Van Halen’s 1984 is one of the most classic rock albums of all time, and was the first LP by the group recorded by them in their own studio, 5150. One of the most distinct sounds on the album is Alex Van Halen’s awesome and unique drum sound. Song like Jump, and I’ll wait have some of the most recognizable 80s drum sounds next to Phil Collins’ famous concert tom sound on In The Air Tonight.

So how can you recreate this sound today? From extensive research into the way 1984 was recorded, as well as Alex’s drums and tastes, it’s actually not as hard as you’d think to get a relatively similar sound as 1984, though it might take some time to get all the pieces put together if you don’t already have similar things.

• This modeled synthesizer is heavily inspired by a classic synthesizer which was famous in the ’80s. The original was used by artists like Prince, Queen, Styx, Van Halen and Supertramp. However, RAST-A is not intended to be a one-to-one clone, but rather an homage to a specific sound which dominated an entire decade of music.
• This was a classic analog synthesizer available in many voice configurations, featuring a SEM Filter with its own ADSR, a VCA with ADSR, a flexible LFO and others goodies, this synth has been used by Herbie Hancock, Prince, Chick Corea, Cirrus, Depeche Mode, Queen, Supertramp, Kenny Kirkland, Jean-Michel Jarre, Van Halen, Tangerine Dream, Rush.

Part 1 – The kick drum

Vember Audio Surge is probably the most powerful free VST synth on this list. Surge is open source which means you’re free to download the code and do whatever you want with it. It’s fantastic sounding digital synth that can cover all kinds of different sonic territory.

This is actually one of the easiest parts to accomplish. Why is it so easy? Because believe it or not, the bass drum sound on 1984 is not an actual bass drum, but a Simmons electronic drum pad. Though the picture above shows the kit Alex was playing in the video for Jump, he did not actually use the sounds of these crazily huge kick drums, but instead recorded with a fully electronic kick drum.

You may be thinking, how the heck is that easy? Simmons pads are rare and expensive these days! True, but you don’t need a real one, just the sound. You can download some samples here.Then you can use a drum replacer plugin like MDA BeatBox, or something similar to trigger the sample with your kick drum track. If you have an electronic kick that lets you load your own samples, you could do that as well.

Part 2 – The snare drum

Alex played Steel Ludwig 6.5×14 metal snares, as well as a 6.5×14 rosewood Tama snare, but he always used Remo C.S. head (black dot) on them. So the actual snare type isn’t as important as the head and tuning. He would use a regular clear Ambassador on the bottom, and tune them both medium high. Occasionally he would also put some gaffer’s tape on the snare, but not always. Alex played large 2B sticks, which actually had quite an effect on the sound of the drum. So I recommend playing some large sticks like these to increase the chances of a similar sound.

Van Halen Like Free Vst Synthetic

Part 3 – The toms

Alex’s tom sound on 1984 are simple…. Roto Toms. He used several different size roto toms, with a standard Ludwig floor tom with the resonant head removed. Roto toms are cheap and easy to obtain. However, he would use Remo CS heads on them as well. Also, I would look for larger roto toms, like 12″ and above. But if all is you can find are the smaller ones, you can still make due. For the floor tom, just take your bottom head off your floor tom and muffle it a bit with gaff tape, tuned medium tension. On a few songs on 1984 (such as Hot For Teacher) Alex also used Simmons toms (in addition to the roto toms). If you really want to find these too, you could use any electronic tom, then use a Simmons sample, or even some of the newer Simmons drums have the classic sounds built in.

Part 4 – Cymbals

Van Halen Like Free Vst Synthesizer

Alex has always played all Paiste Cymbals, and in the 1984 days he was using a very pingy ride, which was most likely a Paiste 2002 Power Ride .He also used an assortment of Paiste 2002 crashes and chinas, plus 15″ Sound Edge Hi Hats. However, these are all pretty damn pricey. So you could substitute the Paiste PST5 Rock line which comes with a 20″ rock ride, 16″ and 18″ rock crashes, and 14″ sound edge hats, all of which sound great and have similar tones as the more expensive Paistes. You could also pick up a PST5 China to complete the sound.

