West End Girls synth pad

Gothboy · Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:54 am Post subject: West End Girls synth pad

Anyone know what Chris Lowe used to make that great synth pad on the Pet Shop Boys' song West end Girls? Probably a Yamaha DX-7 or a Roland D-50 since the song was done around 1984. Just a lovely, spooky atmosphere pad that sets the mood of the whole song. If I had only one choice for a pad sound this would be it. I'll try get as close as I can with my Nord Lead 2, Micro or Alesis QS-6. I'll also see what I've got in my sampler which has loads of Pad samples. Watch the video and post what you think. I've seen live videos from Glastonbury where he plays it on either a Roland JP-8000 or another unidentafiable synth but I'd like to know the original keyboard used. Anyone with a DX or D-50 would probably know:

click here

[editor's note: made this link a click here - it was too long and was distorting the page -- mosc]

jkn · Joined: Mar 14, 2004 Posts: 469 Location: La Porte, IN, USA

Not a D50 - that came out around '87.

Unfortunately - don't know - but that definitely pulls me back 20 years. Even though it was released in '84 - didn't it take at least a year or two to hit in the States?

Now I'm being sucked into an 80's synthpop vortex - you've just triggered a ton of different songs running through my head.

Gothboy · Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:08 pm Post subject:

I think it finally hit in '86. The bassline is definitely an analog synth. Then maybe the Pad was the DX. I've managed to replicate both sounds with my Nord Lead 2 pretty well. In the case of the pad it's close but not exactly. Rolling Eyes

Tim Kleinert · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:31 am Post subject:

I think its a string sample from an Emulator2.