How It Was Recorded

Jan Hammer · Album, 1985

Miami Vice soundtrack

This is an album-level record: the sources describe how the album as a whole was recorded, not one song. Where a detail belongs to a single song, the row says so.

Songs this record stands for: Miami Vice Theme. We found nothing specific to this song, so this album record is the closest account we have.

DrumsKeyboards and sequencesTape recordingVerified4Reported1

What the sources do and do not say

One Sound On Sound interview (2004) with Jan Hammer covering his home studio during the Miami Vice years; it does not discuss the theme itself, so all rows are album-level. The tape row is the 16-track machine only; maker not stated. No search beyond the one candidate page was possible.

Drums

Jan Hammer

Instrument

Fairlight CMI

Verified

Hammer sampled his own studio drum kit into it to supply many of the gated-drum sounds of the period.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Emulation of this unit

Arturia CMI V

instrument

An emulation of the Fairlight CMI.

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Mix effects

Lexicon Reverb (model not stated)

Verified

Gated Lexicon reverb, along with heavy compression, was used to process the sampled drum sounds.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Covers this kind of unit

Universal Audio Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb

reverb

Models the Lexicon 224, the firm's first widely used digital reverb. The source does not name the model, so this stands for the maker's family of units: it is not a model of the one on the record.

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Keyboards and sequences

Jan Hammer

Instrument

Fairlight CMI

Verified

Held some of the sequences for the Miami Vice music, which were also printed to tape.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Emulation of this unit

Arturia CMI V

instrument

An emulation of the Fairlight CMI.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Moog Memorymoog

Reported

Used, with the Fairlight, to re-record original parts for the 2002 Complete Collection release.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Approximate

Arturia Mini V

instrument

A Minimoog emulation. It has the Moog filter and character, but this is a different Moog.

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Tape recording

Jan Hammer

Input chain

Unidentified Tape machine, 16-track (model not stated)

Verified

Multitrack recorder Hammer had by the time of Miami Vice, to which everything was recorded.

Source: Sound On Sound, accessed 15 Nov 2026

Approximate

Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines

tape

Models two Studer machines, not this recorder. It gives the general behaviour of analogue multitrack tape.

Get the plugin ↗What else it stands in for

Also worth a look: Universal Audio Studer A800 Tape Recorder (Models a Studer A800, not this recorder. It gives the general behaviour of analogue multitrack tape).

Sources

  1. The Synthesizer Performer, Sound On Sound, 2004-09. Accessed 15 Nov 2026.
Verified

Stated by the engineer, producer or artist, or by the manufacturer.

Reported

Stated by a reputable secondary source.

Inferred

An educated suggestion, not a documented fact.

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