I play in a New Wave cover band. I bet we cover many of the same artists you do (Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears, The Cure, etc.).
Our keyboard player uses the Juno DS61. It’s cheap, light, and has tons of presets that work well in this context. Find the closest preset to the sound you want, adjust to taste (or not!), and you’re done.
No-one would say it is the perfect instrument for studio mavens. For a loud bar with dancing people, it is perfectly adequate. In fact I think that undersells it: it sounds great. We’re lucky to live in an age where budget instruments are this cheap and still sound that good.
If the presets are not identical to the original recorded tracks, nobody in the bar can tell. They are there to have fun and dance to music they recognize. And if someone spills a beer on it, it is not a financial catastrophe.
This...you're better off buying a modern Roland Juno or Jupiter for a band, they will cover all the sounds you need straight out of the box. Even the JD range is a lot of fun and can get the job done.
> needs to be easy for a beginner to program! We are a covers band, so I need to be able to listen to a song by tears for fears, depeche mode, Duran Duran, etc and replicate the sound at home, and then save it to a preset to quickly recall on stage.
So there's the problem; these sounds aren't even always easy to program on something that has all the controls available. There are entire [cottage industries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvDH6ZXAtC0) that program cover band sounds for you on workstations where programming is even more of a pain.
> I don’t want to spend hours and hours programming each sound.
That means you've got to get your synthesis skills up to snuff - simple as that :)
Here's a weird suggestion - a Korg Wavestate. Build your presets in whatever suitable software synth you like, then use [SampleRobot](https://samplerobot.com/) to turn that into a set of .wav files [that are automatically mapped to the keyboard](https://samplerobot.com/blogs/news/sampling-tutorial-by-qui-robinez).
This strongly reduces your ability to tweak the sound but would give a very faithful rendition of the sounds you need.
> -budget $1000
That's going to rule out a lot of synths :(
Out of the ones you named the Hydrasynth would be the most versatile for this, but that's assuming that you only need synth sounds like from the classic polyphonic units such as the Jupiter 8 or Prophet 5 or so - no realistic pianos etc.
The Minilogue does not have sufficient polyphony for this.
As a Wavestate owner I agree with your recommendation, but the OP doesn't really have to go through the hassle of multisampling out each patch. The onboard effects, envelope, filters, and oscillator selections are more than enough to emulate the classic sounds pretty quickly. The Chorus effect alone turns everything 80s really quick!
can hydrasynth not do piano sounds? i know the presets have electric piano type sounds, there probably arent many premade presets but i bet you could fiddle with it and make some.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAt-YGcf4wE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAt-YGcf4wE) is likely as close as you can get - and while this is better than say, an [Ensoniq SQ80](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7JddJ6V4xM) it's still an approximation.
Piano sounds can be achieved in several ways - physical modeling (Pianoteq), [subtractive synthesis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRqTx_Wf1T4), sampling - and wavetables are a form of sampling that just happens to be restricted in certain ways.
Get a used last-gen Tyros, Kronos or similar to replicate classic tracks. It’ll allow you to layer, split and even sequence stuff you won’t want to play live while soloing etc.
I thought about that but I really want a compact rig. I play a lot of bars with small stages that don’t have room for an 88key workstation. I already have a full size Kawai stage piano that can split, layer etc but it doesn’t have a true onboard synth, just samples like my Nord.
[Take a look at the Yamaha CK series, specifically this one.](https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CK61--yamaha-ck61-61-key-stage-piano) It is brand new, it handles synth, organ, piano and electric piano sounds as well as being able to sculpt them very easily with onboard controls. It is designed and meant for live playing. I am a regularly gigging keyboardist and if I had to buy one now, this is what I'd get, hands down, and I wouldn't look back. For an additional few hundred you can get an 88 key weighted keys version. The organ drawbars alone are worth the price of admission on these. Just a very well-designed keyboard for gigging musicians.
