Recreating Depeche Mode's Tora! Tora! Tora! using an ARP2600 Synthesizer

[@AlexBallMusic]

Small world. Glad to see your kick was very similar to mine. I did a recreation of the Jupiter-4 bass line for Tora Tora with the cloud plugin a while back. Sounds very close.

[@Shrebina-kq4cs]

This is astonishingly good ! More DM please !!!!

[@sunilsolanki]

Just wonderful!

[@marklawrence909]

The initial bass sound was from a Roland Jupiter 4 (a mix of saw tooth and square wave with Ensemble on), and also it was used for the climbing portamento part in Just Can't Get Enough. Vince later used it on Yazoo Don't Go with a preset called The Force, that is what you hear just after the 2600 brass main intro riff when the bass and drums kick in. I had a JP-4 for many years and used to get the exact sounds. You did a great job with this track, it's very close to the original.

[@therealmattmann]

Nicely done! As a former synth player in a band that covered a lot of DM over the years, I can say that was a JOY to watch!! More, please! CHEERS from across the pond! 🤘🏼😎🤘🏼

[@cosmosynthesizer]

Oh how I LOOOOOOVE that Song and teh Sounds!!! One of Marts best Songs ever. Still.

[@ReverendMuncle]

This is absolutely incredible work. Thank you !

[@MrAntennaBall]

Nailed it! WOOT!

[@octaviolealgeissbuhler843]

remarkable reconstruction of a classic early days depeche mode song !!! great channel !

[@LFOVCF]

Top notch!

[@EnviroDouglas]

Brings back memories. Brilliant!

[@tonyblue1]

Very cool!

[@mattavalon]

Absolutely brilliant reproduction

[@laurencemaddock1118]

I remember Dave changing the cassettes on the tape player rather than a drum machine

[@mattcharles1505]

Awesome. Great work. One of my favourite tracks on the album!

[@PaulDakeyne]

Excellent vibes!

[@sock_park]

That second lead (the one around 5:50) is so simple and elegant, loaded with “character”. Great vid.

[@Robotique69]

BR-I-LL-I-ANT! Thanks for this vid. Now I'm looking forward to see more videos from you.

[@prophetate]

❤ I’m speechless 😍 a great song from my favorite album with my favorite synth 😊 absolutely amazing❣️

[@netyoda]

I'd say that the harmony of this track is probably better than the original, maybe due to all of the sounds coming from the same hardware. Beautiful job, gorgeous sound!

[@ednasdiscomachine6049]

Sitting here watching your vid and your name rings a bell, then it dawns on me that you are the Northern Kind chap! I met you many moons ago at an Electronically Yours event run by a chap who had a Human League forum. I saw NK a few times back in the day too. Great video, looking forward to more. I also have an ARP2600.

[@MattCulpin]

Yes, the very same 🙂still (slowly) working on NK stuff. Is yours an original 2600 or the Korg reissue?

[@ednasdiscomachine6049]

@@MattCulpin I have the Korg reissue.

[@MattCulpin]

@@ednasdiscomachine6049 Same, the Step Brother sequencer is a very good addition 🙂

[@ednasdiscomachine6049]

@@MattCulpin Will check it out. Ta.

[@tanoi242]

excellent!

[@-.J.S.]

Very nice. I didn't know you could play Tora Tora Tora with just one synth (and a few samples). I wished they played this track on the current tour.

[@nicolaneeco]

This is great mate, good job!! keep it up

[@Cl4rendon]

It`s videos like this that light up my day. Thank you for going into these details!!

[@gumpbertstrumpbert7074]

Very nicely done! More please :)

[@johanwejedaldesign]

brilliant!

[@synthfluencer]

You really nailed the sounds and the mood of this track. With closed eyes I couldn't tell if this is an original instrumental track. Only one idea for optimization: The Theremin-like sound in the chorus section goes D5 - F5 - Eb6 - A5 on the album recording (possibly a D6 is played briefly before the Eb6, this is hard to hear out because of the hard vibrato on that sound).

[@fredrikh9299]

Great work and info! Thanks for the effort. 🇸🇪❤️🇬🇧

[@marktrueman7788]

Great job Matt!

[@GlenWisbey]

Brilliant recreation Matt

[@WoolwichHouseStudio]

Just came across your channel. Excellent work. Appreciate your efforts here. Hope you do more of these types of vids in the future.

[@MattCulpin]

Thanks, yep after a short break to work on some original tracks I'll be uploading a bunch more very soon 🙂

[@WoolwichHouseStudio]

@MattCulpin Yes, I can tell that these videos take a huge amount of time and effort. But, they're astonishingly good, and a great resource for those of us who now have access to these vintage synthesizers (or at least copiesof them). Subbed!

[@lacherlichcateaster4538]

Maaaazazing.

[@dougharvey9766]

Wow Matt that is an amazing effort

[@SK1966DM]

Mighty fine job. You’re never gonna get it absolutely perfect but your pretty damn close to it. Having done something similar myself (18 tracks from the Human League Reproduction & Travelogue albums) I can appreciate the hours spent on it … along with the fun and satisfaction when you crack it. Great research too btw. I learnt a few things from you today. 😁🎹🎶

[@adaptedvinyl]

I'd love to hear your Human League versions. Are they posted anywhere?

[@fakshen1973]

The best version of Tora! Tora! Tora! is the live version on the back of the extended 12" of "Get The Balance Right". If you have a chance to listen to it, you just might enjoy it.

[@yannisgk]

thanks for the "info"!!!

[@Matt28932]

Wonderful!

[@janhansen7343]

Perfectly done

[@Hiajarock]

Excellent job!

[@eyeprod3101]

Great job! Great song!

