The Yello Site Forum

Does anyone else ever listen to Yello & try to figure out what Boris may have used to make a specific sound? I do, & thought it might be interesting if we shared our best guesses (or, if you are in the know, what it actually was) about specific sounds. Off the top of my head, here's some guesses-

Most of the sounds in "No More, Roger" - tounge noise
The start of "I Love You" - filtered voice samples (I actually managed to get something that sounded kind of like it once)
The ambience at the start of "Salut Mayoumba" - distorted classical music
That 'pop' sound in "No More Words" & "Base For Alec" - dropping something in water

That's all I can think of right now. Anyone else got any?

For a long time I've been trying to get people to notice the beginning sound in Moon Dog. It sounds very similar to the Star Trek movie sound of whale talking probe that came to earth. I think it was Star Trek 3. Check it out and let me know if I'm right. Also in Baby I think there is a sound of a snowball hitting a window. Boris mentioned this in an interview somewhere.

Is Moon Dog one of those unreleased tracks? I never heard it. But, I personally have made some fairly convincing whale noise using slowed down samples of electrical squeals. I don't know what the Moon Dog ones sound like, though.

I'm convinced that in 'On track' at 04:29 there is a sound of table tennis hitting the surface. What do you reckon?

I wouldn't know, I've only gotten the first three albums so far (& heard some of the tracks with music videos).

That song is from "Pocket Universe" album. If you haven't yet heard it I strongly recommend to get it. I think it is Yello's ultimate work.

I'm buying them in chronological order to track their evolution (though I'm considering buying their new album as soon as it comes out). Next up for me is Stella.

Moon Dog is a B-side to How How. http://www.discogs.com/release/165319
I will look into that ping pong sound.

Listening to Stella lately, a few sounds I noticed-

-there's a pig squeal near the end of "Oh Yeah" that I didn't hear in the music video. I'm betting it's the same pig from Pumping Velvet.

-In fact, I get the feeling that most of "Oh Yeah" is made a distorted vocal bits (and some sort of strange bagpipe-like sound).

-At the very end of "Dessert Inn", there is a sample that sounds to me like a pitch shifted train recording, or possibly race cars.

-Does anyone know who did the "one more time" vocal in "Koladiola"? It doesn't really sound like Boris to me, but he does seem to manipulate his vocals a fair bit.

-In "Ciel Ouvert" there is a sound that resembles a bat cracking against a baseball (it was also in "Desire for Desire"), but I get the feeling that it's something much smaller with artificial distortion added.

-At about two thirds of the way through the 12" mix of "Desire" (and hinted at earlier in the song) there is a very strange, reverby mechanical sound. Anyone have any guess as to what it might be?

The wooden bat in 'Ciel Ouvert' is a rimshot sample from the LinnDrum. It was one of the first drummachines with the pre-recorded samples (while Roland TR-808 used the analog synthesis). For the 1st time Yello used it in 1982 on 12'' disco mixes of 'Excess' & 'Heavy Whispers', and on 'Desire for Desire'. All beats from album 'You Gotta Say Yes...' were made with LinnDrum (except 'Lost Again', 'Great Mission', 'Excess (album version)' & 'Salut Mayoumba'.

1983' single-tracks 'Haunted House' & 'Rubber West' also contain the rhytmhs by Linndrum. 'Rubber West' was actually a kind of prototype for 'Ciel Ouvert'.

The album mix of 'Pumping Velvet' starts with a reverby kickdrum - it's from the library of Fairlight CMI IIx.

i was shocked when discovered this:

http://www.amazon.com/Double-Face-Franc ... B000CA35VE

listen to the 2nd track - exactly the same trumpet from 'Hipsters Delay' (The Eye, 2003) i knew that sometimes Boris likes to use the library CDs but never thought about the whole riffs!!!
one day i gave some youtube links with Touch Yello to my friend who plays a lot with Native Instruments products. he immediately told me that there were lots of 'Metaphysical Function' presets from Reaktor and many sounds from NI Massive. The Eye also contains some factory loops from Propellerhead Reason CD

The Race samples the opening to "Tiller Girls" from the soundtrack to Cabaret.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRTmvjXs1i0

Does anyone else ever listen to Yello & try to figure out what Boris may have used to make a specific sound?

Boris Blank. The composer, "the founder of sounds" and studio "worker" As to the Form, probably, the whole generation of electronics engineers learned to alternate at it in music thunderous peals and gaping silence. … each disk Yello – inspiration flight, a kingdom of sounds-mutants, strange characters and bewitching melodies.