Krautrock me Amaedus

I feel reborn. I had no idea the kind of music thats been driving me for so long is called BERLIN SCHOOL and now I want to learn how to do it.

Mostly though, I want to know what specific brand of instruments the big names like Kraftwerk, Klause Schultz, Cusco, Vangelis and so forth used. I know its analog bass in the low and mid with basic beats and a soaring lead.

My question is what synthesizers and stuff did they use for those signature sounds and where can I get them?

They have very specific soft saw leads and dry, processed drums and certain harps and stuff that define the sound and I want them to do stuff like it.

Here are some great examples of what I want to do.

Early Kraftwerk used a lot of modular analog synths. A real analog synth will help you emulate that, but a very good VA synth would be good too.

Vangelis used the Yamaha CS-80 a lot.

Well, getting a real analog synth wouldn't be realistic. I actually have one back at my dad's house - the Chroma Polaris which I absolutely hate, but I'm all virtual at this time.

Right now I only want to do Berlin School for one track on Espers, thats why I'm hesitant for anything other than what I could get for free at this moment.

I know people make free VSTs for like the ARP 2600 and the Mini Moog (which I have). Are there other ones for like the CS80 or even a Prophet?

Augur, a Prophet vst, is in perpetual beta mode, but it worked ok the last time I tried it. Kinda overly harsh/digital sounding imo. However, these type of sounds don't generally make it into my music, so I haven't used Augur enough to form a real opinion about it.

How much money do you have? Free VAs usually aren't that great, aside from Synth1. Timewarp 2600 is good for that kind of sound... Augur is actually the wrong kind of Prophet, the Prophet VS, not the Prophet 5 which is the common analog one (not the digital wavetable.) If you look on KVR there are a few emulations of the Prophet 1/5/600 for free. Arturia has emulations of basically ALL that stuff, including the CS-80, but some people debate how close they are to the original sound, and they do cost money.

Augur is actually the wrong kind of Prophet, the Prophet VS, not the Prophet 5 which is the common analog one (not the digital wavetable.)

Ahh, learn something new every day.

How much money do you have?

The problem is not really a number next to a dollar sign, its the value of the investment. If I wanted, I could buy more than several Moogs and Mellotrons and at least one of those big phone operator wall processors because I could numerically afford it.

The problem is having that money come back after the investment. Pretty much anyone could do Berlin School with even FL Studio's presets, a basic understanding of C minor and some soundfonts if they can afford mixing and mastering. Its such a niche that I don't see myself making any return on it even if I found some German record label who would put me out. Thats a lot of money down the drain that I needed to not be homeless in my old age.

Plus I learned my lessons on those cheap VSTs too. Far as I'm concerned, I get the same thing for free with instruments that cost below $90, and I can't go around buying stuff above it until I get some real paying gigs - if that ever happens.

Basically I just gotta do this one step at a time.

Here we go!

Now thats what I'm talking about and looking for. I can't get that synthesizer, but there must be something around where I can pull that same stuff off on.

Again, any decent VA can do that. Zebra certainly can. It's all just simple waveforms through lowpass filters with some lo-fi delay/reverb.