Italo Synth Pop à la The Kolors

The pop trio The Kolors, already celebrated as stars in their Italian homeland, achieved Europe-wide fame last year with their summer hit „Italodisco“. Now the musicians from Naples are continuing their success story with „A Boy A Girl“, a combination of danceable modern Italo pop and the sounds of the 80s. In addition to the captivating vocals, charming synth sounds play the main role. Let‘s recreate three of them!

1

Italo synth bass

One of the most striking elements of „Un ragazzo una ragazza“is the crisp synth bass. To recreate this, create a project with 128 BPM and load the Mai Tai synthesizer with the Temp - EasySaw preset. Select the Mono playback mode and activate Osc 2, tune Osc 1 to 16‘ and Oscillator 2 to 8‘ and set Fine to -6.00 or +6.00.1

2

Bass: Fundamental

Select the Square waveform for Oscillator 1 and adjust the Level controls as shown in the picture. Pulse Width Modulation provides a somewhat livelier sound. For Osc 1, turn the PWM control all the way up. Then make the modulation assignment shown in Slot 2 of the Modulation Matrix (Mod A). This causes the third envelope to modulate the pulse width. 1

3

Crunchy bass sound

Set the envelopes as shown. For the crisp Bass, activate the filter in LP 24dB Zero Mode and set it as shown; then, adjust the assignment in Row 2 of the Matrix as shown in the previous image. The Velocity now influences the filter. The EQ and Distortion on the FX B side provide a more present sound. 1

4

Retro chords

The Bass plays the bassline shown. A D# minor chord with a striking vibrato adds cool retro accents to the hit by The Kolors. Start with the Temp - EasySaw preset here, too. For the vibrato effect, we set LFO 1 as the modulation source and Osc 1 - Pitch as the destination in the second slot of the Matrix, with a Modulation Intensity of 1.6%. 1

5

Chords: Vibrato

Then, activate LFO 1 with the Triangle Waveform and set Rate to 5.67 Hz and Delay to 70.0 ms. The Character Processor gives the sound more presence, and Modulation and Reverb provide more fullness and spaciousness. At the beginning of the Chorus of the hit, an off-beat Bass plays instead of the familiar Bass sound, which we also recreate with Mai Tai. 1

6

Offbeat bass

The two oscillators with the Sawtooth Waveform provide the foundation, with the first oscillating a fifth higher (Semi: 7). The filter parameters and the envelopes are to be adjusted as shown for a crunchy sound. All that‘s missing now is a pinch of Delay and Reverb, while EQ and Distortion make the sound even punchier.