@@cnovasalmanhussain751 If you want hardware I's say the Virus is hard to beat for Trance. Preferable the TI version with its hypersaw feature. But if you consider the ones shown in this video I'd say Serum is the most capable. Software ain't as much fun as hardware though. But way more convenient.
@@Dougie- totally agree but synths like serum, vital, sonic Academy's Ana, and synthmaster one... Have taken the virtual instrument industry to a different level... Still I would say hardware synths of the past like virus ti, virus c, virus B, Jp8000, Roland sh01, Yamaha an1x, Nord lead 2 and 3 have something distinctive about them... Better than software and modern day hardware analog synths...
@@cnovasalmanhussain751 Yep. I love all of them. If not better they're at least way more fun :-). Making the basis of a track using 3-4 hardware pieces and then seasoning it with software synths after recording is the way to go.. or at least my preferred way to go :-)
It's just amazing! I dug all over the Internet in search of any information about the old-school progressive house and trance of the late 90s -2004/2005, the platinum uk progressive era of Platipus, Hooj Choons, Lost Language and others - how it was done, what magic were used for its significant sound. Finally I found a couple of ancient forum posts with a few hints, then I started googling what this 2000 equipment sounded like, and basically found nothing useful, and boom! Your video is exactly what I want, Sasha's stubs with the flavour I searched for. Thank you, bless you, merry Christmas and a happy new year 🤗
Fantastic channel! And you’ve inspired me to dust off my Virus B that I haven’t been using often enough for sake of the ease of soft synths and start bringing in more of my old gear back into Ableton
Haha I really know what you're talking about. Just last night I was working on a track, thinking like "damn, need to setup midi routing, recording, everything so complex instead of a plugin-preset". But then, serendipity happens and I re-discovered some sounds on the machine that also fit into the song. Hence, I recorded a bunch more than just the sound I had in mind :)
There is just something so indescribably powerful about the medley of this legendary track. Even when you're just toying around with it before you nail it, it's just powerful. I wonder how many hours Sasha must have played around with the sounds before he settled on one of the most beautiful electronic masterpieces of all time. I have read that in the early days there were quite a few tweaks to the track that he submitted to the earliest broadcasts of it. I would love to sit down and have a casual Q&A with him.
Nice work. Have to say the Nord and Virus sound incredible with the Virus just edging it. Serum needed a bit more work as it was a little on the harsh side for me - though its more suited to modern genres. The second demo on it was impressive.
Great work very inspirational, I now own one I got it for a great deal, this video made me take that leap, considering a oberhiem xpander in good condition from the 80s fetch 5000 upwards, 460 for a virus b is not only a great bargin but a great investment for the future.
Both the virus and Nord sounds better in my opinion compared to serum, serum is too sterile. I’m sure you could achieve the same sound in serum, would be interesting to see what some outboard processing does
Danke, cooler Vergleich! Fast ein bisschen frustrierend, dass auch Software so easy richtig gut klingt, oder? Habe selbst u.a. einen Virus C und NL A1 zum Schrauben und behalte diese auch, trotz guter Softsynth.
Schau dir mal das Comparing JP8000.. Video von mir an, da hat der Serum-Entwickler selber geantwortet und noch ein paar Tipps gegeben. Fand ich mega! Mein bisheriges Fazit: Schrauben auf Synths: Nice. Aber wenns um Effizienz geht: Softsynths und In A Box!
In the video it just looks like that. When I play stuff on my master-keyboard, all the hardware is been triggered, that's why its leds lighten up. But in the video you hear the dedicated devices individually. Let me upload them somewhere :)
I’m using the Nordlead’s usb-midi to control it. For a short time I was passing midi through the Nordlead to my JP8000 but I replaced the 8k’s midi connection to a dedicated usb midi i/o device
Mark any problems with apple updates as I heard there some obstacles.I am close to buying a virus c and would hate to purchase for it not to work with apple logic
You’ll completely control the virus c via midi, no usb. So it will remain to work for another 20 years at least 😊 but boy what I could rant against software updates especially against some specific vendors. Because of their expired support their hardware became almost useless. I recently updated to macOS Catalina and already have a bunch of tools and controllers I can’t really configure or use anymore
Hii since you have such a massive hardware collection I would like to ask which nord lead is best for trance music? A1 NORD LEAD 2X NORD LEAD 3 NORD LEAD 4 AS I AM LOOKING FOR A HARDWARE THAT RULES IT ALL... Reason being as I cant Find a virus I am switching to nord lead...
