The Quatuor features a ring modulator, a sample-and-hold circuit, white noise and an internal sequencer. You can create all kinds of sound effects and powerful bass lines; it’s ideal for the Berlin School, for example.
2. NRsynth Quatuor: 3 famous sounds
Here are a few famous songs played live on the NRsynth Quatuor with my friend Jean-Luc Briançon (aka Kurtz Mindfields):
Jump (Van Halen, 1983)
Cyclone (Tangerine Dream, 1978)
Chants magnétiques 1 (Jean-Michel Jarre, 1981) Quatuor (main sequence) , Retro-one (Bass), Pro-800 (strings).
3. NRsynth Quatuor famous songs
White Eagle: A great example of how to use the dual arpeggiator to play this magnificent classic track composed by Johannes Schmoelling and Chris Franke (Tangerine Dream) in 1982.
Stranger Things: The original sequence was played on an Oberheim Two Voices (by hand, apparently). Here, it’s the Quatuor’s sequencer!
"In this video, we show you exactly what the Modulox Brain is capable of by recreating the iconic Stranger Things arpeggiated synth sound from scratch! Watch as we build the patch step-by-step using multiple oscillators, filters, LFOs, and delay on this powerful little machine.
🎹 Meet the MODULOX BRAIN by Raspiaudio 🎹 Modulox Brain is an Open Source modular synthesizer platform. ⚠️ We have a few more in pre-sales! Grab yours here: https://raspiaudio.com/product/brain/
✨ A versatile centerpiece for your MIDI setup, featuring magnetic modules that snap together effortlessly. ✨
🔹 Endless Sound Engines: Transform it instantly into a Virtual Analog, Granular Synth, FM Synth, or Sampler—just by swapping firmwares! 🚀 Community Driven: Open-source, Arduino-friendly, and continuously evolving with community-driven apps available in our App Store.
🔧 Specs Highlights: • 24-bit DAC & ADC • Vivid 320×240 Color Screen • Onboard Microphone & Speaker • Audio Jack (Mic & Headphones) • Clickable Encoder & 4 Buttons • MIDI IN/OUT (3.5mm jacks) + Sync • USB-C MIDI Connectivity • Magnetic Connectors for MODULOX Knob, Touch, and Slide modules • Nano-pad Anti-slip Base
✨ Endless possibilities, limited only by your imagination. ✨
👉 Full independent review here: • Modulox Brain - an Open Source modular syn... [posted here] 🌐 Discover more: https://modulox.fr
"Feeling a bit of 80’s nostalgia ('Stranger Things' anyone?) I thought the time had finally come to try and give this classic electro-pop anthem the Circuit Tracks treatment. Released in 1984 (40+ years!) it’s too easy to forget how ground-breaking the song (and it’s subject) was in the political climate of the Eighties.
The song itself is a simple but almost perfect pop song. It was programmed on an MC-202 Microcomposer and is reputed to have started life as an electronic disco version of the Sex Pistol’s 'Pretty Vacant'!
Yamaha DX7 is used heavily on the track (notably the presets ‘Harp1’ and ‘Bass1’), and additional Sequential Pro-One, Memorymoog and Linn drums. I managed to simplify the arrangement to program everything and the vocals into a single Novation Circuit Tracks. Everything you hear is being played and recorded live from the Tracks.
I'm pleased at how close to the spirit of the original I managed to get this time. I hope you enjoy the track and it brings back some memories for you too."
"More details for synth nerds
BPM 135
I don’t own a DX7 (sadly!) but the closest thing I have is emulation. The repeated ‘Harp1’ DX7 line (and the ‘Marimba’ break) was sequenced on the Tracks MIDI 1 and sampled as 4-bar loops from the internal MicroDEXED emulator in an M-Vave SMK-37 Pro keyboard. Each sample was then triggered (like a drum sound) at the required point in the song using the Drum 3 track.
"#StrangerThings has given me so much life and inspiration over the last decade, but maybe more importantly it gave us one of greatest soundtracks ever, composed by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein.
