Most bands are using plugins right now, but in my heart nothing will ever replace hardware! hehe I'll probably make a plugin video pretty soon :) Do you guys think I forgot important synths? And BTW I (of course) meant 95 for the release of the Nord Lead...haha 😅
...the nord rack was not released in ‘85... but around 10 years later. I prefer the look (and gritty’er sound) of the Virus A too... But i love the Virus Classic design the most... goes great with a Nord for the full Ferrari look. 😅
Definitely a case of right time, right place. Found the OG in Kyiv for $500 and the snagged the Pro when I got a windfall. Elta told me they would make a 2VCO version of the Polivoks-M but they never did it in the end.
Very informative video dude! The Nord was the only one I already knew of and also my favourite sounding from the ones presented here. However I'd loved it if you had went ahead and showed us what newer Industrial Metal bands use. And tbf only sort of industrial cause now everyone's like a blend of different sub-genres. If anyone wants to check out an amazing breakdown of how to get the synth sound of more modern industrial bands like Architects, Northlane and Mick Gordon you need to check out Nick Mavromatis' videos on synths.
I agree dude, the focus of the video was more about the classic synths. Modern stuff is almost only plugins. I should make something about modern stuff too.
@@Gianna_Fouresi_321 oh I'm so sorry hahaha ngl unfortunately most of my subs/comments are guys haha 🙏 That could be a very very cool video tbh. Plugins in industrial metal 🤘
Wow, how can you talk about industrial synths and not mention the Ensoniq Mirage and Skinny Pupoy!? Also, no mention of the iconic Waldorf Microwave/XT? Used by just about everyone in the industrial scene; Trent Reznor had a custom blacked out one made for him by Waldorf themselves, and Waldorf even put out an industrial album called “Sub Out” produced by Daniel Myer of Haujobb and featuring Waldorf synths being played by Frontline Assembly, Front 242, KMFDM, and many others.
Talking about adding something to a sample ... The Ensoniq Mirage definitely did exactly that. Not a design choice, but due to ($$$) limitations of the HW, but the result was something that started from a real sound, but turned it into something much grittier & original ... And the Waldorf XT : still think this is an absolute beast !!! It can create sounds that rip your guts out - and the direct accessibiliity to most parameters makes it 10x more an instrument then the Wavetable synth plugins !
@@2JohJoh2 Exactly! I am acquainted with and have a friend who plays in Skinny Puppy and they have 5 Mirage samplers for that exact reason! I did my first industrial song back in 1986 with my Mirage, and my latest industrial work (under the name of cell:burn) is almost all done with the Waldorf XTk and MicroQ. Check out my track "Wastelandscape" if you get a chance (has a touch of Korg MS-20 on it as well.)
Great video! I really love and feel pleased that you used my audios and information of my videos for this project! Also, Flake didn't use an Ensoniq ASR-10 in 2022 for Zeit, he only used until Untitled album, for the Hallomann solo for example. Nowadays he just uses VSTs like Omnisphere, and in live he uses 2 Nord Stage 2 EX. Edit: Flake also used the Nord Lead from Sehnsucht to Reise Reise, for Weisses Fleisch, he only used the Nord Lead for Live aus Berlin, for example. The sample used in studio was actually sampled from the E-MU EMAX. Also, the Spielhur bells are actually from the Nord Lead also. If you want, we can talk a bit more privately, and I can share with you some other Flake stuff I have 😁
Hey man, thanks for the comment. Yeah I did watch your video. But I took the infos from the Rammsteinworld forum. But it might be you too on the forum haha! Sure we can talk! Add me on IG its also Tonepusher 🤘🏻
Loving this series! I helped Rhys Fulber with his Nord Modular. I think we bought them around the same time and he asked for help with the associated controller software. On the more melodic side of Industrial I was a huge fan of God Lives Underwater and knew both members. The Oberheim Xpander was all over their debut Album ‘Empty’ which was in heavy rotation in my place for many years.
@@Tonepusher Hope you get a chance to. The 1st Album ‘Empty’ is wall to wall killer. I don’t think the 2nd Album is on streaming right now sadly, but the final one is ‘Up off the floor’ is. Stand out track imho is 1% The long way down. 👍
The limitations of the ASR-10 are what give it its "sound". Let's say you are inspired with some grand vision but then you run into the wall of limited memory. You must decide where and how much you lower the sample rate so you can make everything you want fit. The different rate changed the sounds individually as well as what they sounded like together. Another part of its sound is the simple nature of lower pitched notes taking longer to play the samples (as with any sample not time-stretched). Some of the examples of sounds, even in this video, are mimicking regular synth sounds of the time, like PCM sounds that sound cleaner and have more sonic variation. So while the texture of an individual note might seem normal and recognizable, the context of different notes playing back samples at slightly different speeds will also create something different. What I did with with a single ASR-10, with no output expander or contextual mixing, was overly ambitious and improperly produced. It was like building a skyscraper out of trash, whatever samples I could find, and lowing the sample rate more and more, to jam as many sounds as I needed onto each instrument. This was always made necessary by the longer, textural samples I wanted that took up so much memory. This poorly produced but overly ambitious approach resulted in a gritty sound and texture that could be suitable for whatever you want but is often associated with industrial or cyberpunk, or even hip hop (Kanye West used ASR-10, that's another story) ideas. Also the ASR-10 was built like a tank and quite heavy. You could take it to Iraq and come back from the war and it would still work. Anyway, nowadays you can just create whatever you can imagine easily, clean, dirty or otherwise on a PC. Nice video, thanks.
wow thanks for the infos! I love ''lofi'' samples and the texture old machines created. Nowadays machines are too ''clean'' haha Sure you can create anything with plugins, but idk, there's something missing!!
There are some great industrial and adjacent acts (EBM/Techno/Darkwave) at the moment. Check out Youth Code, Statiqbloom, Street Sects, Author and Punisher, Hide, Uboa, Prurient, 3Teeth, Pharmakon, Dead when I found her, Louisahhh, Horskh, Angelspit, Moris Blak, The Anix, Klack... I could go on... Lots of older acts are still making music and have released music in the last few years... Leather Strip, Portion Control, cEvin Key, Daniel Meier, Download, 16Volt, PIG, Wumpscut, Die Krupps, X Marks the Padwalk, Noise Unit
@@politesociety True, there's many good bands out there. But I feel like most new bands don't have that quality/edge in the production/art that artists had before. 3TEETH are by far the best ones right now, the music, concert, artwork etc.. everything is on point and well thought.
wow nice! yeah there's a lot of them on reverb that are from that country. If you don't mind sharing, did you pay a lot of shipping? It's pretty heavy haha
I've used the Roland xp80 for all of my industrial metal recordings. It's very analog and uses floppy disks. I guess it is now considered classic gear, which I absolutely love!
The floppy discs are only for sequence data. Has nothing to do with the sounds. Cool, old workstation, but I prefer the XP-30 to it, only because it has many more of the JV/XP-series sounds.
haha thanks man! yeah I did a video not so long ago about Drum Machines but it wasn't specific to industrial metal though! I'll put that on the list :)
2:10 hahaha nice. A Roland D-50 factory-preset Sample for the Ensoniq ASR-10. Gotta say i always had a soft spot for the late 80s and early 90s Ensoniq Instruments, like the Mirage for example. Absolutely outstanding instruments that STILL have a strong mysterious aura around them because they do kinda have their own signature.
Do you know if it still boots? You might be able to get some money for it on Reverb. Of course the problem with Ensoniq is that they went out of business a really long time ago, so there’s no support if it needs repaired. I still have my E-Mu Esi32, with external Zip disk, and I haven’t turned it on in eons. It’s just so slow to do anything on there.
Another good industrial synth is the Prophet VS. The Volkanic sound is *the* NiN sound Trent used for ages with slight tweaks. It's also lovely for doing pads on. Lovely synth.
Idk if they used it specifically for Deutschland (I doubt it they mainly use Omnisphere now haha). I just thought it would be cool to use the Polivoks and make the same riffs hehe 🤘🏻 Imo they probably only used it live.
Emu emax, Moog prodigy/ rogue , Waldorf microwave , Ensoniq vfx and sq80 were all used on well known industrial albums. Modern day industrial classics would be the prophet 12 , hydrasynth , moog voyager and the blofeld
One thought re the Ensoniq sampler is that Arturia's Emulator II plugin (sadly not also the CMI) allows you to load your own samples and put it through the 80s sampler experience.