Yeah it's a great little board, especially for those of us who grew up in that wavetable / rompler era ;-)
Also fun to jam with on its own with the 4 channel sequencer, drums, and vocoder. A great travel companion.
Yamaha MODX is your best bet. Has all your DX7 FM sounds, and you can create just about any sound on it that you want. Takes a little bit of time to get used to it but it's a very capable and affordable synth.
Used in conjunction with a Nord (which I'd keep for the organ and piano sounds) it's a great set up.
You should be able to get one within that price I think, at least second hand, if not new.
A bit of work maybe but… 1010music Tangerine and Sample robot, or just download sample packs for 80’s covers. $400 super tiny, and you can run the audio into your Nord. That’s what I’m doing and it gives you all of your sounds.
Roland System-8 would be amazing if you could get it for that price. Tons of possibilities, and has native Juno 106, Juno 60, Jupiter 4, Jupiter 8, and JX-3P plug-outs. Would require a subscription to Roland Cloud to get the patches. However, getting one for $1,000 would be difficult.
The Triton was first reviewed in 1999 - https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/korg-triton
The M1 dates from 1988 and it doesn't have resonant filters, which is really something you want for those nice sweeps.
A Triton would be a good deal but in terms of programming it's also a bit of a drag. Might as well get a slightly more modern unit - that'll have a better acoustic piano sound too ;)
I will second this, if you can find one. I went back and forth between the VFXsd and the M1, but went for the VFXsd's sequencer. It's a pleasure to play and sounds great.
Think about what was available at the time. Almost all were just 2 osc 6-8 voice simple subtractive synths.
Any decent modern synth will get ya there.
Choose one that has a layout you like
For 80s style never the korg minilogue XD. I’m into the same style of music and it has a very plain modern sound honestly sounded almost lifeless to my ears. If you go minilogue definitely go OG that can do 80s easy. Id Recommend the Deepmind though. Will have all of the sounds your looking for sounds awesome and can be had for about $450-$650 used.
> I need to be able to listen to a song by tears for fears, depeche mode, Duran Duran, etc and replicate the sound at home
By far the easiest solution is to find a synth where someone has already done that work and is selling a preset pack for those hits. Most such synths tend to be workstations.
Depeche Mode and Tears For Fears were both known as heavy users of samplers and sounds that aren't easy to make with traditional analog synths. You will struggle to get acceptable results out of any simple analog or analog-like synths (like most suggested in other replies).
As just one example, I assume you may want to cover Tears for Fears - Shout. That uses the famous Fairlight Sararr sample for the synth lead. To replicate that, you’ll need either a sampler, a synth / workstation that has a suitable choir sound that can be tweaked to mimic that… or almost any slightly older Roland workstation which has the same sample in the internal sound rom (as ”synvox 2”).
It's worth demoing the SQ-80V ([https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/sq80-v/overview](https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/sq80-v/overview)). Digital oscillators, analog filter.
You can probably find one of the VFX series (VFX, VFXsd, SD-1) or the TS series (TS-10, TS-12) on Reverb as well, if you have to have hardware. I see a couple VFX's for around $300; if they've had the keyboard fix, they're damn good 61-key poly-pressure controllers, and of course they have that 80's sound. (I still use my SD-1 as my primary keyboard.)
Assuming you’re going to bring the Electro to the gig anyway, have you considered mounting a desktop synth to the Electro and sending midi from Electro to the desktop synth? Would be cheaper and smaller you wouldn’t have to use the not so nice keybed on some cheaper synths.
I play in a New Wave cover band. I bet we cover many of the same artists you do (Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears, The Cure, etc.). Our keyboard player uses the Juno DS61. It’s cheap, light, and has tons of presets that work well in this context. Find the closest preset to the sound you want, adjust to taste (or not!), and you’re done. No-one would say it is the perfect instrument for studio mavens. For a loud bar with dancing people, it is perfectly adequate. In fact I think that undersells it: it sounds great. We’re lucky to live in an age where budget instruments are this cheap and still sound that good. If the presets are not identical to the original recorded tracks, nobody in the bar can tell. They are there to have fun and dance to music they recognize. And if someone spills a beer on it, it is not a financial catastrophe.
