THE REAL DEAL

If you want to get more authentic with your Autobahn sound, or the Kraftwerk sound of that early ’70s era, you could, of course, use the original gear – they didn’t have the luxury of ZebraCM, after all! So you’re looking at a Minimoog for the bass notes and an ARP Odyssey for some of the leads; a couple of hardware synths that will cost you a fortune. But this is Computer Music, so of course you don’t need the hardware, and there are plenty of software emulations of those two classics around. Other gear included two phaser effects (the Schulte Compact Phasing and Mu-tron Bi-phase). Phaser plugins are many and varied, but the Mu-tron has been emulated by Arturia (see right). Both of these effects were used on the synths, so you can apply them directly (to the lead especially). Beats are a little more difficult to create directly as Kraftwerk used their own often DIY machines created from various parts so you’re unlikely to find direct emulations, but we think we got pretty close just using a VA synth to recreate the kick and snare. And if you’ve followed our tutorial you’ll realise that the final piece in a jigsaw is a good stereo delay… on just about everything.

Kraftwerk performing live at the Lyceum ballroom, London in 1981

The Arturia Phaser Bi-Tron will give you a pretty decent recreation of Kraftwerk’s original Mu-Tron Bi-phase

Arturia’s Mini V is a faithful remake of the iconic Minimoog; a synth that Kraftwerk adopted for the bass parts of Autobahn