The Police – Ghost In The Machine (Remastered 2003)

Sting regularly performed "Invisible Sun" on an Oberheim OB-Xa synthesizer live with The Police during the early 80s, for instance in this video of the Gateshead concert on 31 July 1982 at around the 59:30 mark. The Oberheim was Sting's main synthesizer both on tour and in the studio for both the Ghost In The Machine and Synchronicity albums, before it was replaced with the Synclavier.

According to Hugh Padgham in an interview featured in the March 1984 issue of Studio Sound magazine, Sting never liked spending ages programming a synth (the Oberheim OB-Xa in this case) to get particular sounds he wanted. Instead he'd say he wants roughly such-and-such and runs through the different presets available on the synth until he found something. "Walking In Your Footsteps" is an example of this.

Sting is photographed (by Andy Summers and Lynn Goldsmith) playing a Prophet-10 synthesizer in the studio during the Ghost In The Machine sessions. So the Prophet-10 possibly appears on the album in places.

The Casio was Sting's main writing tools around the time of the Ghost In The Machine album in 1981. For instance, he wrote the main riff to "Spirits In The Material World" on the Casio in the back of a tour bus somewhere.

In photos from the Montserrat sessions, the band can be seen fiddling around with the Casiotone M-10. In footage of the Jools Holland interview, the Casio is visible in front of the Portastudio near the 3:00 mark.

Plus, Stewart Copeland remembers in a Songfacts interview that the mallet line in "King Of Pain" originated as a set of chords played by Sting on a Casio keyboard, with a rather "clinky sound". But it was decided that the riff be played on a Xylophone instead to make it sound more organic.

This guitar was the one Andy used in the "Synchronicity tour." He also used this one to record "Ghost In the Machine" as well. Andy says in this article from Music Radar "The few guitars I did this record with were a Stratocaster, which is one that Fender made for me; it’s kind of a replica of my 1961 red Strat."

In this video, Andy Summers can be seen with a Prophet-5 synthesizer onstage, dabbling with it a little on "Walking On The Moon" (at the 8:31 mark). He used it throughout the Summer 1982 leg of the Ghost In The Machine tour.

In Guitar Player September 1982 issue, Andy discusses the mini solo in "Spirits In The Material World":

"Actually , that is just a guitar played up very high and plucked dry - you know, the palm on the string. I blended this with the setting on the Prophet-5 keyboard synthesizer to get that kind of sound."

(note: the music video shows Sting fiddling with a Minimoog instead, so whatever's seen in videos doesn't always represent what's on the song exactly)

In this photo, Stewart Copeland can be seen playing a Roland RS-505 Paraphonic string synthesizer. He used it on early 80s Police records Zenyatta Mondatta (for the organ sound in "Bombs Away", for example) and Ghost In The Machine ("Rehumanize Yourself" and "Darkness", though it may also appear on other songs too), followed by the Rumblefish soundtrack in 1984 (for which it was part of his so-called "demo station", a photo of which is included on The Police Wiki page for the soundtrack).