SAMPLERS
AKAI S01
This was added rather late on in my 80s career, in fact, by now it was the 90s. I was never a fan of sampling particularly, especially the 'stealing' variety, but it did have its uses, the most evident can be heard on the 'Everything is One' album, on tracks such as 'The Eye (That Could See Itself)', 'It's Just an Illusion 96', where I sampled the crowd shouting 'Hey!', and also 'Non Believer 97', where the sampler allowed me to add a 12 string acoustic rhythm guitar, and a sample from Abba's track 'Arrival' which nicely thickened up the lead-line melody, on top of the organ. However, the sampler is currently redundant.
This page is for the few among you who might be wondering what keyboards and software I have used over the years, and what I use now. So here's a little breakdown for you.
KEYBOARDS/SYNTHS
YAMAHA MK100
This was the first keyboard I ever owned as a present for getting through my 'A' Levels. It had small keys, no MIDI, and very 'poxy' drum sounds, but it served me incredibly well in the writing of my earliest songs, and was most pleasantly used on the song, 'Non Believer'.
ROLAND JX3P
This is the definitive all-time Paul Linn synth. It has really warm sounds, especially the pads, which led to many a church version performance. The ease of patch editing makes it a firm favourite, although the fact that it only responds to info on MIDI channel 1 makes it occasionally troublesome. My favourite own patch sounds include the sweeping pad sound on 'Tomorrow's Tears', and the all-time Paul Linn pad, as heard on the likes of 'Crazy Like a Dreamer', 'Balance' and many more. The pitch bend and modulation is superb.
YAMAHA DX7
The classic and infamous synth that defines the 80s. This was a mainstay of my set-up throughout the 80s gigs and studio recordings. The sounds are rather hard to edit for the likes of me, but there are many great patches and sound-effects. Brilliant slap bass sounds, and plucked strings. On the whole I prefer Roland keyboards, however, as the sounds are much warmer in general, being analogue. The digital nature of the Yamaha synths mean they come over as colder and harder. This is only a generalisation, my opinion. The DX7 can be heard clearly on 'Clever' with the clavinet bass, and the different harp sounds used on 'Nothing Can End' and 'Tomorrow's Tears', or the edgy dancey bass for 'Peppermint God'. My DX7 has not been revived as yet for the new era, but has just undergone a service !
YAMAHA DX21
This synth was very much a part of my 80s live set-up, and the keyboard could be split into separate sound areas, and new sounds could be created by combining layers of sounds. My best used of the DX21 is undoubtedly the modulated tubular bells sound that forms the sequence behind the instrumental 'Resistance'. Rather a cold-sounding synth on the whole, but enough different original and cutting sounds to make it invaluable back in the 80s.
ROLAND ALPHA JUNO 1
A lovely little synth which was used for most of the 80s gigs. A warm variety of sounds, excellent pads and electric piano patches. The best use of this synth was for the sequence that opens 'Emma's Song'. Not touch sensitive, however, unlike its bigger brother...
ROLAND ALPHA JUNO 2
More keys than its little brother the Juno 1, more sounds, and effectively touch sensitive, which really adds expression to your playing. This keyboard was used for many of the live bass sounds at gigs, but also has a beautiful selection of pad sounds, fun sound effects, and lovely brass and lead sounds. It has survived the 20 year hiatus, and has played a part in the 2013 gigs, sometimes being used for sound effects on 'Primal Spirit', played by foot, not fingers !
YAMAHA KX5
This was a much-used 'remote' keyboard in the 80s, used with a strap so you could wear it like a guitar, and connected via MIDI to your synth of choice, so you could play its lead sounds or other, and try to 'rock out' as much as possible. I did a certain amount of gigs with this trigger keyboard, but chose to sell it, as my talents don't naturally extend to macho lead breaks and all that goes along with it, just not really my cup of tea. Others use them pretty well though, whether in the Human League, Goldfrapp or serious rock bands.
