My suspicion is that its done on something which is polyphonic. I hear them all the time and i get jealous:
New Order - Blue Monday
Depeche Mode - See You
Kraftwerk - Showroom Dummies, Europe Endless, and Neon Lights.
So, how exactly is it all done?
Sorry, don’t have time to listen to all this songs at the moment,
but i think you mean a vocoder.
But there are many ways in our times to produce strange vocal effects.
My favorite vocoder at the moment is the Waldorf DCoder, which run
on the TC Powercore only.
Cheers,
Stefan
I don’t think it was a vocoder, its as if they have patched something on a polyphonic synth, and added a bit of modulation, it sounds like a vocal effect a bit.
Boeing 737-400,
New Order - Blue Monday:
They used an Emulator I. The first ‘budget’ sampler, after the Fairlight came on the market. The sample they used was a gregorian choir.
Depeche Mode - See You:
That was the sound of the PPG Wave. It’s a wavetable synth, the voices were created with a vowel sound wave table. You can easily recreate this with a Waldorf Microwave.
Kraftwerk:
The choir sounds came from a Mellotron, a Chamberlin or an Orchestron. The precursors of the digital Sampler. The Mellotron is an instrument that uses tapes with prerecorded sounds. Each key on the keyboard has its own tape with its own recording so each key has a unique realistic sound. The Orchestron uses an optical disc instead of tapes to generate the sounds.
So, none of the above sounds where created with analogue synths à la Moog or vocoders.
David
Akai VX600: http://kunst.phlimburg.be/vx600
Thanks for giving a clear description. I had suspicions that Depeche Mode used the PPG Wave, after seeing countless performances of them using them on that song. I was under the impression that it could be done on a standard analogue synth, but its not.
Cheers.
One of my favorite synth sounds is the “vocal-articulated strings” on 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love” (from 1974). How’d they do that?
My guess is that they used a vocoder onto a string sound.
I’d really like to know the same.
I heard a very similar sound on the last album from Air (Talkie Walkie); in their track “Run” (or was it in their track " Surfin’ on a Rock" ?)…
I think some kind of ARP was used on that 10cc song.
The ethereal vocal chorus effect on 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love” from what I have heard was achieved through a myriad of vocal overdubs backed up by the legendary Godly & Creme invention the Gizmotron, and possibly a touch of ARP/Solina String Ensemble for extra ambience. The Gizmotron was a device that laid over the bridge of a guitar and bowed the strings using little plastic rotating sawtoothed wheels actuated by lever buttons. It was commercially manufatured for a short while, I have only seen one in person once in my life and it was the bass guitar version. A very rare item (especially if you can find one that actually works, as they were prone to self-destruct), I keep an eye out on eBay hoping to find one of these unique beasts. It was also responsible for all of the bowed string sounds occuring in “I’m Not In Love” (which is one of my all time favorite songs due to that incredible dynamic soundscape!) Anyway, the only pic I have been able to find of the device can be found at the link below (also an interesting read about Mu-Tron), facinating stuff.
http://www.beitec.com/stomp.htm
And mention of Bob Moog’s involvment with the Gizmotron!
Thanks for the replies; 'though the links give an error. Do they work with you guys ? 
I just tried them and they worked for me. I guess the server was down when you tried them, THM.
Thanks for the info on the Gizmotron, Synthesist! Now you’ve got me wondering… could the Gizmotron effect can be achieved digitally nowadays?
OK they’re working now - thanks !!
Honestly, attempting the Gizmotron sound is something that I have also been greatly inspired to recreate digitally. But I have yet to get around to it, though I am eager to give it a shot real soon. The only avenues that I believe are actually capable of this endeavor are possibly Buzz, AudioMulch, Max/MSP, or maybe the new Nord Modular G2. No offence to the Voyager, by any means, but every synth engine (software or hardware) has it’s purpose and strengths. So here are some links to help out, and if you guys get a head start on me or actually nail it on the head as far as a convincing Gizmotron sound, please let me know your results. Thanx!
http://web.hibo.no/~mva/whatisbuzz.php
I asked the same question about that 10CC sound on Future Producers, and I’ve got this answer:
“THM, strangely enough, years ago someone who was tape op on one of their sessions for this track told me that it was done using a single vocalist and running multiple events of her vocals. This was then run through an Eventide, EMS filter bank and a plate reverb. Geeza could be talking bull tho’.”
I too, have wondered how 10 cc achieved their ethereal vocal sound on “I’m Not In Love”. I have an original E-MU Proteus 1 which features a choir sample that sounds almost identical, and wondered if they too had used a sample, via the Mellotron. However, I have just read that there were 256 (yes you read correctly) vocal overdubs to create this sound. Don’t know if this is fact, but if so, it’s one hell of an achievement.
Another little piece of music trivia: the spoken “Be quiet… Big boys don’t cry” was contributed by the studio’s receptionist.
Anyone got any more stories?
The three guys used to choose a note and sing it really deep.
That girl came into the room while they were thinking about the song, when she whispered something to them, they decided to use that vocal.
Is there any chance you can provide me a few samples of that choral sample please ? Let’s say C3 and C4 or something ? Thanks.
As soon as I heard a Waldorf Microwave (based on the original PPG technology), I realized how much PPG there was in early Depeche Mode recordings after Speak and Spell.
If you want that PPG sound, check out the Waldorf PPG Wave 2.V. It’s a VST softsynth plugin which is a lot more practical for most people than any piece of old PPG hardware. There are lots of other great softsynths as well, many of them emulating vintage synths. Now if only my Mac was a little more powerful…
just a word of warning for those of you who might want use a gizmotron or an ebow with your guitar - they can demagnetize your pic ups.
Yes… and you can get the same high quality 8-bit sampled sounds from a Casio SK-1…
Actually i don’t think kraftwerk ever used a Mellotron… I’ll double check on this!!