How To Recreate "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley 

i am AMAZED about how complicated the original mix sounds, and the fact that YOU a real expert with so much gear and technological advance has an issue recreating this thing, this only fact showcases how really GREAT producers and musicians where working in the industry during the 80s, absolutely amazing stuff here to learn about the final sound product.

This is SO much better than the product-based videos you have gotten into doing recently. More like this please Claudio!

What separates Claudio from many other musicians is his feel and emphasis on the groove. That’s why it’s a joy to watch him create music.

This is the Rickroll I had not been waiting to get on Christmas. I really like it though, haha!

BPM: 113.380 DRUMS 3:09 - KICK DRUM 4:36 - CONGAS 6:07 - SNARE DRUM 6:55 - HI-HATS 7:33 - SHAKER 8:09 - TOMS BASS 13:04 - BASS KEYBOARDS 15:52 - CHORDS 18:50 - SWEET PAD 19:34 - JP8 20:40 - BELLS GUITARS 24:10 - GUITARS BRASS 28:12 - BRASS STRINGS 29:34 - STRINGS THE FINISHED RECREATION - 31:57

Hi Claudio, the reason why you can't find the bass patch is because they programmed it themselves in the studio! In an interview they said they actually hid their custom cartridge so bands wouldn't steal it (especially Dead or Alive). The drums were also sequenced and sampled using the Linn 9000. Espen Kraft might possibly have a copy, but I don't know (I asked him a year ago or more). They programmed most of their bass patches themselves, and they never released. There's also the possibility they were actually using the DX7II or maybe a DX7IIFD, because some of them were put on a floppy disk. But putting that aside, you did a fantastic job! I never realized how complex the arrangement was, especially the percussion. Oh, and they did use the D50 all over that album, but more so on other tracks.

The drum fill secret is solved. It's very simple as I mentioned in my previous comment - complicated things are simple usually. I opened the drum track in a wave editor and converted the drum fill from stereo to mono and the result is - the trick was made only by using auto stereo panning effect and gate/room reverb. Really simple. The auto stereo panning effect played the most important key role in that drum fill case. SAW were clever but made miracles in simple ways.

YES I ASKED FOR THIS! THANK YOU SO MUCH DR. MIX!!!! This is the perfect Christmas gift!!

I am always amazed by the layers of sounds that one doesn't realise make up the composite sound. Claudio, your recreations are a marvellous musical education and I thank you sincerely.

Hi Claudio, Wow, what a fantastic reconstruction. I've only just come across this.. I played a lot of the stuff on this record and you’ve got so much of it dead right or very close! Nice one! Just for the record: Congas - I think are a Roland 727.. and Linn 9000 yes. Kick and snare - Would be Linn 9000 I'm pretty sure, but the snare sounds like it has a clap mixed in on the backbeats and a couple of fills..? Toms - Is a preset (ElectroDrm?) on the Roland Alpha Juno I believe. Phil used an auto panner on many of the records, so I’m pretty sure the toms were put through that, and maybe the sample was reversed on the other side, or possibly just sent to a gated delayed reverse or gated reverb patch..? Bass - Is TX816 / DX7. I think it’s a patch I called Frab Bass from a bass cartridge of my edits that I gave to them once I started working there. Brass - Is a Fairlight CMI preset. (Brass 01?) Violins - The sample is in octaves, (called Violins 01 I think?? Didn’t have to look too far for these did I?) Guitars - Both the stub part and the blingy chords are both CMI presets again. Fantastic work Sir. I must check out your other reconstructions, this is truly a proper piece of work. Cheers Ian

There's a reason for the greatness of the arrangement. It was produced by Stock, Aitken, and Waterman (SAW). They produced some of the best music out there. They were huge back then.

damn that original bass is so clean considering its 3 decades ago....There's sounds in there you feel rather than hear which is the genius of production.....So complex but sounds simple i always tell people when they say ..."it's so easy".....You do it then...Amazing job man.....I'd love to hear something like love and pride, love cats or the reflex re made i always loved those kind of tracks....Again Bloody brilliant work sir

Dear Dr. Mix, for the past 2 years I've been feeling pretty bad but I recently found your channel and your enthusiasm makes me feel a little bit better. Thank you.

Mindblowing arrangement! I can only guess how long this took for you. If I were to choose your next recreation, it would be PSB - West End Girls.

If you want a VST sounding like a real DX7, try Dexed. It is free and packed with presets of this era.

