# That Kraftwerk Sound



## jimjazzuk (Sep 21, 2021)

Hi all,

I've been enjoying NI's Super 8 and it got me thinking about writing some Kraftwerk-y style synth stuff. What are everyone's favourite analogue synth VSTs? Also looking for a decent drum machine and vocoder. I have NI Komplete 13, so please let me know if there's more to explore there that I haven't reached yet!

Thanks!


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## Pier (Sep 21, 2021)

Obviously U-He Diva, Repro, and Zebra / ZebraHZ.

Also check Synapse Audio which has The Legend (Moog), Obsession (Oberheim), and Dune which is more of a workhorse synth and has some really excellent analog-modeled filters.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

Analogue synth emulations: the ones in Arturia V Collection.

Definitely check out Cherry Audio’s Eight Voice, Memory Mode and their new Mercury 4 (Jup4). They are most excellent. And super affordable.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

There’s also Togu Audio Line (TAL) that has some great free ones too, and Xils Labs for instance.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

But modular workhorse flagship synths like Pigments, Falcon, PhasePlant, MSoundFactory, U-he synths can all sound really “analog” as well. As in: they all do subtractive synthesis pretty well


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## jimjazzuk (Sep 21, 2021)

Thanks for the info so far.... any decent vocoders out there?


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## kgdrum (Sep 21, 2021)

I haven’t used it but Luftrum recently released presets that are specifically aimed at Kraftwork oriented music for Diva.
Since it’s a Luftrum release imo it’s definitely worth checking out.



https://www.luftrum.com/luftkraft/


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## kilgurt (Sep 21, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Analogue synth emulations: the ones in Arturia V Collection.
> 
> Definitely check out Cherry Audio’s Eight Voice, Memory Mode and their new Mercury 4 (Jup4). They are most excellent. And super affordable.


Arturia V collection isn't even in the same ballpark like U-He! No juice!


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

kilgurt said:


> Arturia V collection isn't even in the same ballpark like U-He! No juice!


Erm… ok. Thanks for clearing that up. To the OP: avoid Arturia at all cost and follow the U-he tribe!


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## RedDot (Sep 21, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Erm… ok. Thanks for clearing that up. To the OP: avoid Arturia at all cost and follow the U-he tribe!


Hmmm... Arturia is awesome, but Pigments would perhaps be much more suited for kraftwerkian (and enoian) synth sound exploration.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

jimjazzuk said:


> Thanks for the info so far.... any decent vocoders out there?


The one in Arturia V Collection is pretty good  for a vintage sound. Don’t take my word for it though. What do I know.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

RedDot said:


> Hmmm... Arturia is awesome, but Pigments would be perhaps much more suited for kraftwerkian (and enoian) synth sound exploration.


Pigments IS an Arturia synth.


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## RedDot (Sep 21, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Pigments IS an Arturia synth.


I know, I meant Pigments instead of the V Collection.


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## kgdrum (Sep 21, 2021)

@doctoremmet 

I like me some sweet GEAR PORN!!! 😘


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

RedDot said:


> I know, I meant Pigments instead of the V Collection.


Gotcha! Yes maybe. But Kraftwerk sounds aren’t all that complex. That Moog vocoder in V Collection gets you in Kraftwerk territory real quick.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)




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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

RedDot said:


> enoian


This will henceforth be an adjective I’ll use! Thanks, great one. Yes, Simon Stockhausen and Empty Vessel, two of my personal favourite sound designers, are working with Pigments 3. Our own Tatiana Gordeeva is into Pigments. Those endorsements are indeed signs that this synth may actually resonate with Eno too. Although I think he still just uses his DX7 mark 1.


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## RogiervG (Sep 21, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> The one in Arturia V Collection is pretty good  for a vintage sound. Don’t take my word for it though. What do I know.


oh you even have The dust mk2! 
Legendary dust synthesis synth


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## jimjazzuk (Sep 21, 2021)

All I have is an SH101, very jealous of your collection @doctoremmet . Thanks all for the suggestions! Now I just need to practice my German accent for some vocoding....


