Piano Riff Of Gypsy
 

Looking for someone who knows -

Very curious who came up with the riff that keeps playing throughout GYPSY.

I'm not sure if it's a synth, piano, or guitar playing it.

I was told years ago that it was Stevie's but it's not on any of her demos
of the song.

Does anyone know?

The Fmaj pentatonic riff?

I'm almost sure it was Lindsey.

That is Lindsey. Although the riff is piano friendly.

Riff
 

Hey thanks guys - how do you know for a fact that it's Lindsey?

read him saying it? etc?

The fact that it's played on guitar definitely raises the chance that he came up
with it - but not 100% ..how did you find out?

Because Lindsey generally arranges all of Stevie's songs in the context of FM. :shrug: And he definitely writes his own guitar parts.

Who knows. Even Mick could have written that part since it's literally just a scale going up and down in crotchets.

Good points - though like the other post said..in this case it's a real simple
riff - And I also wasn't sure because I STILL don't know what sound that is?

I think it may be a Layered sound of Bell sound from 1 of the synths back then.. and Harmonics on a guitar?

Or are you sure that on Mirage it's just a guitar playing it? Cause my guitar
doesn't like that unless of course..I'm playing harmonics..even then not 100% the same..
Very interested to know what's playing the actual riff..

I don't know who wrote it (though Lindsey uses pentatonic scales in other later songs) but he certainly played it: the riff is clearly on guitar.

Given LB's penchant for studio trickery, it could be any number of possibilities. At one time I thought there could be a glockenspiel in the mix, but now I don't think so. I think the most prominent sound in the mix may be closely miked single acoustic guitar notes (with possibly some additional electronic processing). But due to the very defined transients on the riff, there may indeed be some sort of percussion instrument playing along. Very difficult to tell.

In any event, the sound of the riff on the studio version has never been replicated on the live version. On The Dance it does sound like they doubled the guitar with a glock, but it doesn't sound much like the studio version.

Alright ! A fellow musician in the forum! - Speaking of sounds, I had always
wondered what did the opening sequenced riff of Synchronicity I from that Police album. Recently Stewart Copeland answered my q on a Police forum that it was a "Some kind of Roland with an early form sequencer" -

For some reason , that sound has always been elusive and exotic to me - you as well? But I must say I'm not a synth expert - I have a Yamaha Motif at home - and can't get that sound - Again in that case I think it's layered and I'm pretty sure one of the sounds is a Synth Bass - but I don't know what the higher layer is..