Pet Shop Boys - Being Boring would be interesting to re-create. I'm guessing it would involve hunting for lots of Emulator presets. :)

I believe the background conga percussions are from an Roland TR-727, also the cabasa. I don't have the original, but the virtual version sounds pretty close. Nice work!

its always hard to emulate the originals sounds perfectly because even if you had the exact same synths, They probably made some tweaks to the parameters LFOs, and so forth. Plus also, alot of those sounds are going through a neve or SSL console and outboard gear and even effects the engineer is using also. But overall, Doctor mix, You did a really good job recreating the original track because you always pick up on some sounds I always miss in songs.

man, that is a _badass_ arrangement... I've always loved the song

This is very good! Honestly, it sounds like an instrumental you'd hear on a karaoke CD, and I love it! I love your recreations, Doctor Mix!

I mean, let's be honest and I'm gonna go out on a limb here - and this might have been controversial in the 80s but is surely accepted today? - Mike Stock and Matt Aitken were arrangement geniuses (and I don't use that word lightly) and extremely decent musicians to boot. I was probably a rare breed in my teens, dissecting these mixes and just being blown away by that sound, mixed to tape on the 4000E and with those trademarks like delay throws and staccato vocal lines spun in from the samplers, not just on Rick Astley tracks but across nearly everything SAW did in the mid to late 80s. Cheesy by today's standards but simultaneously brilliant somehow. IMHO they deserve to be lauded as musicians and creators akin to some of the great artists and producers of their era. Add in Waterman's commercial deftness and ear for what the buyers wanted, great mixers/programmers (Harding, Curnow etc) and it's no wonder they were so ridiculously successful. I listen back to some of those Kylie mixes (perhaps hoping nobody's hearing what I'm listening to as a 47 year old!) and still find those compositions and arrangements awe inspiring. The sheer complexity of those track layers in NGGYU defies the simple catchy sound and shows just how much graft went into this stuff, so much at odds with the knocking SAW took from the press and public at the time as "all sounding the same" etc. Finally, Claudio you did a great job here given the immense challenges of recreating these sounds when the PWL sample and gear portfolio was pretty special and "of that time" - Publison anyone? What you definitely achieved, which is credit to your own talent and musicianship, is to preserve the feel and energy of the track, which ain't easy! The whole Rick Astley story from shy singer at a Newton le Willows labour club to superstardom via pseudo tea boy is such a great capture of 80s possibilities. How I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in Borough Studios in those days! Thanks Claudio! The exclusive use of the Calrec Soundfield mic for virtually all SAW vocals also fascinates me in these days of vintage mic coveting and modelling! It really does show that one good quality LDC is all you need to great pop vocals across many singers from good to bad! I could go on - oh wait I have a bit!

pick me up off the floor As a musician, a 1980s material/valley girl, and having a smidge of knowledge about music production, I'm speechless. The amount of sound acumen, theory, and serious familiarity with the different instruments and their various facsimiles that went into this is masterful and fascinating. Especially after 12Tone's analysis which gave me a whole new appreciation for the piece

Holy cow! I had no idea the original mix was so complex. Thanks for breaking it down so I could regain an appreciation for the song. Happy New Year to you, too!

Finally, a Stock Aitken Waterman track you have given your recreation treatment to! I haven't read all the comments (yet!) but I have been lucky enough to discuss elements of this track with the original mixer, Pete Hammond, particularly the toms which a lot of people have already commented are from an Alpha Juno (or "a little Juno synth" to quote Pete) but I haven't been able to locate the exact ones, the nearest I've got is to some that sound more similar to those used at the beginning of This Time I Know It's For Real (possible idea for a future recreation?) . Pete advised that he used a simple 200 ms delay on them with a small room reverb on the delay (he mentions about recreating the AMS RMX 16 "nonlin" patch these days so I presume that's what he used back then)

One kilometre of reverb 🤣 ... love you Dr.Mix!

13:05 The bass line was copied/heavily influenced by Colonel Abrams - 'Trapped'. 15:29 is the riff from 'Trapped'.

I love your deconstructions/reconstructions, and this was one one hell of a Christmas present. Much love, man. Here's to a great new year!

Love it. Really good recreation. While listening to the bass line, it reminded me of another 80s classic Trapped by Colonel Abrams. I can't remember which came first. But both have similar bass line patches. Both have jazzy synth leads. To me they're so similar I think the DJs at the old school discos used to pair these two in a mix.

