Live sound banks
In 2011, former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder announced the Alan Wilder / Depeche Mode Collection, an historic equipment, vinyl, and memorabilia auction organized in partnership with Omega Auctions. Held at the Manchester Zion Arts Centre, the auction put hundreds of Depeche Mode and Recoil memorabilia under the hammer, serving bidders both in-person and online. Among the hundreds of items sold were several pieces of equipment pre-loaded with sound banks or accompanied by physical media containing sound banks, as well as twenty signed and numbered zip discs each containing dozens of banks programmed by Wilder for live use with the EMU Emax and Emax II sampling keyboards during the 1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour, 1990 World Violation Tour, 1993 Devotional Tour, and 1994 Exotic Tour.[1][2].
Notes
General information
Each bank contains an array of sounds allocated across the keyboard for live performances. In nearly all cases, the samples were sourced from the original multitrack recordings.[2] Among these sound banks are sounds for song renditions that were only ever performed live, as well as songs which never made the final tour set list.
Copied from the original auction listing:
The Zip discs will work in any suitable Zip drive and connect to the Emax via a scuzi[3] cable. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to transfer everything absolutely perfectly from the original floppies. The vast majority of sounds are fully in tact[sic] but one or two have small corruptions at the end of notes. The good news is that, with a bit of careful editing, these glitches can be removed. (Thanks goes to Tom & Simon for their help).[4][5]
The sound banks included on the zip discs were not the only banks made available at the time of the auction. Certain pieces of equipment, such as Alan Wilder's EMU Emulator II, were listed as including several Depeche Mode and Recoil sound banks, plus a large collection of various Emulator II sample library banks. If you possess these unlisted Depeche Mode or Recoil sound banks, please reach out to [email protected].
Alan's Comments
Copied from the original auction listing:
I spent many hours (days!) programming each member’s keyboards for the tours, painstakingly trying to recreate as accurately as possible the sounds we formulated and used on the records. The Emax was a perfect tool for the live re-creations. This collection covers most of my own sounds for the two tours, although I did play live drums on some songs. I tried all these out recently and discovered how much fun it is to work out the various parts we all used to play. I even found some guide sounds which weren’t actually performed live but were used to demonstrate parts to others. For example, I discovered some guide vocals for Condemnation which were sampled to help routine our girl backing vocalists during the rehearsals.[5][6]
Major Events
- Authentic sound banks employed by Depeche Mode during the 1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour, 1990 World Violation Tour, 1993 Devotional Tour, and 1994 Exotic Tour are made available to members of the public for the first time.
Sound Banks
Due to the unlisted nature of some sound banks that were sold separately from the documented zip discs, these tables list them as described on the auction page, with additional information on several sound banks that are not documented there. Several banks include duplicate presets for an unknown reason. This may be a translation error during the process of creating first generation copies from Alan's original zip discs and writing them to the twenty numbered zip drives prior to the auction, a translation error during the process of translating the banks from their original formats, or simple human error on Alan Wilder's part when originally building the sound banks.
| Bank # | Song | Presets | # of Samples | # of Presets | Glitched? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Christmas Island (safety copy) | NULL PRESET | 9 | 1 | ✖ | This bank includes a sequence as provided by an anonymous source, part of which can be heard in Alan's Emulator II demonstration video. |
| 12 | Recoil 4 (safety copy) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | This sound bank apparently includes loops from unspecified early Recoil recordings. If you possess this Emulator II bank, please reach out to [email protected]. |
| 13 | Shake The Disease (safety copy) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | If you possess this Emulator II bank, please reach out to [email protected]. |
| 14 | Black Celebration (re-sampled from Emax zip set) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | If you possess this Emulator II bank, please reach out to [email protected]. |
| 15 | Master And Servant (re-sampled from Emax zip set & SGR album) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | If you possess this Emulator II bank, please reach out to [email protected]. |
| 16 | A Question Of Time (re-sampled from Emax zip set) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | If you possess this Emulator II bank, please reach out to [email protected]. |
| 17 | Blasphemous Rumours (re-sampled from Emax zip set) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | If you possess this Emulator II bank, please reach out to [email protected]. |
| 18 | Stripped (re-sampled from Emax zip set) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | If you possess this Emulator II bank, please reach out to [email protected]. |
| 19 | Pipeline (re-sampled from Emax zip set) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | If you possess this Emulator II bank, please reach out to [email protected]. |
