Synth-Pop Fun - Pet Shop Boys (SVQ inside!)

Hi all!

So my wife and I have been tossing around the idea of doing an 80s Synth-Pop tribute band, just the two of us with two keyboards and all rhythm tracks sequenced into the G. Primarily stuff that originally used drum machines and synth bass, so that it will sound as authentic as possible and we won't be seen as "cheating"!

So anyway this gave me a new opportunity to play around with the G's sequencer. Since these tunes would be straight 4/4 and very pattern based I was ready to give the G sequencer a second chance (after totally abandoning it trying to do more complicated sequences with odd time sigs, etc). And I have to say for the first time in months I'm really having fun with my G again

So I thought I would share with you guys the fruits of my first few nights of labour, sequencing the Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls", I'm psyched how well it turned out Thought some of you guys might like to check out the SVQ file itself. A couple of things I wanted to mention:

1) This was the first time I started using Markers, and was really pleasantly surprised by all the default marker names that are available (Intro, Chorus, Solo, etc). These really made it a lot easier to navigate around the song. For the first time in a long time I found myself saying "Wow Roland that rocks THANKS!"

2) This was also the first time I tried out my new approach to sequencing drums. For this track I made use of the various "Menu" kits ("Snare Menu", "Kick Menu", etc) to isolate the various kit elements on different tracks. This made it way easier to find exactly the kick and snare sounds that I wanted without having to dig through multiple full Kits. And it also made it much nicer for mixing. AND it will make it much nicer for exporting to a DAW. Just thought I would mention this because I hadn't seen this kind of approach talked about a lot but I'm loving it, it's really powerful!

I also put my drums starting on Track 9 instead of Track 10. This way, I can "page over" to the second bank of sliders and my Kick is on slider 1, Snare on slider 2, etc, for some reason it seems way nicer than having to hunt down the second slider, weird I know but it feels good!

3) Made lots of use of the "Offsets" page to get things sounding exactly how I wanted to. This song does not contain any custom patches, only modified stock patches! I believe the Offsets page is a real hidden powerhouse in the G and should be talked about more!

I'd love to hear any feedback, and I plan to upload more of these as I go along if people are interested. I have already started on "Rio" by Duran Duran and "The Sun Always Shines On TV" by A-HA. Next on the list is "Who's That Girl" by Eurythmics

- Rick