For the bass line I hear that you could achieve similar results if you layer the bass with another plucky noiser sound, also if you EQ the bass more on the low mid frequency you can achieve almost the same result. But on today modern Synthetizers is difficult to have the same retro vibes of this FM synth of the 80's, the modern FM synth sound very "Clean", when the 80 Synth sound more "dirty" "noisy" and "warmer"

O-M-G ... I remember performing this live back in 1988; and I ended up doing the vocal part too - what was I thinking!!!! Great recreation Claudio! Best Regards, Axel.

I love it, do you think maybe you could recreate Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood?? I feel like there is a lot of production that went into making that song, and it would be cool to see it recreated

Me encantan tus vídeos Doctor pero lo que más me gusta es esa energía positiva que desprendes. Ojalá hubiera más gente así en el mundo. Un saludo desde Palma de Mallorca, España.

When recreating an 80‘s, always remember that most sounds are just stock presets. Also keep in mind MIDI channel limits and ways different synths and drum machines could interconnect.

I never knew that I would enjoy the reconstruction of this song this much even though I never liked the song in the first place and it was produced long b4 I was even born, but you are something special... Thank you Doctor Mix ^^

An often overlooked sound set from that era are the general midi tones, GM/GM2, they were used a lot at the time simply because a (general midi), midi file could be played back on a Yamaha keyboard, Roland/Korg or any general midi software synth such as the Roland sound canvas, and it would sound pretty standard. The GM tones are separated into instrument groups and a standard GM tone set is numbered from 0 to 128. One of the sounds from the original stems sounded like the GM tone preset 100, FX 5 (brightness), with heavy hall reverb. Check out the GM tones, most are cheesy compared to samples but you will be surprised how many you recognise from the late 80s and 90s era. Always great content from your channel Dr.

Love it - the drum solo at the end particularly! I could listen to the drum track alone for hours - great work.

Hi Paolo, what a recreation! About the toms; I was fiddling around with this song myself for a while and did quite some research. Your drum patterns are spot on! But the toms, they are actually super straight forward. It was a patch from an Roland alpha Juno (if I recall correctly). It is called something like "electrodrum", I'll look it up and comment it down here if I find it again. Maybe you could check it out. There are some great alpha Juno VSTs that have this factory patch. Great work man!

By watching a video like this it really makes me want to open up my DAW and compose a hit. You are such an inspiration!

The very first keyboard I owned back in the 80s when I was a kid, was a Casio. I got fascinated to hear the DEMO track was this Rick Astley’s supertune! Fantastic job Claudio!

“It’s a long song, I’ve got to show you something, you know” 👌 Enjoyed the view of the nostalgic hardware in this pure digital recreation 😂

Love these deconstructions. Keep them coming. Best wishes for 2022.

Stock, Aitken & Waterman's actual & original drums sample set is actually available to buy very cheaply.

Man, your work here in RU-vid is amazing. This song probably took you a long time to reconstruct, tnx a lot. Your charisma is contagious 😊 Tnx for showing the keys back there. I was dying curious to know them all 🤣

Claudio is rickrolling us LOL. It sounds super close to the original, i love your videos claudio

Hey Claudio, I believe the electro drums in the opening are actually a preset on the Roland Alpha Juno 1 and 2. It’s called ElectroDrm. I’ve played around with it a lot and I’m sure it has to be it as it sounds identical. The timing of the release of this synth would make sense for its use as well.

SAW sat on this track for a year, unsure how to release and how it should sound. It was all based on Trapped by Colonel Abrams, the strings brought it to another level. Linn samples dictated their sound. There are at least 5 versions of the song by the various mixers at PWL. It sat in vault for a year. Then at the PWL Christmas party they played it and Pete (Waterman) went wild over it. They farmed it to BMG who loved it and then, global smash.

Thanks Claudio for a great recreation! Regarding the drum samples. In the book "PWL from the factory floor" by Phil Harding you can read this: "The Linn 9000 was used by SAW to sequence most of their hit records, but the kick, snare and claps were sampled in the AMS sampler and the Linn 9000 only acted as a trigger". (The AMS should have been an AMS DMX 15-80")

Just got myself a Roland FA-07 after my beautiful 27 year old GEM S3 died. Loving watching your videos and seeing how I can get back into music again. Sadly, the FA-07 is being returned as one of the keys doesn't work... but I can still use most of it and get going with the music. Speaking of Roland, when you were doing the string sounds and needed a bit more attack, I couldn't help thinking of the string attack partial on the D50, then saw you have one in your studio!! No matter, you did a great job anyway. Happy holidays, Doc!

