Hey!
 
I need classic 80's sounds for a project I'm making. Think Miami Vice and you know what I'm looking for. Mainy it's drums I'm looking for but everything useful for such a project really. Any ideas?
 
/M

Korg Legacy M1 and Wavestation plugins. 
 
Dimension DSF E-MU Proteus addon packs.
 
Retro sounds and drums. all very usable in todays music but there are some sounds that are very much 80s/90s classic sounds.
 
Also Bitley Fairlight CMI packs http://bitley.laconicsounds.net/
Every wanted a fairlight CMI (Pet Shop Boys, Art of Noise, Peter Gabriel etc)  Bitley now has a wav pack as well as Reason Refill and Kontakt.
 
 

Native Instruments 80's Drummer.
 
For synths, the afore mentioned stuff from the Korg legacy collection and NI's FM8. Jan Hammer's sound was Minimoog through guitar amplification. Try your favorite mono synth through your favorite guitar sim. Minimosta through amplitube 3 in my case.

There's a vintage 70's/80's sound pack for Z3TA that's pretty good. Lots of great sounding 80's pads, leads and basses.

There's a vintage 70's/80's sound pack for Z3TA that's pretty good. Lots of great sounding 80's pads, leads and basses.

+1 to M1 and Wavestation. Korg soft synths are a must, and quite cheap.

Rain
+1 to M1 and Wavestation. Korg soft synths are a must, and quite cheap.

I agree Rain.
The M1 gets used quite a bit here. Picked them up at a decent price during their last sale too.

carl

Rain
+1 to M1 and Wavestation. Korg soft synths are a must, and quite cheap.

I agree Rain.
The M1 gets used quite a bit here. Picked them up at a decent price during their last sale too.

As good as they are the M1 is very late 80's and the wave station is 90's, if you are looking for early 80's sounds in Korg Legacy Monopoly is excellent, I was less impressed with the Polysix but YMMV

it's said in a few places he used a casio az-1 and a jupiter 8 or 6...
the drums are a linndrum loops.. he's well known for using a fairlight also.
 
m1 came out in 88 , miami vice was 84.. to help you narrow it down.. it wouldn't surprise me also if he used an obherheim also
 
http://www.vintagesynth.com/oberheim/obxa.php
 
lots of vst's do decent imitations of old synths.. d-cam by fxpansion , uhe diva , sylenth1 and of course the muz3um pack
 

well if you want the SPECIFIC sound of Miami Vice / Ian Hammer from that period then Ian Hammer used DX7 and Fairlight CMI.  most of the Miami Vice theme song was Fairlight CMI sequencing.
 
Ian Hammer also used a lot of Minimoog from that period.
 
Ian was doing a Miami Vice TV episode every 4 days and relied on the Fairlight CMI a lot because of the intense schedule.  Ian has put out 6 CDs of music from that era and there are a number of interviews on the web where he talks about it.