Montreal electro-funk duo, Chromeo is known for their catchy melodies and witty lyrics, we delve deeper into their retro-inspired sound.
David “Dave 1” Macklovitch and Patrick “P-Thugg” Gemayel founded the band in 2002. After working on a few projects together, the duo signed with Tiga‘s Turbo Records and began releasing singles, EPs, and full-length albums to their steadily growing fanbase.
The band rose to notoriety with the club single Needy Girl, which was played by DJs worldwide. From there, Chromeo focussed on creating a cohesive sound for their album releases that built them the following they have today.
The Chromeo Sound
From Prince and Kool & The Gang to Hall & Oates and Steely Dan, you can hear the influence of Dave and P’s ’80s upbringing. However, unlike many 80s-inspired bands, Chromeo took the authentic production route.
From drum hit sampling to analogue synths and even retro computer sequencers, Chromeo put so much time and research into the sound they continue to deliver to this day.
Sequential Circuits DrumTraks
From the very beginning, Chromeo has always been very particular about their drum sound. Even when they had the LinnDrum and the TR-808 in their extensive collection, they still maintained a signature style that often began with the DrumTraks.
Although similar to the LinnDrum in some ways, the DrumTraks has its own tone and feel. In addition, the MIDI support makes it great for linking it with other hardware around the studio.
Also used on Tame Impala‘s groundbreaking Currents (2015) album, the DrumTraks has 13 trigger buttons spread over 6 channels. This makes it easy to separate each sound, as you sample it into your DAW or another sampler.
You can often find free sample packs created with the DrumTracks, or if you’re looking to take a more modern route, the Elektron Analog RYTM is a great platform for designing drum sounds and groove patterns.
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AKAI S950
Chromeo used sampled drum hits on many of their early releases which gave them a punchy sound that stood out among so many other dance music records of the time.
It began with the famous S950, which they used on singles like Needy Girl. After that, they moved on to the more versatile MPC 1000 and MPC 5000, which provided a clean phono input for sampling vinyl and the MPC trigger pads, of course, for programming.
As Dave and P began their musical journey by creating Hip-Hop music, it made absolute sense that the AKAI samplers would remain in their workflow from the early days of Chromeo and beyond.
If you’re looking for an old-school sampler sound, the Sonicware LIVEN Lo-Fi 12 is a great affordable option. Meanwhile, the Elektron Octatrack is a more advanced instrument with better time-stretching features.
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Sequential Circuits Six-Trak
When it comes to the Chromeo analogue synth sound, it started with the Moog Prodigy, the Roland Juno-106, and the Sequential Six-Trak, before they got hold of the coveted Elka Synthex which P described as “two Prophet 5s going through a Juno-106 chorus.“
Still underrated and relatively affordable by vintage synth standards, the Sequential Six-Trak is a DCO-driven synth from 1984 with 6-voice polyphony. Although it’s not easy or intuitive to program, the Six-Trak does offer 6-part multitimbrality and a great-sounding unison mode.
While it may be clunky building sounds on the Six-Trak and it’s not stable enough for use on the road, it’s still a great polyphonic vintage analogue synth with its own mojo. It’s perfect for creating leads, basslines, pads, stabs, and arpeggiator rhythms.
If you don’t want to go the vintage route, the Prophet Rev2 8 Desktop is a great alternative with eight DCO voices, a control per parameter interface, and multiple outputs.
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Cakewalk Audio
Like many of the bands we love from the 1980s, Chromeo used a dedicated computer-driven MIDI sequencer to create most of the parts within their tracks. In their case, this involved a Pentium II PC running Windows and a compatible version of Cakewalk.
Although running and maintaining legacy computer systems in your studio can be problematic at times, Cakewalk offers a rock-solid playback engine without the latency that you experience on most DAW systems.
Furthermore, retro software sequencers give your music a particular feel, which will be closer to the music of yesteryear than a currently charting pop song.
Eventually, Chromeo switched to Steinberg Cubase, which they found gave a similar sound and feel to their earlier records created with Calk Walk as a primary MIDI sequencer.
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MXR Talk Box
The Chromeo sound just wouldn’t be complete without the Talk Box. As a big Roger Troutman fan, P researched his sound and found that he moved from using a Minimoog to using a Yamaha DX100 as a carrier input.
The brighter, digital sound of the DX100 gave the voice a crystalline clarity and made it easier to make out the lyrics. That being said, the Talk Box relies most on the human aspect to create the sound.
The technique involves shaping both your mouth and voice correctly to produce the resonant sound that is delivered on funk recordings.
The pedal itself does offer limited tone controls, but the end result depends predominantly on your vocal technique and the input sound. The MXR Talk Box is still currently produced, and the Yamaha Reface DX is a nice alternative to the DX100.
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Image Sources:
- Sequential Circuits DrumTraks: Right Music Records
- AKAI S950: Oscidance
- Sequential Circuits Six-Trak: Wikipedia
- Cake Walk Audio Pro 7: Cake Walk
- MXR Talk Box: MXR
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