This video is one long Rick Roll, and I love it

This is excellent! I never heard guitars on the original version, it’s somewhat of a revelation. I guess SAW (the hit factory) mixed them out somehow. Song request for next deconstruction would be Taylor Dayne’s Tell It To My Heart, another late 80’s guilty pleasure.

I never thought being Rick Rolled would be so much fun!!

Thanks Doctor Mix! Hard to believe this was released December 31, 1987. Hats off to PWL Studios and the SAW team who produced so many number ones. Would be great if you could get an interview with them.

Awesome recreation Claudio! Such an impressive arrangement. It must have been very hard to recreate this, but I just love that you added your own flavour to it! I'm also surprised to read in the comments that the toms apparently come from an Alpha Juno. I'm definitely gonna have to scroll through the presets again haha.

Thx for this!! Kepp up to the good work and a merry christmas Doctor Mix!

Claudio I can tell that SAW productions (Stock, Aitken, Waterman) use the Linndrum, Linn 9000 and Simmons SDS-7. They also used extensively the DX-7, JP-8, Emulator II and Oberheim. Dead or Alive You spin me round is good candidate for another SAW reproduction.

Some of THE BEST VIDEOS on RU-vid. Thank you for all your work on these.

Claudio, I was there with Pete Waterman .. I had a hit these days with Don’t miss the partyline which was released at his label Chrysalis. The whole pwl sound was a AMR console and a Linn Drumm a D- drum and AKAI 900 , a Oberheim Xpander and a Yamaha DX7

lol Love it bro. The remake is brilliant but loving the positive happy smiles at the end from what you've done with the studio gear makes the video! Kudos!

This was great. It’s so beautiful to hear those classic sounds. Thanks for this!

Man you are goooood!!! I would love to see you do a reconstruction of Steve Winwood's "While you see a chance".

I've missed so much this type of content! I love your recreations, it's was what made me subscribe to this channel in first place! Keep doing your great job in 2022 Claudio!

I love this song. The best hit of the Stock Aitken Waterman era. Thank you Claudio! ❤

I really didn't care for SAW-produced songs back in the 80s since, to me (a consumer who knows nothing about music creation but has an interest in the technology) they all sounded the same. However, the complexity shown here gives me more of an appreciation of what's involved. So thank you, Claudio. It's a bit of an unusual choice, but if I could have my way, I would like for you to try to recreate the Peter Howell version of the Doctor Who theme tune (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oonIKTzraxE.html). In my view it is easily the best version but there doesn't appear to be a recording with really good sound quality. I have listened to it dozens of times and yet still hear new things!

Stock, Aitken and Waterman, had pretty much the same setup for what they produced. For me as a DJ it was Easy to mix these. The guitar part, I'm pretty sure Steve Lukather did the licks, it's his signature sound.

Claudio The original bass sounds very familiar. Once it was soloed it sounds exactly like the bass-line in Trapped by Colonel Abrams. I didn't know this initially but after some quick googling i found that "never gonna give you up" in fact was heavily influenced by Colonel Abrams hit. Look up the wikipedia page for this song and see for yourself... I also found claims that the bass-line was produced on a Juno 106 or 60 but i'm not able to verify this

Claudio mi fai cominciare questo 2022 con dei ricordi incredibili: non sai quante volte l'ho suonata in discoteca e devo farti i complimenti per aver riprodotto questa base con le stesse sonorità. Di nuovo complimenti e buon anno.

Hey Claudio, Great mix. Even the original SAW team would have trouble reproducing this song without the original sounds. This is a very dense mix, it would be fantastic to see how they may have jammed all the vocals and create so much room for the lead vox considering the busy soundscape.

Hi Doctor Mix, Love your channel many thanks for brightening my day. All the best X.

The original toms comes from Roland Alpha Juno 2, or the module version of it-MKS-50. And maybe for the string melody , and synthbell, and guitar, maybe even the brass is from Roland U-110?

If that was your Christmas present to us then I've just unwrapped it and ain't giving it back. Just awesome. Happy Christmas to you all and keep the vids rolling.

"One kilometer of reverb". I never give up to follow you because you never let me down. I love you, guy!