There might be some things wrong or missing, but i enjoyed it, and it has made me think a little bit more about having a go at industrial. Kudos to whoever did the sequence clips. They were ace.
nice! can't go wrong with a Virus. It's a great piece of industrial music history you have hehe Love VaC! .. Did you eat all this acid? that's right..music! 😂
@@Tonepusher that was the first song I heard by him! It’s a great synth. Expanded banks, plus it had theme whole Icon of Coil sound and as well. Absolutely love it
Fun fact, Adam Jones from the band Tool used and still uses the access Virus A in the albums Lateralus, 10,000 days and Fear Innoculum. The preset he uses the most is called A1 First K and can be heard in Lateralus track 11 "Reflection" and in Fear Innoculum track 6 "Descending" just to name a few.
Once I bought the V Collection from Arturia, such a big pack of Plugins, I just didn´t recognized that I already had the Matrix 12 with it! Thank you for the hint to check my collection for that one 😄
@@Tonepusher I still can get through the tons of stuff, I choose a handful of synths and try to work with them. Btw I don´t want to promote anything here, but I bought it last year on blackfriday, just to give the other readers a little shopping tip 🙂
@@hollowwordsbns np man haha yeah sometimes too many synths is not better to make music. Minimal setups are the best tbh. Choose 2-3 weapons and make an album!
Thanks for the heads up about Ostirus. I gave up on my Virus Ti because it was always so laggy when using the VST and I become an Elektron junkie. Much easier to just export my patches to hardware when I need to play live. What a treat.
Out of the 5 synths listed I've got 3. The POLIVOKS sounds great but is really impossible to work with. It refuses to stay in tune, the pots aren't well calibrated, it doesn't have MIDI (unless you convert it with a kit) and the keyboard feels cheaper than a child's toy. I'm anxiously awaiting the Behringer reissue. If anyone out there has those original Ensoniq samples, I'd love to have them.🖤
For polivoks guys I am pretty sure there are schematics / PCBs still available for Shruthi-1 and Ambika synths with the polivoks filter boards. This gives access to that screaming filter at a reasonable price. The Shruthi-1 allows external audio processing through the filter and envelopes can be triggered via midi.
Nice video ! Talking about the ASR 10 (I own 2 machines). It’s the essence of all the French touch. Daft punk used it, Fred falke used it etc…. The internal multi effect is incredible and be used today. The sequencer (but I never tried it myself) has a special flavor too. Talking about the sampling section, it gives a compact sound and very smooth around the high mids. If you want to have an idea of how it sounds, listen to Daft Punk’s Scoot Groove mothership reconnection. The phaser effect is very special and can be heard in countless French house around (not the world😂) the 2000’s ! ❤
Shocked none of the Kurzweils made the list. K2000 & K2500 were used a ton. V.A.S.T. synth engine was incredible if you had the patience to program it.
very good observation, the Kurzweils had more than 1 niche - they were massive with filmscore / composers because of the polyphony and orchestral sounds, but in the hands of a good programmer they had amazing sound design powers.
NiN also used these a lot along with Manson. Though I do wonder how much they were just used as sample playing machines instead of fully using the synth engine. It's really powerful, but also quite plasticky sounding with the filters, and the interface is an utter pain in the ass. What to change FX? Press the menu button, select an FX box, do your settings, save the FX box with a name. Save the FX setting with a name. Save you sound with that FX applied with a name. I do love my Kurzweils but they are such a pain.
For years i used a free VST called PolivoksStation and i LOVED it. Which is basically how i fell in love with the sound of this russian Synth beauty and now i can't wait for Behringers take on it. Granted i will definitely buy it but i hope they do a Keyboard version and not just an Expander.
The Gearspace thread the Clouser post is from is a phenomenal wealth of information about NIN, Clouser's scoring work, etc. If it is remotely in someone's interest, it's worth the read. Yes all of it.
Love this, never knew half of this, especially about Rammstein, ive been trying to fish for as much as I could about Flake's setup and sound sources, I knew about the ASR-10 and I even have the complete library (for use in Kontakt player) that I sampled into my Nord Stage 3, but the rest was a absolute surprise!
hey! yeah there's actually a LOT of information online about Flakes sounds. I was actually surprised how much pretty much all of the sounds they use are presets.
I love the synth sounds on the '90's Fear Factory and Front Line Assembly albums. Any chance you could make a serum sound pack with those kind of tones? Especially the Fear Factory ones?
I actually own a Nordlead 1, and a Oberheim Matrix 1000. I haven't used them for years but lately I have been tinkering and the will come into use. As far as samplers go Skinny Puppy used a lot of Emax on Too dark Park. I used to own one of those as well but it got lost in the sands of time.
I've owned four Ensoniq samplers - Mirage, EPS, EPS 16+ and the ASR 10. I'd say that the first two have a noticeable impact on any sound you sample with them thanks to the limitations of 8 bit and 13 bit sample rates. The EPS 16+ and ASR could sound "transparent", as they had much higher sample rates and more advanced DAC/ADCs. They did have some unusual sound manipulation features that were shared with the VFX and TS synths, so that may be what made them unique.
@@ClosetoHumanMusic The only one I still own is the EPS, since it's so much easier to use than the Mirage but can directly load the library from that machine. The Mirage library seems to be available on the web. Apart from using the Mirage sounds, I mostly sample drum and synth bass sounds that I create on a Korg MS-20 (the mini one - wish I could afford an original one or the full size reissue). My EPS 16+ was in extremely rough shape, or else I would have kept that instead of the "classic" version of the EPS. The ASR was a bit too complicated for me, similar to how I have kept an ESQ-1 but sold a VFX-SD which was also too complex (and had bugs in the sequencer).
Aside from not mentioning the Virus versions Indigo 1&2, Rack, Rack Classic, Classic XL and TDM, you also forgot three other very important synths: Roland JP8000, Novation Supernova and Korg MS2000 - As for software, 20 years ago everyone was using reFX Vanguard. You hear those presets all over the music from that era
@@Tonepusher The Virus C can literally emulate EVERY analog synth from the 1970s and 1980s. Why spend $3000 on a Minimoog, $10,000 on an Oberheim OB-Xa, and $15,000 on a Roland Jupiter-8, when you can spend $1200 on a Virus C and have them all (plus more!)???
Checking in on the ASR-10: The ASR will take 30kHz or 44.1kHz 16 bit samples. One of the things about using it is thiat youre going to have 2mb stock or 16mb or so if you expand it all the way, so in order to get a longer sample and drum break into it, sometimes it benefits to pitch it way up to use fewer 'seconds' of the lower res setting, then using the internal controls to pitch it back to normal with the sampler. I think that is what the secret sauce of a lot of samplers are, along with the compression that happens naturally going from D to A and A to D. That technique in my experience incorporates some cool artifacts and dark filtering that can sound nice with reverbs and chops. Like many other samplers that record audio digitally, the unique sound the device has, ends up being the result of limiting factors. I think the MPC60 is like that to an extent as well. These devices were all commonplace in days before even the 100GB hard drives were everywhere, much less the virtually unlimited terabyte drives of today. Hope that helps shed some light for someone. Cheers!
What a great video. I had no idea that Matrix 12 existed. I haven't actively been chasing an Xpander given how much they go for, just always thought it would be cool to have even a plugin. Now I know it exists at all is a great thing.
I had a Oberheim Matrix 6R a while back that I only paid $350 for. It’s pretty cool, the filters are great, and it’ll make some massive patches that I don’t think a soft synth could touch. The problem was like a lot of the synths from this era, getting around it sucks. There’s just too many button pushes to get to the parameters you want. I downloaded a free patch editor which helped, but even that had four pages. I eventually just got tired of it and it went off to Australia.
I've got an Xpander and also the Matrix 12V -- the plug-in will get you in the wheel house, though when pushing the settings it doesn't quite get into the thick weirdness that the hardware does. However, the hardware is incredibly temperamental. It's a bit weird to program, but once you get used to it, it's actually pretty fast. My favourite thing is messing around with the FM. It's a bit strange being analog and so doesn't really work like digital FM synths, but can be great to push the envelope for industrial sounds.
The Waldorf Pulse was another synth I didn't see mentioned which had truly wicked industrial capabilities with 3 OSC and a Death Filter from Hell. Also, if this is helpful, the ASR-10 samples you played were from 1) a D50, 2) A DX7 and 3) A patch from the Korg O1W (I made factory patches for the O1W).
