This is a classic Trevor Horn bass sound, also used by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I love it, but what makes the sound? I bet it’s a DX7 preset or something.
Fairlight and/or Synclavier for the Frankie & Propaganda albums
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Amazing answer! I’m on a bit of a Propaganda tip this weekend, wondering where all my old 12-inches ended up. I will enjoy watching these videos.
I have the Fairlight and Synclavier in my arturia collection. 
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Useless trivia: Moritz von Oswald played on the p:Machinery 12".
I love A Secret Wish, it’s weird to talk about it like it’s obscure when it had chart hits and has always been pretty well thought of critically but it still somehow feels like it’s been unjustly ignored over the years. So often I’ve mentioned Propaganda to people who are generally pretty into music and they’ve been like ‘Who?’
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I was mad about Dr Mabuse when it came out’ I had the 12 inch and it had whip cracks in it and everything
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A Secret Wish is one of the very few non-virgin cassettes I bought in the years when I was totally into recording songs from the radio.
“Sell Him Your Soul Never Look Back” has been running in loop mode in my brain every now and then since the 80’s and, in fact, because of this, a couple of years ago I decided to listen again all Propaganda songs. They are objectively so good.
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Lol I had that line stuck in my head for years as well.
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Maybe I should rename this thread and turn it into a Propaganda appreciation thread?
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Would think it’s a sample of a bass guitar, maybe layered up with some FM. Synclavier I’d guess because I associate Lipson with the Synclavier. I’ve read that he played the guitar solo as well.
Act’s - Snobbery & Decay (Extended, For Stephanie Beacham) is a Synclavier monster.
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I’m doing more research, and it’s starting to look like it might be a bass guitar.
EDIT: @ubiquitous we posted at the same time! This video has Trevor playing bass on a Two Tribes remix.
Which leads to the question, what kind of bass gives that twang? I’m a guitar player not a bassist.
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Search how to play slap bass 
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why Trevor was such a genius: how Two Tribes sounded “live” before he got his hands on it in the studio
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Propaganda propaganda, if you will.
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Oh, fully agree! Some of the best synth pop productions of all times, imo
I haven’t watched all the interview but The Murder of Love is discussed at minute 6, and several synths are mentioned before:
Around minute 11 you can see the different tracks used for the “bass”. There is an overlay of three tracks: “Bass w/echo”, Hard Bass, and Low Bass. There is also a “Pick Gtr” that is quickly mentioned as a synth guitar. You can also see a “vBass” track used elsewhere, not at the beginning of the song.
All this leaves me wondering whether the “bass” we are hearing is 100% synth or not.
The video also explains how the not-synth-pop-at-all guitar solo in that song landed there. Hillarious.
In fact, Propaganda on tour in 1985 didn’t look synth-pop at all. Look at The Murder of Love live. There are plenty of musicians playing non-electronic instruments:
There the bass is played by Derek Forbes (former Simple Minds’ bassist). And while Susanne Freytag is marking the tempo very visibly with a drum, back there there is a huge drum kit played by Brian McGee (also former Simple Minds).
(I have learned all this today, inspired by @Mistercharlie’s cool question.)
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…since he was one of the real big behind the curtain ones, he was also one of the first to get their hands on the synclavier/fairlight…and that bass is an audio mutant of open piano strings, low pitched guitar strings meets real e bass, programmed hard grid only via the synclavier/fairlight…
to those diigin into the sources…in all of his later remades, he tended to do the “real” thing again…
but back then, he was also stunned like everybody else, by all the new sonic magic possebilities and used it as much as he coud…
and simple minds were one of the very first big names that got used to play along fine with click tracks…
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And now I’ve ended up buying a book…
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I only discovered the track Duel a few years ago and have since become a bit obsessed with it.
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(Echo Of) Frozen Faces is one of the best ZTT 12" mixes, which means it’s one of the best 12" mixes of the 80s. Adding skronking sax and other noise over the stripped back sequences and drums for the first half and then extending the lovely synth marimba and bass guitar section in the second half.
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Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag got back together as xPropaganda. I’m not super into it, but it’s worth a look. Totally sounds like Propaganda.
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