it is easiest to hear on the intro. (the upper register one that is panning) I have not figured out how to get this texture. It sounds like a Rhoades, but it is distorted/processed in a way I have not been able to duplicate, or really get close. Doesn't sound like standard distortion, though there may be some in there. Is he bit crushing this thing or what? By the way, Peter Gabriel puts on one of the best shows I have ever seen. (this is from the ending credits of the film WALL-E)

 

Those high sounds above 2k hz? They sound like glass, a bit like piano but also a bit out of tune. Put a HPF at 2k and you can hear them better. They're ringing, like they've been chorused (a chorus plugin). It might be a chorus/flanger effect or both.

 

Try the thumb piano.....African instrument

Also Kalimbas.Processed a bit.

 

No, not a kalimba. I have a kalimaba. Hard to play multiple notes on a real kalimaba like that, and they would sound different sampled up than the part I hear. I am almost certain it is a Fender Rhoades electric piano or sampled imitation that has been "dirtied" somehow. I know it has a little flange or phase shift, but i am more interested in the sort of shimmering texture that is distorted or deconstructed somehow. I can't get it with any type of distortion. That's why I think there is something elese going on I don't recognize. It's the repetitive figure that starts right at the beginning. 1 and 2, uh3 and 4 --repeated until it starts to fade into the background when he starts to sing.

 

Harp.
It sounds more like high-pitched strings, than metal tongues (mbira, kalimba, thumb piano, etc).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eBnlAfvbqE

Layer that with a Wurlitzer (or a Fender Rhodes) and you are there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeQvEe_xexM

 

Maybe he's not relating to the harp-like notes.

Hey Algae, do you mean about the driven textures layer that plays along with that harp-like instrument?

 

> Hey Algae, do you mean about the driven textures layer that plays along with that harp-like instrument?
I'd say YES, because it's the only sound that actually reminds of a distorted rhodes.

Algae, you're most likely guessing right.
I've just tried to play a Rhodes Mk1 (from the Keyboards of the 60s/70s expansion) sample on a Roland XP-80 through some Overdrive (not Distortion) and it sounded quite close actually. Distortion is dependent both on key velocity and the chords played. Make sure you play the same chords as in the song, or the distortion won't sound like this.

 

Yeah I think it's a Rhodes.
I've got a Rhodes 54 and like to put it through old guitar pedals. To me it sounds like it's the higher octave being played through a wahwah pedal (but not moving the pedal) just to bring out certain harmonics.