Midnight Drive 2 | Roland JX-8P Juno 6 Emax Akai S1000 Korg DW8000

Published on Feb 8, 2018 Espen Kraft

http://www.espenkraft.com

"A sequel/follow-up to my popular track Midnight Drive.

I wanted to make the sequel a little faster and add a little more "oompf" to the bottom end. Without being TOO modern of course... can't have that! :P

The bass is the Juno 6 (sampled into the Roland S-10 sampler for sequencer playback) and all pads/strings is off the 8P

Piano is the Emax and the drums are the Akai S1000. Arpeggio ++ KOrg DW-8000. Some additional drums from Yamaha RX11 and Roland TR-626.
Novation MiniNova plays some hits as well.

There's even some Nord Lead A1 in there although you don't see it in the video.
The Nord Lead A1 provides all wind/noise effects.

Reverbs are Strymons Bluesky. Delay is TC Flashback.

The patches for the JX-8P/PG-8X can be downloaded here:
https://thepatchbay.co.uk/products/?d...

The track is conceived on the Roland MC50 sequencer, my old school MIDI setup, but ultimately multitracked in my DAW for better control at the mixing stage.

My tracks pay homage to all synth-pop acts of the 80'ies like Howard Jones, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, Ultravox, OMD, Euryhmics, Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, Alphaville, A-ha and many more.

A use mostly old gear in my music and among them Roland Juno 6, Alpha Juno 2, D550 and JX-8P.
Korg DW-8000, Elka EK22, Yamaha DX7 and TX802 and drum machines Yamaha RX11 and Roland TR-626.

Effects are usually handled by Strymon and TC electronics.

Sampling is done on my E-MU ESI-4000, Akai S1000, Roland S-10, Emax 1, 2, Yamaha A3000."

80s synth-pop/Italo disco LIVE from the studio - Old school MIDI sequenced setup

Published on Nov 23, 2017 Espen Kraft

"- Never Let You Go

80s inspired synth-pop Italo Disco LIVE in the studio

Everything is played by hand and/or sequenced live. Nothing pre-recorded.

The Emax II bass in the verse and the underlying drum-loop in the verses are lifted/sampled from my own released version of this track. The track can be heard on my website:

https://www.espenkraft.com

Gear used:
Drums: E-MU ESI4000, Akai S1000, Roland TR-626 (sequenced for the most parts, some live playing in the bridge)

Bass: Roland S-10 (sequenced) and Emax II (live playing)

Synths: Roland D-550, Roland JX-8P, Roland Alpha Juno 2, Yamaha TX802. (all sequenced)
Emax & Korg DW-8000 (live playing)

Strymon BlueSky & TC flashback delay effects

Sequencer: Roland MC50 sequencer drives everything through a Opcode 128X MIDI patchbay

Drums, Bass, Synths are recorded through a Yamaha 01V digital mixer and piped optically into Audient ID4 and into Nuendo. From there I have 2 separated stereo tracks + two mono bass tracks ending up in Nuendo for further processing/mixing.
This gives me a much better chance of balancing the mix instead of having just a stereo track of everything without the possibility to adjust the separate “stems”.

My tracks pay homage to all synth-pop acts of the 80'ies like Howard Jones, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, Ultravox, OMD, Euryhmics, Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, Alphaville, A-ha and many more.

A use mostly old gear in my music and among them Roland Juno 6, Alpha Juno 2, D550 and JX-8P.
Korg DW-8000, Elka EK22, Yamaha DX7 and TX802 and drum machines Yamaha RX11 and Roland TR-626.

Effects are usually handled by Strymon and TC electronics.

Sampling is done on my E-MU ESI-4000, Akai S1000, Roland S-10, Emax II."

Vintage Analog Synths - pads/strings shoot-out - old-school synth-pop tutorial/workflow

Published on Sep 26, 2017 Espen Kraft

"Shoot-out starts at 02:07

Which one of the following analog synths from the 80s has the best pads and strings?

Elka EK22
Roland JX-8P
Korg DW-8000
Roland Alpha Juno 2
Roland Juno 6

What effect does the in-built chorus have on the sound?

