Keep your arrangements sparse

30-40 years ago, synths were rarely capable of playing more than one sound at a time (although keyboard splits did allow for separate ‘bass’ and ‘treble’ instruments in some cases). Equally, polyphony was restricted, many synths were monophonic and even those which weren’t would – at most – be capable of playing just a few notes at once. Many of the arrangements and recordings from that era are stronger for their sparseness, so try to keep your arrangements down to just a few tracks, built mostly from single monophonic lines or just a few notes, per instrument.