| 20 | Behind The Wheel (re-sampled from Emax zip set) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | If you possess this Emulator II bank, please reach out to [email protected]. |
| Bank # | Song | Presets | # of Samples | # of Presets | Glitched? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | People Are People | PEOPLE | 8 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 1 | A Question Of Time | QUEST O TIME | 4 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 2 | A Question Of Lust | QUEST O LUST, QUEST O LUST | 7 | 2 | ✖ | |
| 3 | Pleasure, Little Treasure | PLEASURE | 4 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 4 | Sacred | SACRED | 7 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 5 | Blasphemous Rumours | BLASPHEMOUS | 7 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 6 | It Doesn't Matter | IT DOESNT | 4 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 7 | Things You Said | THE THINGS | 7 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 8 | Strangelove[7] | STRANGELOVE | 12 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 9 | Shake The Disease | SHAKE, SHAKE | 8 | 2 | ✖ | |
| 10 | Never Let Me Down Again | NEVER LET ME | 12 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 11 | Just Can't Get Enough | JUST CANT | 3 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 12 | Stripped | STRIPPED | 8 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 13 | Pipeline | PIPELINE | 8 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 14 | Nothing | NOTHING | 8 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 15 | Behind The Wheel | BEHIND THE | 7 | 1 | ✔ | Audio glitch present in BEHIND THE_000, BEHIND THE_005, and BEHIND THE_006 |
| 16 | Something To Do | SOMETHING TO | 5 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 17 | Everything Counts | EVERYTHING | 6 | 1 | ✔ | Audio glitch present in EVERYTHING_004 and EVERYTHING_005 |
| 18 | Somebody | SOMEBODY | 8 | 1 | ✖ | |
| ?? | Black Celebration[8] | BLACK CELEB | 6 | 1 | ✖ | |
| ?? | Master And Servant[9] | MASTER AND | 7 | 1 | ✖ | |
| ?? | Perc 1[10] | PERC 1 | 7 | 1 | ✖ | |
| ?? | It Doesn't Matter (SEQ) | IT DOESNTSEQ | 6 | 1 | ✖ | |
| ?? | Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth (SEQ) | MOTHER SEQ A | 8 | 1 | ✔ | No audio glitches. Incorrectly translated loop point on MOTHER SEQ A_005 produces click. An anonymous source who assisted Alan Wilder during the auction provided this sequence, which was included on the zip disc containing this sound bank. The guitar, choir "ahh", and bass pad voices are included in the sequence. This would leave the bass and synth pad voices for Wilder to improvise live, which matches the live recordings from the 1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour, as these parts occasionally differ from recording to recording. |
| ?? | Trancer | Trancer\, Okinawa, Trance\ | 10 | 3 | ✖ | This sound bank contains no identifiable Depeche Mode material and was not used during the 1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour. |
| Bank # | Song | Presets | # of Samples | # of Presets | Glitched? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34 | Mercy In You (Alan 93) | MERCY ALAN, END PIANO, MERCY ALAN, MERCY ALAN, END PIANO, MERCY ALAN | 42 | 6 | ✖ | |
| 35 | Fly On The Windscreen[12] | Untitled, FLYS ALAN, WALK PIANO | 31 | 3 | ✖ | |
| 36 | Nothing (A 93)[13] | NOTHING A 93 | 8 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 37 | Something To Do[14] | SOMETHINGA93, SOMETHINGA93 | 6 | 2 | ✖ | |
| 38 | Leave In Silence (Alan 93)[15] | LEAVE ALAN93 | 5 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 39 | A Question Of Lust | LUST ALAN 93, LUST ALAN 93 | 17 | 2 | ✖ | |
| 40 | Clean (percussion trigger sounds) | CLEAN D, CLEANALAN 93 | 2 | 2 | ✔ | Audio glitch present in CLEAN D_001 |
| 41 | Condemnation (Guide) | CONDEM GUIDE | 10 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 42 | Everything Counts (94 version) | EVERY A 93 | 13 | 1 | ✖ | |
| 43 | Waiting For The Night[16] | WAITING ALAN, WAITING ALAN | 11 | 2 | ✖ | |
| 44 | I Want You Now (94 version) | I WANT A 94 | 20 | 1 | ✖ |
Equipment presets & patches
Zoom 9010 FX Processor
Separate from the sampler keyboards and zip discs sold at the Alan Wilder / Depeche Mode Collection was the Zoom 9010 multi-effect processor. This rack-mount effects processor was used during the recording of Songs Of Faith And Devotion, as well as several Recoil albums. The unit was sold with several patches stored on the card, including presets and settings for the guitar effects of I Feel You and drum loops on Mercy In You, among others.
If you possess the Zoom 9010 unit from Alan's auction, please reach out to [email protected].
Alan's Comments
Copied from the original auction listing:
This superb little unit has a unique sound of it’s[sic] own and has been a ‘go-to’ effect for many years, both with Depeche Mode and Recoil. This particular box still has stored many of the guitar effects used on ‘SOFAD’ including the I Feel You guitar settings amongst many others. It is also very versatile and adaptable – often we would use it on a voice for example to create a dirty, radio-frequency effect, or perhaps on drum loops like on Mercy In You.[17]
Other posters and advertisements
Alan Wilder Collected Poster
Alan Wilder Omega Auction Poster
Omega Auction Collected Poster with dates
Alan Wilder Collected+ Poster
Alan Wilder Collected auction booklet
Trivia
- Alan Wilder played live keyboard on approximately 64% of the songs played on the 1993 Devotional Tour and 1994 Exotic Tours. In contrast, he played live drums on approximately 36% of the songs played during these two tours.