We find out here in this shoot-out where I put them up agains each other.

These are all synths I use when I make my tracks and I love them all for their respective strenghts.

I've given each synth the same chords and intervals, both with and without the in-built chorus.

This is not a "science" test, but a musically test where I just play some pad and string sounds that I've created to be as similar as possible. There is some differences between the sounds as the internal structure of the sound engines differ. I've chosen a saw wave for all the synths (the Korg has a digitally stored saw) as an oscillator and the first three of the synths can have two oscillators, where as the last two (Juno 2 and 6) only has one.
As you can hear in the shoot-out, they can sound remarkably fat regardless.

Some reverb from the Strymon Bluesky is added on all synths. The Korg DW-8000 is given a slight stereo delay and some chorus externally to get the same amount of modulation as this do not have in-built chorus.

Listen to more of my music on: http://www.espenkraft.com"

Roland MKS-20 review - Old school synth-pop tutorial workflow and LIVE performance

Espen Kraft
Published on Aug 30, 2017

"The Roland MKS-20 from the mid 80s. A fantastic retro digital piano module with analoge chorus and tremolo built in for immidiate 80s gratification.
The analog chorus board built into the module can be though of as a cross between the Juno 6/60 chorus and a Dimension D.

Elton John used it for years and Spectrasonics has included it in their Keyscape plugin recently to great reviews. A standard piano sound in many gospel recordings of the day.
Software doesn't cut it for me and I had to get the module. It's getting pretty rare these days so I'm happy it now sits in my rack.
I play it from the Roland S-10 in this video.

I use it mainly because of the preset 7. E. Piano 1. I find that sound irresistable for my 80s sound when I go for a piano/pad with reverb.

In this showcase episode I use that sound with the Chorus enabled and some reverb from a Strymin BlueSky and a TC flashback delay.
The track "Arrivederci" is performed completely LIVE. Just the drum machine providing a little beat. The Juno 6 arpeggiator has a hold function so it can play the same pattern throughout the track.

Listen to more of my music on: http://www.espenkraft.com

My tracks pay homage to all synth.pop acts of the 80'ies like Howard Jones, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, Ultravox, OMD, Euryhmics, Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, A-ha and many more.

A use mostly old gear on my tracks and among them Roland Juno 6, Alpha Juno 2, D550 and JX-8P, MKS-20. Korg DW-8000. Roland TR-626 drum machine. Yamaha DX7 and TX802 and drum machine RX11. I use the Novation Mininova as a vocoder on all my tracks. Effects are usually handled by Strymon and TC electronics. Sampling is done on my E-MU ESI-4000, Akai S1000 and Roland S-10."

Roland S-10 old school sampling tutorial/workflow - Free samples download

Published on Aug 20, 2017 Espen Kraft

"Performance of the track 'Ocean Drive - Main theme' 17:47

Todays episode is a review and demo of one of my all time favourite samplers, the budget (of its time) sampler Roland S-10. It has "only" 4.4 secs of total sampling time and it holds only max 4 sounds in its memory at a time. Each of the ABCD slots/banks can hold 1.1 sec of sampling time.

Despite all its limitations it has remarkable many features and a killer arpeggiator as well and the sound on this is incredible, especially at the low end. The 12 bit 30KHz converters give this sampler a low end grit that really is very musical and provides perfect counterpoint to more modern sounds. Its big brother, the S-50 has the same sound and even more sampling time.

The S-10 was one of my first samplers so it holds a special place in my heart and I had lots of fun with it back in the day and even did gigs with it of course as it WAS a pro sampler in its day despite its shortcomings in the memory department.

S-10 manager software can be downloaded here:
http://s10manager.corlinks.nl/#C

A set of my own original samples for the S-10, not obtainable anywhere else on the net can be found here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0i7oybeovyi...

Please give me credits if you use those in any commercial way, thanks!

The track "Ocean Drive - Main theme" is recorded with only the S-10 sampler and all the sounds come directly off the S-10. It has been multitracked as the S-10 can only hold 4 sounds in its memory at a time as described above and in the video.