But I only have one Nordlead 😂 I always wanted to have a Nordlead 3 because of the interface, but I ended up finding the A1 on eBay relatively cheap. I would assume they all sound similar if not the same, but different feature set.
@@Steven-r8t oh okay, I would like to ask is it worth getting a virus ti or any other hardware such as Yamaha an1x, Roland jp8000 for trance music production...
hi Mark! I would like to know if we just reproduce this unique sounds 👌 on the nord lead a1 i discovered 😀 your channel and subscribed the sounds that heard are very high and really impressives i am looking for this type of sounds to reproduce, thanks u for your feedback 👍
@@MarcRenton hi Marc 👋 thanks u for answering, the 🎵 sound i 👂 heard on your virus module at your demo at 4mn and 13mn there both were amazing 👏 do u think it possible to get on nord lead a1 these purs sounds ?
Dig the video bro 😎FYI in a future music interview, DJ Sasha states " We used the Oberheim Xpander the Lexicon reverb & Eventide." That's a fuqin synth Arsenal😮But hey that's what you get with working in a BIG BOY studio. Moral of the story get a a poly synth with a serious analog filter & the Sh1t FX & you make $😉
@@janegibbon1532 Only the best Sasha never stated the exact model but probably tge PCM 70 or 80 which is in the picture but can't make out the exact model.
@@Elektragen The actual Xpander track sounds like it was layered with more modern synths such as Nords & Access Virus. Also some digital reverb modules.
Reset the Preset! Speziell beim Virus und noch mehr beim Nordlead starte ich immer vom Init-Saw Sound. Wobei, nicht ganz korrekt, beim Virus haben die restlichen Init-Sounds bei meiner Soundbank einen aktivierten 2-Voice Unison und beim Nordlead aktiviere ich schon völlig intuitiv den Moog-Filter, ohne weiter nachzudenken : )
i think the Virus was attempting to have a more Oberheim sound and I'm pretty sure the Nord was going after a more Prophet tone. The Virus is just lovely for this sort of softer thing. there are definitely some use cases for the Nord to be better. great video and comparison!!
hrmmmm...the Nord sounds much more resonant and nasal, the Virus very pretty but also fake-plasticky. tip: to re-create Xpander pattern correctly - it is 16 bars long, and the last 2 bars of the loop remains on the prior chord.
Yeah Virus filter is missing something, noticed when trying to create Juno-106 type sounds on it. Very difficult to get the high end sparkle and also doing the "Enya" low sounds it is somewhere there but it doesn't get there. Just spent hours with a few patches, learning. It's an awesome synth, but can't do everything with the filter.
@@SamiJumppanen Owned the Virus b for over 20 years. It's more than the filters, the waveforms are soft. They lack, ironically, the brightness of analog oscs. You can see it on an oscilloscope, the square wave is rounded, the saw wave is rounded, both slightly sin-ish. So, it doesn't matter about the filter, the waves are dull going into the filter, boosting harmonics that aren't there with a resonant filter is just gonna get more nothing. Been majorly disappointed for 20 years. Initially, I thought it was me, just starting out in synthesis, not knowing what I was doing, like I was doing something wrong... now I've gotten my hands, ears, and brains on analog synths thanks to the golden age of analog synthesis, aka, now. Ironically, the Volca Bass sounds WAY better than the virus. If I had the 90's money I spent on the Virus B, I could flat out afford an OB-X8... what a waste! The birus is ironically better at Rhodes/keys types sound imo, more sin wavey based sounds. Those sin waves into unison detune and spread... oh boy, the birus actually sounds legitimately good, like good good, like real pro good, not plastic ersatz reproduction. The Virus has a rep as a bighting/acidic synth... nope. I think they were actually going for a Moogy sound, big round woody warm sounds, which the minimoog can make, but open the Moog's filter and the saw wave will shave your beard off it is so sharp. That's my new analogy. The virus is like a dull knife. You could say it has a warm edge... lol, such a waste of money.
@@alphanumeric1529 I get what you are saying. I had Juno-106 back then. Then did 10 years on software and digital synths. Then got Volca Bass: wow! That's how the analogue osc and filter sound like! It's sharp. Full spectrum. But among all the gear I have, Virus is an important tool. As ex Juno owner I don't actually care how good emulation something does. It's just sounds...
