One of the questions I semi-regularly get from customers is “Have you got anything a bit more ambient?”

And the simple answer has always been an ashamed: “Not really, no.” Until now!

I have finally produced an ambient soundset. It’s for Diva, so it’s on the classic analogue side of ambient, and it’s called Gemini.

However, me being me, Gemini comes along with a slightly darker, moodier, altogether more weird, sister… called Gemini Dark. I couldn’t help myself, could I? Always have to follow the dark path somehow.

But, what I will say about Gemini Dark is that, whilst it is a darker sibling to Gemini, is a fun and retro soundset nonetheless. It’s not as achingly brooding as Praxis or as dynamic and rugged as Anahera. So, it’s not TOO dark. If you catch my analogue drift.

Gemini’s inception (beyond customers begging for something lighter) mainly came about through sounds that just didn’t fit in other soundsets. Primarily because, yes, they were too light! Steadily that folder of lighter, retro sounds grew and grew until I could no longer ignore it and realised I pretty much had a soundset on my hands.

The sounds, in general, had a feel to them that reminded me very much of those classic “Best of Synthesizer Hits” abums that were everywhere in the 80s and 90s. Full of Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Space, The Alan Parsons Project, Mike Oldfield, Kraftwerk and Jan Hammer. Sometimes they’d feature the original recordings, sometimes they very much wouldn’t!

So, there I was, feeling pangs of nostalgia for compilations designed to make you nostalgic… it was nostalgia overload.

It was a large folder of sounds and, as I went along reviewing it, I found there were too many darker sounds in it. Enough for another soundset? Why, yes, of course. Hence the existence of Gemini Dark to partner Gemini.

And, let’s face it, this is what Diva does best. Those Moog, Korg, Roland and Oberheim oscillators and filters are straight from that classic period and nail the sound. I like to think that they’ve helped me create a joyous, vibrant (and occasionally sinister) couple of soundsets.