Andrew Eldritch

"Yes, it's more or less a children's toy, but it starred as the tinkly piano noise and half the bass on 'Never Land'. A certain Californian lady ran off with the original unit, but forgot the manual, so she won't have got far (especially with a sack of potatoes down the back of her knickers)."

"One keyboard version for working at home or in the studio, and one rackmounted version for live work. A long time ago, after futile holidays in various repair shops, the rack unit went back to Texas. When it came back the hard drive was just as broken as before. It still is. The Emax is great for orchestral sounds and mutations, but the Emax II file format isn't even recognised by later Emu equipment, so our Emaxes are at a dead end. When both units have gone to that great pawn shop in the sky, we'll lose access to our whole library of Emax II sounds - unless we buy more dodgy old kit. Having access via another sampler to the raw samples isn't the same as having the loops, crossfades, filters and all the rest, - even if we can get the Emaxes to talk to the Macs and persuade our translation software to translate all the raw samples (which is a long and tedious job in itself, with so many samples to load into the sampler first, one floppy at a time). This means we'll train the Nord Lead to variously replace that one Emax sound which we use for so many live songs, e.g. the motif arpeggios on 'Giving Ground', 'Temple Of Love' and 'More'. And it means we'll try to "use up" loads of groovy mutant sounds before our Emaxes give up the ghost altogether. Which sounds like a job for the Leeds Underground. "

"We have one D50 as a controller keyboard and three rackmounted D550s which are a central part of the onstage setup at the moment. One is for the Doktor to play bass, when it's his turn. This goes through a Korg effects unit (see Outboard page) to receive punishment and pass that punishment on to you. One plays a glassy-voice noise which goes through the other Korg effects unit to make the grinding howl which Andrew likes to put behind everything. The third one is a spare."

"One keyboard version for working at home or in the studio, and one rackmounted version for live work. The original Nord Lead was great, but we waited for the polyphonic one, because part of its job will be to replace the ailing Emax on stage. One of the nice things about this keyboard is the fact that a noise never seems to disappear when you turn a knob right round. That's unusual in analog or analog-emulation synths."

Andrew Eldritch uses the Studio Electronics SE-1, noted for its modern take on the Mini Moog, particularly excelling in Moog-type bass and sweeps. This information is detailed in the "Sisters Tech - Samplers & Synthesis" section on The Sisters of Mercy's website.

"Midi version of the original Mini Moog. Originally bought for Tony James to attach to his midi-capable WAL bass guitar, it was practically never used, and it's been in a cupboard since we got the SE1 units. No store or dump facility, and unstable tuning."

Andrew Eldritch uses the E-MU Audity 2000 for creating arpeggiated ambient sounds, as highlighted on the Sisters Tech - Samplers & Synthesis page of The Sisters of Mercy website.

Andrew Eldritch utilizes the Novation Bass Station Keyboard, notable for its ability to transmit controller information with every knob adjustment, allowing sequencers to replicate each sound change. This feature, highlighted on The-sisters-of-mercy's "Sisters Tech - Samplers & Synthesis" page, showcases the Bass Station as a pioneer in this capability.