Yeah the Waldorf will definitely be in another video :) You're right and wrong hehe the ASR-10 sounds were samples taken from a CD that had samples from "known synth sounds" like the ones you mentioned hehe So yeah its a D50 sound on a sample CD for the ASR10 haha
@@Tonepusher I think that's what @JohnL is saying above. I.e., that he's recognizing the samples from the ASR-10 sample CD were samples of certain well-known presets from a D-50, a DX-7, and then a sample of a preset from an O1W. At least if i'm reading his (edited) comment correctly -- and perhaps his was edited after you'd made yours.. @JohnLehmkuhl, i appreciate the great work you did on the O1W's presets. I don't know think it's just due to the 32khz sampling rate "warming up" the timbres; there truly are some great, well-chosen sounds represented across the default collection of combi's and programs there.. Incidentally, i've never owned a D-50 but i have 5 different Ensoniqs at the moment (down from 8 a year ago). Had bad GAS for about 15 years, not that i'm complaining lol.. Hoping to get from 36 keyboards at present down to just 6 ~ 8 some day. Never had an ASR-10 but will surely end up keeping at least one of my three different EPS models.
Since I don't have a lot of space, my favourite Virus is the Rack XL. Took me a while to track one down for a reasonable price. I've been considering the ASR-10 Rack, but as a computer whizz kid from the 1980s, I'm actually a little allergic to long loading times these days. So I'll stick with the ESQ-M and the MR Rack for now.
Alot of those artists initially started with whatever they could afford. Skinny Puppy started with only a Seqentuial Pro One, to the time a "budget option" at around 900$ USD as alternative to the way more expensive Prophet 5. KMFDM even started with a Roland SH-101 which was only around 1000DM (around 500$ USD) to the time.
yeah the sh101 was a very popular choice eventho it wasn't a big commercial success. I really believe in "limitation=creativity" ... big setups are useless. I mean they're good looking and it's cool to have a collection of synths or gear that you like. But at the end of the day you don't NEED all of that. Most artists are just using "what's there" lol
Generally emulating an old emulator comes down to a few things: 1. is replicating the storage format so far as bit depth and how those bits correspond to amplitudes (since e.g. with only 8 bits, it makes sense to use a nonlinear relationship between the numerical value of the bits and the resulting amplitidue). Then emulating the internal processing, which may be using something like 14bit fixed point. Then emulating the DAC. That's the hardware side at least. Then there is the choice to e.g. Arturia-style, emulate the user interface of a piece of vintage hardware rather than just offering modules that replicate the sound in a modern environment. Something that hasn't been done, and would be nice for someone to do, is a semi-modular vintage emulator where you can mix and match sample formats, bit depths in storage and processing, DAC models, and so on.
I've wanted to own a Virus TI since I started listening to electronic music as a teenager. But I'm not even sure I could get a hold of one with the prices I'm seeing.
haha someone pointed it to me earlier! They probably sampled it yeah. Back then copyright was not really a thing yet haha OR maybe my sources were wrong too, I'm human 🤖💁♂ haha I'll re-google it 👀
@vultureculture I found the booklet of the CD and it's actually a collection of samples taken from synthesizers like the MS-20, Juno, D50 etc... so yup. 👌
The Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler had a steep roloff after 16 kHz. It made everything sound smooth, soft and punchy. As opposed to Akai, those samplers had bite and edge.
9:01 That unique and characteristic FM sound of the old Nord leads! the main reason I own a NL 2, also I have a virus C. I fully recomend the Waldorf Q for this kind of music! even better than Virus or nord lead, you can create more complex textures (wavetables are great for that)
@@Tonepusher yes hard to find the Waldorf Q (rack or keyboard), specially for a reasonable price, I got my rack version for 850 eur not even 2 years ago and is my favourite synth for sound design.
Awesome video, thanks for putting this together. I have an original Virus C rack unit. A great plug-in version is the Viper by Adam Szabo, I can import my patches as MIDI and it sounds awesome.
@@Tonepusher the discovery pro was really nice at the end. I used in 1995 nordlead 1 for a goa trance track, it sits well in the mix. Time passed and everybody is using 5 to 10 hardware synths. I must admit the Sequential Pro3 has a very bad attitude in terms of Industrial/EBM/ Minimal Wave, a fantastic monsta!
Well, the MS20 was the one that started all the electronic underground styles... It's price-point at the crutial times when it was launched (late 70's / early 80's) made it a popular choice for every emerging band... specially in Spain...
@@kaiwetronic I suspect the real answer is "industrial music has been made with literally any synth / sampler / drum machine that was available at the time" 😅
@@jamesmcn0000 Yesss...!! But there's a bunch of popular machines (affordable at the time) that built the genre from the bedrooms of the pioneers, along with 4-track recorders... Only recording studios and pros had P5s, J8s and OBs... My go-to synth right now is the Matrix-1k... you can make it squeak like leatherface's chainsaw...!
Man... That Ostirus is close enough to real that I can't (being honest with myself) reliably distinguish it from the real thing. Instantly reminded me of VNV nation stuff.
I remember when I was trying the Waldorf Pulse+ for the first time and I came across a patch that sounded familiar, I was sure that Marilyn Manson had used it, I searched for several songs until I found it in "Rock Is Dead", slightly accelerated the arpeggio but only that, it was used exactly original, excellent patch in fact :)
@@Tonepusher yes, it's absolutely a "very industrial" synthesizer, patch 100 is always a random to all the parameters, very strange sounds appear, wonderful synthesizer, with a beautiful sound 🙌
I was surprised that the Korg MS2000 wasn’t mentioned as there were tons of amazing industrial albums compiled from it. But nevertheless you caught some good synths that definitely have been rotate by big names within industrial music, I did enjoy it much!
Once you are used to having two filters like the very resonant ones on my MS20 FS it's hard to go back to just one. Combined with the ability to internally overdrive, the MS20 effortlessly sounds like a Terminator factory.
I have an original полівоскс and the полівоскс pro as well as the PF-2 filter module. The OG is way louder than the Pro and the module is great for running other synths into it.
@@Tonepusher It comes with an ASR10 preset which sounds great! It is as close to the real thing that I have heard software wise but I always tweak it a bit to sound good in a mix. (Usually making it more gritty haha) Try it out!
I'm so glad I have finally found a channel about Industrial Music. Thank you! Subscribed, of course. I've also owned quite a few of these puppies and then some. Mostly "in the box" nowadays, but not 100%. 😉 Cheers!🤘😝🤘 Oh, I forgot, Sequential Pro-One was used by a lot of Industrial bands from the 80s-90s like Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly, for example. Great bass synth and has an inspiring and very simple sequencer! I could easily imagine Nitzer Ebb using it at the time, too... who knows?
Tom Shear from Assemblage 23 loves the Pro-One. He’s now incorporated a Behringer Nuetron, and I’ve heard demos of it. It’s an absolute beast with balls. Really good for synth basses.
Okay so I found the booklet from the Wall of Sounds sample CD and it's a collection of samples taken from known synthesizers like the MS-20, Juno, TRs and yes the D50 :)
With the huge amount of metal bands from Scandinavia, it's no wonder for the popularity of the Nord synths. And even if everyone says the Virus is designed for electronica, I still find it to be an all-arounder synth, so it makes sense. But the Polivoks.. I didn't know it had such impact on the metal scene. Or any scene for that matter.
Responding to 2:38. It's something I've thought about a lot: constraints, how people work with them, how those constraints shape things, and what would be considered acceptable if not outright good in the face of those contraints. If a musician in a rock band today wanted to use the sounds we hear around 2:38, I imagine most producers would laugh them out of the room. Yet back in the day, it was new, and it's largely all there was if you didin't have a $100,000 budget to spend on equipment. So people did their best, and in doing so often produced a sound which, in our convenience-laden modern world, just can't be reproduced because too few people have the patience to spend weeks with a second hand analog synth soldering resistors and capacitors in and out to see what difference it makes to the sound, or other stuff like this.
Very cool video man! I love industrial metal a lot. Zardonic is lately one of my favorites :) I have a question. What are the song names of each chapter transistions? Especially I would like to know the song name at 7:47. :3
Ngl I don't know the name of the song. For my videos sometimes use Adobe Stock Audio stuff. That song was into that library. Tbh there's some really good producers that are making copyright free music haha
Dangerous not making note of the Korg Monopoly, MS-20 and Roland SH-101.. Seems like your going for later 90's early 2000 industrial here though so will give some slack. Love seeing the Polivoks being very well mentioned though...
as an owner of an oberheim xpander for many years i have to say that the big reason this synth was used was because it has outputs for each voice and each voice can have a unique program. (and obviously the filter modes) the actual synth sounds bands use from the xpander are pretty simple. nitzer ebb belief/showtime for example. spot the filter modes. flood also processed nitzer with lots of eventide h3000 ultratap... echoboy rhythm mode is similar. this is what current manufacturers miss... give us moar outputs! i use arturia m12 now. it sounds pretty good. even fools me sometimes. maschine mk3 knobs work better than xpander's glitchy optical encoders. ha ha ha. u-he repro-1/sequential pro one is also very good for more aggressive sounds (same curtis chips as xpander but much snappier)
yeah the H3000 is mentioned everywhere in interviews! And I agree with you that more outputs would be great...Companies be like 9000 voices, 500 fxs, 10 osc ... 1 mono output 🤡
@@Tonepusher all the synth swells on belief/showtime are h3000 ultratap which is basically echoboy in rhythm mode set to time not beats. you can read the h3000 manual section on ultratap and see its almost identical to echoboy, including the pan and decay shapes
Reznor loved the Nord Lead due to its easy programming. I have a Nord Lead 1 rack which I got from Reverb and DAMN it sounds great. I feel like they have their own sound. Would love to see Behringer copy the Nord Modular.