Hey I just watched both of his videos on xpander to see if he shared the chords or midi. Multiple people have asked about them in the comments, he said he would share them but hasn’t and you seem to know. I found some chords on hooktheory but can’t tell if they’re correct. It says the song is in g minor and its the 6 chord, 4 chord in 1st inversion, and then the 1 chord. But I feel like it sounds like there is more than 3 chords in the song. Could you please share just the names of chords, you don’t have to share a midi file
You know what recently I can't stop thinking midifing the JX3P (you can't use its built in midi function when you're using the RolandPG200 like I am doing) to integrate it better into my studio
I believe the b gives you all you need to get its sound. For whatever reason people believe the C's filters are not the same; the TIs have issues to be integrated in the box. Hence it makes no sense to pay the extra money
The Virus still sounds the best to my ears. Thank you for this video🌺
agree and having played both I bought a Virus Ti2. But Waldorf has best updated new interface and features.
Is virus ti best amongst the line up when it comes to trance music production...?
@@cnovasalmanhussain751 If you want hardware I's say the Virus is hard to beat for Trance. Preferable the TI version with its hypersaw feature. But if you consider the ones shown in this video I'd say Serum is the most capable. Software ain't as much fun as hardware though. But way more convenient.
@@Dougie- totally agree but synths like serum, vital, sonic Academy's Ana, and synthmaster one... Have taken the virtual instrument industry to a different level...
Still I would say hardware synths of the past like virus ti, virus c, virus B, Jp8000, Roland sh01, Yamaha an1x, Nord lead 2 and 3 have something distinctive about them... Better than software and modern day hardware analog synths...
@@cnovasalmanhussain751 Yep. I love all of them. If not better they're at least way more fun :-).
Making the basis of a track using 3-4 hardware pieces and then seasoning it with software synths after recording is the way to go.. or at least my preferred way to go :-)
It's just amazing! I dug all over the Internet in search of any information about the old-school progressive house and trance of the late 90s -2004/2005, the platinum uk progressive era of Platipus, Hooj Choons, Lost Language and others - how it was done, what magic were used for its significant sound. Finally I found a couple of ancient forum posts with a few hints, then I started googling what this 2000 equipment sounded like, and basically found nothing useful, and boom! Your video is exactly what I want, Sasha's stubs with the flavour I searched for. Thank you, bless you, merry Christmas and a happy new year 🤗
Ooh keep me posted on what you found… plz:)
The Nord sounds incredible
love it too
The Virus Filter sounds the best, it sounds smoother and more detailed. ^^
Fantastic channel! And you’ve inspired me to dust off my Virus B that I haven’t been using often enough for sake of the ease of soft synths and start bringing in more of my old gear back into Ableton
Haha I really know what you're talking about. Just last night I was working on a track, thinking like "damn, need to setup midi routing, recording, everything so complex instead of a plugin-preset". But then, serendipity happens and I re-discovered some sounds on the machine that also fit into the song. Hence, I recorded a bunch more than just the sound I had in mind :)
The synths on the virus are unbelievable. Wow, dude make a full track with those synths on loop
Ok Sir :D
agree the virus is superb
Wow this is amazing great work!
Wow!!!! This is amazing! Big up Marc
There is just something so indescribably powerful about the medley of this legendary track. Even when you're just toying around with it before you nail it, it's just powerful. I wonder how many hours Sasha must have played around with the sounds before he settled on one of the most beautiful electronic masterpieces of all time. I have read that in the early days there were quite a few tweaks to the track that he submitted to the earliest broadcasts of it. I would love to sit down and have a casual Q&A with him.
The Virus & Nord sound amazing. The original Xpander might have used a digital 90's reverb.
My best decision of the last 10 years was to start producing on hardware again
I'm a big fan of this song and I believe you captured a unique and interesting form of it, well done
Unbelievably good resource. Thank you so much
Thank you :)
This is so awesome. Thank you
Nice work.
Have to say the Nord and Virus sound incredible with the Virus just edging it.
Serum needed a bit more work as it was a little on the harsh side for me - though its more suited to modern genres. The second demo on it was impressive.
Cool! Do a superremix of Xpander!! Such a good tune.
Great suggestion!
Great work very inspirational, I now own one I got it for a great deal, this video made me take that leap, considering a oberhiem xpander in good condition from the 80s fetch 5000 upwards, 460 for a virus b is not only a great bargin but a great investment for the future.
Super beautiful!!!!!
This is awesome!! Any chance you could share the chords for Xpander? Always wanted to know!
