The Synths Behind Don't You Want Me

video upload by Alex Ball

Check out Peahix's cover here, and a few others here.

"A complete recreation of The Human League's biggest hit, Don't you want me, using as many of the original instruments and techniques as possible.

0:00 Intro
0:30 Detective Work
1:49 Bass Line
4:16 A Problem
6:45 Drums
9:09 System 700 Perfect 5ths
9:57 System 700 16th Pattern
11:00 Secret instrument
13:21 System 700 verse diads
14:39 System 700 chords
15:13 The chord of whoops
16:13 System 700 ostinato
17:05 String Synth
18:47 Poly Synth
19:22 Summary
20:32 Full Remake"

Human League DON'T YOU WANT ME Re-Created w/ Arturia Jupiter 8V

Published on Oct 20, 2018 peahix

"Next in my line of synthpop re-creations is this classic from 1982. I'd been wanting to take a stab at it for awhile, with th eventual goal of porting the whole thing to my Roland MC8 MicroComposer, which is the sequencer that the original was created on. That will be a huge project, though, so it'll have to wait for another day. For now, I've just used Cubase and basically limited myself to Arturia's Jupiter 8V plugin, plus the VProm plugin to cover the Linn LM1 drum sounds (http://www.alyjameslab.com/alyjamesla...).

As I always like to point out, I don't consider this a "cover," ie it's not a creative re-interpretation of the song. The goal is to get the arrangement, sounds, and mix as close to the original as possible WITHOUT USING ANY SOUNDS FROM THE ORIGINAL. Everything you're hearing here was done from scratch- there's no samples from the HL original recording. For now I've just made a quickie video with some screenshots, but if I have time I'll try to make a tutorial video on how I put this together.

Usually when I do one of these re-makes, I'm stuck with the original mix of the song, plus any remixes, surround mixes, or any sort of audio trickery I can muster to hear the individual parts more clearly. In this case, the job was made much easier by referencing the original stems of the song, which have been available on the web for years. Now, that didn't make it "easy" per se, as many of the stems have different parts mixed together, but it certainly made it alot easier than it would have been, as this is a very dense and busy arrangement. There are no less than four different bass patches that play in different parts of the song, and there are many different chord parts all mashed up together.

Most of the musical parts were fairly straightforward to work out, but a few were a bit tricky. The first part I tackled was the funky rhythmic synth chords that play in the verse and chorus. On the original this sound was created by feeding a live guitar into the envelope follower of a Roland System 700 modular, which provided articulation for the synth, which was playing a type of chord pad. So it's like a mutant funk guitar pattern. I got reasonably close by sidechaining a funk guitar loop along with a hi-hat to the synth pad track. It's not exact, but you'd never really be able to get it exact anyway- it's pretty organic for a synth part. Interestingly, there's a mistake on the original recording, where this part is slightly out of sync during the first chorus. It plays three 16th notes ahead of the beat. So I re-created that mistake faithfully. In the second chorus, it plays correctly, as it does in the original HL track.

Speaking of musical mistakes, there's a fairly glaring one that I can't imagine was intentional. Either they overlooked it, or just liked how it sounded and left it in. Just before the chorus, there one bar where three different synth parts are playing chords. Two of them are playing a B minor chord, but the other one (the stabby brass sound panned right) is playing a B diminished! So, if you've ever wondered "what the hell is that chord anyway?" now you know. I'm not even sure what to call it, technically. I put in a little text to point out this chord the second time it occurs.

Anyway, I guess that's about all I have to say about this one right now. Instead of fading it out, I opted to preserve the cold ending that you hear when listening to the stems. I also made a mix of this with the original lead vocals layered in. Maybe I'll post that version some other time."

Yazoo - DON'T GO - Re-created w/ Sequential Circuits Pro-One Synth

Published on Jul 23, 2014 peahix

Another one from Pea Hicks. Don't miss the Yazoo Only You cover, and his Yamaha CS-01 Depeche Mode covers. Click here for all posts featuring peahix.

"By special request, here's another Yaz track re-created w/ the Sequential Circuits Pro-One synth. The original actually has a fair amount of ARP 2600 in it, which means that the sounds in my version are a bit hit-and-miss, but I was able to get reasonably close with most of the sounds. My starting point for this was four patches posted at http://www.unease.se/proone.htm which I modified to get closer to the original sounds. The kick is the same patch from the Vince Clarke magazine article that I used on "Only You." All the other sounds I programmed from scratch. Everything was sequenced in Cubase, and the Pro-One sounds were recorded one at a time via a Kenton Pro Solo MIDI/CV interface.

Note that, as with 'Only You,' the original recording is actually pitched a bit sharp. I've decided to record my versions at concert pitch (A440) for the sake of keeping things standard.

The snare, clap (heavy reverb), and hi-hat (heavy flanging) are all 808. The kick and toms are Pro-One.

For the record, I don't view these re-creations as "covers" or creative projects. They're more like jigsaw puzzles to me. A way to challenge my ear, a way to find out the limits of my limited gear, and a way to try to get into the head of musicians/producers I admire. Otherwise, they're relatively pointless and aren't meant to be creative statements in and of themselves.

Here you can download my midi file and patch sheets if you want to have a go and make your own version. Just let me know and give me a mention if you post your version anywhere. https://www.dropbox.com/s/s5342gtfi6o...

Thanks again to frankperri.com for the blank patch sheets!"

Yazoo - ONLY YOU - Re-created w/ Sequential Circuits Pro-One Synth

Published on Jul 19, 2014 peahix

"Some friends needed the backing track of this song for their wedding, so I took the opportunity to geek out with it. The original is well-known by synth nerds as having been produced by Vince Clarke using only a Sequential Circuits Pro-One monophonic analog synthesizer. So, since I have a Pro-One, and there are scans of an old music magazine article online which show the settings for some of the sounds Vince used on this track (https://www.flickr.com/photos/8478882...), I figured I'd have a go at re-creating it.

First I transcribed the music (sequenced with Cubase), using soft-synth sounds as temporary stand-ins for the Pro-One. Then I had to dial in all the Pro-One sounds one-by-one and record each part via a Kenton MIDI-CV interface. I found that all of the patches from the article needed adjusting to get them in the ballpark, plus I had to create the other sounds from scratch (I've credited each patch accordingly). Having done so, I'm not convinced that every single sound on the original is actually a Pro-One. The "Tinkle" sound, for instance, sounds more bell-like on the original, so it could possibly have been something like a PPG. I don't think Vince had his Fairlight yet, otherwise I'd say it was that. Also, the string line toward the end of the song sounds like it might have been played on a polysynth, ie maybe the Jupiter 4 which Vince used alot at the time. Of course, there's also the snare, which was an 808.

In any event, I think I got pretty close with my rendition. Of course the effects and mix are going to be different, and some of the sounds are closer than others, but whatever.

If you want to give it a shot yourself, you can download the MIDI file and the patch sheets here (be sure to let me know if you make your own version, and give me a shout out if you post it online!): https://www.dropbox.com/s/lfn3vb1pxwq...

One tip: the cutoff of the "Wobble" sound varies a bit, getting slightly brighter during the chorus, etc. The only way to do this is manually while recording. I tried to use automation for this via the Pro-One's filter CV input, but doing so cancels out the Keyboard Amount setting, which is crucial for this sound, so I simply adjusted the knob in real-time.

If you liked this re-creation, check out my other videos for four "Speak & Spell" tracks that I re-created using only a Yamaha CS01-II synth.

Thanks to FrankPerri.com for the blank patch sheets!"