KORG M1
This synth seemed to be everywhere in the late 80s/early 90s. I was very into Roxette's 'Joyride' album at the time, and was aware that the M1 had been used on it, and so I wanted to take advantage of the amazing sounds this synth offered, especially the fab (and rather big) snare drums, and pianos. It played an important part in the creation of songs such as 'Crazy Like a Dreamer' and 'There is a Heaven', but a battery failure led to a loss of many stored banks of sounds, and I had grown a little tired of it as well, so I have decided to shelve this synth for now, although it's still part of my collection. I think its sounds are more dated than most of the other synths I have, so I can live without it, for the time being.
ROLAND JUNO-G
The most up-to-date synth I own, although it dates back to 2002. This synth is the main workhorse of the current set-up, both for recording and live, with a fabulous array of sounds of all types, many of which have inspired the new songs.. This synth can do so much that the older ones cannot, and is only a fraction of the weight, due to the advances in technology, which is amazing.
DRUM MACHINES
YAMAHA RX15
The first drum machine I used, from 1985. Songs on the first 3 albums feature the drums sounds from this one, which were not bad, but not a patch on its successor...
YAMAHA RX5
This drum machine has a much wider selection of drum sounds, including actual drum samples, so it sounded a lot more real, and editing sounds and loops was fairly easy, so you could customize it to an extent, and make it more personal to your sound. I did tend to hear this drum machine on records in the charts a fair amount, and to be honest, that's a little offputting. I'd rather not know what drum machine or synth I am hearing, I'd rather it be indistinguishable......not that I will have always been successful at this myself.
RECORDING EQUIPMENT
TEAC 40-4 (TASCAM SERIES)
The entire first Paul Linn album was recorded entirely on this 4 track reel-to-reel machine, as well as all non-studio recordings through til album 6. Very easy to use and efficient, it even allows you to drop in accurately to repair vocal lines and overdubs that need to be inserted or continued from a certain point. A trusty old recording studio, and track bouncing was always kept to a minimum to preserve quality.
COMPUTERS & SOFTWARE
BBC MICRO & UMI-2B
This early and highly popular computer was everything to us back in the day, and was used with a black and white TV, and in conjunction with U-Music's UMI-2B software program. Only 300 of the latter were ever made, and Queen also used it on their album 'A Kind of Magic'. And the pic below shows Vince Clarke must have had one too. This sequencing software program was very basic to use, but obtained great results for its time, although it took me ages to learn how to use it at the start. The UMI-2B had two MIDI outputs and we sequenced a total of 4 synths and a drum machine at gigs, so all the sounds were being triggered 'live', while I played the pad, piano, and lead break and other parts left out of the arrangement....and anything could go wrong, but rarely did. Songs were stored on floppy disk, and loaded with a grinding sound by Bill or Barney. When the song was ready, I was given indication via a red light, then I knew I was able to start the song's playback via a custom-built footswitch. Computers in music was still a relatively new concept back in the 80s, so that at almost every gig someone would come up and say, "What's the TV for? In case you wanna watch Eastenders!"
MACBOOK PRO & CUBASE STUDIO 5
This is what I am currently using, choosing to go with Apple after many a recommendation for their strength and compatibility with music software programs. The macbook has proved to be robust and fab, and I chose to go with ubase, as I had some experience of earlier versions, and found them to be user-friendly, and the functionality suited the way I was used to working with the UMI-2B. The songs I have written this year for the new album, 'Real People' have increasingly relied on many of the excellent sounds that come with the Cubase software, in conjunction with the many on-board effects that can totally change their sound and behaviour. It's an infinite pool of creative tools at your fingertips, exciting and daunting at the same time. In the 80s I used to trigger the synths 'live' onstage from the sequencer, now I am creating backing tracks to playbac via iTunes in the laptop, and I play the parts I choose to omit from the arrangements, as before.