What synthesizers are used in these songs?

[nohmercy]

Hey guys, I don't know much about synthesizers and I'm looking to buy one to learn to play. I was listening to a couple songs and wanted to know what synths might have been used or could reproduce these sounds;

Beginning (not the ocean waves):


20-30 seconds of this:


especially this one:


that sound from 2:10-2:12:




heres a bit of background: I'm looking for one synth keyboard, I'm no musician, just want something that could sound like these. I want to learn to play a keyboard with a sound that I can enjoy pretty much. I know that there is no one-and-only keyboard that can play every sound, but judging from these what keyboard would I probably like? Im in no rush to buy anything, just thinking about this carefully. Thanks! (plan b is to get a korg m1 have fun with that 90s piano sound)

[gcoudert]

It is hard to tell which keyboards produced those sounds but I can promise you that you will achieve similar ones (with a little programming, of course) with any 90s rompler such as the JV- or XP-series from Roland. I don't know what your budget is but you could look for a second-hand XP-80 or XP-60; they are multi-timbral, they have onboard sequencing, etc. and generally sound great. The XP-60 has a 61-note keyboard; the XP-80 has 76.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/xp80.php

Regarding the Korg M1, you will like some of its instantly recognisable presets but you will soon get tired of them. Also, the filter is so poor that, no matter how much you tweak the sounds, you still recognise their raw PCM samples. Many people on this forum including myself have owned one and ended up being disappointed with it after the initial 'wow' factor. It has VERY limited polyphony and sequencer note capacity for a workstation.

[ppg_wavecomputer]

As for Software, Peter Mergener produced the music (or at least most of it up to the early late 1980s, 1990s) -- he has a website of his own. Why not get in touch with him and ask him directly?

Stephen

[nohmercy]

Thanks! I will keep these responses in mind. Also I found that Peter Mergener actually lists all of his equipment on his website, thanks ppg_wavecomputer.