The Nord Lead is great - mostly one knob per function and you get the weirdness of FM and Ring Mod. The Nord Modular is interesting, but it *needs* the software editor to do much of anything and I don't see Behringer doing that. I prefer the sound of the Lead to the Modular, but it's a really fun way to do modular style synthesis.
There are some reasons why the ASR 10 is still relevant, at least for me. Beside it's for me the sampler i know the best and so i use more intuitive than any other sampler i have, there are some functions that are still unique i guess. For example the modulation of the sample start, end and loop points. You can even create transwaves like in the fizmo with this. Or with loop cross modulation you deeper transform the sound than with any other sampler. Second the best ever build in effects section in a sampler. It's all modulatable and you can resample with effect. You can direct without leaving the digital level resample you output. That means direct with all you play on the keyboard. The range of the effects is almost endless, filters, pitch shifting, reverbs, delays, distortions in any way you want... endless The quality of the samples can can be turned down to a great horrible garbage and if you lost interest in a sample you can you the synthesized loop function to kick the sample ultimative against the wall. There are many other great functions on the asr10, like the loopable and switchable envelopes the fast and easy way to build multisamples. The way to switch between activated layers by using the 2 buttons next to the disc slot (this is a great way to use the sampler on stage for different setups just by a fingerstep). For me it's also the most "musical" sampler ever made. Hope it's understandable, English is not my language .
Some notes about the ASR-10. The reason it's unique are two fold : it has a DP-4 Processor in it, so the distortion, phaser etc effects are quite unique to that dsp set. Only the phaser has been recently modelled as a vst. In addition, the ASR-10 has unique sample manipulation abilities...especially in the looping aspect...including a very unique synthesized loop which results in odd and wonderful reverb sounding loops. This makes the ASR and EPS-16 idea sound design tools. To this day, not one single piece of software brings this dsp toolkit to desktops. The Ensoniq IP has been foolishly squandered all these years. Whomever owns it, is not too bright.
Love industrial, love hip hop, love my asr10. Had no idea rammstein used one & I love them too!! So this makes me happy 😃 that chicken systems disk is awesome & the waveboy effects disks are next level. It is my opinion that ensoniq used voodoo magic & laughs in the face of VST emulations 😂
I do have an original Поливокс that was acquired in Kachkanar back in 1982. It is in mint condition and with a custom made case. The earlier models sounds a bit ‘dirtier’ than the later models. Let me know if you are interested.
Most bands are using plugins right now, but in my heart nothing will ever replace hardware! hehe I'll probably make a plugin video pretty soon :) Do you guys think I forgot important synths?
And BTW I (of course) meant 95 for the release of the Nord Lead...haha 😅
...the nord rack was not released in ‘85... but around 10 years later. I prefer the look (and gritty’er sound) of the Virus A too... But i love the Virus Classic design the most... goes great with a Nord for the full Ferrari look. 😅
Definitely a case of right time, right place. Found the OG in Kyiv for $500 and the snagged the Pro when I got a windfall. Elta told me they would make a 2VCO version of the Polivoks-M but they never did it in the end.
Pearl Syncussion SY-1...drum synths are part of industrial, it's not all samples and acoustic drums there.
Kurzweil K2000K2vx series is one of the best for sure.
run plugins thru overdriven preamps: neve, ssl, api...
Very informative video dude! The Nord was the only one I already knew of and also my favourite sounding from the ones presented here. However I'd loved it if you had went ahead and showed us what newer Industrial Metal bands use. And tbf only sort of industrial cause now everyone's like a blend of different sub-genres. If anyone wants to check out an amazing breakdown of how to get the synth sound of more modern industrial bands like Architects, Northlane and Mick Gordon you need to check out Nick Mavromatis' videos on synths.
I kinda came in here wishing the same but hey still great video. You're so right about Nick he's phenomenal on sound design
I agree dude, the focus of the video was more about the classic synths. Modern stuff is almost only plugins. I should make something about modern stuff too.
@@Tonepusher dudette *** 😂 true it's mostly plugins so you could maybe do a video on how technology has impacted modern metal?
@@Gianna_Fouresi_321 oh I'm so sorry hahaha ngl unfortunately most of my subs/comments are guys haha 🙏
That could be a very very cool video tbh. Plugins in industrial metal 🤘
Wow, how can you talk about industrial synths and not mention the Ensoniq Mirage and Skinny Pupoy!? Also, no mention of the iconic Waldorf Microwave/XT? Used by just about everyone in the industrial scene; Trent Reznor had a custom blacked out one made for him by Waldorf themselves, and Waldorf even put out an industrial album called “Sub Out” produced by Daniel Myer of Haujobb and featuring Waldorf synths being played by Frontline Assembly, Front 242, KMFDM, and many others.
Oh yes, all Waldorf Microwaves have been used so much throughout 80/90/00s and beyond. 😉😁
Talking about adding something to a sample ... The Ensoniq Mirage definitely did exactly that.
Not a design choice, but due to ($$$) limitations of the HW, but the result was something that started from a real sound, but turned it into something much grittier & original ...
And the Waldorf XT : still think this is an absolute beast !!!
It can create sounds that rip your guts out - and the direct accessibiliity to most parameters makes it 10x more an instrument then the Wavetable synth plugins !
@@2JohJoh2 Exactly! I am acquainted with and have a friend who plays in Skinny Puppy and they have 5 Mirage samplers for that exact reason! I did my first industrial song back in 1986 with my Mirage, and my latest industrial work (under the name of cell:burn) is almost all done with the Waldorf XTk and MicroQ. Check out my track "Wastelandscape" if you get a chance (has a touch of Korg MS-20 on it as well.)
@@GenshiFIVE Mirages!? Sounds like programming/U.I. hell.
@@colinrussell2017 not really. The Mirage is fairly simple to use, and they don't use them all at once, they're mostly for backup to the main Mirage.
Great video! I really love and feel pleased that you used my audios and information of my videos for this project! Also, Flake didn't use an Ensoniq ASR-10 in 2022 for Zeit, he only used until Untitled album, for the Hallomann solo for example. Nowadays he just uses VSTs like Omnisphere, and in live he uses 2 Nord Stage 2 EX.
Edit: Flake also used the Nord Lead from Sehnsucht to Reise Reise, for Weisses Fleisch, he only used the Nord Lead for Live aus Berlin, for example. The sample used in studio was actually sampled from the E-MU EMAX. Also, the Spielhur bells are actually from the Nord Lead also. If you want, we can talk a bit more privately, and I can share with you some other Flake stuff I have 😁
Hey man, thanks for the comment. Yeah I did watch your video. But I took the infos from the Rammsteinworld forum. But it might be you too on the forum haha! Sure we can talk! Add me on IG its also Tonepusher 🤘🏻
Flake's sounds are iconic🎉
Pls share
Loving this series! I helped Rhys Fulber with his Nord Modular. I think we bought them around the same time and he asked for help with the associated controller software. On the more melodic side of Industrial I was a huge fan of God Lives Underwater and knew both members. The Oberheim Xpander was all over their debut Album ‘Empty’ which was in heavy rotation in my place for many years.
Thanks man! Must be really cool to work with Rhys, seems like a very nice guy. Never listened to God Lives Underwater, I'll check that out for sure! 🤘
@@Tonepusher Hope you get a chance to. The 1st Album ‘Empty’ is wall to wall killer. I don’t think the 2nd Album is on streaming right now sadly, but the final one is ‘Up off the floor’ is. Stand out track imho is 1% The long way down. 👍
Without looking is that the same album that features “ No More Love?” If it is I own it.
@@RY30DM sure is! :)
Hearing these sounds on their own makes me feel entirely new emotions.