The song can be downloaded through Bandcamp.
https://espenkraft.bandcamp.com/

My tracks pay homage to all synth.pop acts of the 80'ies like Howard Jones, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, Ultravox, OMD, Euryhmics, Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, A-ha and many more.

A use mostly old gear on my tracks and among them Roland Juno 6, Alpha Juno 2, D550 and JX-8P. Korg DW-8000. Roland TR-626 drum machine. Yamaha DX7 and TX802 and drum machine RX11. I use the Novation Mininova as a vocoder on all my tracks. Effects are usually handled by Strymon and TC electronics. Sampling is done on my E-MU ESI-4000, Akai S1000 and Roland S-10."

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:

CLICK FOR MORE »

Roland JX 8P 32 Retro Synth Patches Sysex Download Demo

Espen Kraft
Published on Apr 6, 2017

"A downloadable pack of 32 patches for the Roland JX-8P (or the PG-8X) in the sysex format.

Download it here:

https://thepatchbay.co.uk/index.php?r...

These patches are created by me and some of the sounds is taken directly from my album "Those Days" which is a tribute to the glorious 80s synth-pop and synthesizer sounds used in tv/movies at the time. I use the 8P extensivly on that album.

The album can be purchased here:
https://espenkraft.bandcamp.com/album...

You can also stream it on Spotify. Click the Spotify icon at the top of my channel graphics. Plese follow me in there if you do. Thanks! :)

CLICK FOR MORE »

Studio recording - Roland JX-8P synthesizer & Juno 6 / 2

Espen Kraft
Published on Jan 3, 2017

"A studio recording in session. Preparing the last track for my forthcoming synth-pop album due february 2017.
I'm auditioning sounds for the track while multitracking as well. Tonight I was going through the sweet Roland classics JX-8P, Roland Alpha Juno 2 and the Roland Juno 6 for sounds. All analog classics.

This album will be a homage to all my childhood synth heros, bands and artists that've inspired me throughout the years.

Some of the tracks will be instrumental, but most of them will have vocals in various degree.

Listen to more of my music on:

http://www.espenkraft.com
https://soundcloud.com/espenkraft

My tracks pay homage to all synth.pop acts of the 80'ies like Howard Jones, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, Ultravox, OMD, Euryhmics, Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, A-ha and many more.

A use mostly old gear on my tracks and among them Roland Juno 6, Alpha Juno 2, D550 and JX-8P. Korg DW-8000. Roland TR-626 drum machine. Yamaha DX7 and TX802 and drum machine RX11. I use the Novation Mininova as a vocoder on all my tracks. Effects are usually handled by Strymon and TC electronics. Sampling is done on my E-MU ESI-4000 and I mostly use that for drums."

And one more minus the synth spotting:

CLICK FOR MORE »

Midnight Drive | Roland JX-8P | Synthesizer

Espen Kraft
Published on Jul 29, 2016

"Listen at Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/espenkraft/midn...
Listen at Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0PCiw7...

Listen to more of my music at: http://www.espenkraft.com

The track is dominated by the Roland JX-8P analogue synthesizer from the mid 80'ies- About 70% of the sounds on this track is from it. The sweeping synths is the Roland Juno 2 and the drums is provided by the Roland TR-626. The arpeggiated sound in the beginning is the Roland Juno 6. It's arpeggiator is synced to MIDI clock.machine.
The main solo comes from the Novation MiniNova.

Stock footage provided by http://www.beachfrontbroll.com/ under CC.
additional stock footage provided by https://videos.pexels.com under CC.
All other footage done by me with the Sony A6000.

My tracks pay homage to all synth.pop acts of the 80'ies like Howard Jones, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, Ultravox, OMD, Euryhmics, Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, A-ha and many more.

A use mostly old gear on my tracks and among them Roland Juno 6, Alpha Juno 2, D550 and JX-8P. Korg DW-8000. Roland TR-626 drum machine. Yamaha DX7 and TX802 and drum machine RX11. I use the Novation Mininova as a vocoder on all my tracks. Effects are usually handled by Strymon and TC electronics. Sampling is done on my E-MU ESI-4000 and I mostly use that for drums."