I was trying with synths, its only synth or e.pianos?
and
how can I make an identical sound. Thx in advance.

1:41

 

From the credits of various albums, it is known that Michael Cretu uses or has used the Waveframe 1000, Audioframe Workstation, MiniMoog, PPG System, Korg M1, C-Lab Notator, Takamine 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, Tom Anderson electric guitars, Otari DTR-900, Akai S900, Linn 9000, Sequential Circuits Prophet 2000, Oberheim Xpander, EMS Vocoder, Yamaha DX-7, Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter, Roland V-Synth, Korg OASYS, Korg Karma.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.R.T._Studios

 

I think Michael Cretu, and especially early Engima is seriously underrated.

 

thanks for the info I would like to know where that ambient key come from (1:41)

 

My guess would be the Oberheim, Michael used that a lot around that time

 

Honky Tonk (Saloon/Bar style piano)... Sounds like chorus/detuned or so... But it is a honky-tonk... Don't know what it is exactly from...

That list of gear.... Interesting.... But, Haliax, you think Ambar is going to buy old that gear to find that exact sound? Also, it is not a complete list of gear, in Spain he had a lot of rack stuff (according to his ART Studios photos), and also he used too much samples, so now it can be not also one of his gear, but also a sampled melody from his sample libraries.... but now he uses mostly VSTi/AUi, samples, not so much gear (his studio is now way more compact and more pc-based, than pc/digital synths based)... One of his recent photos I have seen (years ago) - midi, controller, computer, monitoring and LinPlug or Rob Papen synths (Predator might be), but yes, something more digitally clean sounding, than old vintage analog emulated.... Mostly samples of world/ethnic music/beats, old rock/hiphop breaks, chants and modern digitally clean 80s, 90s and 00s synths/plugins...

 

Honky tonk... From rolands or korg or oberheim or alike digital synths...and reverb
Example:

 

It's a nice starting point to find where Michael gets his sound or ideas from, plus a lot of that list has some close VST variants. As for the samples, I seriously love the chanting from the first two albums. I remember sitting in a car chilling out to that at 3am when it was first released, that really blew my mind

 

Yeah, many chants can be found) sadeness, return to innocence and many many many....

 

oh ya I will check that one saloon piano, Also I was testing on cp 70 chorused tremoled and detuned, it is getting closer, thanks guys

 

Maybe the sound came out of one of these


Everyone is concentrating on vintage synths and for get Cretu's high usage of samplers in his productions. Also there are other newer synths and modules that he used that no one has mentioned such as Roland D series, Korg Trinity T3, Wavestation, Yamaha TG77, Tx802. In sum, unless Cretu was using a preset figuring out the original source could prove to be an exercise in futility.

 

Last edited: Mar 18, 2021

Cretu smokes too much

 

Totally.

Ugh! Really? From the late 90s?
He probably got sent it and had to use it! lol.

 

I meant to mention the Korg T3

 

He had an endorsement deal with AKAI Professional which he signed in 1987. He also used Emulator and AudioFrame. Cretu got sampling help from Frank Peterson's

 

Wow. 3 years before Sadness. Impressive.
What was he doing in '87 to warrant that sponsorship? Sorry, "endorsement".

 

He was running Data Alpha Studio in Munich, doing his thing with Sandra and others. Cretu has been around since the late 70s. Needless to say that whatever is it that he was doing he was doing before Enigma was good enough for AKAI.

 

Sorry for disturbing your conversation , but finally I found in a cp 70(with the right effects) the ambient sound I was looking for. saloon/bar piano (kontakt) was a good option too but not tweakable at all. Thanks guys for the help and for the big amount of info.

 

Yeah. I asked what it was that he was doing for Akai to sponsor him.
I didn't think it was "needless to say"!
I wanted it said!
And you seemed to know so much about him.

Edit: Oh! Sandra the band! I see now.
I don't know what I was thinking!

 

Last edited: Mar 18, 2021