Create classic Depeche Mode sounds

This month, to celebrate the new Depeche Mode album, Memento Mori, we take a look back at some of the band's classic sounds and sequences: from See You to, yes, The Last Of Us!

With Depeche Mode’s 15th studio album, Memento Mori, out now, we’ve decided to look back at the band’s synth history and have a go at recreating some Mode-like beats, riffs and sequences. We’ll not only wrestle some sounds from our trusty Zebra CM free synth, which you can download right now, but also use an emulation of Depeche Mode’s most widely used synth.

When the band first got together back in 1980, they used cheap analogue synths of the time, including a Kawai 100F, Yamaha CS5 and Moog Prodigy. However, the one synth that has been used more than any other, and across most Depeche albums, is the ARP 2600. This was Mute Records owner Daniel Miller’s (and once owned by Elton John, synth fact fans). It was not only used for synth sounds and sequences from debut album Speak & Spell onwards, but also for creating drum sounds, specifically the kick.

In this tutorial we’ll also look at how you can use an ARP emulation like the ARP 2600 V from Arturia to create some classic Mode sounds and sequences, including that kick drum sound.

It’s important to note that technology was limited in the ’80s, so forget most of the functionality in your DAW as we’re also going to emulate the sequencing back then – an ARP 1601 capable of delivering just 16 steps. So let’s go back in time and engage ‘classic Mode’.

Depeche Mode