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## Rudianos (Sep 21, 2021)

some Kraft presets from Arturia ... https://www.arturia.com/sound-banks/krafttribute


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## el-bo (Sep 21, 2021)

jimjazzuk said:


> Now I just need to practice my German accent for some vocoding....











Fake German Accent Generator to Speak/Write - Online Translator


Tool to mimic german accent (spoken or written). In order to give credibility to a german accent, a (text) message must recreate a germanic accent.




www.dcode.fr










Free Text-To-Speech for German language and MP3 Download | ttsMP3.com


Easily convert your written text into natural sounding voice in up to 50 different languages and/or accents. Download as MP3 or listen to it.



ttsmp3.com


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

Last time I went to a cool Dutch summer festival (Best Kept Secret 2019) I had the pleasure / honour to watch Kraftwerk play live. It was a fantastic performance:


View attachment 2B1AAC61-EB54-44E5-BF7E-08F5B1CFF9F9.MP4


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## Pier (Sep 21, 2021)

Woah @doctoremmet that's quite a collection!

So in your ears Arturia emulations are good?

I've never tried them myself but always had the impression they were not so great from the videos I've seen.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

Pier said:


> So in your ears Arturia emulations are good?


To my ears some of them are excellent. To be clear: U-he HIVE 2.1 may be my personal current reference for the top in sound quality. But I don’t think I’d survive an A/B comparison test between the OB-Xa and the Arturia one to be honest. Nor do I believe people in YT comments who have never even been close to the real thing claiming they can hear CLEAR differences in sound between emulation X vs Y 

But maybe I just have bad ears. I was lucky to be invited and chat with @secondtiersound and @Simeon a week ago on some of these very topics. *) I don’t want to come off as a mister-know-it-all here, because I am not. I’m just a guy who likes synths, and who dislikes snobbery and unfounded claims about synths not sounding good. (Not pointing to any of y’all here!! Strictly “generally speaking”). Because there are no objective criteria for “sound appreciation”. And really… real analog synths sound great, but the Cherry Audio stuff sounds JUST as great.

TL;DR
I like Arturia emulations, yes! But that’s just my taste. YMMV


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

*)


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## zwhita (Sep 21, 2021)

jimjazzuk said:


> I've been enjoying NI's Super 8 and it got me thinking about writing some Kraftwerk-y style synth stuff.


Any particular phase of their career you're aiming for the sound of? Early stuff after Ralf & Florian is mostly Minimoog and Odyssey, with combo organs run through the filters of those two, and customized drum modules. Computerworld does contain some of the better polysynths of the start of the 80's, but you'd also want to add a healthy dose of speech synthesis from something like Plogue Chipspeech. I don't think they ever used drum machines except the Tr-808 on 'Musique Nonstop' to mock Arthur Baker. Alot of Electric Cafe is Synclavier and Yamaha FM synthesis, with Francois Kevorkian doing alot of the heavy lifting, so maybe skip to their live shows for more synthy inspiration.


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## kgdrum (Sep 21, 2021)

Pier said:


> Woah @doctoremmet that's quite a collection!
> 
> So in your ears Arturia emulations are good?
> 
> I've never tried them myself but always had the impression they were not so great from the videos I've seen.


I’m obviously not doctorXsample8dioanythingMelda&FMFintPopeChrisHeinArturiaKaroryferWaverunnerCherryremmit but I am someone who’s been a long time V-Collection user I stopped upgrading for a while at V-6 and to me the collection was meh. Everything sounded OK but it felt like different GUI’s with everything having an Arturia sound and never sounding that convincing to my ears.
Last week I upgraded to V-8 and I must say Arturia has really stepped up their GAME BIG-TIME! 
They started improving the synths around V-7 and the newer Synths moving forward are imo very nice.
Do they sound exactly like the hardware they are modeling? Probably not but they sound really really good👍


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## Pier (Sep 21, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> But maybe I just have bad ears. I was lucky to be invited and chat with @secondtiersound and @Simeon a week ago on some of these very topics.


I actually saw the stream a couple of days ago! It was very interesting.


