My ‘kit’ or studio setup was on the floor below. I was proud to own two stacked synthesisers, one a digital FM synth, usually something like a Yamaha DX-7, the sounds of which really did shape the sound of eighties pop music. The other was an analog synth, for example a Roland Juno-106 or Minimoog. (I’d sold my wonderful Roland JX-3P with PG1000 controller in 1992. Bad move). I also had some rack mounts, rectangular metal units you must all have seen at gigs. Lots of knobs, sliders and buttons. At the time it was an orange Emulator rack which suited post rave-style sound popular at the time. It was basically the kit that enabled me to make Orbital or The Orb-style dance music which all sounds very dated now, especially in the ultra-fast moving and creative world of modern dane music. It had arpeggiated synth lines and proto-sampled beats, certainly not the cookie-cutter identikit loops available on tap now at the click of a mouse. I also had a Quadraverb GT, a multi-fx unit which I still have. It was particularly effective because the GT (guitar) included a guitar preamp that could even make the most basic sine wave synth sound like they’d been overdriven through about five stacked Marshall amps. I was proud also to own Yamaha SPX-90 reverb. My dad had bought this for me in 1983 when I was fourteen. This was the standard echo (reverb) unit used at live music and theatre venues. Anyway, all this kit was very very sexy to us musicians. There is a name for the likes of us: we are ‘gear sluts’. There’s even a great website worth checking out called www.gearslutz.com all about us saddos. We would be constantly exchanging and upgrading our kit, primarily via the advertising papers Exchange & Mart as well as Loot, where I worked one day a week copytaking and met some lifelong friends.
Anyway, my pièce de resistance was my Akai S900 sampler. It was one of the very first to be imported into the country which made me very proud. My late father bought it for me in 1984 when I was fifteen. He always supported me in every creative endeavour I ever pursued, as did my super-creative cool and artistic animator/artist/lecturer mum.
