Violator Drum Machine

Shai · Post by **Shai** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 4:09 am

Hi all
I'm Just wondering what was the drum machine that Depeche Mode Use on violator especially the personal jesus ending sound
thanks a lot

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:35 am

I'm about as sure as you can be on anything that they did'nt just use drummachine X on that album. That isn't their style and never was. On the first two albums you can probably say they used drumamchine Y and Z together with synthesized sounds from most likely an ARP 2600 and Roland system 100 and 700.( I know for a fact that an ARP 2600 was used for bassdrums. Not so sure about the System 700.That probably came later)

To begin with Violator uses a lot of real drumming curtesy of Alan Wilder.
And the rest of it is most likely samples and synth drums made especially for that record. There could be some drummachine samples in there but my guess is pretty much all of it is custom samples.

bandreject · Post by **bandreject** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:34 am

Why do you need to know? You want to recreate this sound? I don't think that the drumming part has anything special (the sounds are totally avarage), except maybe some advanced dynamics processing. If you want to buy a drum machine, then buy whatever that has lot of sounds, you should find something for you. I bought dr-550 that has only 48 sounds, and I must say that I could recreate on it about 90% of 80's tracks beats.

JSRockit · Post by **JSRockit** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:29 pm

bandreject wrote:I bought dr-550 that has only 48 sounds, and I must say that I could recreate on it about 90% of 80's tracks beats.

Hmmm...isn't your estimate a little high?

Post by **Psy_Free** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:32 pm

Damn, I thought this thread was about a new analog drum machine called 'The Violator'.

Micke · Post by **Micke** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 4:06 pm

I don't remember where I got this info but here's a quote from one
of the DM members:

"Most of the drum sounds on 'Violator' were sampled (apart from obvious electro sounds) but the rhythms were still programmed. Some hi-hat patterns ('Policy' for example) were played and sampled as loops and in the case of 'Halo' and 'Clean' it's all loops. Again, I prefer the looped parts because of the performance element."

Micke

kuroichi · Post by **kuroichi** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 4:19 pm

Now someone has to make a drum machine called, 'the violator'.

I thought this was going to be a new announcement.

bandreject · Post by **bandreject** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 4:40 pm

Micke wrote:I don't remember where I got this info but here's a quote from one
of the DM members:

"Most of the drum sounds on 'Violator' were sampled (apart from obvious electro sounds) but the rhythms were still programmed. Some hi-hat patterns ('Policy' for example) were played and sampled as loops and in the case of 'Halo' and 'Clean' it's all loops. Again, I prefer the looped parts because of the performance element."

Micke

That guy was probably Gareth Enis, their producer. I had a interview with him in some magazine. I think that except "I am leaving hardvare for vsti's" c**p, he described some of techniques used in past (violator was very characteristic, so there had be a word about it). I think that this review wasn't exclusive for "estrada i studio", or at last he probably made similar interviews. You could look for it on the web, or buy "estrada i studio" archival number, and translate it from polish

.

Sir Ruff · Post by **Sir Ruff** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:41 pm

well, if one wanted to make those sounds at least, any number of late-80s, early 90s digital machines would work such as the r-8, k-50... or anything by kawai for that matter. "industrial" is the key word, and in that 88-92 timeframe, most drum sounds start sounding pretty modern (the hits and loops in the 1992 K-4 sound positively futuristic in terms of being totally usable for more contemporary stuff like drum n bass).

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:57 pm

What I do know is Clean has some live drumming from Alan on it, and that the percussion on personal jesus was them beating up flight cases.

The rest of the sounds are most likely either samples from the emax, or synth sounds.

DM was never about using just one drum machine, except on Speak and Spell, on which all of the drums were the korg KR55.

RobotHeroes · Post by **RobotHeroes** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:54 pm

Psy_Free wrote:Damn, I thought this thread was about a new analog drum machine called 'The Violator'.

Me too!

That sounds like a vicious drum machine.

soundsubs · Post by **soundsubs** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:00 am

when i think "violator" i think ETS which screams roland to me... from the 909-ish processed snare to the 'solid kick' drum, all of it just sounds very roland r8 or r8m.
this was the point in their career when they were fiddling with "real" instruments on the records.

flood did that record and he's not immune to using drum machines here and there.

it would be interesting to hear what everyone else thinks.

Entropy Farmer · Post by **Entropy Farmer** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:42 am

Psy_Free wrote:Damn, I thought this thread was about a new analog drum machine called 'The Violator'.

A drum machine built by Metasonix

synthetic88 · Post by **synthetic88** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:58 pm

I assumed they were still using the Synclavier by Violator, at least in the studio. I read that their more recent drum sounds are patched up on ARP 2600s and triggered.

Use your imagination to get those sounds. The journey is the fun part.

synthetic88 · Post by **synthetic88** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:59 pm

(or just sample them.)