I know right? haha it's so weird
The limitations of the ASR-10 are what give it its "sound". Let's say you are inspired with some grand vision but then you run into the wall of limited memory. You must decide where and how much you lower the sample rate so you can make everything you want fit. The different rate changed the sounds individually as well as what they sounded like together. Another part of its sound is the simple nature of lower pitched notes taking longer to play the samples (as with any sample not time-stretched). Some of the examples of sounds, even in this video, are mimicking regular synth sounds of the time, like PCM sounds that sound cleaner and have more sonic variation. So while the texture of an individual note might seem normal and recognizable, the context of different notes playing back samples at slightly different speeds will also create something different. What I did with with a single ASR-10, with no output expander or contextual mixing, was overly ambitious and improperly produced. It was like building a skyscraper out of trash, whatever samples I could find, and lowing the sample rate more and more, to jam as many sounds as I needed onto each instrument. This was always made necessary by the longer, textural samples I wanted that took up so much memory. This poorly produced but overly ambitious approach resulted in a gritty sound and texture that could be suitable for whatever you want but is often associated with industrial or cyberpunk, or even hip hop (Kanye West used ASR-10, that's another story) ideas. Also the ASR-10 was built like a tank and quite heavy. You could take it to Iraq and come back from the war and it would still work. Anyway, nowadays you can just create whatever you can imagine easily, clean, dirty or otherwise on a PC. Nice video, thanks.
wow thanks for the infos! I love ''lofi'' samples and the texture old machines created. Nowadays machines are too ''clean'' haha Sure you can create anything with plugins, but idk, there's something missing!!
Cool, video! 90s industrial is what got me into synths and electronic music. One quick thing, the Nord Lead was released in 95 not 85.
We need Industrial music again !!! ❤
ohh I completely agree. We want less quantity and more quality! haha
There are some great industrial and adjacent acts (EBM/Techno/Darkwave) at the moment. Check out Youth Code, Statiqbloom, Street Sects, Author and Punisher, Hide, Uboa, Prurient, 3Teeth, Pharmakon, Dead when I found her, Louisahhh, Horskh, Angelspit, Moris Blak, The Anix, Klack... I could go on... Lots of older acts are still making music and have released music in the last few years... Leather Strip, Portion Control, cEvin Key, Daniel Meier, Download, 16Volt, PIG, Wumpscut, Die Krupps, X Marks the Padwalk, Noise Unit
@@politesociety True, there's many good bands out there. But I feel like most new bands don't have that quality/edge in the production/art that artists had before. 3TEETH are by far the best ones right now, the music, concert, artwork etc.. everything is on point and well thought.
@@TonepusherThey’ve never grabbed me. I don’t what it is. Maybe the vocals?
@@RY30DM musicians today just arent good. its not just you
I got Ostirus up and running a couple weeks ago and it's amazing, it even prompted me to buy a new computer, as it is resource heavy
haha! that's funny, does the plugin also pay for the new computer? lol Ostirus does sound exactly like the real thing though it's insane.
I took a chance and bought a Polivoks from Kazakhstan last year. The chance paid off. I love it!
wow nice! yeah there's a lot of them on reverb that are from that country. If you don't mind sharing, did you pay a lot of shipping? It's pretty heavy haha
I've used the Roland xp80 for all of my industrial metal recordings. It's very analog and uses floppy disks. I guess it is now considered classic gear, which I absolutely love!
The floppy discs are only for sequence data. Has nothing to do with the sounds. Cool, old workstation, but I prefer the XP-30 to it, only because it has many more of the JV/XP-series sounds.
Reverb has several for sale. The highest was $1499.
OK now you got to do a video on what drum machines did they use. Awesome video by the way.
haha thanks man! yeah I did a video not so long ago about Drum Machines but it wasn't specific to industrial metal though! I'll put that on the list :)
The Roland R8 was pretty much the drum machine everyone used in the “ Industrial “ scene from 89 through the mid 90s
I think Godflesh Pure-Love and Hate and Type O post Bloody Kisses used an Alesis SR16
Kawai R-100 is basically the sound of wax trax records
Yes, Kawai R-100 and R-50, Roland R-8, and samplers like Akai S-900/950, Yamaha TX16W, E-mu Emulator and Emax. Later Elektron Machinedrum.
2:10 hahaha nice. A Roland D-50 factory-preset Sample for the Ensoniq ASR-10. Gotta say i always had a soft spot for the late 80s and early 90s Ensoniq Instruments, like the Mirage for example. Absolutely outstanding instruments that STILL have a strong mysterious aura around them because they do kinda have their own signature.
yeah the ASR10 cds were full of samples from other synths hehe
Always wondered who did the electronics on those great early fear factory albums 👍
I still have my ASR-10. Have not played it in YEARS!!! Got the floppies too.
haha! lucky you :) keep it!
Do you know if it still boots? You might be able to get some money for it on Reverb. Of course the problem with Ensoniq is that they went out of business a really long time ago, so there’s no support if it needs repaired. I still have my E-Mu Esi32, with external Zip disk, and I haven’t turned it on in eons. It’s just so slow to do anything on there.
Another good industrial synth is the Prophet VS. The Volkanic sound is *the* NiN sound Trent used for ages with slight tweaks. It's also lovely for doing pads on. Lovely synth.
Yeah I heard that sound live pretty often. LOVE the VS, one of my fav synth
Thanks a lot for this great video. I cannot believe that I didn't notice the Polivoks in the song Deutschland.
Idk if they used it specifically for Deutschland (I doubt it they mainly use Omnisphere now haha). I just thought it would be cool to use the Polivoks and make the same riffs hehe 🤘🏻 Imo they probably only used it live.
Emu emax, Moog prodigy/ rogue , Waldorf microwave , Ensoniq vfx and sq80 were all used on well known industrial albums. Modern day industrial classics would be the prophet 12 , hydrasynth , moog voyager and the blofeld
Agreed! There's enough to make more episodes of this ;)
One thought re the Ensoniq sampler is that Arturia's Emulator II plugin (sadly not also the CMI) allows you to load your own samples and put it through the 80s sampler experience.
absolutely love the industrial focused content!!
haha yeah 🤘🏻 thanks
Not much the "metal" part. lol
There might be some things wrong or missing, but i enjoyed it, and it has made me think a little bit more about having a go at industrial. Kudos to whoever did the sequence clips. They were ace.
I made the sequence :) thanks You should totally make some industrial! 🤘
I bought my Virus C from Brian of Velvet Acid Christ back in 2007, and still use it. It’s an awesome synth
nice! can't go wrong with a Virus. It's a great piece of industrial music history you have hehe Love VaC! .. Did you eat all this acid? that's right..music! 😂
@@Tonepusher that was the first song I heard by him! It’s a great synth. Expanded banks, plus it had theme whole Icon of Coil sound and as well. Absolutely love it
Fun fact, Adam Jones from the band Tool used and still uses the access Virus A in the albums Lateralus, 10,000 days and Fear Innoculum. The preset he uses the most is called A1 First K and can be heard in Lateralus track 11 "Reflection" and in Fear Innoculum track 6 "Descending" just to name a few.
Didn't know that, I'm curious I'll google that! haha
Once I bought the V Collection from Arturia, such a big pack of Plugins, I just didn´t recognized that I already had the Matrix 12 with it! Thank you for the hint to check my collection for that one 😄
haha yeah man seriously I think it's the best synth bundle ever. That+serum is the ultimate software setup hehe
@@Tonepusher I still can get through the tons of stuff, I choose a handful of synths and try to work with them. Btw I don´t want to promote anything here, but I bought it last year on blackfriday, just to give the other readers a little shopping tip 🙂
@@hollowwordsbns np man haha yeah sometimes too many synths is not better to make music. Minimal setups are the best tbh. Choose 2-3 weapons and make an album!
Well well well, looks like I've found my new favourite youtube channel...
Fr though love this stuff!
Infradeep makes the PVX800… a super modern take on the polivox architecture with tons of midi and cv capabilities!
yeah that one too! unfortunately out of stock
Thanks for the heads up about Ostirus. I gave up on my Virus Ti because it was always so laggy when using the VST and I become an Elektron junkie. Much easier to just export my patches to hardware when I need to play live. What a treat.
Yeah I heard good things about Elektron stuff. I really like the Synthakt
Out of the 5 synths listed I've got 3. The POLIVOKS sounds great but is really impossible to work with. It refuses to stay in tune, the pots aren't well calibrated, it doesn't have MIDI (unless you convert it with a kit) and the keyboard feels cheaper than a child's toy. I'm anxiously awaiting the Behringer reissue.
