Pet Shop Synthesis

2026 Revision 

“Pet Shop Synthesis” remains my most widely read post, continuing to find new readers nearly eighteen years after it was first published. Although much of the original text has aged well, the musical landscape — and our understanding of it — has evolved significantly since 2008. Over the years, many readers have offered thoughtful comments, corrections, and new insights, prompting occasional updates to keep the article accurate and relevant.

Due to the post’s popularity, the comments section sometimes attracts large amounts of spam, so it may be disabled intermittently. And one small request: please don’t copy this text and publish it as your own. That’s just rude.

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Early Days

Fittingly, the story of the Pet Shop Boys begins with a synthesizer. In 1981, Neil Tennant purchased a Korg MS 10, only to discover that it couldn’t produce sound unless it was connected to his hi-fi system. Lacking the proper cable, he visited the Chelsea Audio Visual Centre in London to have one made. While waiting, he struck up a conversation about synthesizers and music with another customer—Chris Lowe. That chance meeting marked the beginning of their musical partnership, and the rest is history.

It’s uncertain whether Neil’s MS 10 ever appeared on an official recording, but several early demos — produced at Murray Street Studios between 1982 and 1984 — feature sounds that could plausibly have come from it. The full list of equipment used during these sessions remains somewhat obscure, though studio owner Ray Roberts has noted that he relied on a Boss DR 55 drum machine and two Roland keyboards while working with Neil and Chris.

By 1984, during their sessions with Bobby Orlando in New York, the duo were using an E mu Emulator II. They were particularly drawn to its extensive sample library, and it quickly became central to their sound for more than a decade. The original Bobby O version of “West End Girls” includes one of the Emulator’s choir samples, while Stephen Hague’s later hit version adds the Emulator’s distinctive marcato strings, violin, and trumpet.

The Emulator II appears throughout their output from this period: “Always On My Mind” features Emulator-derived orchestra hits and choir; “Suburbia” uses its explosive sound effects; “So Hard” incorporates its sample-based guitars; and “Tonight Is Forever” includes French horn patches from the same library. One of the sampler’s final confirmed uses was in 1992, when it provided the saxophone samples on the demo of “Confidential” for Tina Turner.

The first synthesizer Chris and Neil purchased together was the PPG Wave 2 in 1984 — a digital instrument built around the then novel concept of wavetable synthesis. Its distinctive sound inspired Neil to write the chords for “Tonight Is Forever”, and Chris used it to create the organ and choir textures in “Violence”. The bassline on “Violence” appears to shift across the stereo field thanks to the PPG’s unique “Basis” control.

There is also speculation that the bassline of “Paninaro” was created by sampling a PPG Wave sound and replaying it via a separate sampler — a technique the duo frequently used during the early years. The song also makes use of the “Sync Sweep” preset from the Roland JX 3P, sampled and repurposed in typical Pet Shop Boys fashion.

Samplers

The PPG Wave could function as a sampler when paired with the Waveterm module. Producer and keyboardist Andy Richards used the Waveterm to create the rich pads on “Heart” and the strings on “It’s a Sin.” Although it’s unclear exactly when Neil and Chris acquired their own Waveterm system, they were certainly using one by the time they recorded “Very” in 1993.

Another crucial sampler in their early setup was the Fairlight CMI — a groundbreaking and notoriously expensive music computer. It required specialist programmers, rental services, and a small team to move the 50–70 kg system. The duo began using the Fairlight in 1985 while recording the first version of “Opportunities,” and continued to use it intermittently until around 1993. During their 1986 performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test, they used two Fairlight CMI IIx units, synchronised by former Bee Gees keyboardist Blue Weaver to overcome the instrument’s eight channel limit.

The first track known to use a Series III Fairlight was the single version of “Suburbia”, and Chris later purchased his own unit for around £60,000. Fairlight samples appear throughout Actually, most notably the hugely influential drum library, which was widely regarded as one of the best of its era. The Fairlight’s string samples also feature heavily on these albums, most impressively on “It Couldn’t Happen Here”, which required meticulous note by note programming to mimic a full orchestra due to time restrictions.
The Fairlight’s Page R sequencer was another major asset: it allowed entire songs to be arranged and stored quickly, and the Pet Shop Boys used it extensively. Ultimately, however, the Fairlight, Emulator, and Waveterm were superseded by more affordable, higher fidelity samplers from Roland and Akai, gradually bringing an end to this pioneering generation of instruments.

Digital Synthesizers

For many people growing up in 1980s Europe, digital synthesis meant inexpensive home keyboards from Casio or Yamaha. These instruments typically relied on FM (Frequency Modulation) or PD (Phase Distortion) synthesis, both of which used one waveform to modulate another.

Among professional musicians, the most iconic FM synthesizer was the Yamaha DX7. Neil and Chris used a DX7 during performances in 1987, and also used the flagship DX1 during the Old Grey Whistle Test recording. The DX7’s distinctive harmonica patch appears on their own “Why Don’t We Live Together?” and on the Liza Minnelli track “If There Was Love”. They also used the DX7 to create the Stock Aitken Waterman style bassline for Eighth Wonder’s “I’m Not Scared”.

The DX7 provided one element of the widely debated bass sound in “West End Girls”. Ben’s deep dive analysis on mu:zines is highly recommended for anyone curious about its construction — including solving the mystery of what the girl says in the intro.

FM synthesis remained part of the Pet Shop Boys’ toolkit well into the 1990s. The “Solid Bass” patch — famously from the Yamaha DX100/DX27 or their expanded rack counterpart, the TX81Z — appears on the Bilingual album. Programmer Pete Gleadall has confirmed using the TX81Z for the bassline on “Up Against It”, making it likely that it was also the source Chris referenced when describing, “the keyboard you only buy for that bass sound.”