[@dalejason]

Great job 👌👏👏👏👏 love this !

[@jbejaran]

Spectacular re-creation, and fantastic explanation of how you did it!

[@therealskinflutes]

Great reproduction! Have you got the patch sheet for the bassdrum?

[@MattCulpin]

Here's a photo of the settings - it's essentially just the filter on max res, cutoff 0, ADSR all to 0, and play a middle C. If you have the KARP 2600 I think it sounds best on Filter type I www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sdhim4b5s515wptdwj029/IMG_1439.HEIC?rlkey=b0avj7lrvc6bnrnzpw4r13i4f&dl=0

[@therealskinflutes]

@@MattCulpin Thank you so much!

[@jpachege]

Great stuff! Looking forward to more!

[@matsfrommusic]

Absolutely amazing. You even got the fx hit in the verses down.

[@peahix]

Good job overall though you missed one major synth on this track: Vince’s Roland Jupiter 4. The chords at the beginning are the “Voice” preset on the J4, and the initial bass patch is also J4.

[@MattCulpin]

I read in the Jonathan Miller book ( I think ) that the JP-4 was purchased after the album was recorded and brought for the tour as it had patch memories

[@peahix]

I don’t think that’s accurate. I think it’s more likely it was bought at the tail end of the sessions and thus only used sparingly on the album. You can also hear the JP4’s “Voice” preset playing chords in “Any Second Now” (which is subtitled “Voices,” I assume because of that preset). There’s also a JP4 arpeggiator part in the middle instrumental segment of “Just Can’t Get Enough.” The little rising brass riff in that part is also possibly JP4.

[@abrokenframe82]

@@peahix I remember You did a fab version of New Life on the Yamaha CS-01. Kudos to you mate.

[@peahix]

@@abrokenframe82 thanks! yeah, i did a few tracks from speak n spell :)

[@gionspenzers]

Vince had already got the Jupiter 4 as early as Summer 1981 (or even earlier than that). You could see Vince playing the Jupiter 4 on the "20th Century Box" program where Depeche Mode played on Crocs back in June 27, 1981.

[@jameslechner726]

Impressive job. I knew DM used the hell out of the ARP 2600.

[@ValSoloPop]

Fantastic job mate 🖖

[@amulpatel]

wow, sounds fantastic! makes me wonder how close arturia emulation can get to that phat analog sound.. hope to see from your channel

[@JohanKermitBoback7204]

Fantastic!!!! More of that please!!!

[@troach242]

Fantastic job. I picked up a Behrniger 2600 when it came out and have been doing similar things in my spare time. Love it. Question: Please show me how you made the FX sounds. Patch sheet, good pic, something... lol. I try and try, but cant get them to sound very close at all. ::Squelchy Perc noise and blip/zap at 3:54 & 4:58. Thank you.

[@eancurtis9333]

Awesome!!!! First album is the best IMO...korg kr 55 snare

[@electron3234]

so nice!

[@RobertDorschel]

BRILLIANT. And now you have a new subscriber.

[@randydarklight]

That´s a great tutorial. I am a big fan of Vince Clarke.

[@modeanodb]

Loving it great stuff could you have a look at John fox underpass.... Love futurist sounds

[@burns46824]

Good job my man. The hard part is getting the mix to sound the same without using an analog Console or analog tape.

[@MinnesotaNoise]

Can't be a British post-punk band without a song about WWII.

[@Richard_P_James]

Excellent work! Have you worked out how they created the sequences for "Shout"?

[@MattCulpin]

From playing with the ARP and Sequencer you can get close, but there’s so many variables to tweak between the two it’s hard to get it exact

[@carterthaxton]

Very cool! At 3:50, I think you've got a wrong note in there. The original uses an E# as a leading tone to F# minor, instead of the E that you're playing. It's also got a more "shuffled" rhythmic feel in that part. Love this song!

[@carterthaxton]

Then at 7:30, it's very off. It starts out right, and then it's like you played it up a half-step. I know the sound has some vibrato, but it's definitely B, A#, F#, G, F#, E, F#, D, A#, (then a quick low F#), outlining a B harmonic minor, and not B, A#, G, Ab, F, G, Eb, B.

[@Gencoil]

I noticed the "zap" effect (heard in the beginning and throughout the entire song) is unfortunately not timed properly. As an obsessive DM listener I notice these things immediately 😅 Despite this I am very impressed with how close many of these sounds come to the real deal.

[@UFO-Ark]

❤

[@АндрійОвчаренко-я2ц]

I learned the main riff by ear in a key of G ))

[@Mortizul]

Do you know what the snare sound is in World in My Eyes?

[@MattCulpin]

I think it was a Kraftwerk and other snare sound mixed, although a module from EMU called a Proteus had a very similar sound as a preset that was released the same year.

[@plutostube]

you hear clearly the interesting harmony of MG vs Vince popy one

[@PerAnkh418]

Brill :)

[@ultramet]

I played an American 🙌 🔥

[@randydarklight]

As cool as I find this reproduction, I miss the patches. Why don't you take photos of the patches and show them in the video?

[@MattCulpin]

Yeah, I realised I should have took pics of the patches

[@randydarklight]

@@MattCulpin Is there a chance that you will cover/clone other songs from Speak & Spell on the ARP? Boys say go is exciting because a lot happens and the bass sounds are interesting.

[@Digiphex]

Great job on that. This is one of my favorites from their early era where they had a raw synth sound. After Martin brought in his awful sounding and playing guitar and that wang dang Personal Jesus horrible sound I went from loving their sound to hating it.

[@ohoganroad]

Not bad. Some of your playing is a little off plus they used a Jupiter4 in the original. Other than that, very good!

[@juno6]

Excellent! but the very last melody is wrong.