If anyone out there has those original Ensoniq samples, I'd love to have them.🖤
For polivoks guys I am pretty sure there are schematics / PCBs still available for Shruthi-1 and Ambika synths with the polivoks filter boards. This gives access to that screaming filter at a reasonable price. The Shruthi-1 allows external audio processing through the filter and envelopes can be triggered via midi.
Excellent video, pal, long time not having seen a so well done one; direct, well edited, entertaining, and over all informative. Good one, thanks
wow thanks man :) I'll make more of these (spoiler, my next vid is something like that)
@@Tonepusher 😃🤙🤙🖤
Nice video ! Talking about the ASR 10 (I own 2 machines). It’s the essence of all the French touch. Daft punk used it, Fred falke used it etc…. The internal multi effect is incredible and be used today. The sequencer (but I never tried it myself) has a special flavor too.
Talking about the sampling section, it gives a compact sound and very smooth around the high mids.
If you want to have an idea of how it sounds, listen to Daft Punk’s Scoot Groove mothership reconnection. The phaser effect is very special and can be heard in countless French house around (not the world😂) the 2000’s ! ❤
thanks for the infos, I didn't know the ASR-10 was so important for the french touch!
The Access Virus ti is Gary Numan‘s favourite synth of all time
Yeah it's in my top 3 for sure. Sounds so good. It was ahead of its time!
He sold it. Stating that you get all the plugins today...
I would not really agree, but hey, it's Gary Numan...
Shocked none of the Kurzweils made the list. K2000 & K2500 were used a ton. V.A.S.T. synth engine was incredible if you had the patience to program it.
very good observation, the Kurzweils had more than 1 niche - they were massive with filmscore / composers because of the polyphony and orchestral sounds, but in the hands of a good programmer they had amazing sound design powers.
Don Gordon from Numb was all over the Kurzweil..
NiN also used these a lot along with Manson. Though I do wonder how much they were just used as sample playing machines instead of fully using the synth engine. It's really powerful, but also quite plasticky sounding with the filters, and the interface is an utter pain in the ass. What to change FX? Press the menu button, select an FX box, do your settings, save the FX box with a name. Save the FX setting with a name. Save you sound with that FX applied with a name. I do love my Kurzweils but they are such a pain.
For years i used a free VST called PolivoksStation and i LOVED it. Which is basically how i fell in love with the sound of this russian Synth beauty and now i can't wait for Behringers take on it. Granted i will definitely buy it but i hope they do a Keyboard version and not just an Expander.
The Gearspace thread the Clouser post is from is a phenomenal wealth of information about NIN, Clouser's scoring work, etc. If it is remotely in someone's interest, it's worth the read. Yes all of it.
100%, even for someone that is not making music, it's still interesting!
There are quite a few polivoks filter recreations available in eurorack format, if you want that resonance on its own.
This video is DOPE! Thank you, man!
haha thanks to you for commenting! 🙏🏻
Love this, never knew half of this, especially about Rammstein, ive been trying to fish for as much as I could about Flake's setup and sound sources, I knew about the ASR-10 and I even have the complete library (for use in Kontakt player) that I sampled into my Nord Stage 3, but the rest was a absolute surprise!
hey! yeah there's actually a LOT of information online about Flakes sounds. I was actually surprised how much pretty much all of the sounds they use are presets.
I love the synth sounds on the '90's Fear Factory and Front Line Assembly albums. Any chance you could make a serum sound pack with those kind of tones? Especially the Fear Factory ones?
oh yeah totally! it's already on the list :)
Those are created both by Rhys Fulber.
Salut. Je viens de découvrir ton channel. Excellent contenu! 👍👍👍
hey haha merci beaucoup :) 🤘🏻
I actually own a Nordlead 1, and a Oberheim Matrix 1000. I haven't used them for years but lately I have been tinkering and the will come into use. As far as samplers go Skinny Puppy used a lot of Emax on Too dark Park. I used to own one of those as well but it got lost in the sands of time.
The Matrix 1000 sounds suuuuper good. Like probably 90% of racks it's a nightmare to program lol but the presets are fire!
I've owned four Ensoniq samplers - Mirage, EPS, EPS 16+ and the ASR 10. I'd say that the first two have a noticeable impact on any sound you sample with them thanks to the limitations of 8 bit and 13 bit sample rates. The EPS 16+ and ASR could sound "transparent", as they had much higher sample rates and more advanced DAC/ADCs. They did have some unusual sound manipulation features that were shared with the VFX and TS synths, so that may be what made them unique.
Do you happen to have the old samples? Asking for a friend... 😅
@@ClosetoHumanMusic The only one I still own is the EPS, since it's so much easier to use than the Mirage but can directly load the library from that machine. The Mirage library seems to be available on the web. Apart from using the Mirage sounds, I mostly sample drum and synth bass sounds that I create on a Korg MS-20 (the mini one - wish I could afford an original one or the full size reissue).
My EPS 16+ was in extremely rough shape, or else I would have kept that instead of the "classic" version of the EPS. The ASR was a bit too complicated for me, similar to how I have kept an ESQ-1 but sold a VFX-SD which was also too complex (and had bugs in the sequencer).
7:50 the Nord synths were mid 90s, definitely not around in 85 unless I jumped timelines or something. I think it was 95.
Thanks for your great video again! Do you plan legendary FXs video? :) May I noticed a Sherman Filterbank on Rammstein studio picture?
hey np :) Yeah looks like a Sherman filterbank !
Aside from not mentioning the Virus versions Indigo 1&2, Rack, Rack Classic, Classic XL and TDM, you also forgot three other very important synths: Roland JP8000, Novation Supernova and Korg MS2000 - As for software, 20 years ago everyone was using reFX Vanguard. You hear those presets all over the music from that era
just downloaded Xpander kontakt libruary and Arturia Matrix-12 VST😎
I have an Ensoniq ASR-10, as well as an Access Virus KC (the keyboard version of C). Awesome keyboards! The Virus is an absolute beast of a synth.
Totally, the virus was/is among the best synths of all time for sure
@@Tonepusher The Virus C can literally emulate EVERY analog synth from the 1970s and 1980s. Why spend $3000 on a Minimoog, $10,000 on an Oberheim OB-Xa, and $15,000 on a Roland Jupiter-8, when you can spend $1200 on a Virus C and have them all (plus more!)???
Checking in on the ASR-10:
The ASR will take 30kHz or 44.1kHz 16 bit samples. One of the things about using it is thiat youre going to have 2mb stock or 16mb or so if you expand it all the way, so in order to get a longer sample and drum break into it, sometimes it benefits to pitch it way up to use fewer 'seconds' of the lower res setting, then using the internal controls to pitch it back to normal with the sampler. I think that is what the secret sauce of a lot of samplers are, along with the compression that happens naturally going from D to A and A to D. That technique in my experience incorporates some cool artifacts and dark filtering that can sound nice with reverbs and chops. Like many other samplers that record audio digitally, the unique sound the device has, ends up being the result of limiting factors. I think the MPC60 is like that to an extent as well. These devices were all commonplace in days before even the 100GB hard drives were everywhere, much less the virtually unlimited terabyte drives of today. Hope that helps shed some light for someone. Cheers!
What a great video. I had no idea that Matrix 12 existed. I haven't actively been chasing an Xpander given how much they go for, just always thought it would be cool to have even a plugin. Now I know it exists at all is a great thing.
the real thing would obviously be better but yeah...that price lol
I had a Oberheim Matrix 6R a while back that I only paid $350 for. It’s pretty cool, the filters are great, and it’ll make some massive patches that I don’t think a soft synth could touch. The problem was like a lot of the synths from this era, getting around it sucks. There’s just too many button pushes to get to the parameters you want. I downloaded a free patch editor which helped, but even that had four pages. I eventually just got tired of it and it went off to Australia.
I've got an Xpander and also the Matrix 12V -- the plug-in will get you in the wheel house, though when pushing the settings it doesn't quite get into the thick weirdness that the hardware does. However, the hardware is incredibly temperamental. It's a bit weird to program, but once you get used to it, it's actually pretty fast.
My favourite thing is messing around with the FM. It's a bit strange being analog and so doesn't really work like digital FM synths, but can be great to push the envelope for industrial sounds.
The Waldorf Pulse was another synth I didn't see mentioned which had truly wicked industrial capabilities with 3 OSC and a Death Filter from Hell. Also, if this is helpful, the ASR-10 samples you played were from 1) a D50, 2) A DX7 and 3) A patch from the Korg O1W (I made factory patches for the O1W).
