Welcome back to another episode of Tame Impala Synth Sounds; Part One was mainly about the Roland Juno-106 patches on Currents and how to recreate them using the original hardware or using software. In this article I’ll look at some of the other synths used and how to recreate them. As I go through I’ll mention the original hardware and the software alternative I’ll use.

The Less I Know the Better

This song isn’t actually as synth-heavy as it sounds, although it gets wonderfully layered during the last chorus and outro. In the verses a lot of the instrumentation is actually a MIDI-pickup equipped guitar run through a Roland GR-55, a guitar-specific synthesizer / effect unit. I don’t own one of these (yet…) so I’m not sure how these sounds were created, but here’s Kevin Parker explanation:

“Could you point out specific instances of camouflaged guitars?” “Well, for example, the instrumentation in the verses of ‘The Less I Know the Better’ is all guitar synth. There are organs, pads—even the bass is going through the guitar synth. Other than the drums and vocals, everything you hear there is guitar synth, and it has this sort of ’80s synth disco thing.”

Also, a little-known fact is that the catchy bass-line for The Less I Know the Better is actually a ‘disguised guitar’ as well, being played through an octave pedal:

“The way that I know I’ve done a new riff that is cool, is if my hands don’t want to do it. If you let your hands do the thinking, it will just be the same old shit. But yeah, that bass riff – it’s actually a guitar with an octave pedal – but that very take is the one that’s used in the whole song.”

There are still some tasty sounds in this song that we can learn from. First up is the electric piano that fills out the chorus; a marked change from the 80’s style Roland Juno peppered throughout the rest of the album. This is a Fender Rhodes, a mellow sounding electric piano popular in the 70s. Its mellow sound makes it a great choice for layering, and it’s easy to recreate with software instruments, with Arturia Stage-73 V being a great sounding option. I prefer using these plugins over sampled Electric Pianos because I find I have much more control over the treble/bass balance, which in my opinion is the most important part of getting an Electric Piano to really sit in a mix.