Tears for Fears

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World was one of the defining singles from 1985’s Songs from the Big Chair, combining bright FM synths, sampled drums, MIDI sequencing, and layered guitars into one of the most recognisable productions of the decade.

This remake recreates the full arrangement in Ableton Live using Arturia Prophet-5 V, DX7 V, CMI V, and PPG Wave, with layered DX7 factory presets, Fairlight-style choir textures, sequenced bass synths, LinnDrum and DMX-inspired drum programming, and rhythm and lead guitar recordings.

What’s Included

Each remake includes two separate ZIP downloads. The first contains the full Ableton Live project with all tracks frozen for compatibility. The second contains multitrack WAV stems for every audio track in the project, along with MIDI files for all MIDI-based parts.

Project screenshots on the right show the arrangement and overall structure of the Ableton Live session. The synths and effects listed below are the third-party VST plugins used in the Ableton Project and are required if you want to fully edit or unfreeze the tracks.

Synths

  • Arturia CMI V
  • Arturia DX7 V
  • Arturia Prophet-5 V
  • PPG Wave

Effects

  • Arturia Chorus DIMENSION-D
  • Arturia Dist OPAMP-21
  • iZotope Ozone Imager 2
  • Soundtoys Decapitator
  • Soundtoys LittlePlate
  • Valhalla VintageVerb