since we don't seem to have a thread on the subject. fire away. I'm impressed by the tones a lot of the newer stuff is achieving.

Mostly ITB.
The last icing on the cake is the Cassette Portastudio, or any good tape emulation plugin.

What the f*ck do you call synthwave to begin with? And no it's not that obvious, people just make up new musical style as they go. Most of labels are meaningless.

The Peak was made for it.

It's music that sounds nothing like what we, or anyone did in the 80s, written by kids who never lived in the 80s, who sit around and tell each other how 80s this music sounds.

If you want to stop being ignorant, you can always use Google or Wikipedia to research what synthwave is.

When I had a Peak I found it didn't fit the synthwave vibe very well.

This https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeHq1XPC9ZQ is by far my favorite synthwave track made exclusively with the Peak, excellent writing and track overall but there's just something off about the Peak sound for snythwave.

I'd say the OB-6 was made for synthwave.

Note : I use the term "synthwave" loosely here, as was described above.

All while not using a DX7, D50, or M1

Im into Darkmediumwave at the moment


I dunno, I suppose some of my stuff has some elements of synthwave in it but I think I actually prefer todays version of 80s music to 80s music.

do you have some examples?

FM-84 and Gunship are awesome. So is The Midnight...

Com Truise is another good place to get started

Gunship's "Dark All Day" featuring the legendary Tim Cappello

Since everybody posting, I think I can post my own track from 2011.



Done using Tal U-No and Leto VSTi's. I've since got some hardware Junos, but still TAL's version has something special and nostalgic in it. Nostalgic for the early 2010's... already... oh my...

I think it's just '80s-inspired, right? More like "retro-style music with 21st-century production" in the same way Phil Collins' "You Can't Hurry Love" cover wasn't trying to sound like Motown. Whereas Tracy Ullman's version of "They Don't Know" was intentionally '60s-sounding.

Admittedly I don't know much about synthwave so I'll let @ neonrider @ Mutantt @ Transistores and @ Kerbkrawler set the record straight.

It's almost as if the kids themselves are replicants. . . They're nostalgic for a past that never even happened.

Or maybe more accurately, considering the 80s dystopian sci-fi influence on the music videos, they're feeling nostalgia for a vision for what the future would be -- from the past.

WTF!

Someone smarter than me has to have a decent theory for this. Cultural analysis isn't something I know much about.

Ive listened to Com Truise for a while now...never knew this was the genre he was pigeonholed with

Thats it, Im officially Synthwave and my artists name is Betty Swollocks


Or Cunning Stunt!


Off to watch a season of Airwolf

Its more about the production and the effects used than the synth really.. Your best bet would be some old Roland synth though.. or even Roland rompler.
The Integra7 for exemple have all the nice recognizable, cheesy, dated or classic, usable sounds that sit in the mix right away. It would be my first choice for synthwave, with maybe a analog mono like the SH2 to add a touch of dirt that miss in the digital/vst part.

I think that was just ionian taking a piss and having a bit fun. Some of the stuff tries to be pretty faithful to the sound, but a lot does not.

For example this stays very close to the 80's sound.



P.S. If this doesn't sound 80's to you, Then I don't know what does (and I was a teenager in the 80's). Check out those Simmons drums...yeah.

Some of it is just inspired and way more aggressive and cleanly produced than anyone ever dreamed of in the 80's (or 90's for that matter)



I like where the style is headed. I love clean productions like the one above

He's branched out from his early stuff, it's still has some of that sound, but I wouldn't pigeonhole him or Perturbator for that matter. They just make really really good electronic music.

It's hard for me to keep up with the youngster's music genres This seems like 2010 pop (stuff way more dancey and memorable than today's) retro-fitted and coated with analog sounding synths.

This is where Roland Boutiques would make all the sense. But not the SE02 that would sound too aggressive for this

Basically sh*tty hipster derivative music from millennials who swear they are not plagiarizing Human League or Depeche Mode, got it.

Wut? I’ve got one and my observation is more like:

enjoyed your soundcloud page

I could do with checking out more synthwave stuff. I'll work through those above- cheers guys. Here's my favourite Gunship track-



I absolutely love Gunship (Dark All Day isn't quite up to the debut in my opinion) and that is the sound I go for most. I got Kavinsky's Outrun- it's a good album (apart from the AWFUL rap track) but the Daft Punk inspired
sidechain compression thing with the mix pumping with the kick just doesn't really do it for me. And a fair bit of Synthwave I've looked up tends to follow more of this.

And there's darkwave/dreamwave too which don't sound too different for me (seriously- electronic music has more subgenres than metal, if that's possible!!).

I keep meaning to start a few projects with this style but always waylay myself with something else.

I guess the basic tropes would be- retro drum kit- Linn or DMX (maybe 808 if you want to er towards early 80s electro). A 16th note bassline- normally detuned saws with a downward sweep (sometimes resonant), big Oberheim/Sequential style pads and tinkly bits on the top. A few hooks.

A lot of it to me sounds like all the distributer jingles from the start of old VHS tapes- and the ads at the start of the movies. So no- it doesn't really sound like 80s pop music as such but more a nod to the VHS and videogame generation from the 80s. Which is fine with me!

of course they are not plagiarizing — they are ironically rethinking!
sounds exactly the same — but the sense is totally different!

Wait... what? Never happened? I was a teenager in the 80s. I’m pretty sure it happened. I don’t think Synthwave is based on any band or style of songs, but from movie soundtracks.

I personally never liked the soundtrack stuff from Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire, Risky Business, Escape From New York, etc. Seemed super cheezey compared to the stuff that John Williams was doing in the same time period. I love it in Stranger Things, because it’s perfectly evoking that era. I tried listening to S.U.R.V.I.V.E’s music on its own, and I couldn’t do it. In the context of a purposely retro TV show, it makes sense to me.