How to make the bass, keys and pad sounds for Queen 'Radio Ga Ga' with DRC

ATTENTION: All Pre-Gain values for DRC in this video need to be lowered by 0.250.
This is because this tutorial was made with an older version of DRC which had a different tuning on the saturation stage. We have corrected the values in the Ableton session.
Download the Ableton project from this video:
www.imaginando...
DRC Polyphonic Synthesizer:
DRC Product Page - www.imaginando...
Download DRC Demo - www.imaginando...
Connect with us:
Facebook - / imaginando.net
Twitter - / imaginando_pt
Instagram - / imaginando_pt
Soundcloud - / imaginando
Our creative hardware projects:
Laser harp - www.imaginando...
Turning Vintage furniture into a cranked synthesizer - www.imaginando...
Get in touch:
Contact us - www.imaginando...
Queen - 'Radio Ga Ga':
The Roland Jupiter-8 was/is a thing of beauty, both to look at and to listen to, and for the first half of the 80s it was the synth of choice for anyone lucky enough to get their hands on one. (So popular in fact that there was a long waiting list of people more than happy to hand over the eye-watering asking price of nearly £4,000 in 1981) A must-have for musicians at the time, it was one of the sounds which helped defined the 80s and was used on loads of classic hits, including today’s tutorial track, ‘Radio Ga Ga’ by Queen.
With its catchy, sing-along chorus, it would be hard to find anyone born in this millenium who isn’t familiar with the gorgeous electronic sound of this massive 1984 hit. It stole the show at the 1985 Live Aid charity concert, with the stadium of 70,000 people all clapping along in unison, just like the music video.
The song was written by the band’s drummer Roger Taylor, and was originally called ‘Radio ca-ca’, inspired by his son, a small child at the time, pointing to a radio and proclaiming ‘Radio ca-ca!’ to vocalise his opinion on how bad he thought the music was. As such, the song was written by Taylor to express his frustration and sadness at the decline/importance of radio during the rise of MTV and the music video.
It’s another triple tutorial which includes the sounds of the bass, pad and keys, all reconstructed using DRC. Make sure you watch till the end to find out how we take care of the guitar part too!
We will rock you,
Team Imaginando