French electronic duo Justice had a stellar 2024 with the release and tour of their fourth studio album, Hyperdrama. Now, in a new documentary by Mix With The Masters, the band break down the elements of lead single Neverender with Tame Impala, revealing which synth with a “special quality” found its way into most of the album’s tracks.

The synth in question is the PPG Wave 2.2, which has a current street price of a cool $23,750 USD (or $160 if you opt for Waldorf’s plugin version). Justice member Gaspard Augé says he discovered the synth when recording his 2021 Escapades album.

“It had such a special quality that we ended up buying one,” says Augé of the Wave. “It’s always the sound that dictates the writing in some ways, depending on the place on the keyboard where it sounds best…”

Xavier de Rosnay, the other half of Justice, adds: “Most of the sounds of Hyperdrama come from this synthesizer. That’s the main synth of Neverender.”

Using the Wave, Justice wrote two chord progressions for Neverender and tried to make the one synth sound like a whole band playing multiple parts. Interestingly, the ‘pumping’ sound of the synth which would usually be achieved via sidechain compression appears to be manually edited volume levels by the duo. In the video, you’ll notice Ableton Live’s automation lane open on Track Volume with a lot of dips and peaks.

Check out the video below.

Speaking about the duo’s workflow, collaborator Kevin Parker of Tame Impala (who featured on Neverender) says in the mini-doc: “The Justice sound to me is just so fucking badass and so hard-hitting and so hard-edged…Obviously it’s got its sensitive moments.”

Elsewhere in the doc, which Mix With The Masters is soon releasing in a longer format, Justice, Parker, Ed Banger boss Busy P and producer Alissia talk more about the duo’s recording process and impact. They also reveal how they use Melodyne, how they record vocals and drums, and how they chop samples of guitar and keyboard.

In 2024, Justice revealed that producing and releasing an album such as Hyperdrama generally leaves them “bankrupt”.

“Like, we don’t have any money left”, said de Rosnay. “Every penny we make with Justice, we invest into stuff that’s not necessarily commercially viable. As long as we are not in dire need, we don’t need to earn more money. We have houses. We have fun. We have food. It sounds cliché, but that’s the truth.”

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The post “This synth dictates the songwriting…Most of the Hyperdrama sounds come from it”: Justice share the synth secrets on single Neverender appeared first on MusicTech.