Old-School Synth-Pop Tutorial/workflow Videos by Espen Kraft

Espen Kraft
Published on Mar 27, 2017

Note: this completes the current run of Espen Kraft posts on the site. If you are coming in on the main site you can just scroll down for previous posts in order. If you are coming in directly to this post, click here for all Espen Kraft posts in reverse order. There have been a couple of updates, so be sure you haven't missed anything. These are some great synth videos with that classic 80s feel.

http://www.espenkraft.com
https://soundcloud.com/espenkraft
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1dMWi...

Playlist:
1. Old-school synth-pop tutorial/workflow - Retrowave/synthwave - Free patches Roland JX-8P download
2. Italo Disco - Old-school synth-pop tutorial/workflow - Free patches DX7
3. The Golden Boy - Old-school synth-pop Synthwave tutorial/workflow breakdown & multi track
4. 80s MIDI synthesizer setup explained - tutorial/workflow 2017

Details for each:

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Keyboard Mag. Aug. '85 | What Was In It?

Published on May 19, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Support this channel on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/espenkraft

A very intersting issue where the focus is on Japanese (now) synth pioneers, the manufacturers of synths and keyboards and more."

Espen Kraft What Was In It? posts

Keyboard Mag. March '86 | What Was In It?

Espen Kraft

"A great interview with Jean Michel Jarre right after his release of the Zoolook album. OMD, Mr.Mister and lots of colorful ads of now classic gear!"

Espen Kraft What Was In It? posts

Keyboard Mag. Oct. '86 | What Was In It?

video by Espen Kraft

"Keyboard Magazine October 1986 - Cool ads, tech tips, keyboard reviews and interesting interviews... What Was In It? Let the time travel begin!"

Espen Kraft Keyboard Magazine posts

Music Technology Mag. Dec '86 | What Was In It?

Published on Jan 28, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Music Technology Magazine, Issue December 1986. What was in it? Let's check it out together!
In depth reviews of Roland S-10 and S-50, The live setup of OMD at the time, Patch-works and lots of glorious ads for 80s gear + + + ;-)

Download the ADS here:
https://shorturl.at/jrwIQ"

Keyboard Sep. '85 | What Was In It?

video by Espen Kraft

"Keyboard Magazine from September 1985.
Jan Hammer, Greg Phillinganes, Gear reviews and lots of colorful and interesting ads, all from the golden age of music. I go through it all in this episode of 'What Was In It?'"

Keyboard Mag. July '98 | What Was In It?

Espen Kraft

"Madonnas album 'Ray of Light' is an awesome album and back in the late 90s when it was released I listened a lot to it because I loved the somewhat groundbreaking work done by William Orbit on it. In terms of filtering and chopped up vocal effects.

Internet was still pretty new back then and magazines were often how we gained intel on how major productions were made. This is the magazine that made me aware of the ADR PanScan (as Orbit explains inside how he used it on Madonnas vocals) I will show you very soon.

By 1998, sample libraries were starting to take of more and more and the Gigasampler had been launched. To have a major sampler in a plugin form was so awesome after years of having to buy big, expensive bricks of electronics to get some long samples going."

Sound On Sound Jan '90 | What Was In It?

Espen Kraft

"Sound on Sound issue January 1990. A time where more and more gear were becoming digital. Analog was on its way out and this issue shows this clearly. Again, lots of colorful ads, reviews, features and clinics. Let's go through this and se What Was In It!"

Can you guess the source of this sound/patch?

video upload by Espen Kraft

And the answer:

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Yamaha TX16W | The Sampler from Hell | That was Saved

Espen Kraft

"Yamaha released the TX16W in 1988 and it appeared to offer a lot, and it did. Unfortunately, the OS they put into it made using it quite arcane, tedious and annoying to the extreme. However....

The demo song can be downloaded here:
https://espenkraft.bandcamp.com/track...

.... a group of idealists decided they would make a new operating system for this sampler (as the OS i loaded into memory from a floppy disk when you start it up) and so they made what was to be known as the TYPHOON software. This makes using this machine easy, fun and it becomes very powerful.

The original OS is interesting as a case study in how to really annoy a customer and as such it can be fun in itself, if you're into those kinds of things.

Regardless of OS, the TX16W has a very fat and cinematic low end to its sound and it almost rivals the Roland JV-880 for that. Considering you can sample anything you want into it and preserve that bottom end, I find this sampler a real gem."

Akai S612 - The first and best sampler Akai ever made - Demo/review/tutorial

Published on Dec 14, 2018 Espen Kraft

"When the Hi-Fi home system producer Akai entered the music tech/gear business with the Akai S612 sampler, and the Akai AX80 and AX60 back in 1985/86, no one new what to make of it. Not even Akai themselves. I don't think they knew how successfull their samplers would be in the years to come after this.
This was also the only sampler they'd ever produce that was in black.

The 612, in essence 6 delay lines with sampling functions, was streamlined the year later with the grey S700.
Both have a analog filter, non resonant, but where the S700 is a menu driven sampler, the S612 uses knobs and faders for adjusting parameters and that is very, fast, intiutive and simple. No Akai sampler for many years after the S612 did this.

Unfortunately it does not comply to the "standard" Midi Sample Dump protocol so with a fawlty Quick Disk drive like most of these has today, you have to use some old Atari or MAC to transfer sounds to and back from a computer. Or fix your quick disk system.

The demo track I start off with (Tell Me) is made entirely of sounds coming out of the S612. I've multi tracked it of course and additional effects are being used.
It has that 12-bit, slightly gritty sound I love."

Keyboard Mag. Nov'84 | What Was In It?