I’ve been learning the parts and playing this theme for years now and it never gets old. Feels good to finally put together a proper cover of it. Using only two synths; the Prophet-6 (which the composers use heavily) and the T-16; my custom-built synth also inspired by the gear of the composers (ARP 2600). [see the Nitecaller label for more]
Prophet-6: Lead parts and SFX
T-16: Bass and outro arpeggio
"A little chord sequence and sounds inspired by the (combined) Stranger Things soundtrack.
There are many layers of synths packed into this one minute:
Sequential Prophet VS Strings
Arturia Prophet VS Filtered Strings
Arturia CS-80 arpeggio
Roland Juno-106 Bells
Roland JX-8P Pad
Kawai K3m Bass"
"For this week's Stranger Things inspired challenge, I added many style tropes from several of the ST soundtrack selections but still made it more my style. Good fun, but I ran out of time to finish all I had planned."
"An ambient reinterpretation of the iconic Stranger Things theme, created entirely on the Teenage Engineering OP-XY.
To celebrate the release of Stranger Things 5, I started working on a traditional cover using the OP-XY and the fantastic Danger Strings sound pack. But while searching through my library, I stumbled upon a pad that inspired a completely different direction.
From that sound came the sketch of an atmospheric, dreamy ambient track. Almost as a joke, I layered the classic Stranger Things arpeggio on top, and surprisingly, it just worked.
That accidental blend gave life to this ambient-style Stranger Things cover, something a bit different from the usual reinterpretations.
It wasn’t an easy process: I changed notes, key, textures, and more than once I felt like abandoning the idea. But eventually, everything clicked into place.
🔥 If you’re into ambient music, synth textures, Teenage Engineering gears, or Stranger Things' iconic sound design, this track is for you.
Hope you enjoy it!
🎧 For the full immersive experience — subtle textures, evolving pads, spatial details, and low-end nuances — listening with headphones is highly recommended."
"Pianoteq 9 has arrived and it’s time to show you my favourite virtual instrument together with my favourite plugin controller in a little jam. Yes, and I also like Stranger Things and as the end approaches now, I’m currently rewatching all the seasons 😉
Gear: Modartt Pianoteq 9 Pro with Ableton Live 11 and MP MIDI Controller, drums from Forever 89 VISCO."
Retro Futurism is a vibrant fusion of 80s nostalgia and futuristic sci-fi sounds, blending elements reminiscent of Stranger Things with the atmosphere of Blade Runner.
This pack draws inspiration from iconic vintage synthesizers while incorporating a forward-looking sonic aesthetic, creating a bridge between past and future.
"With Theo off on hols this week Christian opens the lid on one of his favourite instruments, The Harmonium. Think Penguin Cafe Orchestra, think Jon Brion, think a leading (albeit inanimate) character in Punch Drunk Love."
Press release follows:
The Crow Hill Company announces availability of VAULTS - HARMONIUM, bringing bellows to DAWs as latest free VI abiding by its Make Music, Your Music motto
EDINBURGH, UK: The Crow Hill Company is proud to announce availability of VAULTS - HARMONIUM — bringing bellows to DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) as its latest free VI (Virtual Instrument) monthly drop, allowing anyone to experience the timbral complexities and harmonic layers of its gorgeous and, some might say, quaint instrument namesake for the rest of their lives, abiding, as always, by the Edinburgh-based enterprise creators’ collective Make Music, Your Music motto — as of October 24…
Its iconic appearance in Director/Writer Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2002-released dark romantic comedy Punch: Drunk Love — look it up! — may make many think of the harmonium in a certain way. What is certain, though, is that the small free-reed organ was patented way before, back in 1842 by Frenchman Alexandre Debain. By being smaller and less expensive than traditional pipe organs, it quickly became popular through Europe, India, Africa, and the southern United States. Travelling through the north of the UK, harmoniums can still be found tucked away in the corners of many recording studios. Saying that, those that are there are not just set dressing; after all, the harmonium captured the hearts of artists such as The Beatles, Supertramp, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Tori Amos, all of whom featured it in their music.
