OMD's "Secret" Is Cheesy. That's Exactly Why It Works. | Minimoog + Mellotron Reimagination

There's a moment in 1985 where OMD had two songs on American radio at the same time, and only one of them was supposed to be there.

"Secret" is the second single from Crush, the album where OMD stopped resisting and let a producer make them sound like a hit machine. Paul Humphreys sings lead. The melody is almost too sweet. And I love it exactly for that reason.

I recorded a version of this track during the pandemic with my friend Juan Arevalo (Arevalowski) on drums, and it never sat right with me. So I went back to the MIDI files, kept his drums, and rebuilt the whole thing from the ground up with a different approach.

GEAR IN THIS REIMAGINATION
- Moog Minimoog Model D (1973) — bass and lead melody
- Moog Voyager — additional synth textures
- Mellotron (VST) — choir pad (OMD reached for a Fairlight; I went somewhere else)
- Sculpture "Mayday Bass" with overdrive — slap bass
- FM Short SQ sampler — reverb, overdrive, EQ
- Logic Pro — arrangement and effects
- Lead vocals — me
- Drums — Juan Arévalo (Arevalowski)

A FEW THINGS YOU'LL FIND IN HERE
- Why Virgin pushed OMD toward a producer they'd never worked with before, and what that producer did next
- The Hollywood scheduling change that nearly buried this single
- What American radio did when the label told them to stop
- The choir sound OMD built one way, and why I built it another

CHAPTERS
CHAPTERS
00:00 — Why "Secret" Is the Best Kind of Cheesy
00:44 — Crush (1985): The Album That Changed OMD's Direction
01:35 — The Producer Behind "Secret" — and What He Did After
02:05 — "Secret" vs. "If You Leave": The Single That Got Pulled
02:35 — The "Secret" Music Video and Its 50s Love Story
03:35 — The Plan: Reimagining "Secret" on Vintage Synths
04:40 — Recording the "Secret" Bassline on the 1973 Minimoog Model D
04:53 — The Post-Chorus Melody on the Minimoog Model D
05:11 — Building the "Secret" Choir Pad with Mellotron
06:16 — Slap Bass: Sculpture Mayday Bass + Overdrive
06:40 — FM Short SQ Sampler, Reverb and EQ
07:30 — "Secret" Reimagined — Full Track
10:17 — Closing Thoughts on Reimagining "Secret"

STEMS ON PATREON
Every reimagination comes with RAW and FX stems for Explorers on the Rewind tier every Friday. Take a look here; https://www.patreon.com/c/NostalgicExplorer

What's your favorite OMD track? The commercial era, or the experimental years? Let me know below.

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Видео OMD's "Secret" Is Cheesy. That's Exactly Why It Works. | Minimoog + Mellotron Reimagination канала Nostalgic Explorer