What 80s songs can the DX7 Tubular Bells be heard on?

[logix]

Paul Hardcastle's "The wizard" was mentioned earlier, but it's also all over his self-titled 1985 album as well as several of his singles including certain versions of "19" and "Papa's got a brand new pigbag".

"In the beginning":


"Loitering with intent"


"Don't waste my time":


"Just for money":


"19 (the final story"):


"Papa's got a brand new pigbag":


Others that come to mind:

"Bambaataa's theme" by Afrika Bambaataa & Family:


"Don't disturb this groove" by The System:


... to mention a few!

[elsongs]

Level 42. "Lessons in Love"

Though there are lots of DX7 sounds on that song, the bells in the intro of the song actually come from the PPG Wave.

[Micke]

According to Wally Badarou, the intro to "Lessons in love" was played on the Synclavier.

[Micke]

Harold Faltermeyer used two TX-816's (16 DX7's!) for the low bell sounds in the Top Gun anthem. It's the tubular bells preset, just slightly detuned and tweaked.

[squatski]

[logix]

Harold Faltermeyer used two TX-816's (16 DX7's!) for the low bell sounds in the Top Gun anthem. It's the tubular bells preset, just slightly detuned and tweaked.

That's what I read as well (Red Bull music academy: Harold Faltermeyer's favorite synths), but I can't help but think it might not have sounded that much different with perhaps "only" 4 or 5 stacked DX-7 Tubular bell sounds, but I'm sure Harold knew what he was doing.

Slightly off-topic, but I seem to recall you mentioning some gear facts regarding Harold Faltermeyer -do you have any good Internet sources perhaps? All I could find of interest was the above link and a Red Bull music academy video lecture of Harold Faltermeyer which was quite interesting.

[Micke]

Hi Logix,

these two interviews might be of interest to you:

https://www.amazona.de/interview-harold ... er-teil-1/ (in German)
http://forum.studio.se/page/index_origi ... r-pop-r301 (in Swedish)

I've been in contact with Harold a few times (per email) so I might be able to provide you with the info you're looking for.

[logix]

Thanks for those interview links! Actually the German one is in 3 parts, but they appear not to have linked the last part in there. Here's all 3 parts of the Harold Faltermeyer interview.
Interesting stuff in the Swedish one as well, though understandably not that much from the mid-80s period which I'm mostly interested in, but any information I can pick up is great

My favourite song form him is probably "Shoot out", and second is "Fletch theme". It's interesting that the sync lead in "Fletch theme" sounds very similar to what I can achieve with my JX-8P while I've always read that it's a JX-3P, but in another posting of yours I believe you wrote it was an 8P after all. Actually there are several great songs on the Fletch soundtrack ("Diggin' in" is one of them). Groovy basslines, funky Linndrum beats, cool brass and leads....

So you've been in touch with Mr. Faltermeyer himself! That's definitely very cool.
Any information you have regarding his music around that time would be very interesting to read: instruments, recording techniques, effects etc. Do you have any information on how "Shootout" was done?


Sorry for getting off-topic from the use of tubular bell.

[logix]

Back to the subject again: DX-7 Tubular bells can be heard on "Rock & roll me again" by The System


As for Harold Faltermeyer, I've just created a new thread here if anyone would like to continue to discuss his music, gear etc.

[Mooger5]

IDK if it was already posted, but they´re on Sphynx Lightning by Tangerine Dream.

[elsongs]

One question - WHICH Tubular Bells sound are we talking about?

The internal preset bank featured a sound called "TUB ERUPT" (#27 in North America) that was a fuller sound and had a "filter swell" (well as an FM synth could do one) sound that you heard when the keys were held down.

One of the factory ROM cartridges, in the "Orchestral and Percussive Group," however, had a patch called "TUB BELLS" (#22 in the ROM 4 cartridge released in North America) that was just pure bells, no swell sound, and was a little thinner (due to the lack of the swell sound, which was an octave below the bell timbre).

The two tubular bell sounds are similar, but not identical. I wonder, since the "TUB ERUPT" was included in the internal factory bank, whether it was the one used more often in these popular recordings.

[elsongs]

Others that come to mind:

"Bambaataa's theme" by Afrika Bambaataa & Family:

I don't hear the tubular bells anywhere in this song, but I do hear the DX7 "PIPES 1" pipe organ factory preset.