Was listening to a lot of DM on a long car drive this week (from Speak and Spell to SoFaD) (The other albums are NOT DM !- different debate for another day)
But as I was listening to the various works I really couldn't "spot" a synth or a drum machine, beyond the first 2 albums. (the 1st 2 are somewhat easy to tell what was going on)
I know that they were masters of saahmpling (say it the English way- sounds cooler) and found sounds and recording things... Also in interviews with Fletch and Mart, they had both said that the band had a rule to never use the same sounds twice!
But I thought it strange that I could not spot a single instance of obvious use of an 808 or 909 ! Such an iconic machine that they must have had one of each and used it at some point???
Anyone spot the sounds???
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Synths: Roland SH-101, adafruit XOXBOX, Yamaha SY22 and AN200, Novation KS-R and Korg EMX-1
I believe they used Linn & Oberheim drum machines. Not definitive fact though. What is obvious is the large amount of acoustic samples they did use.
If they ever got their 808/909 on, I would have to say they are the masters of those machines because, with no listening, I also can not think of a track that stands out as using either of them.
If I recall correctly DM used quite a lot of TR-808 on their second album "A Broken Frame", especially for snare sounds (I think). On the early albums they also used an ARP 2600 for kick drums, tom-tom sounds and loads of other percussive effects. A Broken Frame also features some Simmons SDS-V.
This took me a few years to figure out, but they never used one drum machine for every sound on any track actually. For instance, they would use an Arp synth for the kick, a KORG KR-55 for the hihats, etc... And later, they used a lot of custom studio techniques like re-recording certain sounds through certain amplifiers in certain rooms and so forth....
I remember reading an interveiw with Alan Wilder where he said DM never used factory sounds.
I bought an Emulator 1 and the factory disks made a liar out of him.
There was an acoustic drum disk which are exactly the same drums from "And Then"
Also there was a factory disk of a motorcycle engine, and when I first played it on the lower keys I nearly wet my pants. It was the noisy loop at the start of Stripped.
Vince Clarke loves to use a Roland system 100 for creating drum sounds so I would guess in the early DM albums the drum sounds came from Vince and not 808/909.
I remember reading an interveiw with Alan Wilder where he said DM never used factory sounds.
I bought an Emulator 1 and the factory disks made a liar out of him.
There was an acoustic drum disk which are exactly the same drums from "And Then"
Also there was a factory disk of a motorcycle engine, and when I first played it on the lower keys I nearly wet my pants. It was the noisy loop at the start of Stripped.
The TR 909 is on literally almost every song on Violator. They mixed samples, tr 909 bass drum, 808 hi hats and toms, and some other drum machines all over that album. Also, the album includes live drums as well, but are played so statically, that it can be deceiving.
They mixed drum machines together so that it wasn't obvious that it came from one sound source.
MPC Samples
Synth drums their producer created (forget his name, but he actually stated in an interview he made sounds from synths for drums)
TR 909
TR 808
DMX
Linn
There was an acoustic drum disk which are exactly the same drums from "And Then".
I think they were using the Drumulator on that, which may have the same samples. I suspect Construction Time Again used a good number of Synclavier presets too.
Here's another "factory disks" smoking gun... you may notice a few familiar samples, the bass drum in particular:
I think they were using the Drumulator on that, which may have the same samples. I suspect Construction Time Again used a good number of Synclavier presets too.
Here's another "factory disks" smoking gun... you may notice a few familiar samples, the bass drum in particular:
Ooh yes, a few familiar sounds there. Are they factory sounds or was there pinching?
Didn't DM get in trouble for pilfering other bands drum sounds?
I know that they used the snare from Cameo's Word Up, and put a breath sample on top.
World In My Eyes: TR 909 Bass drum, sampled snare, tr 808 hi hats.
Sweetest Perfection: Real drums, layered w/ machine hi hats and I suspect 909 Bass drum.
Personal Jesus: Samples, 909 drums layered w/ real drums. Looped and processed. The end breakdown is 909 with what sounds like an 808 in the right speaker w/ delay on it. Other drum machines and samples for the other snares.
Halo: Intro is 808 toms and snares. Real drums are on this track as well. Alan mentioned there were real drums on this album either played throughout, sample and looped, or hits were recorded. This is them here.
Waiting for the Night: N/A
Enjoy The Silence: Whole drum track is basically TR 909, including snare
Policy of Truth: I'm willing to bet the bass drum is 909 and the rest are samples and layering of 909 and 808 hi hats.
Blue Dress: 808 all over this to my ears.
Clean: I'm assuming real tom samples, maybe synthetic bass drum, and random drum machine hi hats here and there.
They used a snare all over this album too, but I dont know where its from. Someone told me once they thought it was an MPC preset sample.
PS: I have no proof of any of this, but Violator is my all time fave electronic album. This is just from years and years of discussing, reading articles, talking to people, watching interviews, and using my ears. If I'm wrong, this has to be damn close at least
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Try and imagine a blind man dreaming- Bret Easton Ellis
