Gary Numan – Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)

"I even did two albums with a Shure SM58 in the studio".

This extraordinary microphone was used by Gary to record all the vocals for the phenomenal Splinter album, and will be used exclusively for the vocals on the new album.

Brought in to supplement the touring set up in 2006 and was used until 2014. It was also used on the early Splinter demo’s and some of the songs on Dead Son Rising.

You work in Pro Tools?

I do, but my producer, Ade Fenton, works in Logic. We used Native Instruments Massive, Reactor, but I struggled with that. We also use Omnisphere. The danger with that software is, it’s very popular and then you get sucked into using things everybody knows. It’s difficult not to do, but it’s fantastic software. So many things really work straight out of the box, you have to be careful of that. But as a rule we work hard to make sure we are creating new sounds.

You work in Pro Tools?

I do, but my producer, Ade Fenton, works in Logic. We used Native Instruments Massive, Reactor, but I struggled with that. We also use Omnisphere. The danger with that software is, it’s very popular and then you get sucked into using things everybody knows. It’s difficult not to do, but it’s fantastic software. So many things really work straight out of the box, you have to be careful of that. But as a rule we work hard to make sure we are creating new sounds.

MT: So the rest of the studio is a software-driven affair, with just one or two choice pieces of gear?

GN: “I have no outboard gear to speak of. I use Pro Tools. I used to have an HD3 system with the expansion chassis which was noisy and horrible and I didn’t like it. So when I finished Splinter, I went over to this system which is the native one and was told it would be every bit as good as the HD3.