- Martin Gore played live keyboard on approximately 76% of the songs played on the 1993 Devotional Tour and 1994 Exotic Tours, and live guitar on approximately 24% of the songs played during these two tours.
- Alan Wilder's sound banks for the 1993 Devotional Tour and 1994 Exotic Tours spanned two discs. The EMAX and EMAX II sound banks originally made available on the twenty zip discs that now commonly circulate online are from the second of the two discs containing his sound banks. According to an anonymous source, the first disc was not included in the auction as Wilder could not recall what happened to it at the time when preparing the material for inclusion in the auction. This missing disc presumably includes Wilder's sound banks for Higher Love, Policy Of Truth, World In My Eyes, Walking In My Shoes, Behind The Wheel, Halo, Judas, Stripped, Enjoy The Silence, Get Right With Me, One Caress, Strangelove, and the percussion samples for Personal Jesus, which were triggered via Pearl drum-pads using Akai ME35T audio/MIDI units on these tours.[18]
- The 'WALK PIANO' preset in the sound bank for Fly On The Windscreen did not play nicely at first with E-Synthesist's EMXP, a software package for converting disks and files for EMU sampler products, due to a software bug in the tool that produced a "corrupt voice error 24" message when encountering negative settings for the Velocity-to-Resonance parameter (Velocity is the only Emax sampler parameter that can have a negative value). This bug was fixed as of EMXP v3.00.3.[19]
- In some cases, several of the sound banks built by Alan Wilder for use on the 1993 Devotional Tour and 1994 Exotic Tours remain in use by Depeche Mode today, with little to no apparent changes.
References
- ↑ Zip discs are a high-capacity floppy disk data storage format introduced in 1995.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Alan Wilder / Depeche Mode Collection: 20 x AW / DM sound sample ZIP discs
- ↑ Pronunciation of SCSI, "Small Computer System Interface" (Wikipedia)
- ↑ Tom Carpenter, founder of Analogue Solutions
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Alan Wilder / Depeche Mode Collection: 20 x AW / DM sound sample ZIP discs
- ↑ The two gospel backing vocalists employed for the 1993 Devotional Tour and 1994 Exotic Tour were Hildia Campbell and Samantha Smith
- ↑ Strangelove was also rehearsed for the 1993 Devotional Tour, but ultimately was never performed.
- ↑ Strangely, Black Celebration's sound bank is not listed on the auction page, despite a sound bank existing for the song on the zip drives sold at auction.
- ↑ Strangely, Master And Servant's sound bank is not listed on the auction page, despite a sound bank existing for the song on the zip drives sold at auction.
- ↑ This sound bank includes one-shot percussion hits for multiple songs, including People Are People, Master And Servant, and Stripped. The sound bank was available to all three keyboardists loaded via Emax samplers and was triggered via onstage drum-pads.
- ↑ Though not explicitly mentioned on the auction page, some tracks were also played during the 1994 Exotic Tour, with live renditions of Waiting For The Night and I Want You Now played exclusively during that tour.
- ↑ This sound bank includes a second preset labeled 'WALK PIANO'. It is unclear why this preset for Walking In My Shoes was saved to Alan Wilder's primary bank for Fly On The Windscreen. This bank was played by Wilder in addition to his primary Walking In My Shoes bank and was switched using MIDI triggered via footswitch. Wilder's primary Walking In My Shoes bank was never included in the auction due to Alan having lost track of the first of two discs containing his 1993 Devotional Tour sound banks.
- ↑ Nothing was rehearsed, but was never performed during the 1993 Devotional Tour or 1994 Exotic Tour.
- ↑ Something To Do was only performed once during the 1993 Devotional Tour, on 1993-05-25 Forest National Stadium, Brussels, Belgium; it replaced Fly On The Windscreen in the typical concert set list.
- ↑ Leave In Silence was rehearsed, but was never performed during the 1993 Devotional Tour or 1994 Exotic Tour.
- ↑ Waiting For The Night was played at least a couple times at the start of the 1994 Exotic Tour.
- ↑ Alan on the preset settings contained on the Zoom 9010 FX processor.
- ↑ The rhythm samples for Personal Jesus were triggered using Pearl drum pads using Akai ME35T audio/MIDI units
- ↑ An EMXP software bug preventing the sound bank for Fly On The Windscreen from converting to other sampler formats was fixed as of v3.00.3.