Yeah the Waldorf will definitely be in another video :)
You're right and wrong hehe the ASR-10 sounds were samples taken from a CD that had samples from "known synth sounds" like the ones you mentioned hehe So yeah its a D50 sound on a sample CD for the ASR10 haha
@@Tonepusher I think that's what @JohnL is saying above. I.e., that he's recognizing the samples from the ASR-10 sample CD were samples of certain well-known presets from a D-50, a DX-7, and then a sample of a preset from an O1W. At least if i'm reading his (edited) comment correctly -- and perhaps his was edited after you'd made yours.. @JohnLehmkuhl, i appreciate the great work you did on the O1W's presets. I don't know think it's just due to the 32khz sampling rate "warming up" the timbres; there truly are some great, well-chosen sounds represented across the default collection of combi's and programs there..
Incidentally, i've never owned a D-50 but i have 5 different Ensoniqs at the moment (down from 8 a year ago). Had bad GAS for about 15 years, not that i'm complaining lol.. Hoping to get from 36 keyboards at present down to just 6 ~ 8 some day. Never had an ASR-10 but will surely end up keeping at least one of my three different EPS models.
Since I don't have a lot of space, my favourite Virus is the Rack XL. Took me a while to track one down for a reasonable price.
I've been considering the ASR-10 Rack, but as a computer whizz kid from the 1980s, I'm actually a little allergic to long loading times these days. So I'll stick with the ESQ-M and the MR Rack for now.
haha yeah loading time are the worst especially for music producers!
Alot of those artists initially started with whatever they could afford. Skinny Puppy started with only a Seqentuial Pro One, to the time a "budget option" at around 900$ USD as alternative to the way more expensive Prophet 5. KMFDM even started with a Roland SH-101 which was only around 1000DM (around 500$ USD) to the time.
yeah the sh101 was a very popular choice eventho it wasn't a big commercial success. I really believe in "limitation=creativity" ... big setups are useless. I mean they're good looking and it's cool to have a collection of synths or gear that you like. But at the end of the day you don't NEED all of that. Most artists are just using "what's there" lol
Generally emulating an old emulator comes down to a few things: 1. is replicating the storage format so far as bit depth and how those bits correspond to amplitudes (since e.g. with only 8 bits, it makes sense to use a nonlinear relationship between the numerical value of the bits and the resulting amplitidue). Then emulating the internal processing, which may be using something like 14bit fixed point. Then emulating the DAC. That's the hardware side at least. Then there is the choice to e.g. Arturia-style, emulate the user interface of a piece of vintage hardware rather than just offering modules that replicate the sound in a modern environment. Something that hasn't been done, and would be nice for someone to do, is a semi-modular vintage emulator where you can mix and match sample formats, bit depths in storage and processing, DAC models, and so on.
I've wanted to own a Virus TI since I started listening to electronic music as a teenager. But I'm not even sure I could get a hold of one with the prices I'm seeing.
haha yeah for a while they were 3k+ but since osTIrus is out I've seen prices going down. I think your best bet would be the Virus Ti Snow
Wall of Sounds sample cd clearly sampled the Soundtrack preset from the Roland D-50 that was used in the song Tier!
Another incredible video!
haha someone pointed it to me earlier! They probably sampled it yeah. Back then copyright was not really a thing yet haha OR maybe my sources were wrong too, I'm human 🤖💁♂ haha I'll re-google it 👀
@vultureculture I found the booklet of the CD and it's actually a collection of samples taken from synthesizers like the MS-20, Juno, D50 etc... so yup. 👌
The Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler had a steep roloff after 16 kHz. It made everything sound smooth, soft and punchy. As opposed to Akai, those samplers had bite and edge.
9:01 That unique and characteristic FM sound of the old Nord leads! the main reason I own a NL 2, also I have a virus C. I fully recomend the Waldorf Q for this kind of music! even better than Virus or nord lead, you can create more complex textures (wavetables are great for that)
These are two synths that I'm actively shopping. Especially the Waldorf Q!
@@Tonepusher yes hard to find the Waldorf Q (rack or keyboard), specially for a reasonable price, I got my rack version for 850 eur not even 2 years ago and is my favourite synth for sound design.
UVI do a great Ensoniq plugin, the ESQ 1 (I THINK). It has the preset for Skinny Puppy - Testure intro
Dude that is a funny coincidence, I JUST bought the plugin for my next video haha Stay tuned! :D
I have an original Polyvoks, it’s an unruly beast
oh wow! lucky you, take care of it! hehe
Tal Sampler is the right plug-in to use to emulate hardware samplers.
I love TAL products, but I never tried the Sampler. Why would it be the best to emulate hardware stuff?
Awesome video, thanks for putting this together. I have an original Virus C rack unit. A great plug-in version is the Viper by Adam Szabo, I can import my patches as MIDI and it sounds awesome.
thanks man! yeah I've seen that Viper plugin before, I never tried it though. If you can import your presets that's very cool too.
Great overview, thanks for sharing!
hey np man 🤘🏻
I had an ASR10 Rack after Akai S1100....it was nice to use first punchy drum samples.
nice! the AKAI is also a huge part of industrial history hehe Everybody was using it.
@@Tonepusher the discovery pro was really nice at the end. I used in 1995 nordlead 1 for a goa trance track, it sits well in the mix. Time passed and everybody is using 5 to 10 hardware synths. I must admit the Sequential Pro3 has a very bad attitude in terms of Industrial/EBM/ Minimal Wave, a fantastic monsta!
@@klinikat5313 Yeah Pro 3 is a no-brainer, I was also looking at the Take 5 the other day... I almost went for it haha
@@Tonepusher Yeahhzz do it do it :)
Hey, Tonepusher should do a preset pack of these sounds if they don't already exist in your Industrial line!
Well, the MS20 was the one that started all the electronic underground styles...
It's price-point at the crutial times when it was launched (late 70's / early 80's) made it a popular choice for every emerging band... specially in Spain...
Yeah you're 100% right! I own the ms20 mini and tbh its one of the few synth that you can recognize eyes closed. Sounds unique!
MS-20, DX7 (and variants) and the Microwaves seem like big omissions to me.
@@jamesmcn0000 The Pro-One was big in the early industrial scene as well...
@@kaiwetronic I suspect the real answer is "industrial music has been made with literally any synth / sampler / drum machine that was available at the time" 😅
@@jamesmcn0000 Yesss...!!
But there's a bunch of popular machines (affordable at the time) that built the genre from the bedrooms of the pioneers, along with 4-track recorders...
Only recording studios and pros had P5s, J8s and OBs...
My go-to synth right now is the Matrix-1k... you can make it squeak like leatherface's chainsaw...!
9:17 And I heard Synth1 was modeled off of the Nord Lead 2 and 2X, and is free.
nice data!!! also..author & punisher knows the ways of grinding synths
haha yeah that guy is killing it. His level of production is of the chart and very unique
Man... That Ostirus is close enough to real that I can't (being honest with myself) reliably distinguish it from the real thing. Instantly reminded me of VNV nation stuff.
glad to see industrial content!
no ms20 though??😢
I have to keep some synths for other videos! haha But it's definitely in there!
I remember when I was trying the Waldorf Pulse+ for the first time and I came across a patch that sounded familiar, I was sure that Marilyn Manson had used it, I searched for several songs until I found it in "Rock Is Dead", slightly accelerated the arpeggio but only that, it was used exactly original, excellent patch in fact :)
thats a legendary synth, I really need to get my hands on one of these 🤔
@@Tonepusher yes, it's absolutely a "very industrial" synthesizer, patch 100 is always a random to all the parameters, very strange sounds appear, wonderful synthesizer, with a beautiful sound 🙌
@@NachoMartyMeyer oh nice didn't know that! I think I'd prefer the Q though! Not a big fan of limited controls and SMALL screens haha
Greatest video ever...my favorite gen.. list of classic synth ... instant follower
hey thanks 🤘🏻
I was surprised that the Korg MS2000 wasn’t mentioned as there were tons of amazing industrial albums compiled from it. But nevertheless you caught some good synths that definitely have been rotate by big names within industrial music, I did enjoy it much!
You're 100% right. But I did another video like this and the ms20 is in there :) It was more "ebm" focused though hehe
Once you are used to having two filters like the very resonant ones on my MS20 FS it's hard to go back to just one. Combined with the ability to internally overdrive, the MS20 effortlessly sounds like a Terminator factory.
haha yeah I have the ms20 too and its a fucking monster haha One of the best synth ever if not the best 🤔
I have an original полівоскс and the полівоскс pro as well as the PF-2 filter module. The OG is way louder than the Pro and the module is great for running other synths into it.
oh wow! lucky you hehe I wish I could test that out. One day maybe I'll find one in my area. It's wayyy to heavy to ship lol
This is really amazing. So much useful info. Thanks.