Making music with a harmonium is easier said than done, however, since the instrument in question generates sound by pumping air — using two foot-operated pedals joined to a mechanism that operates a bellows or by pushing and pulling a handle joined to the bellows back and forth with one hand — past a thin piece of metal in a frame and making it vibrate. Vibrations then resonate through the harmonium’s wooden body, thereby producing the distinctive, church-like sound. Thankfully, The Crow Hill Company has succeeded in capturing this sound to produce VAULTS - HARMONIUM, making it much easier for many more appreciative sound-seekers to experience its musical magic.
Composer Christian Henson — original founder of The Crow Hill Company — freely admits to being a big fan: “It’s got to be one of my favourite instruments. It can bring a simplicity to music — dare I say it, a quaintness, but because of its timbral complexities, it’s also massively expressive.”
"Made a nice sequence and sent it to the Roland Juno 60. I usually don't go for sounds like this but I really liked this. Kind of felt nostalgic or something along the lines of the stranger things soundtrack. A little reverb from the Strymon Bigsky Mx."
"Today, Cameron from @VenusTheory welcomes us in the intimacy of his home studio, where every sound tells a story.
Inspired by the mysterious atmosphere of Stranger Things and the excitement around the new season, he challenged his creativity by crafting a cue entirely with instruments and effects from SonicBundle.
The much-anticipated Volume 3 in one of Miles Away’s most popular series is here.
This custom patch bank delivers 150 high-quality sample-based presets (30 original base programs × 5 multisample variations) for the Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave synthesizer—including Keyboard, Desktop, and 8M models*.
Designed specifically to take full advantage of the 3rd Wave’s sample-based oscillator architecture, this pack expands the sonic palette of your synth with patches that are expressive, musical, and genre-flexible. With a variety of epic pads, complex multitimbral patches, face melting basses, sensitive keys and more, this is the world's first multisample based patch collection for the Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave. Also compatible with 3rd Wave 8M.
Blade Runner, Stranger Things, Synthwave, Film Score, Ambient, Synthjam"
"ON THIS DAY: KATE BUSH ‘RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD)’
Released on this day, 40 years ago on August 5th 1985, Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) was more than a lead single - it was a seismic moment in art-pop history.
The track opened her Hounds of Love album, blending analog synths with raw emotion and poetic intensity. It’s now hailed as a masterpiece of experimental pop and has found a new generation of fans thanks to Stranger Things.
Critics praised Bush’s boundary-pushing production and storytelling, with Hounds of Love now considered one of the greatest albums of the 1980s.
"Exploring deep basslines and cinematic textures with the Teenage Engineering OP-XY – a dark synth journey inspired by Stranger Things.
There are moments like this when I feel lost.
Every time, I tell myself that I need to move on, change things up a bit, make a jam with another synth; but the Teenage Engineering OP-XY is a vortex that pulls you in once you find the right sounds, the rest just flows naturally. This happened with the Danger Things sound pack by Metropolis Border, inspired by the dark atmospheres of Stranger Things: as soon as I started listening to it, something clicked, and just dropping in a deep bass was enough to kick everything off. In the track, I also used some of OP-XY’s default presets, and I realized that with just a touch of sound design, you can bring out some really great things. At the bottom, you’ll find links to all the packs I used.
As usual, the beginning is very ambient, but the track quickly evolves, taking darker and more mysterious turns, until it reaches the rhythmic part, which is definitely more intense than usual. I only prepared the song’s scenes, but I preferred to perform it live. During the performance, I let myself go, especially towards the end, really getting into it: OP-XY’s punch-in effects are as simple to use as they are effective.
🎧 For the full experience — including subtle textures, punchy bass, and detailed drums — headphones are highly recommended.
Into synthwave, ambient vibes, and experimental grooves? Hit subscribe for more OP-XY sessions, live jams, and sound design experiments straight from the Teenage Engineering (but not only) playground."
