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Tears for Fears on Colbert


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16 minutes ago, miden said:

What's the keyboard in front of Beato in that clip?

 

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4 hours ago, Mike Martin said:

To my knowledge despite the Roland rig, everything is being run via MainStage. At least it was on their last tour a few years ago.

MacBook running MainStage is clearly visible in the keys section several times in the Colbert video, as around 4 minutes in during the guitar solo. 

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I was a huge fan of TFF from the first album forward, before they were well-known in the USA, so it was a bit sad for me to hear such low-energy poorly-rendered versions of their songs, but I suppose I should be happy nonetheless that they got together to make a new album. Doubtless I will buy it, and I won't have to compare to old versions so I'll be able to appreciate whatever they have to bring to the table at this late stage in life.

 

They were a huge influence on me, and to this day, on the rare occasions I am at a karaoke bar, I am more likely than not to pick a TFF song to sing.

 

I also admired how they took Oleta Adams under their wing and helped get her career going, at a time when the American labels wouldn't sign anyone with dark skin unless they were a rap artist. Oleta wasn't the only one who had to go to the UK and Europe at that time. Sort of like jazz artists in the 60's/70's (to Europe or Africa).

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2 hours ago, Mike Martin said:

 

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Ahh, thanks Mike - did not recognise it at all -looked like it had a split screen which sorta threw me.

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I've always like this band and the new album is pretty decent. 

Korg Kronos 61 (2); Kurzweil PC4, Roland Fantom-06, Casio PX-350M; 2015 Macbook Pro and 2012 Mac Mini (Logic Pro X and Mainstage), GigPerformer 4.

 

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Ah love me some TFF! As a singing teen who loved keys, I recall being weirdly taken by the charisma of the drummer in the original video - man, how he hit those cymbals on the syncopated accents. To this day, I struggle to play Songs from the Big Chair softly … so I don’t. 😬

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Sowing the seeds of love is a masterpiece...definitely Beatles inspired. There is so much going on in this song. We just did a quarantine cover of it (in shameless plugs) and it took a lot of work...lol. 

Korg Kronos 61 (2); Kurzweil PC4, Roland Fantom-06, Casio PX-350M; 2015 Macbook Pro and 2012 Mac Mini (Logic Pro X and Mainstage), GigPerformer 4.

 

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Woman in Chains was my most-used reference track back when I aspired to be a recording engineer.  Such a good mix and production.

I remember playing "Standing on the corner of the 3rd world" for the (somewhat snobby) bass player in my band at the time.  It completely turned his preconception of what TFF could do on its ear.
 

 

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On 3/5/2022 at 8:35 PM, ProfD said:

 

Gearspotting....it looks like the KB player is using a Rhodes as a shell for a Roland RD-2000.🤭 😎

Looks like he's also got a Jupiter 80 and a Jupiter X.  Although, I see mainstage running on a laptop as well - possibly for patch changes, but I wouldn't be surprised if all sounds are coming from that.  

Either way, the whole band sounds amazing.  The Rick Beato analysis of the song is def worth a watch too.

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On 3/6/2022 at 7:22 AM, AnotherScott said:

The singer's voice has changed so much! Honestly, I never really liked the character of his voice, but it was very much part of their "sound." His "new" voice is less distinctive, but I might prefer it. It's not a great voice, but it doesn't bug me. 😉 Plus the guitarist looks much better with the facial hair, for whatever that's worth. 😉


I noticed the differences in both vocalist’s. Roland the hairy dude has had the most strength in his voice. I think he has retained pitch precision (suspect a small amount of autotune on the new album on both singers) I think he sounds better nowadays however he may still or was still drinking during the period of a live show recorded in the last 15 years where he sounds and looks worse. Curt the guy who sings EWTRTW sounds weaker. He has lost the strength in his vocals although they are on key. The backup singer woman is layering over his vocals which makes up for some of it. They could have raised the volume on his mic. His voice sounds lower than hers in the mix. When I saw the more recent live performances I thought Curt almost sounded like a replacement. They both sound their contemporary best in the Spotify live show. Everything is done well, (i.e. sound, performances, styles,etc.)

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Yeah, that one's more like it, not trying to sound like the original. Even though I'm not a fan of transposition, it works in this context as the arrangement is different. Almost more Beatlesy in a way, but a bit less MMT era and maybe approaching more of a mid-70's Wings vibe. Songs from the first album probably are best left for others to cover at this point. "Seeds of Love" is probably my favorite TFF song overall.

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TFF was always a duo from what I gather, but it was generous of them to grant full member status to drummer Manny Elias and Ian Stanley - assuming those two guys got the typical benefits of full membership (revenue sharing/contractual stuff) - up until the Seeds of Love album.

 

I just remembered this video in which the librarian has to duck to avoid a flying Jupiter 8, which stops in front of Ian so that he could play a one-finger synth solo

 

  

Interesting how often Ian's name appears in this article.  Says he convinced Orzabal that "Shout" would become a big hit.

 

https://www.musicradar.com/news/tears-for-fears-best-tracks

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Apart from the clear references to the Beatles’ psychedelic era, Seeds of Love has always reminded me of that other great 80s stream-of-consciousness smash by Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer (pun just popped up! 😆). Wonder if STSOL was influenced by that at all, especially its video?

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1 hour ago, Cliffk said:

Apart from the clear references to the Beatles’ psychedelic era, Seeds of Love has always reminded me of that other great 80s stream-of-consciousness smash by Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer (pun just popped up! 😆). Wonder if STSOL was influenced by that at all, especially its video?

Maybe both songs were engineered or produced by the same people?  In addition, it's widely known that Peter Gabriel and TFF had Fairlight CMIs and used a lot of Fairlight sounds, so maybe that is why they sound so similar?  (Just a theory)

Instruments: Walters Grand Console Upright Piano circa 1950 something, Kurzweil PC4-88, my voice

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Everybody Loves a Happy Ending seems to be one of those amazing albums that nobody ever talks about!  I think it was very much under the radar, but embodies some of their finest writing and production.  (Arguably their heaviest Beatles influenced album)

 

Clonk

(How on earth does one embed a vid on this new platform???)

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2 hours ago, GotKeys said:

Maybe both songs were engineered or produced by the same people?  In addition, it's widely known that Peter Gabriel and TFF had Fairlight CMIs and used a lot of Fairlight sounds, so maybe that is why they sound so similar?  (Just a theory)

You are spot on. I was commissioned to write a piece for Keyboard magazine years ago, covering the 20th anniversary of the Fairlight. Two key contacts were Orzabal and Gabriel - sadly didn't manage to snag an interview with either for the article (which is in the archives here)

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It sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing that link. They have great songs.

 

One thing that I wonder is if they recorded this in the afternoon that day, as I believe that programs does, how many hours may have an engineer had to work on a this mix so that it sounds so good? I bet they don't leave the audio "as is" and they mix it during those hours but I might be wrong and it might directly sound this perfect. But If they have a guy doing that, it must be a pretty stressful job to do, as you have, say 4 hours, to mix and make it sound the best as possible, knowing there is no possible delay.

 

Anybody knows how do they do those things on this kind of program?

 

Fran

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15 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

 

I just remembered this video in which the librarian has to duck to avoid a flying Jupiter 8, which stops in front of Ian so that he could play a one-finger synth solo

 

I saw/took that as the librarian taking the synth out from the bottom shelf, to place in front of Ian to play, as if it were a book.

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RE: Rick Beato clip - 

 

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