The bass sound is quite easy to make. It is essentially the stock DX7 bass 1 patch with faster decay. It might only be the bass but getting the correct bass sound makes a big difference

With videos like this, I'm never gonna give up watching this channel!

My best bet for the toms (ElectroDrm patch from Roland Alpha Juno 2) is that the panning was automated and sent to a mono reverb. Someone uploaded a video on RU-vid showcasing the patch and with the matching effect rack, it was nearly identical to the original track Anyways, this is close recreation of the track! Nice work~

Like a forger doing a Master's painting to trick the eye into thinking it's looking at the original, this is similar only with the use of sound instead of paint. Really clever, and it takes a lot of talent to be able to reach such levels. Brilliant work in dissecting the original and creating a unique but similar version. Glad I watched.

I love how he really enjoys his work. Awesome stuff.

Mega. Love this. Quite surprising the amount of detail PWL put in to these. New respected. Love your deconstruction here. Top work as always

Never Gonna Give You Up's bassline is very similar to Colonel Abrams - Trapped. It makes me wonder if they sampled the dub of that tune [where there's a brief section of bass only].SAW then manipulated it a bit in a sampler and turned it into their own?

Great job recreating this cheesy old classic bro. I love dissecting & recreating old productions in my spare time from producing professionally. 🎹

Claudio, you always amaze me with your work. You are amazing, man!

nice, i still have a Roland D-50 as well :) and had an MS-20 but I sold it for a crazy amount ;)

Doctor Mix - you are a production genius. People can learn to copy tracks; but the magic is surely the ear for sound-matching & sound-design. It's not obvious everyone can learn that. If you're up for a challenge, how about a deconstruction of "Perfect Day" by The Visions of Shiva - simple tune, but sound-selection is what makes it.

Nice work Doc. Also liked the sweet shop tour at the end 🎹🎹🎹👍

25:57 Actually... All muted guitars, chords and brass samples came from Fairlight CMI Series III factory library! Maybe the strings as well but I'm not sure. "Gtr06Pluk" (muted guitar), "Gtr07Funk" (chords) and "Brass11" are the (.VC) files or sound banks used in the original recording. I was able to find the whole library on SF2 archives, in fact.

That's absolutely brilliant! And without those stems, you're right, you'd never be able to pick out those subtle bits of percussion. Nice one!

You can certainly hear Colonel Abrams 'Trapped' sampled in this song, or at least what sounds like it. Top production again, Claudio, and always good to see how these songs are constructed.

I can not tell you how much I love all off your video's.......and the skills that you have....keep on going Dr.

i thought the congas etc sounded like a fairlight. and I think SAW used also some french reverb that could double as a sampler? Publison DHM89 B2 ‘Infernal Machine’ it was called

reconstruction-one of the best methodologies to learn how to create songs) thank u so much to create videos, love ur work, u r great!!

02:07 - Damn! Hearing it isolated, that bass line sounds remarkable like Colonel Abrams "Trapped" released two years before in 1985. Dope vid as usual Claudio. "Trapped" - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bomSK2RDPAY.html

Claudio you are amazing! Thank you very much for making this cover! This was the best Christmas present, and trust me I understand the struggles of getting the proper sounds for the 80s ;) My very best regards and again thank you!

I love so much these remakes. This is so inspiring for me and makes me smile everytime.

23:15 That is definetly a Roland Juno 60 or 106 with PWM set to anout 50-40% and a little of a sawtooth wave, then with the filter/amp envelope and the chorus.

That is amazing! Everything is so well constracted! Keep it going!

Really awesome recreation of an underrated genre. And thanks a lot for the synthporn sequence at the end. 😁

Really deep, interesting! GREAT CHOICE! THANK!

Claudio, you are a master, no doubt. I didn't like this song at all when it came out, still of the same opinion also today. It made a lot of money, so professionals did an extremely good job. All the best wishes to you, your family and all the fans here.

8:38 the left channel is rather clear, gated reverb. The right one is separated in two phases, same pattern than left but : in the first phase gated reverb same as left channel, then the reverb is reversed in the second phase. Two channels must be lagged by few milliseconds and different maybe in volume (left sounds higher). The fifth and sixth hits on the left sound lowered.

"is pretty similar but not right" :D Claudio you are a prefectionist. Awesome work. And Merry Christmas.

2:08 - hang on a mo... Colonel Abrams - Trapped! How'd that sneak in there?? 😂