How did Tears For Fears make Everybody Wants To Rule The World?

In this episode, I explore the synthesisers behind Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, breaking down the individual sounds and techniques that helped shape its distinctive blend of shimmering textures, melodic hooks and polished 1980s production.

Here is my complete synth remake, using only one sampled guitar from the song.

Released in 1985, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” is one of Tears for Fears’ most recognisable records. Combining bright, melodic guitar parts with layered synthesisers, distinctive keyboard hooks and a carefully balanced rhythm section, the track captures the polished sound of mid-80s pop. Its arrangement brings together a range of electronic and acoustic elements, each contributing to the song’s instantly recognisable sound.

For this recreation, I wanted to explore how these different elements work together and identify the synthesisers responsible for some of the track’s most distinctive sounds. After researching the instruments and recording techniques associated with the original, I set about recreating the individual parts using software versions of the synthesisers available to me. Along the way, I could compare my results with the original recording and gain a better understanding of how its sounds were produced.

Intro

The opening of Everybody wants to rule the world consists of a layered Yamaha DX7, a sampled choir and an electric guitar. It is worth nothing that the band could have used EITHER A DX7 or a DX1. Behringer’s own restoration video, published in February 2019, says it had purchased a collection of vintage synthesisers from Tears for Fears and shows its team repairing the band’s DX1.

A Mix article about the recording of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” identifies the Yamaha DX7 among the equipment at Ian Stanley’s studio, alongside the PPG Wave, Prophet-5, and Fairlight CMI.

The opening lick sounds like the factory presets ROM1B 23-GUITAR 3 and ROM2A 23-VIBE 2 on the DX7 layered together. I added some chorus and reverb to the tracks. With the song tuned higher than the standard 440Hz, I finely tuned the DX7 up by 58 cents to match the 455 Hz tone which I set for the entirety of the song.

This is then followed by a three note arpeggio, which is also played on a layered DX7, as well as an electric guitar. I used the ROM1B 02-PIANO 5 and ROM1A 23-KOTO factory presets on the DX7, and a sampled guitar from the original recording of the song.

Alongside this arpeggio is a sustained choir sound. I believe this comes from their Fanlight CMI, which sampled lots of sounds throughout their album. I opted to use the CHOIR6 sample, alongside the OOHH1 sample, with both being finely tuned upwards of 58 cents, and the latter having some increased filer to cut through the mid frequencies.

You will hear clicking sounds in this. This is because to play a sustained note, you have to Loop the sample, which results in a clicking sound. The CMI was designed specifically this way to emulate how it would sound in real life. Behind the other instrumentation, you are not able to hear this luckily.

Prophet Synths

The iconic two chord synth used in the song was the Sequential Prophet T-8, playing a custom patch that sounds similar to a guitar. The Prophet T-8 is an upgraded version of the more famous Prophet-5, with Roland Orzabal saying in an interview:

“The Prophet T8’s even better than the Five, I think it’s my favourite analogue synth. I like the piano-weighted keyboard — in fact, everything I found wrong with the Prophet-5, like the fact that you had to use the modulation wheel for any modulation, seems to be put right on the T8. You’ve got in-built modulation, touch sensitivity, and I really like the Poly Mod.” — Roland Orzabal

https://www.muzines.benhall.co.uk/articles/tracks-of-our-tears/8538?theme=2

I used the Arturia Prophet-5 V, a software version of the Prophet-5, in order to recreate the synth sound from scratch. Oscillator 1’s pulse width is set to 31%, whilst oscillator 2 is set at 83%. I set the filter cutoff to 509 Hz and the envelope amount to 4.00. There is a 3.27 filter decay as well as the fine tuning set to 455 Hz.

There is also some modulation, with the LFO rate set to 6.79 Hz and the modulation wheel set to 0.172. I then added Arturia’s built-in chorus in the ‘Advanced’ section, with the dry/wet set to 45%.

There is a rhythmic synth that is played around the 1:05 mark. This was also programmed onto the Prophet-5, but with a distinct short percussive sound. The filter cutoff was set to 265 Hz, and the envelope at 3.20. Decay was set to 352 ms, with keyboard tracking turned ON. There is chorus added again at 45%.

I programmed short octave notes to play this rhythmic sequence.

DX7 Pianos

The Prophet-5 chords are layered throughout the entire song with DX7 keys. Then during the first two verses, the Prophet-5 drops out, leaving just the DX7 playing.

For the layered chord patch, they used two of the DX7’s stock electric piano sounds: ROM1A 08-PIANO 1 and ROM1B 01-PIANO 4. These are panned separately to create a wide stereo image, with PIANO 1 positioned to the left and PIANO 4 to the right.

For both tracks, I added a slight EQ boost to the mid section and 20% dry/wet chorus in the DX7’s built in chorus. In the layered file, you can hear the melody the pianos play during the bridge.

I also decided to add this piano on top of the ‘Layered Melody’ as played on the CMI, in order to give it that more glassy, bright feel to the melody.

Synth Bass

In the November 1985 issue of Keyboard Magazine, Ian Stanley mentioned that the bass synth sound on Everybody Wants to Rule the World was a combination of a “PPG bassline mixed with a DX7.”

The DX7 preset used was the ROM1B 32-BASS 4, whilst the PPG Wave sound comes from the 013 A preset with the oscillator wave setting lowered and the filter envelope depth reduced.

The middle 8 uses single notes, alongside an extra Picked bass to help with the sustain of the notes. I used the GOOD 80s FINGERED preset on FLEX’s Essential Bass Guitars.

Drum Machine

The drums in Everybody Wants To Rule The World come from a variety of sources, including the Fairlight CMI, LinnDrum and Oberheim DMX.

I could not find any factory presets from the CMI that sounded like the kick, so I opted to use a LinnDrum kick layered with a DMX kick. I added some low end to the Linn Kick and reduced the high end on the DMX kick. I also added some chorus to both.

The hi-hat and shaker sounds are from the LinnDrum. The song has a 12/8 triplet feel with the shaker playing triplet 1/8th notes and the hi-hats playing a syncopated pattern, which together create a cross-rhythm.

I added some chorus and reverb to both tracks. The Hi Hat has some mid end EQ reduced, whilst the cabasa has both mid end and low end reduced slightly.

For the snare, I opted to just use an acoustic snare with gated reverb. I have used the FPC Snare 8 from the default snare pack in FL Studio. This has some reduced mid end, but boosts to both the high end and low end, to really get that sharp and punchy snare sound.

Altogether the drums should sound like this:

Sampled Guitars

In the song, there are a number of acoustic and electric guitars playing. Since I don’t own any acoustic instruments, I attempted to use different plugins to try and get the guitar sound right, but I just could not seem to get it to mix well enough.

I opted to use a single guitar sample from the song, and it mixed perfectly with the rest of the track. There are some sharp stabs throughout each verse, and also the guitar solo.