Welcome back to "The Synth Sounds Of…", our ongoing series where we dive into the beats and sonic textures of some of the biggest pop hits of all time. Last week, we leapt into the juicy Oberheim goodness of Van Halen's "Jump", and today we're turning to the work of fellow '80s iconoclast Madonna.
While there are many worthwhile, synth-laden Madonna hits that we could’ve chosen from this era, 1984's "Into the Groove" from the Like a Virgin LP is the only one that directly deals with the lyrical subject of getting into a groove, which is our exact prerogative with these videos.
As our resident synth tone slinger William Kurk explains in the video above, the baseline of this track was originally recorded on a Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter rack unit triggered via a sequencer. Here, we're using a Minimoog Model D, which Madonna’s live band used at the time, to achieve a similar tone. The synth chords on the record seem to have come from a Juno-106, but in the video we went with a Juno-6 to better illustrate how things are coming together.
The original drum track on "Into the Groove" was produced by an Oberheim DMX, which ranks alongside the Roland TR-808 as one of the key drum machines of the decade. Also like the original 808, a vintage DMX comes with a pretty sizable price tag these days. You can find samples of these analog sounds in the Reverb Oberheim DMX Sample Pack or the Goldbaby Custom DMX software emulation.
Check out our Soundcloud track below to hear our take on "Into the Groove," where we use an Arturia Mini V3, Prophet V, and Jup-8 to nail these classic pop tones. (Find details of a Reverb Exclusive Arturia Sale below.)
If you're interested in toying with the synth and drum sounds of Madonna's "Into the Groove", with or without a vintage instrument in hand, you can download our Ableton Live, Logic, or Pro Tools sessions below.
Arturia Sale: Now through the end of our "The Synth Sounds Of..." series on May 15, U.S. customers can get a Reverb Exclusive discount on the Arturia software synths used in our videos. Use promo code REVERBSOUNDS at checkout for 33% off the Arturia Prophet V and 20% off the Arturia V Collection 6.