Published on Mar 31, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Plenty of cool colorful ads of now classic vintage gear. In-depth features on Tony Banks, Genesis and Berlin. Great issue!"

Espen Kraft Mag posts

Keyboard Mag. Aug '83 | What Was In It?

Published on Feb 17, 2020 Espen Kraft

"One of my favorite issues of Keyboard Magazine ever. Colorful ads of many synths and drum machines we now consider classics.
In-depth interviews with Thomas Dolby and Lee Curreri (Fame) as well as clinics on different topics."

Note 8:12 on the Jupiter-6 being marketed as a 6 voice Jupiter-8 by Roland.

Espen Kraft Magazine posts

Fizmo | Ensoniqs last and worst synth?

video upload by Espen Kraft

Thought this was an interesting example of how some people view synths as an instrument to play traditional music to, while others view synths as a sonic palate to explore. The Fismo excels at sonic exploration. It sounds alive at times. The synth is all about evolving textures and timbres. The Buchla Music Easel and Buchla's vision of a synthesiver vs. Moog comes to mind, although Buchla did choose "Music" in that title. Hmm...

The following is what Espen Kraft has to say:

"The Fizmo was the last true synthesizer from Ensoniq. In 1998 this was labeled as a Transwave synthesizer. With multiple arpeggiator patterns and glassy wavetables it sure is an ambient dog.

I must confess that I never took to this synth. Yes, it has a lot of knobs and faders and yes, you can get some decent sounds out of it. I'm usually very positive to wavetable synths, hybrid synths and arpeggio driven bells and whistles, but the OS is very messy, the wavetables themselves are way too glassy and thin and it just doesn't speak to me.

The demo track uses external drums and some external effects as well. All the sounds are indeed from the Fizmo and everything has been multi tracked, mixed and mastered."

Keyboard Mag. Dec '87 | What Was In It?

Published on Jan 7, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Back in the 80s I bought Keyboard Magazine quite often, especially when there was these synth 'clinics' features inside, This issue from Dec. 1987 has a Roland D-50 clinic by Eric Pershing so naturally I bought this. But what else whas featured inside this issue?
Take a break and come with me as I go through the complete magazine with you."

Keyboard Mag. March '82 | What Was In It?

Espen Kraft

"Keyboard Magazine March 1982 - Kraftwerk, Jan Hammer, lots of beautiful ads and gear reviews."

Espen Kraft Magazine posts

Music Technology Mag. Jul '88 | What Was In It?

Published on Mar 10, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Support this channel on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/espenkraft

July 1988 - Music Technology with a very nice interview with Scritti Politti, among other things.

Find the ADs here:
https://bit.ly/2xqONTB [pictured below]

Read the whole issue here:
http://www.muzines.co.uk/mags/mt/88/0..."

Espen Kraft Magazine posts

The John Bowen Interview | Legendary Synth and Sound Specialist, New Solaris OS, Demos, & Prototype

video upload by Espen Kraft

"John Bowen is the man behind those Sequential factory synth preset sounds heard on so many classic tracks. The Prophet 5, Prophet VS, Six-Trak etc.
He later worked on the Korg Wavestation, Korg Oasys, the Creamware DSP plugin synths and finally his own hardware synth, the Solaris.
You've heard his sounds more times than you know.

In this interview you can hear how it all started, all the funny stories, and what happened in California in the 70s, at Sequential Circuits in the 80s and at Korg in the 90s. And more."

You can find v2.0.3 update details here: https://forums.johnbowen.com/viewtopic.php?t=17189.

The following are a couple of videos featuring the Solaris, the first featuring on the John Bowen site.
video upload by synthhaft

"Improvisation with a 'Noodle'-Sound, done with the SOLARIS.
One Sound, one take, no external fx."

And one more with a Nonlinear Labs C15 and Waldorf Quantum:
"Heizfläche"

video upload by

And last but definitely not least, some pics of the Solaris prototype via the John Bowen Synth Design forum where you'll find additional pics:

"I came across some of the old Solaris prototype photos, and I thought people might enjoy seeing them!

We introduced the Solaris at the Frankfurt Musik Messe at the end of March 2007. The original design features 2 rows of knobs below the Envelope section, so that you could easily adjust filter and amp envelopes without having to select them individually. (Note there are only 3 EG select buttons, as the idea was to select them in pairs.)

The wood sides were more rounded, as you can see these were quite nice, but a bit too expensive for production. The graphics of the front panel featured a design from my childhood friend, John Heisch (viewable on the left side). Also, the original silk screen for the front panel was not to my liking, so I requested an 'emergency' job from Axel Hartmann to revise the graphics look for the show (which he did just 2 weeks prior to the show!).

We went through 5 prototype stages, arriving at the production version you know now. It was quite the journey!"

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Roland Pocket Catalogue 1984 | What was in it?

video upload by Espen Kraft

"Roland Pocket Catalogue 1984 - The complete Roland line-up and Midi was a new thing. Fir dealers only.

Find my music here:
Bandcamp: https://espenkraft.bandcamp.com/"

What does it mean to RECAP old gear? | Yamaha TX816 in need of help

video by Espen Kraft

"I recently found out that my Yamaha TX816 had bulging capacitors in the power supply. I was a little pressed for time so Anders Jensen stepped in and offered to do it for me. Thanks buddy!

So he shot the complete job and I shot a couple of clips and presto; here is a nice little video for anyone interested in what it takes to actually replace all the capacitors in a power supply. Necessary evil if you want to keep your precious electronics free from harm and enjoy your synths for another 30 years.
Now I "only" have to recap all the different boards as well, but those aren't as critical as the power supply as a bad power rail there can easily fry everything down the line."