@adamgh0 I disagree, I was playing in a band a good number of years ago and we had to drop a song as the keyboard player who was using an old Moog keyboard could not recreate the sound he used when we wrote the song. As the electronics age the sound of the synth changes. So to be clear I agree with the first part of what you say but having That synth may also not be enough to recreate the sound.
This was an awesome recreation. The EII and the DMX really bring me back to mid 80’s. Never could afford an EII, but my Oberheim DPX1 could play the EII, Prophet 2000, and Mirage samples. Was this original gear or VST plugins?
FWIW, from Wikipedia: "Stephen Hague version An entire week had been spent re-recording and rearranging "West End Girls" with producer Stephen Hague at Advision Studios,[13] using Studio Two housed with an Otari 24-track tape machine and an SSL console.[14] The song, according to engineer David Jacob, was musically "constructed with only four basic rhythmical patterns throughout", with no 'real' instruments production-wise except for one cymbal.[14] The rhythmic foundations were laid down with an Oberheim DMX drum machine.[14] In addition to that, the synthesizer strings that run throughout the song were created using a blend of string sounds from an E-mu Emulator I and an Emulator II.[14] The bass part is a composite of different sounds from an Emulator II, a Yamaha DX7 and a Roland Jupiter-6, all of which were connected by MIDI. It had been played by hand to "lend more fluidity to the track", although initially there was a bit of difficulty in keeping the part in time with the drum machine.[14] The song features a cowbell-like sound, which is in fact a combination of a cowbell and an Emulator II choir sound recorded into a Roland MSQ-700 sequencer, and spun in manually at appropriate places in the song.[14] The trumpet solo in this version was played by Hague on the Emulator. According to Jacob, "it took about six hours to get the trumpet to sound genuine, purposely playing wrong notes to make it sound more 'jazz'".[14] For the traffic noise that runs in the beginning, Hague recorded it using a Sony Professional Walkman out on Gosfield Street outside Advision.[14] In addition to the rap verses and choruses sung by Tennant (each using different microphones - one for verse and another for choruses), singer Helena Springs was brought in to sing background vocals - parts of these were sampled into the Emulator to be used wherever wanted in the track.[14]"
I love these 'story behind the song' stories. Even though sometimes I don't fully understand the machines they use I still like to hear it. In the mid 80's I had a Casio MT70 and I thought I was bloody Jean Michel Jarre or something.
It is when you do it right. At the time no one else who used synth strings did it so smoothly for example. And they weren't as musical as this tune it. Perfectly produced.
I remember when this came out in 1984/85 & my friend & I heard it on the radio in his car & thought it was a new song by a London-based outfit called The Art Of Noise, because AON are very well known at the time for adding strings, emulators, fairlights, electro vocals to there music,…so we were like, coooool, this Art Of Noise song is the shiiiiit😂😂😂😂, until out of nowhere a man’s starts rapping/singing & I never forget my friend saying….ART OF NOISE IS AN INSTRUMENTAL GROUP, THEY HAVE A LEAD SINGER NOW, THEY SOLD OUT MAN😂😂😂😂😂😂 he was so pissed that day😂….ofcourse we both love the PSB’s all these years later & laugh at this moment from the past😂😂😂😂😂…..BTW, my fav PSB track is Suburbia (Extended Horror Mix)….just incredible arrangement & remix…great video here, thanks for the memories…this track is just timeless🤘🏾🤘🏾🤘🏾
@pdjhh very true indeed...the build up of the track alone before Neil finally sings was just incredible 2 my ears in those days....Stephen Hague aka: Shep Pettibone, reproduction of the track must be mentioned aswell, talking about giving this track an entire new life is a major triumph for PSB & early 80's emulator technology....
Awesome recreation! The 80's was a period of exceptional musical creativity, the likes of which will probably never be heard again (in any form of groundbreaking new music). It was like a window of raw talent and creativity was open for those 10 years, and now it is nailed shut. Great job on this song that I think defined the 80's. Sounds amazing.
