Euphoric sonic recall. You remember it sounding one way, only to find the actual sound is not quite as spellbinding as you recall. We considered the hypnotic scores of the mid-1980s and aimed to recreate the fizzing sensation of that era. The romantic comedies, the teen angst of the Brat Pack, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Electric Dreams, The Breakfast Club et al. We did this by employing not one but several classic keyboards: a Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, a Roland JX3P (one of the first analogue synths from Roland equipped with MIDI), but also a vintage Wurlitzer electric piano with intonation that could be described as somewhat “Fruity”. A dead giveaway of plugin synthesizer instruments is their perfect intonation. With the digitally controlled oscillators of the VS and JXP (playing a combination of bell, pad and string tones) we decided to up the “fruit-factor” by employing the warm organic tones of the electric piano.
As part of our VAULTS range (instruments we release for free for the first 6 months of their lifespan, and then for a small charitable donation thereafter), we have lovingly sampled these three synths and housed them in an engine that provides instant 1980’s gratification via a series of purpose-built effects macros.
The main controller dial will take our purely digital samples into the organic realm by dialling in the electric piano (equipped with a sweeping phaser to gel it with the synths). We’ll leave the rest of the encoders for you to discover, including some granular action that is firmly from this decade.
For those of you who lived through this era, we hope it conjures its spirit. For those of you who are wetter behind the ears, we hope it offers up an inspiring retro-edge of undeniable beauty to your music.
“Dear Mr. Vernon. We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did was wrong, but we think you’re crazy to make us to write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, the most convenient definitions. You see us as a Brain, an Athlete, a Basket Case, a Princess, and a Criminal. Correct? That’s the way we saw each other at 7 o’clock this morning. We were brainwashed.”