(Love Industrial Metal).
hey! np man, happy to help and share 🤘🏻
to give anything an ASR 10 vibe I use decimort 2's ASR 10 setting. It sounds really nice and sometimes I'll even throw it on a keyboard bus.
oh that's interesting! Do you set it up yourself or is there an official ASR10 preset on it?
@@Tonepusher It comes with an ASR10 preset which sounds great! It is as close to the real thing that I have heard software wise but I always tweak it a bit to sound good in a mix. (Usually making it more gritty haha) Try it out!
This was excellent. Thank you!
I'm so glad I have finally found a channel about Industrial Music. Thank you! Subscribed, of course. I've also owned quite a few of these puppies and then some. Mostly "in the box" nowadays, but not 100%. 😉 Cheers!🤘😝🤘 Oh, I forgot, Sequential Pro-One was used by a lot of Industrial bands from the 80s-90s like Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly, for example. Great bass synth and has an inspiring and very simple sequencer! I could easily imagine Nitzer Ebb using it at the time, too... who knows?
Hey thanks man :) yeah I could't fit all the synths in there or it would've been an hour+ long video haha I have to keep some for later ;)
Tom Shear from Assemblage 23 loves the Pro-One. He’s now incorporated a Behringer Nuetron, and I’ve heard demos of it. It’s an absolute beast with balls. Really good for synth basses.
Ok so that first asr10 sample was from a factory preset in the d50
Which sound? the sound from ''Tier'' ?
Okay so I found the booklet from the Wall of Sounds sample CD and it's a collection of samples taken from known synthesizers like the MS-20, Juno, TRs and yes the D50 :)
With the huge amount of metal bands from Scandinavia, it's no wonder for the popularity of the Nord synths. And even if everyone says the Virus is designed for electronica, I still find it to be an all-arounder synth, so it makes sense. But the Polivoks.. I didn't know it had such impact on the metal scene. Or any scene for that matter.
Responding to 2:38. It's something I've thought about a lot: constraints, how people work with them, how those constraints shape things, and what would be considered acceptable if not outright good in the face of those contraints. If a musician in a rock band today wanted to use the sounds we hear around 2:38, I imagine most producers would laugh them out of the room. Yet back in the day, it was new, and it's largely all there was if you didin't have a $100,000 budget to spend on equipment. So people did their best, and in doing so often produced a sound which, in our convenience-laden modern world, just can't be reproduced because too few people have the patience to spend weeks with a second hand analog synth soldering resistors and capacitors in and out to see what difference it makes to the sound, or other stuff like this.
Very cool video man! I love industrial metal a lot. Zardonic is lately one of my favorites :)
I have a question. What are the song names of each chapter transistions? Especially I would like to know the song name at 7:47. :3
Ngl I don't know the name of the song. For my videos sometimes use Adobe Stock Audio stuff. That song was into that library. Tbh there's some really good producers that are making copyright free music haha
@@Tonepusher I was asking, because I wanted to hear the full of that stock audio.
@@Friedrich-Schäfer Hey I found it :) It's called ''FUELED'' on Adobe Stock
stock.adobe.com/search/audio?k=452588779
@@Tonepusher Thank you very much man!!
Dangerous not making note of the Korg Monopoly, MS-20 and Roland SH-101.. Seems like your going for later 90's early 2000 industrial here though so will give some slack. Love seeing the Polivoks being very well mentioned though...
I’ve always been partial to a tape recorder, a cheap drum machine and a drone.
as an owner of an oberheim xpander for many years i have to say that the big reason this synth was used was because it has outputs for each voice and each voice can have a unique program. (and obviously the filter modes) the actual synth sounds bands use from the xpander are pretty simple. nitzer ebb belief/showtime for example. spot the filter modes. flood also processed nitzer with lots of eventide h3000 ultratap... echoboy rhythm mode is similar.
this is what current manufacturers miss... give us moar outputs!
i use arturia m12 now. it sounds pretty good. even fools me sometimes. maschine mk3 knobs work better than xpander's glitchy optical encoders. ha ha ha.
u-he repro-1/sequential pro one is also very good for more aggressive sounds (same curtis chips as xpander but much snappier)
yeah the H3000 is mentioned everywhere in interviews! And I agree with you that more outputs would be great...Companies be like 9000 voices, 500 fxs, 10 osc ... 1 mono output 🤡
@@Tonepusher EXACTLY!!
@@Tonepusher all the synth swells on belief/showtime are h3000 ultratap which is basically echoboy in rhythm mode set to time not beats. you can read the h3000 manual section on ultratap and see its almost identical to echoboy, including the pan and decay shapes
@@Tonepusher reznor, flood, al jourgensen... lots of overdriven neve preamps into h3000
i even like the behr pro one copy... its not bad for $200
Reznor loved the Nord Lead due to its easy programming. I have a Nord Lead 1 rack which I got from Reverb and DAMN it sounds great. I feel like they have their own sound. Would love to see Behringer copy the Nord Modular.
That would be really cool! Yeah I ALMOST bought myself a nord rack not so long ago. Such a classic
The Nord Lead is great - mostly one knob per function and you get the weirdness of FM and Ring Mod. The Nord Modular is interesting, but it *needs* the software editor to do much of anything and I don't see Behringer doing that. I prefer the sound of the Lead to the Modular, but it's a really fun way to do modular style synthesis.
Ayoye tu m’apprends quelques chose! Les sons de Flake provenaient des démos!! Que penses-tu des sons dans Sonne?
The people that made the Virus synthesiser are the company behind the Kemper guitar amp modeller. FYI
Yeah I know, I wish they would revive the virus series. Or just make new synths hehe I guess Guitars is where the $ at
There are some reasons why the ASR 10 is still relevant, at least for me. Beside it's for me the sampler i know the best and so i use more intuitive than any other sampler i have, there are some functions that are still unique i guess. For example the modulation of the sample start, end and loop points. You can even create transwaves like in the fizmo with this. Or with loop cross modulation you deeper transform the sound than with any other sampler. Second the best ever build in effects section in a sampler. It's all modulatable and you can resample with effect. You can direct without leaving the digital level resample you output. That means direct with all you play on the keyboard. The range of the effects is almost endless, filters, pitch shifting, reverbs, delays, distortions in any way you want... endless
The quality of the samples can can be turned down to a great horrible garbage and if you lost interest in a sample you can you the synthesized loop function to kick the sample ultimative against the wall.
There are many other great functions on the asr10, like the loopable and switchable envelopes the fast and easy way to build multisamples. The way to switch between activated layers by using the 2 buttons next to the disc slot (this is a great way to use the sampler on stage for different setups just by a fingerstep).
For me it's also the most "musical" sampler ever made.
Hope it's understandable, English is not my language .
The plug-in version of the Xpander is called Matrix 12 V. Matrix 12 is the hardware.
Some notes about the ASR-10. The reason it's unique are two fold : it has a DP-4 Processor in it, so the distortion, phaser etc effects are quite unique to that dsp set. Only the phaser has been recently modelled as a vst. In addition, the ASR-10 has unique sample manipulation abilities...especially in the looping aspect...including a very unique synthesized loop which results in odd and wonderful reverb sounding loops. This makes the ASR and EPS-16 idea sound design tools. To this day, not one single piece of software brings this dsp toolkit to desktops. The Ensoniq IP has been foolishly squandered all these years. Whomever owns it, is not too bright.
Virus TI 2 is on my wishlist for techno / psytrance...
oh totally, the virus is a MUST for that type of music
shoutout to the fairlight as well
oh 100%, I could make a video just on the Fairlight haha
I do love my TI.
TY for the video. That Discovery Pro looks interesting. I will have to check that out.
Polysix did not get spot? It's a BASS monster
Vst version having a unison detune and analog behavior
truly an EBM dream synth
Cheers 🥂
Love industrial, love hip hop, love my asr10. Had no idea rammstein used one & I love them too!!
So this makes me happy 😃 that chicken systems disk is awesome & the waveboy effects disks are next level.
It is my opinion that ensoniq used voodoo magic & laughs in the face of VST emulations 😂
Tal Sampler is the right plug-in to us to emulate hardware samplers.
I do have an original Поливокс that was acquired in Kachkanar back in 1982. It is in mint condition and with a custom made case. The earlier models sounds a bit ‘dirtier’ than the later models. Let me know if you are interested.
The Polivoks , you have a plugin from Red Rock Sound called Ivoks
Great Video
nice! I didn't know this one thank you. Looks like it sounds good and not too expensive too! 👌
@@Tonepusher Exact and they don really exellent , be sure to test their fx , their canal handling is unmatched in the game , period !!