I love those first three Peter Gabriel albums, will watch that today. His omission of high hats was revolutionary…a call to put down cymbals…so hard for so many to abide by.
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In your room live, with Gahan looking not exactly healthy, is a goosebumpy experience.
Edit: this sort of thing: https://youtu.be/NSu3CIa7lS4
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It turned out that Gahan really is a cat!
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I saw them live at Wembley arena around 2000, wonderful experience. Funniest thing was that when it was time for a Gore ballad, everybody took a seat 
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Because everyone really wanted to pay attention? The Things You Said is my very favorite DM vocals…it’s like when Pete Townsend sings and I don’t have to see Roger Daltrey strutting around swinging his microphone in my head.
I love Martin Gore ballads, Blue Dress, the things you said and so on. But they are not what gets the crowd going in a stadium
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But the lighters must go up, no? Wish I made the effort to see a DM show…I can’t think of another “stadium band” I regret not seeing.
I was lucky enough to see The Cure when they did that tour of their first three albums like 10 years back. That was phenomenal.
The lighters must go up, and they did. And everybody had a little rest 
Totally understand your regret. I was 16 and it was amazing 
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Such a great question!!
Love DM stuff, and really dislike how clean Elektron samplng is, which makes this a super fascinating consideration of these two worlds.
I wonder if their creativity would be the same as so much sampling was found in the consequences of technology not being perfect in that area. Pitching samples especially producing this very industrial sound. The Emu range especially sound crazy.
Having said that they never come across anti anything, i mean even guitars came into their music eventually, although with most Elektron gear being without a keyboard, you’d imagine that would be a big change.
Also I wonder with their initial interest in synths coming partly from the idea now anyone can now make music, esp with sequencing, would the success of Elektron be something they are into? or would that be the equivalent of more classic band setups, ie drums, guitar, bass etc
Also i guess the band aspect of DM is huge, i wonder how Elektron fits that band model?
I see DM had mention of them using Ableton Live, especially for live shows as perfect for the job, and generally they seem less interested in popularity in gear and just using what works for them.
Super interesting thought experiment.
I can see a DM of some experimenting eras having maybe used one in some situations, but would assume given there was at the time the choices to have tech do more of the job for them, yet they still took a performing/playing live route.
I guess a good comparison might be looking at Vince Clarkes choices after leaving DM, Vince being someone who definitely wanted to do most things himself, versus DM’s choices. Vince definitely going the programers route, Roland sequencers, BBC computer, building a whole album from modular gear, D50s on tour etc DM with some members playing a single note, others playing the bulk of the track. I can see Vince Clarke sat on a sofa surrounded in all his gear, using an Elektron.
Best question on Lines for me, brilliant. 
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Thank you for considering the question and taking the time to write such a wonderfully insightful reply 
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great question! I spent most of the time trying hard not to ramble too much. Gonna have me thinking about this for a long time i think.
Oh, how to sound like DM with an Elektron? id say listening to Some great reward would be where id start. I personally think that’s one of my favorites for the main reason it sounds like a raw version of the sound they later refined in BC etc. You can hear raw short samples used as waveforms to create pitches and melodies with. Opening track is a great example of that. Such a great track.
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Funny you said that. Last night when I went to walk my dog I intended to listen to Ultra as I haven’t spent much time with it but BC was already loaded and I just couldn’t turn it off… I guess I never listened to it much with decent earphones as all these years I missed so much of that mini-symphony in the intro. Another thing I realized is how in the background the drums are on most tracks, seems like DM really lets the bass carry the percussive aspects of many songs and didn’t obsess over something like the perfect kick-drum. as they were likely busy writing such sick basslines.
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Pretty sure BC was the album they recorded tracks in an empty warehouse, as mentioned already, so loads of that not fussing is probably from that.
I think Youtube and the internet more generally, for all its benefits, definitely has brought a sort of pseudo consensus of sorts around ideas of correctness when music or creating sounds, which bands like DM and arguably most interesting bands in general, tend to ignore. The perfect kick is obviously whatever sounds good. Period. I reckon though they fussed on their sounds a fair bit, but it was probably more exploratory and less finding a predefined idea of perfect.
I remember hearing an interview where they had just released a record and were inspired by Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes, and had the chance to hear their track played right before Two Tribes. Apparently they left the club really gutted as felt their release sounding weak by comparison. Probably hard to compete with Trevor Horn production to be fair haha.
Found this while wondering what their sources where. Might be useful: List of Depeche Mode sample sources by album/Black Celebration - Depeche Mode Live Wiki
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You are a true scholar of sound and not in that ocd let’s scrutinize the kick way which you alluded to. Interesting point about pseudo consensus, seems like a bit of a crutch, getting hung up on a sound vs songwriting, or how people appreciate what was different at the time but try to dissect it to come up with something that is the same but fine tuned to the point that it becomes sanitized. So much innovation came out of needing to be creative due to the limitations of the technology at the time, Pet Sounds being a great example, but in this time of limitless possibilities that seems to be the limiting factor. Obviously a topic that is discussed to death in one way or another…but also a reflection of the search inside ourselves regarding what sort of artist we want to be and what we should really be focusing on so we can express ourselves in a way that is our way while not denying the impact of the music (songwriting and production) which has helped form us into who we are.
Talk about rambling… 
Edit: I just checked out that link and saw that Fly on the Windscreen used a sample from NWA’s Fuck The Police, or at least on tour. That’s amazing.
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So I gave Violator a shot while running today. My first superficial impression is that it seems like they took the Kraftwerk heritage and took it to the next level of synth-pop craftsmanship. Feels like by the end of the 80s, synth pop and instruments had developed so far that they could make some kind of final statement, at least that’s the impression I get.
The production feels as bold and complex as Songs from the Big Chair.
The pop hits are really good if you finally listen to them closely, especially Enjoy the Silence.
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Little surprised that 35 posts in, no one has asked the obvious Elektronauts question: What if DM had an Octatrack?
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If it was strictly teleporting a DT (and it’s manual) back through time then I don’t imagine they would’ve used it too differently from their other samplers. Maybe some occasional forays into plocks. But all the in depth and less immediately obvious stuff we do comes from years of collective Elektron use that we all absorb more and less consciously.
That in turn builds on ideas that have come from other gear and artists all the way between the now and back then. We’re all standing on the shoulders of giants. I don’t think it likely they would be able to plumb those depths and make all of those discoveries unaided. Though, they would undoubtedly do some cool stuff with it that they wouldn’t have done with their other gear…
Can imagine that they’d struggle to get overbridge up and running on a C64…
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Wow!! NWA in DM. I really need to dig into that sample site.
Yeah totally agree with your thoughts.
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I think it’s the “Is there something to do” track off of Some Great Reward, that if you slow the intro down to 25% speed you can clearly hear sampled crickets. A lot of songs on that album give me a night time vibe, i wounder if it’s subliminals like that.
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Ah nice, need to do that. It’s such a great track and album for sure.
Pitching and the issues of accuracy in doing so, aliasing etc and what I understand is often work arounds to make it still sound good, like filtering lower sounds, is definitely a quality found in loads of that earlier DM stuff.
This reminds me of the Akai S900 in that by default you already have settings on that ensure filtered in the lows and brightness in the highs, basic keyboard scaling on the filter. This is a feature not included say on the Rytm Mk2, as with extreme pitching.
I certainly got into sampling more as a way to rediscover how sounds could be changed through these approaches. Id assume thats certainly how DM found interest. I can’t remember which track it is, but they often mentioned rolling a pebble to create rhythm or the stories around breaking glass and hitting stuff under a train tunnel.
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