SAW/PWL Brass and String Sounds ...

[Alan William Henery]

What synth brass sound was used on the likes of Bananarama's I Can't Help It? The sound starts within the 2nd second of the 3:31 WOW! version.

And what was used to produce the string sounds on most SAW/PWL tracks?

I hope you're out there Les, take care mate.

Alan.

[johan]

According to a radio interview on BBC (I think). Ian Curnow says that most of the stings come from the Fairlight.

In other threads on this forum Roland’s MKS Modules is mentioned as the sound source of the brass in many songs.

Still on the brass subject, the brass sound in “I heard a rumour”, is it Yamahas SY-77 / SY-85? Or is it something else?

Johan

[Alan William Henery]

Cheers,

I'll have to find some good samples, or perhaps a decent soft synth.

[Yisraelee]

According to a radio interview on BBC (I think). Ian Curnow says that most of the stings come from the Fairlight.

In other threads on this forum Roland’s MKS Modules is mentioned as the sound source of the brass in many songs.

Still on the brass subject, the brass sound in “I heard a rumour”, is it Yamahas SY-77 / SY-85? Or is it something else?

Johan

Neither of those synths were around in 1987/88. Could be a DX7 perhaps?

[Alan William Henery]

The search continues ...

Thanks for the replies.

[Les]

Hi all,

If Ian was doing the strings (like 'When I fall in love' by Rick Astley) then it was the Fairlight. As sting sounds became better than Roland and Emu syths were used mixed with a little Fairlight.

I'm sure Matt / Mike would double up a few sounds to create the strings used on many hits, DX7, D50 and so on...

[Alan William Henery]

Excellent, do you know which specific version of Fairlight (ie series 3)?

[Les]

Sorry I don't know what version.

I've uploaded a few old PWL photos, Ian is in one of them, the Fairlight is in the background. Maybe that would help.

See here...
http://www.lessharma.com/2010/02/21/pwl-old-photos/

[Alan William Henery]

Great photo's, The PWL crew looked so young, you can see it was an exciting place to be.

I can't quite make out to much, if it's the black keyboard/monitor it may be the series III Pete Waterman mentioned in an interview (he was very proud of the purchase).

[candyflip]

Yes, it's a Fairlight Series III, supposedly the only black one in the world...

[Alan William Henery]

I've been scouring the web for samples, no luck yet, I'll continue my search though.

[willp]

Hollow Sun do some Fairlight samples in the Vintage Samplers collection http://www.hollowsun.com/shop/classic_samplers/index.htm. No idea if any of them were used on SAW tracks but their stuff is very good quality and relatively cheap so might be worth a go?

I reckon the more synth-like brass sounds like those used in Bananarama tracks were from a D-50 or similar though. The "Horn Section" preset sounds very familiar!

[Les]

Does anyone still use the fairlight nowadays in music production?

[willp]

The manufacturers must think so because they've just realeased a 30th Anniversary edition! http://www.fairlightinstruments.com.au/index.html

Apparently it's US$18,000. I really can't imagine who'd be daft enough! Wonder if they've sold any?

[Craig Hardy]

Only if they're insane!!!!

I spent years sat next to that black Fairlight in the Trident room and never even switched it on. I wish i'd have had a good go on it because even though it was superseded by the Akai samplers it was SO expensive and historic (it cost about the same as a sports car). I wonder what ever happened to it? It's probably covered in dust somewhere.