the trend of people recording music and then pretending it’s a mysterious reissue of an obscure new age or home recorded primitive electronics cassette and putting a fake 80’s date of release on it… why?
also, oberheim matrix 6 on sale for $1300? the piece is a menu diving nightmare of buzzkill tedium. the synth was manufactured after the company was sold to a management firm in the 80’s and made as a low cost, consumer grade quick cash in on the brand name. again, no …
I hear you.
…and I know you’re not really asking, but answering you allows me to vent as well.
It probably has to do with trying to lend some credibility to the project. Tapping into the nostalgia market. Something old and obscure apparently has more value than something modern. “This was made when I was young so it must be good!” aka “Kids these days don’t know what real music is”.
And I get it, with over 60.000 tracks uploaded to Spotify every day it’s hard to stand out. Sixty thousand tracks. Every day. That’s 21.900.000 new tracks per year, and the vast majority going unheard. So maybe pretending your music is something old and special isn’t the worst idea if you want people to check out your stuff? Sigh. 
Yeah, synthflation is a real thing. The obvious thing to ask, wasn’t the Matrix 6 produced for only a short time? So there probably aren’t that many produced.
On top of that, we live in an age where vintage synths lend another air of credibility to a project. Almost to the point of “if you don’t have a real Juno or an original SH-101 in your track it can’t be good”. Which is utter bollocks, of course.
Nonetheless, there is a high degree of fetishization of vintage synths. With so many people making music these days. There are more people interested in owning vintage hardware synths than there are units available. And with the standard classics such as the Jupiters and Juno’s having reached astronomical prices already. More and more people are interested in the previously (and rightfully so) less desirable synths, driving up their prices. Though I think most of those will end up being fancy looking boxes used to decorate their studio rather than be used to make music.
Most of those synths that reached astronomical prices already are so popular is not just because they sound great (and been used on famous recordings). It’s also that they tend to be the ones that are easy to use. It takes little effort to get a decent sound out of them. That’s valuable. Some of the later synths are indeed, as you so nicely put it, a menu diving nightmare of buzzkill tedium.
And if some famous artist you like made good use of it. They either used presets or were truly dedicated to learning the machine. And being dedicated to a synth was a lot easier 30+ years ago when there were less distraction and that synth was the only piece of gear you had. You had to learn it inside out. There was no youtube tutorial for you to follow and imitate exactly. The fact that you were on your own when it came to exploring the synth meant that different artists took the same hardware into different sonic directions. Creating their unique sounds. Not always, of course, but you get my point.
Then imagine when AI start creating songs then this amount will go through the roof.
I remember reading an interview with Depeche Mode where they talked about labels being a good thing as they functioned as a “shit filter”, even if we wanted to find the best music today it would be impossible… It’s really about marketing at this stage, if you know you have a very very good song then market it else just let it drown.
At some point these old classic will be more than fully emulated and lose their value, at least that’s my opinion but collectors never fail to spend, so let them spend.
By the way I wanna vent about Waves going full subscription model all while I’m on their support and it goes “mailbox full”, guess people vent to their mailbox 
Definitely, back in the late 90s/early 00s there were a couple of labels that I could almost blindly order their new release from without having heard it or having read a review. The taste of the label aligned with my taste. That’s the good side of gatekeeping. A third, somewhat independent party that points at things and says “hey, this is worth checking out”.
Totally. For me hardware is more about the workflow or the tactile nature of a synth. Using your fingers to move the knobs and sliders. It makes me create different sounds than I would in software with a mouse. But with some of those 80s synths it’s just button pressing and menu diving. That makes it hard to argue against a similar sounding emulation with a good on-screen editor.
Subscription models are awful. 
Just wait what comes next, I think the 90s are the next trend on the road. People will be faking CDs and old software, using obsolete smartphones with zero functionality (and nibbles…) and selling each other all the rubbish that the people born in the 70s or 80s gladly have left behind after that decade was over.
AI will make shit-tier music just as any generic producer out there. We gotta stand out through creativity and emotion 
I can’t imagine AI making something like this:
https://producersnafu.bandcamp.com/album/epiphanies-from-the-earth
In other words:
TikTok era is being really hard to endure imo. I mean, stupid trends were always a thing, but it’s getting out of hand now lol. It’s a new one every week.
Guys just write music. everything goes and it is also.
good point.
Ultimately, there aren’t any rules
I think these experiences are connected with the absence of something new. and this is the first sign that they are looking for something new already within the framework of their experience.
That’s pretty ingenious marketing IMO. I’ve never heard of anyone doing this before and I kind of wish I had thought of it a long time ago, personally