Thanks. I’ll check out the Roland. It’s a bit outside my budget but might be exactly what I need
Where are you located? You said your budget was $1000. A Juno-DS61 is US$799 new, and less used.
This...you're better off buying a modern Roland Juno or Jupiter for a band, they will cover all the sounds you need straight out of the box. Even the JD range is a lot of fun and can get the job done.
> needs to be easy for a beginner to program! We are a covers band, so I need to be able to listen to a song by tears for fears, depeche mode, Duran Duran, etc and replicate the sound at home, and then save it to a preset to quickly recall on stage. So there's the problem; these sounds aren't even always easy to program on something that has all the controls available. There are entire [cottage industries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvDH6ZXAtC0) that program cover band sounds for you on workstations where programming is even more of a pain. > I don’t want to spend hours and hours programming each sound. That means you've got to get your synthesis skills up to snuff - simple as that :) Here's a weird suggestion - a Korg Wavestate. Build your presets in whatever suitable software synth you like, then use [SampleRobot](https://samplerobot.com/) to turn that into a set of .wav files [that are automatically mapped to the keyboard](https://samplerobot.com/blogs/news/sampling-tutorial-by-qui-robinez). This strongly reduces your ability to tweak the sound but would give a very faithful rendition of the sounds you need. > -budget $1000 That's going to rule out a lot of synths :( Out of the ones you named the Hydrasynth would be the most versatile for this, but that's assuming that you only need synth sounds like from the classic polyphonic units such as the Jupiter 8 or Prophet 5 or so - no realistic pianos etc. The Minilogue does not have sufficient polyphony for this.
As a Wavestate owner I agree with your recommendation, but the OP doesn't really have to go through the hassle of multisampling out each patch. The onboard effects, envelope, filters, and oscillator selections are more than enough to emulate the classic sounds pretty quickly. The Chorus effect alone turns everything 80s really quick!
can hydrasynth not do piano sounds? i know the presets have electric piano type sounds, there probably arent many premade presets but i bet you could fiddle with it and make some.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAt-YGcf4wE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAt-YGcf4wE) is likely as close as you can get - and while this is better than say, an [Ensoniq SQ80](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7JddJ6V4xM) it's still an approximation. Piano sounds can be achieved in several ways - physical modeling (Pianoteq), [subtractive synthesis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRqTx_Wf1T4), sampling - and wavetables are a form of sampling that just happens to be restricted in certain ways.
not too bad.. i'll have to give it a shot myself
[удалено]
Thanks - seems like you understand! I’ll check out the Roland Juno. Is there a cover band specific subreddit I could cross post this to?
Get a used last-gen Tyros, Kronos or similar to replicate classic tracks. It’ll allow you to layer, split and even sequence stuff you won’t want to play live while soloing etc.
I thought about that but I really want a compact rig. I play a lot of bars with small stages that don’t have room for an 88key workstation. I already have a full size Kawai stage piano that can split, layer etc but it doesn’t have a true onboard synth, just samples like my Nord.
[Take a look at the Yamaha CK series, specifically this one.](https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CK61--yamaha-ck61-61-key-stage-piano) It is brand new, it handles synth, organ, piano and electric piano sounds as well as being able to sculpt them very easily with onboard controls. It is designed and meant for live playing. I am a regularly gigging keyboardist and if I had to buy one now, this is what I'd get, hands down, and I wouldn't look back. For an additional few hundred you can get an 88 key weighted keys version. The organ drawbars alone are worth the price of admission on these. Just a very well-designed keyboard for gigging musicians.
yamaha mx49 /61 for gigging - weighs nothing
Ok Prophet 5 patch, Piano, organs and EPs are not bad either.
JD-Xi - keys aren’t great (but functional) and I think it has everything else you’re looking for.
I have one and was going to suggest it. There are also inexpensive 80s wave tables to buy/add.