Part 5 – Miking

Your kick drum mic isn’t going to matter much, since you’ll be replacing the sound anyway, but the snare, a regular old SM57 should suffice. The same should work on the toms, and try to put a bit of distance from the drums to the mics, 1 foot away or so on the roto toms especially. For overheads, use your favorite condenser mics. If you have the room and channels for it, place at least 1 ambient room mic in the room at some distance away from the drums, then mix it in as a natural ambiance.

Part 6 – Mixing

This will have to be dependent on your ears, but but don’t be afraid to put the overheads louder than you normally do. Alex’s cymbals are usually quite loud. The rest is up to your ears and skills!

I hope you found this post helpful and educational. I’d love to hear your attempts, feel free to send them to me!

Best Free Software Synths

Don’t you just love synths? We all do! Synths have been at the forefront of today’s modern music, as well as film and game scoring. We see more and more modern types of scores done with synths alone. Software synths do a pretty great job nowadays, almost as good as hardware ones. That comes at a price of course, but when on a tight budget freeware can do some great stuff. I’ve met many people who use freeware synths on their day-to-day projects. So here is our round up of the best and most interesting freeware synths currently available for you to try out.

1. Dexed

This is a Yamaha DX7 embodiment in software. Basically the creators of ‘Dexed’ analyzed the actual DX7 chips and created a software version of it. And the great thing is that ‘Dexed’ can easily load and save sysex files from a hardware DX7. So if you own a DX7 then you know the ordeal of creating sounds with it from scratch. ‘Dexed’ makes it a lot easier to create your own sounds. If you are a fan of FM synthesis, this one is for you.

2. TAL-NoiseMaker

This synth is a great tool if you are just starting your synth discovery journey. The interface is pretty straightforward and accessible, and let’s not forget the beefy sound it produces. This is a great analog sounding software synth, with two oscillators, 2LFOs, a filter and envelope section, mix section and a great set of built-in effects. Currently it’s one of our favorite free synths out there.

3. OB-XD 2.1

This one is a software emulation of one of the greatest analog synths out there, the Oberheim OB-X. The famous intro to Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ is the OB-X, and you can have this amazing software emulation for $0. The ‘OB-XD 2.1’ is a faithful reproduction of this rich-sounding synth, implementing randomized micro-tuning to achieve similar tones. The dual-oscillator plugin features some modern additions in order to expand on the sound-shaping possibilities of the original hardware synth, and it includes a bendable multimode filter. You can’t go wrong with this one.

4. Daichi Synth 1

This one is for all you 16-bit era SEGA fans out there. Even though the interface is not eye-candy, the sounds it produces are great if you are creating retro music for games. Kind of a strange thing, because the designers claim it was modeled after the Nord Lead 2 and the arpegiator seems interesting for fiddling around with. There are cool presets, but it is also fairly easy to dial in your own sound.

5. VCV Rack

A must-have for any modular enthusiast out there! Modular synths are a whole different universe and the patching possibilities you have are almost endless. That is, if you are brave enough to dive into the world of modular. Luckily, to save your budget from a modular shopping spree, there’s the ‘VCV Rack’ which is a perfect training tool for an upstarting modular enthusiast.

This is a freeware virtual Eurorack environment which allows you to hook up a plethora of virtual modules and create some truly otherworldly and weird sounds. Aside from hooking up the thing inside the box, ‘VCV Rack’ offers an option for MIDI output which enables you to control your actual hardware with CV gate, CV midi and CV cc modules. Of course some additional modules come at a price but the standard version of ‘VCV Rack’ is totally free for the taking.

6. Helm

‘Helm’ is an amazing open-source polysynth that sounds as great as it looks. The GUI is really modern and easy to understand so newcomers won’t have any issues with understanding the controls and what they do. There are loads of great presets as well as some really cool effects like stutter and formant. What’s great and unique about this synth is that it runs on almost every OS out there, be it OSX, Windows or Linux and it’s a 32bit and 64bit software as well. You can modify the source code if you’re crafty enough and create your very own synth out of it.

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