I think Reaktor came with my Komplete Ultimate package, but I'm not that familiar with it yet. But, I'll take a look. Thanks! That'd be cool to have a virtual Juno. I'm old enough to remember playing a Juno in a music store a few times. It was very cool. I loved it.

Kevin

[slideboardouts]

I just loaded up Reaktor for the first time, clicked "Junatik", it gave me some weird message and no sound came out when hitting the keys.

Right now Guitar Center has Sugar Bytes Unique synth on sale for $39.99 (usually $150). Its supposed to model analog synths. I ordered it but it hasn't arrived yet. It MIGHT have what you're looking for, but I haven't been able to mess with it yet so who knows. Either way, if you get just one track out of it you could easily quadruple your money at only $40.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO_uxiymr_c

-Steve

[mojobone]

I'd look at Yamaha DX7 and Oberheim-type sounds, maybe Native Instruments' FM synth collection. If you have Addictive drums, their Reel Machines ADPak has great 80s beatboxes sampled on analog tape.