Behind the sound
About
One person, a room full of synths, and a sound that never quite left 1987.
The artist
AshtonMichaels
The rig
What makes the sound
Every record is built on hardware. No plugin is doing the work that a real oscillator and a real tape echo can do.
Analog polysynth
The pads and the wide chords. Warm, slightly out of tune, perfect.
Mono lead synth
Chrome-plated leads with a chorus pedal doing overtime.
Drum machine
Gated snare, hand-claps, and a kick you feel in your teeth.
Tape echo
Everything goes through it. That is where the hiss comes from.
Juno-style strings
The wide-screen shimmer underneath the whole record.
Sequencer
One arpeggio, left running for eight minutes, never fixed.