Which Synth - Goldfrapp/Grace Jones

[AndrewS]

Hi all, Can one of you super-experts tell me which synth is being used in two songs (think it's the same synth) as I just love the sound and want to recreate it. Goldfrapp - Moon in Your Mouth (over the chorus vocals at 1:03 "Just hold me now / And Don't Let Go" etc.) and also Grace Jones - Slave to the Rhythm (the 3 falling notes just after the line "Never Stop the Action" at 2:12). Any answers very welcome! Thanks everyone.

[madtheory]

Two different synths, and quite different sounds but what they have in common is that they're basically two detuned sawtooths with VCA attack of 0ms and very fast decay. You can play around with that on almost any synth and get close. If you have one with an attack level control, that will get you much closer to the plucking effect.

As to the actual synths, the Grace Jones is more than likely the OB Matrix 12 IIRC that was all over the album because it was the brand new synth at the time (1985), whereas the Goldfrapp is probably one of his divide down synths because it sounds a bit thinner- so could be PolyMoog, Korg PS3100, or who knows what stringer, he owns a ton more like that!

[recordbot]

doesn't it say on the back of the album cover for slave to the rhythm that most of the album was synclavier? I heard that from Cookie Gonzalez who worked on it.

[madtheory]

Yes, most.

[HideawayStudio]

Hi all, Can one of you super-experts tell me which synth is being used in two songs (think it's the same synth) as I just love the sound and want to recreate it. Goldfrapp - Moon in Your Mouth (over the chorus vocals at 1:03 "Just hold me now / And Don't Let Go" etc.) and also Grace Jones - Slave to the Rhythm (the 3 falling notes just after the line "Never Stop the Action" at 2:12). Any answers very welcome! Thanks everyone.

I was actually with Will when some of the overdubs were being recorded in Logic on Moon in Your Mouth and what I can say is that he was playing with a S612 which I'd recently retrofitted with one of my FPA modules (the stuttery vocal pad and string effects that run through it were performed on it) but that synth line paralleled with Alison's vocals may just possibly be a snippet of sample too - the reason why I suspect this is because if you listen very carefully you will notice the last note in that phrase is a low note and it sounds like the instrument is lengthened/slowed/muffled as if its transposed rather than synthesized. As to what the original source was it could be any one of Will's faves including the 2-Voice, JP-6, RS-505, MS-20, Polymoog and possibly even Polivoks.. although it sounds like its something with an HPF to give it that nice fizz which Will is particularly fond of.

[AndrewS]

Wow thanks everyone for the really detailed replies - your knowledge outstrips mine by a mile! Any idea how I might reproduce this fizzy sound in Logic?