Late 80's synth brass sound

[grasspike]

pretty much any digital synth from the 1980s can do that, Yamaha DX line, Roland D50, etc. Its also pretty standard to find it on any Keyboard made since the early 90s as it is part of the General Midi spec where it is sound 62 and 63.

Some of which will sound better than others. Most of the songs you listed were done with a Roland D50 and or a Yamaha DX7, but then again most mid to late 80s were done with Yamaha DX7s or Roland D50s

[Teknobeam]

some people sampled these sounds themselves...and others hired real brass session players and recorded the real thing during the production of the recordings.. "yes...that happened a lot in the 80's....Great samples of the real thing are the best,, but there was really no substitute for the real thing in the 80's.. That has somewhat changed lately, but not completely. Hey I just happen to be listening to an old Tower Of Power recording right now "Back To Oakland" some great brass sounds, and that's all real horns. You ain't getting that out of a DX or a D50. give that recording a listen....listen to the whole thing....you will see what I mean

[Yoozer]

The synth brass in "Tell it to my heart" is different from the one in "Forever your girl" though, and may already be achieved with any (virtual) analog, but for "Forever your girl" I'd look at vintage sample libraries (Fairlight, E-mu Emulator).

[Teknobeam]

Gwen Stefani.."hollaback Girl' give that a listen.. some amazing brass sounds there.. i'm thinking that those are electronic...i might be wrong.. but whatever they are..outstanding...

[Focalpress]

the key to the good brass sound is the attack. how do you get that breath effect?

use 2 saws, slightly detune them, make sure you dont have sync enabled. open up all the VCF and the VCA filters at first. just make is buzz away to start off.

the key is that you need to assign an envelope to the semi pitch of one of the oscillators. i usually use osc 2. connect the envelope to the semi pitch parameter of the 2nd oscillator and then its a case of making adjustments to the amount of the envelope modulation and the decay parameter of the envelope. all synths a different as they have different envelopes but the key is to get the envelope decay and the envelope amount just right where it sounds like brass.

no matter what synth is it, i start off with the envelope at

fastest attack, 1/2 way n the decay, no sustain, no release, full negative fade if you have it.

usually a very small envelope modulation i start with.

i keep tweaking the modulation amount and the decay until your transient sounding brassy. each time you add more envelope amount, move the decay back to smaller figures and gradually increase while trapping a single note on the synth.

if you keep playing with these 2 parameters eventually you will get it nailed.

You need a nice chorus for this kind of patch to sound 80's.

most VA synths or analog with assignable envelopes can do this kind of patch. predator is great for this in the VST world and i know it works. but im sure there are endless plugins that will do it.


if you want it to sound exactly like those records..... then try these keyboards...

Korg DW8000, Jupiter 8, ob-8, matrix 12, ensoniq SQ80 or ensoniq ESQ 1, yamaha an1x, Nord Lead, Nord Wave

[Yoozer]

The sampled brass sound often has a slightly detuned attack portion which turns into a single constant waveform after that initial attack; that's a consequence of looping. This is not so easy on a modeling synth unless you have access to sufficient routing possibilities (an extra envelope besides VCA/VCF). Furthermore, the waveform has a decidedly non-analog quality to it - it's pretty shrill.

That typical octave brass ensemble is what leads me to believe that the "Forever your girl" brass is sampled; I'd even go as far as saying that it was probably composed on a single machine.

The "Wink" track shows a Kurzweil K250. While music clips are usually misleading (gear played is not gear heard), I wouldn't put it past it to be used in this case.

[Focalpress]

Originally Posted by Yoozer

The sampled brass sound often has a slightly detuned attack portion which turns into a single constant waveform after that initial attack; that's a consequence of looping. This is not so easy on a modeling synth unless you have access to sufficient routing possibilities (an extra envelope besides VCA/VCF). Furthermore, the waveform has a decidedly non-analog quality to it - it's pretty shrill.

That typical octave brass ensemble is what leads me to believe that the "Forever your girl" brass is sampled; I'd even go as far as saying that it was probably composed on a single machine.

The "Wink" track shows a Kurzweil K250. While music clips are usually misleading (gear played is not gear heard), I wouldn't put it past it to be used in this case.

which modelling synths do you know of which don't have an extra envelope?

its usually the cheaper analogs that dont have the extra envelope and even some higher end ones like the sunsyn.