Need help replicating wall of synths sound~ 'Relax' Frankie Goes to Hollywood

[wheresgrant3]

OK... here's a request you don't hear every day. My band is putting together a huge 80's new wave medley with songs from Devo to Flock of Seagulls to Adam Ant. They've suggested we cover "Relax" from FGTH. I don't have a clue where to start, though I've got some great gear to use.... Triton, EX7, XP30 and Micron.

 

Can anyone suggest/help breakdown this song. There are so many strings,pads, sound fx. It's hard to nail down specific sounds. Anyone know what synths they used to record with?

[tim gueguen]

It may all have been Fairlight CMI. Its certainly heavily CMI.

[flat earth]

Originally posted by tim gueguen It may all have been Fairlight CMI. Its certainly heavily CMI.

 

Yeah, i think Trevor Horn had alot to do with their production, he was a great Fairlight, Synclavier user.

 

I think he did some of the Properganda stuff as well. ... and 'Video killed the radio star'

 

there was a recent Sound on Sound article about him, i seem to remember!

[Lancaster]

From the website "Trevor Horn Worship Hall"...

 

 

The Making of "Relax"

 

After working on 'Relax' for two weeks, Trevor Horn decided to send the Frankies back to Liverpool and record the song alone. "We just threw the old version away and restarted from scratch. The song was finished after only fourteen hours, although the technology was much more complicated than today. For example, I had to switch the drum patterns manually during recording. Now a secret: How he made the awesome bass sound on 'Relax': "We produced the Bass drum sound on 'Relax' by combining a Linn 2 base drum together with a sampled E-note, played on a bass guitar. We combined this sound with a Fairlight, which played a sampled piano sound in quavers. This combination of Linn and Fairlight was also used when the Frankies played the song live." "The 'Relax'-groove was in my Linn 2 long before. It was my favorite pattern and I tinkered on it all the time. I always thought of it as some kind of 'English Square Dance', but when I saw it's impact on the band, I realized that you could make a good dance record out of it."