"Being Boiled" - Human League

**THM** · 08-26-2004

Remember that killer bass sound of "Being Boiled" by the Human League ?
Out of curiosity: does anybody know what bass sound that is ?

I know they used a Roland System 100 a lot in their early years; so this System 100 is possible as "Being Boiled" was made in 1978 (and the System 100 was out yet).
I also heard that it was made by a Fender/Rhodes Chroma synth, but that's imho impossible as the Chroma series came out later than 1978.
And another candidate is the Korg 770, as I remember one of the band members said in an interview that he made the killer bass on a very small and pretty cheap synth (=> could be the Korg 770), however I don't know if that guy was joking at that time or not.
They had very early a Roland Jupiter 4 too, but I thought the Jupiter 4 was only released by the end of 1978 (so too late).

More info ? Any Human League fans here ?

And was there a big difference between the '78 version and the '80 version ? Or was the '80 version just a (re-)publishing of exactly the same version ?

**balma** · 08-30-2004

You are unique, THM

**alex23** · 08-30-2004

I was thinking the exact same thing, balma

At least this isn't making me want to buy expensive gear...like most of his other posts

(Sorry, THM, Human League just predates me...)

**THM** · 08-31-2004

Thanks guys (but it won't bring me further - unless emotionally

).

I checked a few other forums and most voices say the "Korg 770" or the "Roland System 100" (not the "Roland System 100m").
As there's still a huge difference in features & fame of those two I still don't know... From the one side I'd say it will be a more famous synth like the Roland, from the other side I remember the interview with one of the band members who says it was a very small synth - grrrrr...

**alex23** · 08-31-2004

FutureMusic did a retro-review of some Human League albums recently, they usually try to touch on the equipment used. I'll try to remember to take a look tonight but if I don't update this thread for a few days, just PM me to remind me

**THM** · 09-01-2004

Hey thanks dude !!

**bizarreboy** · 09-01-2004

THM, it was the Korg 770. Oddly enough Phil Oakey just bought the very synth back shortly before recording Secret.
The Roland system 100 was used for drums mostly. Vince Clarke uses this method as well with some revisions.
Here is an article.

Keyboard Magazine: What sort of equipment did the original band have?

Oakey: The original Human League only started because of the availability of the original Roland System 100. It looked like an old radio - great big units with one oscillator and an expander unit. Ian Marsh got it on credit, along with two analogue sequencers. We did our drums by using white noise filtered with a lot of resonance. He used the second bank of pots on the analogue sequencers to time the first bank. We did all our drums like that, and it was rotten. The bass drum sound is critical on a record. You can't sell anything for dancing nowadays without a good bass drum.

Keyboard Magazine: What specifically was the problem?

Oakey: As soon as the oscillators got low enough for the bass drum, they became unstable and began fluctuating all over the place. You'd get maybe two really good beats and five rotten ones. You couldn't have a bass and snare on the same beat because you'd have a step where your voltage was so high that it opened your filters up and let the white noise through. We wouldn't touch a drum machine on two albums because we didn't like how they sounded. Around that time, Martyn got the Korg 700S. It was very popular; you couldn't sequence it, but it was very cheap and usable, and very adaptable, with two oscillators, ring modulation, and everything you could want out of a keyboard synthesizer. Then we got the Roland JP-4, which was potentially good but unstable. It only had eight programmable memories and eight presets. I had my 770, which we still use. Then the band broke up.