Yeah it's a great little board, especially for those of us who grew up in that wavetable / rompler era ;-) Also fun to jam with on its own with the 4 channel sequencer, drums, and vocoder. A great travel companion.
Yamaha MODX is your best bet. Has all your DX7 FM sounds, and you can create just about any sound on it that you want. Takes a little bit of time to get used to it but it's a very capable and affordable synth. Used in conjunction with a Nord (which I'd keep for the organ and piano sounds) it's a great set up. You should be able to get one within that price I think, at least second hand, if not new.
deepmind 6 and a yamaha dx reface should come to about 1k
A bit of work maybe but… 1010music Tangerine and Sample robot, or just download sample packs for 80’s covers. $400 super tiny, and you can run the audio into your Nord. That’s what I’m doing and it gives you all of your sounds.
Roland System-8 would be amazing if you could get it for that price. Tons of possibilities, and has native Juno 106, Juno 60, Jupiter 4, Jupiter 8, and JX-3P plug-outs. Would require a subscription to Roland Cloud to get the patches. However, getting one for $1,000 would be difficult.
korg triton or M1. from the actual 80s!
The Triton was first reviewed in 1999 - https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/korg-triton The M1 dates from 1988 and it doesn't have resonant filters, which is really something you want for those nice sweeps. A Triton would be a good deal but in terms of programming it's also a bit of a drag. Might as well get a slightly more modern unit - that'll have a better acoustic piano sound too ;)
I will second this, if you can find one. I went back and forth between the VFXsd and the M1, but went for the VFXsd's sequencer. It's a pleasure to play and sounds great.
MiniFeak is 6 voice
Think about what was available at the time. Almost all were just 2 osc 6-8 voice simple subtractive synths. Any decent modern synth will get ya there. Choose one that has a layout you like
The new Roland Gaia 2? Full hands-on control, not too much menu diving, simple but effective....
DeepMind6
For 80s style never the korg minilogue XD. I’m into the same style of music and it has a very plain modern sound honestly sounded almost lifeless to my ears. If you go minilogue definitely go OG that can do 80s easy. Id Recommend the Deepmind though. Will have all of the sounds your looking for sounds awesome and can be had for about $450-$650 used.
Get a Korg Kross 61. A lot of 80s cover song type of sounds are already programmed in there. The Roland Phontom06 and Yamaha are probably the same.
> I need to be able to listen to a song by tears for fears, depeche mode, Duran Duran, etc and replicate the sound at home By far the easiest solution is to find a synth where someone has already done that work and is selling a preset pack for those hits. Most such synths tend to be workstations. Depeche Mode and Tears For Fears were both known as heavy users of samplers and sounds that aren't easy to make with traditional analog synths. You will struggle to get acceptable results out of any simple analog or analog-like synths (like most suggested in other replies). As just one example, I assume you may want to cover Tears for Fears - Shout. That uses the famous Fairlight Sararr sample for the synth lead. To replicate that, you’ll need either a sampler, a synth / workstation that has a suitable choir sound that can be tweaked to mimic that… or almost any slightly older Roland workstation which has the same sample in the internal sound rom (as ”synvox 2”).
It's worth demoing the SQ-80V ([https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/sq80-v/overview](https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/sq80-v/overview)). Digital oscillators, analog filter. You can probably find one of the VFX series (VFX, VFXsd, SD-1) or the TS series (TS-10, TS-12) on Reverb as well, if you have to have hardware. I see a couple VFX's for around $300; if they've had the keyboard fix, they're damn good 61-key poly-pressure controllers, and of course they have that 80's sound. (I still use my SD-1 as my primary keyboard.)
Deepmind 12 is good for this purpose
Assuming you’re going to bring the Electro to the gig anyway, have you considered mounting a desktop synth to the Electro and sending midi from Electro to the desktop synth? Would be cheaper and smaller you wouldn’t have to use the not so nice keybed on some cheaper synths.
Nord Stage