Much appreciated - it was a lot of work though, but it was a labor of love. I started on it in Jan and worked on it on and off until the end of March. I was considering (if there's interest) going through some of the PSB original studio (multitrack) tapes I have and dissecting them in great detail. Much less work. In the meantime, check out EstuaryMists channel, as he has some interesting stuff too.
I don't know how The Pet Shop Boys work, but if Chris came to me with this and said write some words it would not have been a hit single. Back then the duo were working magic together.
This is criminally underviewed. What a fantastic job! So good, so accurate, in fact that listening to this it evoked 80s memories and sensations. THAT tells you the sound hit those neurons long formed in the brain at the time the song originally embedded itself. Please take a bow, Alex. Amazing recreation. Absolute perfection!
Couldn't agree more. The second I saw the title I thought this is going to be either OK but not that great, or it's going to be really good. It was neither, it far exceeded my expectations. Just had the best 8 and a bit minutes. I know most of the words so I was singing along. You mention it bringing back memories, I had a picture in my head of them on Top Of The Pops. Neil, his over sized suit with massive shoulder pads, and Chris in contrast with his trademark baseball cap and shades. Add in dry ice and a rubbish backdrop and it's pretty much how it was back then.
You mentioned the trumpet was the hardest part to fully recreate faithfully, but it sounds pretty doggone good to me :) As a child of the 80s, I have probably heard the original hundreds of times over the years, but if I heard this instrumental I would likely never know it wasn't actually from the original. Great job!
Thanks! That trumpet part is an incredible performance to try and reproduce. It's so much more than just the notes. They're doing micro pitch bends and vibrato. Every trick in the book to keep it from stagnating and sounding robotic.
I remember hearing the original while having a pie and a pint lunch in a local pub when working in the shipyard back in 1986... was ground breaking back then.. still sounds wonderful now... I remember producer Stephen Hague talking about bringing back major 7th chords into pop music and I guess that hit me at that time... all these instruments were so out of reach and it was jaw dropping to see the prices of all this gear at Syco Systems and Soho Soundhouse and the like...
Very nice recreation mate! The trumpet is oh so close to the original. Crazy to think PSB's created the whole track pretty much with just an Emulator II and its factory sounds.
Yeah. It was sampled straight into the emu possible. I don’t recall that trumpet being on the factory samples disk but I could be wrong. Either way, that trumpet still came out of the emu. Cheers.
Wow! Very impressive. The very first song I tried to re-create when I bought my first sequencer (Alesis MMT-8) as a teenager was “West End Girls”. All I had was a Yamaha TG-33 and a Roland S-10, so I didn’t get anywhere near as close as you, but it was great fun. I had always assumed the trumpet was a real session trumpet player, not played on a synth/sampler. Very impressive playing.
Excellent cover. I especially like the attention to detail on the trumpet solo; even the professional cover versions for karaoke and such miss the mark by a country mile.
In this world of Rot, People like you are a blessing. This track simply put is: FANTASTIC! Bless you dear Sir. The duo would be proud to listen to this. Looking forward to more ....
I would happily pay like $100 for a sample pack for TAL Sampler or Arturia Emulator II V just to play around for hours. I come back to this video all the time (thanks, o great RU-vid algorithm)
I think the kick is a bit warmer on the recording as it might've been recorded to 2-inch tape and that process, if you hit the tape hard, can warm up cold, digital sounds like the kick here and make them/it a bit more harmonically rich and with a bit more low end. That's the only thing I would say is a bit different than the original recording here, apart from the street scene sample at the beginning. That, and maybe a touch of low-end EQ on the kick drum. Nice work though! Very close! The horn part is very good on the original, as you mentioned.
Dude, you nailed it. I love tinkering around with this stuff, but I can't imagine the sheer amount of work that went into this. It's waaaaayyy more complex than it sounds!