Another influential digital synth of the era was the Roland D-50, whose preset “DigitalNativeDance” appears in the “In My House” section of “Always On My Mind”. Other patches from the D-50, including “Fantasia” and “Soundtrack,” became foundational to later ROMplers and the General MIDI specification.

Analogue Synthesizers

Neil and Chris have used numerous analogue synthesizers over the decades, but the Roland Jupiter 8 and the similar rack version,  the MKS 80, are among their most cherished. The driving synth sequence in “It’s a Sin” comes from the Jupiter 8, while “Heart” features both pads and sequenced parts from the instrument. Pete Gleadall has also confirmed that the filtered sweep in “Was It Worth It?” was produced using the MKS 80.

The Roland JX 10 was another favourite in the early years, providing the electric piano sound in “Rent” and some of the brass textures in the single version of “Suburbia”.

When preparing their 1990 album Behaviour, they sought a cleaner, more polished analogue sound reminiscent of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”. This led them to record at the studio of Harold Faltermeyer, formerly an assistant to Giorgio Moroder. Ironically, the track that most strongly captured this direction — “Miserablism” — was ultimately cut from the album.

The analogue components that did make it onto the album came primarily from the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and the modular Roland System 700. Faltermeyer also incorporated the Synclavier II, the Fairlight’s great rival. Neil and Chris had previously encountered the Synclavier during the production of “Left to My Own Devices” under Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson.

The B side “The Sound of the Atom Splitting” marks the first use of the Roland TB-303 on a Pet Shop Boys track. The 303, synonymous with acid house pioneers like DJ Pierre and Marshall Jefferson, also appears in remixes such as Tyree’s version of “It’s Alright” and in original tracks like “My Head Is Spinning” and “We Came From Outer Space”.

The Roland TR-909 drum machine makes its Pet Shop Boys debut in “It Must Be Obvious,” and later features in tracks including “The End of the World”, “Bet She’s Not Your Girlfriend,” and “Was It Worth It?” Similarly, the TR-808 — another electronic music icon — is prominent on Behaviour, as well as on earlier tracks like “Don Juan” and later songs such as “Get It Online” and “Why Am I Dancing?”

ROMplers

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, a new type of synthesizer emerged: the ROMpler. Rather than generating sound from waveforms, ROMplers combined stored samples with synthesis tools to create polished preset patches. Two of the most significant early ROMplers were the Korg M1 and the Roland JD 800, both of which found their way into Pet Shop Boys productions.

The Korg M1 (specifically the M1R rack version) entered their setup during the MCMLXXXIX Tour and became a core instrument on Very (1993). Its iconic finger snap sound appears in “I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind of Thing”, and its choir presets appear in “A Different Point of View”, “The Theatre” and “Where the Streets Have No Name”. The M1’s strings later feature in songs like “Positive Role Model”, while its acoustic guitar samples enrich “Discoteca”. Notably, many of the M1’s factory presets were created by Pete Schwartz, who later served as musical director for the Nightlife tour.

The Roland JD-800 appears on tracks like “Music for Boys” (featuring the “Classic Sweeper” preset) and provides the acoustic piano sound in “Go West.” Its lush pads are all over “Very”, particularly in “To Speak Is a Sin”. Chris continued using the JD-800 until the Release tour in 2002 before it was auctioned on eBay for charity in 2011.

Other Yamaha ROMpler modules, including the TG33 and TG500, were responsible for much of the string work on both “Very” and “Relentless”. Programmer Pete Gleadall was coy in interviews about the exact sources of these sounds, even omitting the TG33 from equipment lists. The TG500 later appeared on Bilingual, contributing acoustic guitar sounds to “It Always Comes as a Surprise” and “To Step Aside”.

The Studio Electronics Midimoog — a modern recreation of the Minimoog — plays a major role in tracks like “I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind of Thing” and “Dreaming of the Queen”. According to rumour, Neil and Chris bought three units with the intention of using them on tour. Their updated live “pod” system, shown on the cover of “DJ Culture”, also included the Midimoog, the MKS-80, and a Waldorf Microwave (a modern take on PPG style wavetable synthesis).

Piano sounds from the period were often sourced from the EMU Performance Plus module, a favourite of both Neil and Moby due to its “mellow” character. Engineer Bob Kraushaar sometimes layered it with the Roland JV-1080 to brighten its tone on Bilingual. The album Very also incorporated samples from the Roland CR-78 drum machine, sequenced via an Akai S900 by Pete Gleadall. The CR-78 had earlier appeared in the introduction of the 1985 version of “Opportunities”.

As the 2000s approached, the duo embraced virtual analogue synths such as the Roland JP 8000, Nord Lead 2/3, Nord Electro, and Korg MS2000 — instruments designed to evoke classic analogue gear without the instability of their vintage counterparts. They also experimented with the Alesis A6 Andromeda, one of the last major “true” analogue synths of its generation.

By 2010, however, even these instruments were giving way to software based virtual instruments (VSTs). By the time they recorded “Electric” with Stuart Price in 2013, most of their sounds came from within a computer.

Today, a modest laptop running Pro Tools can replicate almost every instrument mentioned in this article — more reliably, more affordably, and often more flexibly. Yet despite the convenience of modern technology, there is something undeniably romantic about the era of hardware synthesizers, samplers, and sequencers. A glowing Fairlight Series III in the 1980s inspired awe in a way a laptop never will. Still, the accessibility of modern tools means that professional grade music creation is now within reach of almost anyone — and that, at least, is something worth celebrating.