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## Pier (Sep 21, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> Last week I upgraded to V-8 and I must say Arturia has really stepped up their GAME BIG-TIME!
> They started improving the synths around V-7 and the newer Synths moving forward are imo very nice.


Shit now I will need to listen to those synths and pray GAS doesn't hit me.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

zwhita said:


> Any particular phase of their career you're aiming for the sound of? Early stuff after Ralf & Florian is mostly Minimoog and Odyssey, with combo organs run through the filters of those two, and customized drum modules. Computerworld does contain some of the better polysynths of the start of the 80's, but you'd also want to add a healthy dose of speech synthesis from something like Plogue Chipspeech. I don't think they ever used drum machines except the Tr-808 on 'Musique Nonstop' to mock Arthur Baker. Alot of Electric Cafe is Synclavier and Yamaha FM synthesis, with Francois Kevorkian doing alot of the heavy lifting, so maybe skip to their live shows for more synthy inspiration.


Cool post! I actually really like the Tour de France album. Especially Vitamin. Never bothered to check their then-current studio gear, any clues?


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## zwhita (Sep 21, 2021)

No clue for 'The Mix' onward, although I kept hearing lots of modular and NI software after Expo 2000 initially came out. I kind of tuned them out after their "The Robots" 12 inch single. I think that 'Mix' era stuff is still their best sounding output, although their subsequent live shows were always impressively well planned and orchestrated.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

Pier said:


> I've never tried them myself but always had the impression they were not so great from the videos I've seen.


And some of the recent presets are by legends such as Empty Vessel and @Whywhy (Yuli Yolo). Which really helps


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

zwhita said:


> No clue for 'The Mix' onward, although I kept hearing lots of modular and NI software after Expo 2000 initially came out. I kind of tuned them out after their "The Robots" 12 inch single. I think that 'Mix' era stuff is still their best sounding output, although their subsequent live shows were always impressively well planned and orchestrated.


I was stunned by how good The Mix sounded when that came out. It’s still one of the best records in their catalogue for me. I’ve listened to it a lot in the 1990s.


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## jimjazzuk (Sep 21, 2021)

This is the most lively thread I've ever kicked off on here! Glad to see lots of Kraftwerk love and interest in this sort of sound. I was really into Kraftwerk in my early teens, then found jazz, and now 20 years later suddenly had an urge to listen to them again and now I've realised I have all these amazing soft synths it's time to make some music in this style


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## sostenuto (Sep 21, 2021)

Hey @ Rudianos 😊 THX for this 'reminder' ! Have Analog Labs V, and excellent results with several sound-banks at modest cost. Picking up Kraft Tribute right now. 👏🏻👏🏻


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## doctoremmet (Sep 21, 2021)

I’d love to hear some eventually. Cool goals!


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## Zanshin (Sep 21, 2021)

doctoremmet is such a mr know it all... 

Great thread! Don't forget:






Motorik - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 22, 2021)

A somewhat related video by Tom Wolfe that just came out today:


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## AmbientMile (Sep 22, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> ....Don’t take my word for it though. What do I know....



Is that a Yamaha CS5 in your rack, good Doctor? That was my first synth! I miss it dearly (only because it was my first synth).


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## AmbientMile (Sep 22, 2021)

I've put this in my cart many times, but have never pulled the trigger because of the cost. Looks like fun though for fans of Kraftwerk:

https://www.bestservice.com/synth-werk.html


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## doctoremmet (Sep 22, 2021)

AmbientMile said:


> Is that a Yamaha CS5 in your rack, good Doctor? That was my first synth! I miss it dearly (only because it was my first synth).


It sure is!


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## AmbientMile (Sep 22, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> It sure is!


Very cool! I got mine in 1979. That little guy created a lifetime of synth ownership that continues to this day. I'll share a pic one of these days.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Sep 23, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> The one in Arturia V Collection is pretty good  for a vintage sound. Don’t take my word for it though. What do I know.


PPG… be still my heart!! Lucky you!


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## Luftrum (Sep 29, 2021)

Kraftwerk sounds you say? Do you have Diva? Then I have this. All sounds in the vid are 100% Diva and from the set.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 29, 2021)

Ned Bouhalassa said:


> PPG… be still my heart!! Lucky you!