Ok you convinced me I’m working on it
@@MarcRenton Cheers!
Both the virus and Nord sounds better in my opinion compared to serum, serum is too sterile. I’m sure you could achieve the same sound in serum, would be interesting to see what some outboard processing does
Danke, cooler Vergleich! Fast ein bisschen frustrierend, dass auch Software so easy richtig gut klingt, oder? Habe selbst u.a. einen Virus C und NL A1 zum Schrauben und behalte diese auch, trotz guter Softsynth.
Schau dir mal das Comparing JP8000.. Video von mir an, da hat der Serum-Entwickler selber geantwortet und noch ein paar Tipps gegeben. Fand ich mega!
Mein bisheriges Fazit: Schrauben auf Synths: Nice.
Aber wenns um Effizienz geht: Softsynths und In A Box!
Great video! Is the jv 1080 playing the same pattern? Any chance you could make the midi files available?
In the video it just looks like that. When I play stuff on my master-keyboard, all the hardware is been triggered, that's why its leds lighten up. But in the video you hear the dedicated devices individually. Let me upload them somewhere :)
How do you put the MIDI Noten through the Nord lead?
I’m using the Nordlead’s usb-midi to control it. For a short time I was passing midi through the Nordlead to my JP8000 but I replaced the 8k’s midi connection to a dedicated usb midi i/o device
YES!!! XPANDER OMG@@@
Xpander started as riff ripped off a DAT from the early ‘90s. I wonder if it got layered with more modern synths like the ones you use.
Mark any problems with apple updates as I heard there some obstacles.I am close to buying a virus c and would hate to purchase for it not to work with apple logic
You’ll completely control the virus c via midi, no usb. So it will remain to work for another 20 years at least 😊 but boy what I could rant against software updates especially against some specific vendors. Because of their expired support their hardware became almost useless. I recently updated to macOS Catalina and already have a bunch of tools and controllers I can’t really configure or use anymore
Hat Sascha mit dem Oberheim Xpander gemacht meinte er mal voll besoffen im Club zu mir
Hii since you have such a massive hardware collection I would like to ask which nord lead is best for trance music?
A1
NORD LEAD 2X
NORD LEAD 3
NORD LEAD 4
AS I AM LOOKING FOR A HARDWARE THAT RULES IT ALL...
Reason being as I cant Find a virus I am switching to nord lead...
But I only have one Nordlead 😂 I always wanted to have a Nordlead 3 because of the interface, but I ended up finding the A1 on eBay relatively cheap. I would assume they all sound similar if not the same, but different feature set.
@@MarcRenton well, I can't find a dedicated 4 knob adsr filter envelope which every analog Synth has but A1 doesn't have one how do you fix that...?
If you are looking at classic Trance then go for the earlier synths. If Modern Trance then stick to VST.
@@Steven-r8t oh okay, I would like to ask is it worth getting a virus ti or any other hardware such as Yamaha an1x, Roland jp8000 for trance music production...
hi Mark!
I would like to know if we just reproduce this unique sounds 👌 on the nord lead a1 i discovered 😀 your channel and subscribed the sounds that heard are very high and really impressives i am looking for this type of sounds to reproduce, thanks u for your feedback 👍
That's really nice to hear! Do you have any specific sound in mind of that video?
@@MarcRenton hi Marc 👋
thanks u for answering, the 🎵 sound i 👂 heard on your virus module at your demo at 4mn and 13mn there both were amazing 👏 do u think it possible to get on nord lead a1 these purs sounds ?
Anybody know the notes of xpander, like how to play it on a keyboard??
hmmm Virus or Nord?
:-D
Dig the video bro 😎FYI in a future music interview, DJ Sasha states " We used the Oberheim Xpander the Lexicon reverb & Eventide." That's a fuqin synth Arsenal😮But hey that's what you get with working in a BIG BOY studio. Moral of the story get a a poly synth with a serious analog filter & the Sh1t FX & you make $😉
So True!
Digital reverb.
@@janegibbon1532 Only the best Sasha never stated the exact model but probably tge PCM 70 or 80 which is in the picture but can't make out the exact model.
@@Elektragen The actual Xpander track sounds like it was layered with more modern synths such as Nords & Access Virus. Also some digital reverb modules.