Your instrumental version of the 'West End Girls' song from Pet Shop Boys is outstanding! Entirely made on the E-mu2 Emulator II synthesizer I presume? When I am listening to your instrumental cover I am singing the lyrics of the song myself! Very good Alex!!!! Can you made more instrumental 1980s hits songs with the Emulator or another synthesizer from the 1980s era? The Emulator is a very good synthesizer! I heard a lot of 1980s songs that has been made with that device. Of course with another synthesizers too. Synthesizers from the 1980s are the best. Good sounds, tempo, chords, drum kits and lots of programming skills. I never noticed the Emulator II had a Floppy diskette drive.
I won't go into long stories but the instrumental version has emotional memories for me, and this recreation hits it, all the way! Now I need a moment to gather my thoughts.
Do you have a low cut filter (hi pass) on the master out? The bottom end is lacking and it sounds a bit nasally from the original. Otherwise the timbre sounds the same to me.
I kind of want Espen Kraft to sing the vocals for this just to complete it (he'd probably not like me for saying this tho, but it's a compliment to his voice and style), if he did - I'd have a total ball! (And it would probably be so accurate it'd get a copyright strike).
He did, the original is linked in the description, an automatic link when the system detects copyright music... Nice that the publishers allowed it to stay up...
I never fully appreciated it at the time but what an awsome song, superbly created. Im a guitarist but I find it soo creative the sounds that they got, this and Peter Gabriel superb
There's something not quite right with the snare. I don't know if it's pitched differently, or maybe the reverb on it is wrong, but it sounds different than the original. But it's very, VERY close!
Me too. Just listen to the different reverbs on snare and clap at 6:44. The gated reverb on the snare really brings out the (ungated) hall on the clap. Very cool that they did that.
Ok recreated but the mixing is not right. It's much to bright and missing a lot of bass and upper bass. But keep on working, it's fun and often takes a lot more time to recreate than the original artists used to create it, they just used some random sounds and played what they'd like :)
Great job 🎉! Recreating or at least finding the sounds of your favorite artist is both a rewarding pleasure as well as an extremly time consuming if not lifelong task. Ive been doing it myself with my fav 90 artist. So I know what it takes and have imho nailed lots of the sounds as well where none other comes close…but im not ready to share yet 😆
It's SO hard to precisely replicate the bass sound in West End Girls on any of my 20+ hardware vintage synthesizers. But you have managed to do it brilliantly. It's such a punchy, funky sound with a nice round tone and a bit of resonant schelch to make it more distinctive. You also did an amazing job with the sampled trumpet part. This adds so much organic beauty to the song. It really does sound remarkably close to a real trumpet player. And both the strings and choir sounds are absolutely classic in a sort of charming lo-fi way. I really want to get an Emulator E-II hardware sampler because it was used on so many classic 80s albums that I love from Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, and even ABC. But I just don't have space for another keyboard. And I'm now so accustomed to using multi-gigabyte software sampler instruments that it would be really hard to go back to the limited memory and unreliable and painfully slow floppy disc storage on the E-II. I'm better off using the TAL Sampler plugin in its E-II sampling mode than trying to get the real thing as much as I'd like to own an influential piece of hardware history.
Thanks for the kind words. I do still think I can get even closer than I have so far. I really want to nail the iconic chorus bass riff. There's a square wave component in there too. I've been playing around with a Jupiter 6 emulation (even though I have a real MKS-80 in the rack). We'll see how it goes. I'll take another crack at the trumpet part too, since I have a version where it's better isolated than before. I think it's fascinating to reverse engineer what they did.
The DMX hats require radical EQ to get them right, whereas the stock sound has a very different natural timbre. While the timing is straight 16ths, the sound choice for each of those 16ths no one gets right. It's a cool pattern.
The cowbell is straight from the Linn. The Linn has input triggers, so I bet they connected the DMX output to the input trigger of the Linn. The voice sound that triggers in parallel with the Linn from the second chorus onward is an Emulator II choir sample.
This is astonishingly faithful to the original. I love this song. It has this beautifully melancholy film score feel to it. It was revolutionary when it was released in my teens.