That is an OLD picture from before the PPG died :-(


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## KraftWorker (Sep 29, 2021)

Luftrum said:


> Kraftwerk sounds you say? Do you have Diva? Then I have this. All sounds in the vid are 100% Diva and from the set.




Thanks for sharing - some classic sounds there...


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## muratkayi (Oct 1, 2021)

Hi OP!

if you're into Menschmaschine sounds, there is a Wir sind die Roboter preset in the Rounds banks by NI. Rounds is a very powerful synth anyway especially for adding movement to old school sounds 

If you loved the vocoder sounds of Kraftwerk and own Komplete, check out "The Mouth" for instant Kraftwerk and also Razor's vocoder presets


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## jimjazzuk (Oct 19, 2021)

It's not really Kraftwerk, but here's my first bit of synth writing:


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## KraftWorker (Nov 9, 2021)

jimjazzuk said:


> It's not really Kraftwerk, but here's my first bit of synth writing:



Good job Jim - thanks for posting...


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## kilgurt (Nov 9, 2021)

Korg Monopoly - very analogue and very underrated!
Check it out.


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## Gerbil (Nov 19, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> The one in Arturia V Collection is pretty good  for a vintage sound. Don’t take my word for it though. What do I know.


I updated from Arturia v4 to v8 yesterday, partly because I saw your pic and thought ‘he must know something I don’t’. And you did!

One €99 update later - which is an unbelievable price for all the extra instruments - and I can confirm that they have come of age. I never really liked their earlier versions of the Jupiter 8 or minimoog, but the Jupiter sounds a lot more as I remember it and their more recent Juno 6 is excellent. I had a Juno 6 as a teenager and a 60 for twenty odd years and they’ve done a stellar job here (with some neat little extras).

Repro and The Legend have been my favourite virtual analog soft synths for some time but they’ve got competition now. OBXA try-out tonight and I’m saving the Emulator II for very last as that’s the Queen Bee for me.


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## doctoremmet (Nov 19, 2021)

Gerbil said:


> OBXA try-out tonight


You may have noticed I have access to the real thing and I have to say Arturia’s emulation is fantastic. But I have learned over the years that as much as I adore hardware synths, software really has come of age. There is a lot of snobbery and people claim they can hear “massive” differences, but I’ve failed many of my own A\B tests, so I’d take all of that with a huge grain of salt. I hear you on the U-he and Synapse front - they make fantastic synths. But Arturia stuff is brilliant as well.


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## Gerbil (Nov 19, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> You may have noticed I have access to the real thing and I have to say Arturia’s emulation is fantastic. But I have learned over the years that as much as I adore hardware synths, software really has come of age. There is a lot of snobbery and people claim they can hear “massive” differences, but I’ve failed many of my own A\B tests, so I’d take all of that with a huge grain of salt. I hear you on the U-he and Synapse front - they make fantastic synths. But Arturia stuff is brilliant as well.


Totally agree. Ever since someone put up an A/B between Diva and an Oberheim on Gearspace a few years ago, I’ve accepted that soundwise they’re pretty much the same as far as I can hear.


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## kgdrum (Nov 19, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> You may have noticed I have access to the real thing and I have to say Arturia’s emulation is fantastic. But I have learned over the years that as much as I adore hardware synths, software really has come of age. There is a lot of snobbery and people claim they can hear “massive” differences, but I’ve failed many of my own A\B tests, so I’d take all of that with a huge grain of salt. I hear you on the U-he and Synapse front - they make fantastic synths. But Arturia stuff is brilliant as well.




I couldn’t agree more,I upgraded from V6 ———-> V8 and I think Arturia has upped their game the last few years. The better soft synths from various developers like 
U-he,Synapase,Arturia etc…….and many other talented developers have certainly improved the last several years and arguably offer advantages over the hardware equivalents,stability,presets recall etc……. The hardware might be more fun to play and you get the tactile feedback of hardware but someone being able to hear the difference between sw & hw synths in a mix is debatable.


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## doctoremmet (Nov 19, 2021)

Yes Kenny, that pretty much sums up my sentiments as well.


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