Haddaway- What Is Love synths?

[bigman2005]

I always wondered what synth was used on "What Is Love" by Haddaway.

[BlackGnosis]

I always thought it was a rock organ kind of sound from a roland u-220 + Distortion, a mks-50 for the synthy parts, a sh-101 or similar for the bass and a TR-909

[D-Collector]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's all samples.. I've found all the female vocal parts on the Zero-G Datafile 1 CD, and there are lot's of different stabs, synth and drum samples in there as well.

Now this is not much of a musical statement but a year ago I tried to put together a quick track to demo the Datafile CD, using only the samples on disc. I think it's perfectly possible to make a complete pop track from this source alone.





Whatever instruments Haddaway used, I love his first album.

[Sir Ruff]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's all samples.. I've found all the female vocal parts on the Zero-G Datafile 1 CD, and there are lot's of different stabs, synth and drum samples in there as well.

Now this is not much of a musical statement but a year ago I tried to put together a quick track to demo the Datafile CD, using only the samples on disc. I think it's perfectly possible to make a complete pop track from this source alone.





Whatever instruments Haddaway used, I love his first album.

Awesome you have instantly evoked 1992.

[Alex E]

Bassline is 100% LatelyBass from the TX81z. I love it.

[ninja6485]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's all samples.. I've found all the female vocal parts on the Zero-G Datafile 1 CD, and there are lot's of different stabs, synth and drum samples in there as well.

Now this is not much of a musical statement but a year ago I tried to put together a quick track to demo the Datafile CD, using only the samples on disc. I think it's perfectly possible to make a complete pop track from this source alone.





Whatever instruments Haddaway used, I love his first album.

How was I unaware of the existence of Datafile one for so long? I tip my hat to you sir.

[Hugo76]

I read somewhere that the silly 'One love' vocal snippet from The Prodigy is also taken from the Zero G sample cd. Amazing...

[D-Collector]

If you listen to Coldcut's "Doctorin the House" from 1988 you will recognize A LOT of samples you will find in Datafile 1, funny seeing as the Datafile CD came out two years later, in 1990. On the Datafile CD they are clean, with no background "noise" which makes me believe they must have been taken from an even earlier sample database, or maybe was given to Zero-G by ColdCut.

Another funny thing, listen to Jack 'n Chill "The Jack That House Built", again a lot of those samples are on the Datafile CD. But this is not so strange as Ed Stratton from JnC became one of the founders of Zero-G, and was a huge sampling enthusiast! Probably used a lot of his private samplings to make up the Datafile.

[ninja6485]

Yea, I remember reading that it was the first sample cd to hit the market, made entirely from a private collection. As the story goes, its creator (who's name I don't remember) gathered together 1000 of his best samples onto a dat tape, evened out the levels and had it turned into a cd. I think someone from sound on sound designed the cover. Many of those were definitly circulating around before it came out. I recognize samples on df1 from royal house, Krush, etc.- both original material and samples they themselves used. The Impression I get is that it's something like a snapshot of the pre 1990 sampling culture, almost like a "greatest hits", which probably explains why it's so much more raw and inspiring than datafile two or three, which...sound like the sounds were gathered as leftovers / filler for a professional effort to put out a sample cd (although I still like them anyway). I love how there's like a whole track of James Brown shouts...I wonder how many people got sued because of that track? There's controversy surrounding the licencing issues with using the samples, but I'm pretty sure they are not Licenced for commercial use...I think it's supposed to be "for inspirational use only," lol.

[bigman2005]

Is that where we get those screams on "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and EZ Rock?

[Hugo76]

Here's an interview with Ed Stratton where he explains the background and process:
http://blog.timespace.com/2010/09/stepp ... -stratton/

[elsongs]

Is that where we get those screams on "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and EZ Rock?

That's from Lyn Collins' (a James Brown protege) single, "Think About It." The screams are from none other than The Godfather Of Soul himself:

(Cue: 1:24)