@@janegibbon1532 No layering bro its just a proper synth. 👌It's straight from Sasha's mouth. Digital synths are crap compared to the Oberheim Xpander
i need to have all of them lol
Woher hast du die presets
Reset the Preset! Speziell beim Virus und noch mehr beim Nordlead starte ich immer vom Init-Saw Sound. Wobei, nicht ganz korrekt, beim Virus haben die restlichen Init-Sounds bei meiner Soundbank einen aktivierten 2-Voice Unison und beim Nordlead aktiviere ich schon völlig intuitiv den Moog-Filter, ohne weiter nachzudenken : )
@@MarcRenton ultimativ Wenn man diesen Status erreicht hat. Wie hast du das gelernt
i think i'm gonna steal the midi from 12:44
:D :D
Jobbat talájki john digvin zenéje! ennek 22 éve! Te igen te phuuu
i think the Virus was attempting to have a more Oberheim sound and I'm pretty sure the Nord was going after a more Prophet tone.
The Virus is just lovely for this sort of softer thing. there are definitely some use cases for the Nord to be better. great video and comparison!!
hrmmmm...the Nord sounds much more resonant and nasal, the Virus very pretty but also fake-plasticky.
tip: to re-create Xpander pattern correctly - it is 16 bars long, and the last 2 bars of the loop remains on the prior chord.
Yeah Virus filter is missing something, noticed when trying to create Juno-106 type sounds on it. Very difficult to get the high end sparkle and also doing the "Enya" low sounds it is somewhere there but it doesn't get there. Just spent hours with a few patches, learning. It's an awesome synth, but can't do everything with the filter.
@@SamiJumppanen Owned the Virus b for over 20 years. It's more than the filters, the waveforms are soft. They lack, ironically, the brightness of analog oscs. You can see it on an oscilloscope, the square wave is rounded, the saw wave is rounded, both slightly sin-ish. So, it doesn't matter about the filter, the waves are dull going into the filter, boosting harmonics that aren't there with a resonant filter is just gonna get more nothing.
Been majorly disappointed for 20 years. Initially, I thought it was me, just starting out in synthesis, not knowing what I was doing, like I was doing something wrong... now I've gotten my hands, ears, and brains on analog synths thanks to the golden age of analog synthesis, aka, now.
Ironically, the Volca Bass sounds WAY better than the virus. If I had the 90's money I spent on the Virus B, I could flat out afford an OB-X8... what a waste!
The birus is ironically better at Rhodes/keys types sound imo, more sin wavey based sounds. Those sin waves into unison detune and spread... oh boy, the birus actually sounds legitimately good, like good good, like real pro good, not plastic ersatz reproduction.
The Virus has a rep as a bighting/acidic synth... nope. I think they were actually going for a Moogy sound, big round woody warm sounds, which the minimoog can make, but open the Moog's filter and the saw wave will shave your beard off it is so sharp.
That's my new analogy. The virus is like a dull knife. You could say it has a warm edge... lol, such a waste of money.
@@alphanumeric1529 I get what you are saying. I had Juno-106 back then. Then did 10 years on software and digital synths. Then got Volca Bass: wow! That's how the analogue osc and filter sound like! It's sharp. Full spectrum.
But among all the gear I have, Virus is an important tool. As ex Juno owner I don't actually care how good emulation something does. It's just sounds...
Hey I just watched both of his videos on xpander to see if he shared the chords or midi. Multiple people have asked about them in the comments, he said he would share them but hasn’t and you seem to know.
I found some chords on hooktheory but can’t tell if they’re correct. It says the song is in g minor and its the 6 chord, 4 chord in 1st inversion, and then the 1 chord. But I feel like it sounds like there is more than 3 chords in the song.
Could you please share just the names of chords, you don’t have to share a midi file
Virus is such a Killer
JD filter - better ... JX3p - much better )
You know what recently I can't stop thinking midifing the JX3P (you can't use its built in midi function when you're using the RolandPG200 like I am doing) to integrate it better into my studio
Agreed, that JX3P is THE SOUND.
Serum and Virus-first place, NL-second
I got a JP8000, now I need to drop another update of this video :)
@@MarcRenton It will be awsome to see it. Great video by the way.
@@MarcRenton yes mate do another one!
virus sounds so gooood
I've been looking for a good video of virus b and this is the one that finally made me buy one
I believe the b gives you all you need to get its sound. For whatever reason people believe the C's filters are not the same; the TIs have issues to be integrated in the box. Hence it makes no sense to pay the extra money
@@MarcRenton Virus C has at least added polyphony, Moog filter emulation, and a coloring equalizer.