Joy Division – Closer
The music gear and equipment used by the artists, producers, engineers, and more involved in the making of the 1980 album Closer.
Music from Closer
Artists on Closer
Gear Used On Closer
Explore the instruments, equipment, software, and production tools used in the making of Joy Division – Closer (1980). Click more on each item to see exactly how it was used.
Stephen Morris
Roles:
Studio Equipment used by Stephen Morris on Closer
Simmons SDS-V Drum Synthesizer
Avg price: $2,900.00
Asked in this interview about how he achieved some of the distinctive noises on Joy Division records, Stephen responds, "The unusual noise that I like the best is on Atrocity Exhibition. By then, I had a Synare III and a Simmons SDSVI [sic]..."
Avg price: $400.00
In this interview, Stephen is asked what his first drum machine was. "It was just after [recording Joy Division's album] Closer that I got the first affordable programmable drum machine, the Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-55 and that was on the early New Order stuff like 'Truth.' I think there's even a version of In A Lonely Place we did with the drum machine, it didn't work out too well."
Avg price: $1,999.00
"This was on OMD’s Enola Gay, Blondie’s Heart Of Glass and a lot of things in the late 1970s. Martin didn’t like the Synare so for Decades [on Closer] he told me to get a drum machine. It sounded great but I was sat there with the bloody Roland manual trying to programme it. It said ‘requires accessory X’, so we’d get this extra bit. It drove me potty.
The manual didn’t make any sense and then even when you got the fucking extra pedal programming it still didn’t work. We accidentally discovered how to do Temptation, but that’s another story. I gave up on it and for years afterwards, I thought computers were complete shit. Then I realised there are two different pedals you can get for it, one for programming and one was the start-stop thing, and I’d got the start-stop thing! When we did the first New Order album, Movement, Martin got us a deal on a little battery operated Dr. Rhythm which was easy to programme because it only had two buttons. So we did the song Truth on that."
Keyboards and Synthesizers used by Stephen Morris on Closer
In this interview, Stephen explains how he was drafted to play keyboards instead of his usual drums on certain New Order songs. "Did I want play keyboards? I'm the world's most reluctant keyboard player, I didn't really want to but it happened early on because there was just the three of us. It just happened that Bernard can't sing and play guitar at the same time, Hooky can't sing and play bass, and I just can't sing playing anything! So I ended up playing keyboards. We got the ARP Omni towards the end of Joy Division for Closer after using an ARP Solina earlier. So I ended up playing that with the drum machine on top."
Studio Equipment used by Martin Hannett on Closer
Avg price: $1,999.00
In this interview, Stephen Morris of Joy Division/New Order explains how this drum machine was used during the making of Joy Division's album Closer. "And there was our CR-78 nightmare... have you ever tried programming one? There was this very small black rubber pad, you put that into the programming thing, 'press programme switch while holding...' It's just a mad Roland thing and it doesn't make any sense! We spent the best part of a day trying to programme this bloody thing. I couldn't do it and he couldn't do it. In the end we just used the 'bossa nova' [preset] on it. It wasn't fun but I think it was the only time I've seen Martin as baffled as me! (laughs)"
Keyboards and Synthesizers used by Martin Hannett on Closer
Avg price: $7,294.83
In this interview with Stephen Morris of Joy Division/New Order, he explains the studio setup going into the recording of Joy Division's album Closer. "We had Martin's ARP2600 and the sequencer that goes with it on 'The Eternal,' there's a fuck up in the middle of it and you couldn't drop in, so we left it and it sounds like I've done it but [it] was a machine."
Avg price: $1,995.00
Martin was well-known to use the ARP Omni, and this post includes the famous picture of Martin with Bernard Sumner. The ARP can be seen underneath the Powertran monosynth.
Martin Hannett "At one time I owned around seven Transcendent 2000 synths, several ARP Omnis,several Jen SX1000s and a couple of Mini Moogs". Pictured is Martin Hannett with one of his Transcendent 2000's while working in the studio with Joy Division guitarist Bernard Sumner.
Effects Pedals used by Peter Hook on Closer
Electro-Harmonix Stereo Clone Theory
Avg price: $135.54
"Around the time of recording Closer was when I bought probably two of the most important things I’ve ever owned in terms of my sound – a Shergold Marathon 6-string bass and an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory pedal. This was really when I started to shape my sound and develop my own styles of playing." - Peter Hook for PedalsandEffects.com
Electro-Harmonix The Clone Theory
Avg price: $139.48
This was Hook's main chorus during most of his carrer. He used it with joy division on the album "Closer" and for the single "Love will tear us apart", and with new order throught the 80's. The effect has been one of the trademarks of Hooky's sound. It was usually rackmounted along with his rack units (As can be seen on this 1981 concert at 3:00) and it was always on (or at least most of the time).
Amplifiers used by Peter Hook on Closer
... He said to me when we were in the studio doing Closer “what you need is the best fucking bass amp in the world and you need to be as loud as fuck,” so he went out and showed me an Alembic FB2 preamp into an Amcron (Crown) DC300A...
Original article here