Tango In The Night - Which Songs Include Stevie?

[cbBen]

Originally Posted by David

"Often what sounds like a keyboard part is actually me playing a plectrum-style instrument and modifying it somehow on the mixing board."

It isn't necessarily that Lindsey is playing Christine's piano and electric piano on their Eighties albums. It's that he's playing at least some of them on a guitar, a dobro, a mandolin, a ukulele or probably even a stand-up bass, and then running the tape through a modified amplifier or a loop or turning weird knobs on the board or feeding everything through a sampler or whatever he did as part of his "painting."

So is that riff at the beginning of (and throughout) "Seven Wonders" actually played on a stringed instrument, even though it sounds like it's from a synthesizer?

[David]

Originally Posted by cbBen

So is that riff at the beginning of (and throughout) "Seven Wonders" actually played on a stringed instrument, even though it sounds like it's from a synthesizer?

No, I think that's a synthesizer, possibly a DX7 (which Christine is shown playing in the Big Love video).

Here's a video of the DX7 factory patches. The band probably would have fed any of these through some additional editing tools (possibly even sampled them into the Fairlight or a Prophet).

You might hear some synthy sounds on Isn't It Midnight or You and I that are triggered by a guitar—for example, the twinkly riff in the upper register that permeates that latter track (I always thought it was too prominent in the final mix because it kind of makes your ears wince).

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by David

No, I think that's a synthesizer, possibly a DX7 (which Christine is shown playing in the Big Love video).

Here's a video of the DX7 factory patches. The band probably would have fed any of these through some additional editing tools (possibly even sampled them into the Fairlight or a Prophet).

You might hear some synthy sounds on Isn't It Midnight or You and I that are triggered by a guitar—for example, the twinkly riff in the upper register that permeates that latter track (I always thought it was too prominent in the final mix because it kind of makes your ears wince).

the music to that was written by Sandy Stewart, so it's even possible that they used some basic tracks from her playing the synthesizer as the building blocks for adding FM layers