Rhythmic Pad Secrets: Recreating 1986 Synth Pop

The main takeaway from this video for those that dont have half an hour is: a good gating effect needs an attack&release which are super fast and the side-chain path has a filter. thats it!

I don't know why I'm watching this. I once spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours making synth music in my 20s in the 2000s. I married, have family and I feel like that life has long passed me by. I guess I can live vicariously through you guys who kept at it.

Try this out = Get your favourite Electric Guitar and an Ebow and play a long drawn-out part on the Guitar using the Ebow and record two takes. Then pan each take hard left & right then reverse the recordings of the two parts and then insert the Drawmer Gate over the stereo pair. When you hear the result you will feel like the choir of Angles that speak for God are speaking to you.

This video made my day! The 80s was a special time. Now understanding this technique on a song I have forever loved- it is much appreciated. Thank you.

Great video. Really pleased that you've unlocked more of the magic of this unit :) Still in production, but as you say, there are a LOT out there on ebay. We're still able to service and repair any tired units too. We also make a few other products that might be of interest... :)

Lucky to randomly find this. Great video

One of my favorite tutorial videos to date

Amazing video! Youre super entertaining!

Seems like this video really took off! There's not enough new wave/post punk synth and production content on YouTube. Thanks for being here and making videos!

Oh my goodness! You found out what I asked myself for ages! Whot ay naaise video! Thank you so, so much!!!

Bro...that is LEGIT 80's sound. 🔥🔥🔥

Cubase has a midigate. Secret tip : I also use it to trigger gated sends to a delay or reverb

been chasing this sound for a minute. happy to have found your video.

man this is epic ,this gate is class, so snappy

Thanks for making this video. I own 2 Drawmer Ds201 and 1 Drawmer mx40 gates. They are fantastic. Not as useful as they used to be at one time but there's a reason they are racked up by my synths. Panning effects are also a very cool using 2 Drawmer Ds201's and alternating key sources. The MX40 does something special to any percussive element. It adds something to the transients and makes drums more punchy. Love Drawmer products.

Oh man, I would have listened to this in 1986-87 in the US and been enamored with your band! This is amazing work your doing mate, thank you! Also, +100 for your watch!

As a child of the 80s (79 born) this sound is ingrained in my consciousness. Really love it. Great video. Thanks. We also seem to have started at the same time with the same version of Ableton. Crikey not far off twenty years now and I'm still no " Power User. " Best regards. PK

Great video! New Order! I just picked up a Drawmer Ds201 because of your videos.

Listen to “Is There Something I Should Know” “New Moon on Monday” or “The Reflex” by Duran Duran. Same pad gated effect in 1983. From Ian Little : "One of the things that I did was get a pad synth sound, put it through a Drawmer gate on an external trigger, and then have the gate triggered off a percussive part like a side-stick which was already being played or programmed specifically to trigger the gate. Sequencers were still pretty new and cumbersome in those days, so this provided an alternative way of getting a pulsed synth sound, but the type of sound was also very, very different. If it's sequenced, each note is being triggered individually, whereas a pad that is held down for a sustained sound that is then gated and triggered is a totally different animal, because there's no attack at the front of each note other than that provided by the gate opening. The Drawmer was the first gate I used that had frequency selectivity, and that meant you could really isolate the part of the rhythm that you wanted to accent. What's more, the attack and release times on the gate could totally change the character of the pulse that you heard. This was something that I introduced to Nick and you can hear it both on 'Is There Something I Should Know?' and 'The Reflex'; more like an organic version of a sequenced line, being more rounded while boasting a certain degree of randomness."

Thanks for sharing this knowledge.