Hi Dylan,
First of all nice to hear a few Italo House classics again. I'm most likely the only person on the forum that has something special with R.A.F. and 8AM haha
My soundprocessing and presets have always been influenced by the 'French sound' of the 90s. When it comes to hitradio presets at least. As kid I was very much inpressed to hear that wide an fat sound of the French compared to the boring sound of the dutch stations.
There are a few presets in ST that I created with the French sound in mind (See the Rhodes54 presets French Touch and Fat Bastard in the Webpresets menu). I did not try to copy that exact sound but I used the idea of a fat, wide sound as starting point.
Anyway, when we listen to the old Maxximum recordings, it's very hard to know which of the recordings really represent the sound as it was back in the day, because they all sound different. Most tapes have been recording with cheap recorders, bad tuners, etc. One thing is for sure: The French loved the Stereomaxx. The music f****g drenched in it lol.
There is a way to come closer to that French sound but then you need to put something in front of ST. Another software processor, which is not developed anymore, called Energize. This is the only software based processor where the multiband compressor pretty much reacts to the source material like an Orban does. Where in ST you need to work very hard to get the mids to the front, with Energize it's hard to push them back. Combine Energize with ST and you can most likely create the sound you would like to hear.
Here is a quick test I did in just 10 minutes:
8 AM
http://www115.zippyshare.com/v/vYlgblcq/file.html
R.A.F.
http://www115.zippyshare.com/v/AW7n0F8F/file.html
Tafuri
http://www115.zippyshare.com/v/pyYzxVuc/file.html
It has more highs than the original Maxx recordings but you can lower them to your tasting.