That was used for the strings on 'The Time Is Now', and we also sampled the harpsichord soundboard in the Abbey Road studio. The Fairlight's rhythm sequencer is better in that sense, and we also enjoyed using the Emulator. We tried to use the MC4 and MC8 but found them a pain in the neck, much too slow to programme, and generally Rob could play parts faster than it took to programme them in. The trouble with analogue synths is that the sound gets cluttered up around the bass end when you multitrack, and digital machines don't seem to suffer from this so much. We usually change the demo tapes in the studio, replacing Prophet sounds with layers and washes from the PPG for instance. Eventually we'd like to get either a Fairlight or Synclavier or PPG of our own, so that we'd have sequencing and sounds available. Some tracks such as 'Promises Promises' just use the Fairlight for all the drums, with the sounds put on one at a time synchronised by a click track. It took about 6 weeks to do the album.ĭuring that time we felt we'd exhausted the possibilities of the Linn, as it's got a distinctive sound of its own, and we started to use Phil Towner on drums and Tony Mansfield on a Simmons kit. "It's easy to experiment in the studio and to mess around with the Linn, Fairlight and so on, luckily we work very fast and now seem to have as much studio time as we like anyway. In the past we used to work at things for ages, but nowadays we don't finish anything off unless we know it's good". Every demo is put together in a different way, and we're usually working on several songs at the same time. We then demo in an 8-track studio in Bristol, and of the 13 or 14 demos we did for EMI most have now been mastered, although one or two have been discarded. "Everything starts off in Rob's front room on a Philips 2-track Sound-on-Sound machine. Over the top of the Prophet parts we added Fairlight, Wave 2.2 and Synclavier".
A lot of the album had been completed in this way before using any digital equipment, using a few devices such as a tape click trigger on the Prophet which can produce different filter levels from 0 to 10 for use on polyphonic bass sequences. We also used a Synclavier a little the sounds are very clear, but like the Fairlight it wouldn't be used for solos.Īll the demos are done using our Prophet and TR808. The Rhythm Page 'R' allows us to arrange sounds such as bass drum, snare drum, staccato wood blocks and soon, for instance on 'Promises Promises' on the album. "We'd like to use the Fairlight live, as well as using it in the studio for various voices and as a sequencer.
Up till now we've only used it in the studio, as it belongs to our producer Tony Mansfield".
After working with a lot of session musicians on the album that shouldn't be too difficult now, although we'll also have to get used to using equipment like the Fairlight live. We found we could only get the sound we wanted working as a duo, although we'll have to use additional musicians when we tour. Either way, it got a reasonable amount of airplay and got our name around the radio stations.īefore that we'd been working together for 3 years, including the time with Neon. We just happened to hit the tail end of a spate of cover versions, and we felt that if you can put your own sound on a song that's just as valid as doing an original. "We didn't intentionally choose a cover as our first single, but our version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's 'Always Something There To Remind Me' was closer to completion than any of the other four songs we demo'd.
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