Wham!’s Last Christmas is one of the most enduring and successful Christmas songs of all time, but did you know it was recorded using only a LinnDrum, a Roland Juno-60, a bass guitar, and sleigh bells? All parts were recorded by George Michael, and according to Michael’s engineer Chris Porter, recording was “laborious” due to George’s limited musicianship, but the sessions were ultimately successful and a veritable Christmas classic was born.
The main strings sound in Last Christmas came from the Juno-60 and can be created in TAL U-NO-LX. From the default patch, turn off the sub-oscillator, turn on the square wave oscillator, and set the PW fader to 5 with the LFO mode (we’re modulating the pulse-width with the LFO). In the LFO section, set trigger mode to key and LFO speed to 4.69 Hz.
For the filter, lower the cutoff to 7.55, change the VCA mode to ENV, and set the ADSR envelope with an attack, decay and release of around 3-3.5, and no sustain. You can play with these values a little, but you want a patch with a soft attack that releases quickly, so you can play staccato chords. Lastly, turn on the Chorus II effect to get that classic ensemble sounds. There are actually two tracks of this patch in the song, the first is panned slightly right and plays from the beginning, and the second is panned slightly left and comes in with the vocals at 0:18.
- Last Christmas Strings00:00
The organ patch that comes in at 0:36 is a classic Juno organ patch, and the Juno-60 preset Organ 3 was likely used for the track. I used the Organ preset as a starting point, and increased the filter envelope amount, decay and sustain slightly, to make it slightly richer and closer to the organ sound on the track.
- Last Christmas Organ00:00
The bells that play the melody sounds like it could come from a digital synth, such as the Yamaha DX7, however, bell sounds like this are possible on the Juno synths, and with close listening can hear the Juno ensemble effect. The Juno-60 Mellow Piano preset may have been used as the basis of the track, but the sound is easy enough to recreate from scratch using a pulse-wave, a mostly closed filter, some subtle envelope pluck, and the chorus effect.
- Last Christmas Bell00:00
In the video below I’m using SamplePhonics LinnDrum sample pack for drums and Brian Funk’s Sleigh Bell pack for percussion, with bass coming from my Fender P-Bass.
Chris Porter confirmed that George used the 106 on the Faith Recording. However for the Wham time it was generally referred to the 60. He may have switched later on.
But I also believe he connected several Junos to record all the different variations of the Patch at once.
Btw: Also according to Chris Porter the Bell sound is a Patch on the DX7. The Bell sound in the lower register is also responsible for what has here been described as Organ sound. You just have to sustain the key.
Yes, I have seen and played the 106 recently, and the LM2 is in its flight case at the location. I’ve seen both, and can confirm. I think at one point later on…possibly 1988, there was a D50 brought into the fray. Some of the original Sounds aren’t on the 106 anymore sadly, but I have a desire to get the machine back to how it was when George first started the WHAM songs.
It is actually a Juno 106. George Never owned a 60. Only a 106.
The thing is, the 106 was Midi which allowed it to be synced up to the Linn LM2 and Time code. Despite the myths online….It is a 106. PERIOD.
Interesting, do you have a source for that?
I can’t get it to import to cs-80v
The ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ preset unfortunately won’t work with the new CS-80 V4 plugin released with V Collection 9, only the older V3 version.
you can always just recreate the patch by eye
works with other CS-80 emulations too as long as both emulate it accurately, and probably with the real thing too in that case
@ReverbMachine – The sound is great, but the delay is out of time with the click as other people mentioned. I have the bpm in my daw at 95 (the original tempo). Could this be the problem? Maybe this was done a few bpm slower or faster? Or is there a way to turn off the delay so I can just get the sound? Then I could just use a delay plugin to get that effect.
I have the Arturia CS80 V3. Where do I put the downloaded Christmastime file for it to show up in the patches on the CS80?
Go to “Import” in the CS-80 V menu and choose the preset file.
Whenever I hear McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime synths, I think of both ELO and Dave Greenslade.
On the bottom right part of the CS 80 screen. turn the Time dial’s setting down to 0.
There are other dials for Brightness, Movement, and Timbre shown, too, which may impact the patch’s sound. For real, this was a very satisfying find and fix.
Apologies. This is wrong. Disregard.
The delays are getting out of sync if they’re not just on time. I mean that they are not landing on the eighth notes like in the song. Has this to do with the bpm? Can anyone tell me how to get this right?
Love this but such a headache with a click haha
I find this impossible to do. The delays keep getting out of sync. Did you figure out how to do it haha
I’m grateful I found your site. Thanks for your knowledge and always fantastic presets
Hi, Thanks a lot for the insights. For Last Christmas I believe there are further patches of the main synth used. In the end it appears as there is also one with a much faster attack – what do you think?
Thanks for digging into and sharing it!
Please make some synth sounds of Honne, they have great Prophet sounds
This is the perfect Christmas gift. As always, thank you for sharing and for your extensive synth knowledge!