The synth-laden opening track for the Netflix hit, Stranger Things, is a great showcase of how these instruments can set the mood for a television show. While some modern television shows incorporate synths for nostalgic reasons or to emphasize the time period of the show, there was a time when almost all shows used them. This resulted in a couple of very memorable tunes with some very catchy hooks. Here are just a few of the shows from the eighties and nineties that went all out with synths for their intros.

Back in the early days of synthesizers it still took some convincing for people to invest in these newfangled instruments. Luckily, there were plenty of advertising folks who believed that they knew just how to entice consumers with flashy commercials. Thanks to YouTube, many of these commercials are still available and make for fascinating viewing. Here are just some of the best vintage synth television commercials designed to make you covet one of your own.

The prices of many vintage synthesizers have skyrocketed in recent years, putting them out of reach of all but the most dedicated collectors. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to experiment with the sounds of these vintage instruments. Thanks to a number of companies spending an obscene amount of hours replicating every faced of the synthesizers in software format, it is easier and more affordable than ever to mess around with some very sought after synths.

Tablets and other mobile devices have come a long way since the early days and these days it’s not unusual to hear about professional decisions making use of them in the studio and even live. It also means that many music apps available for iOS are no longer just novelty gimmicks, but are able of delivering some impressive results. There are a number of vintage synth apps for iOS owners to enjoy, but musicians looking for software that offer the deep and heavy bass sounds that they crave also have plenty of options.

Owning a single vintage synth might be cool, but getting access to up to 38 would give you even more options to create great music.  This is exactly what Syntronik by IK Multimedia offers. By sampling some of the best and most sought after synthesizers that they sourced from private collections, IK Multimedia has gone above and beyond what is expected from virtual instruments. From the Alesis Andromeda and Multimoog to the Roland Juno-60, Oberheim OB-X, Yamaha GX-1, Elka Rhapsody 490 and many, many others, Syntronik is offers a great package for vintage synth enthusiasts.