Bernard Sumner

This article, on the making of New Order's singles True Faith and 1963, notes that "when New Order commenced working with Stephen Hague, they brought an interesting array of gear into the studio: a Yamaha QX1 sequencer, a rackmounted Octave Voyetra 8 polyphonic synth, a DX5 that provided most of the bass sounds and which Hague succinctly describes as 'Yamaha's attempt to put two DX7s under one roof — it weighed a ton'."

In this picture, Bernard Sumner and producer Martin Hannet stand over Sumner's ARP Omni-2, as well as his Transcendent 2000 placed on top. Sumner utilized the ARP during the later days of Joy Division through to the inception of New Order.

According to this article, Bernard used a Moog Source for the synth bass on "Blue Monday."

In the picture you can see Martin Hannett and Bernard with a Powertran Transcendant placed on top of Bern's Arp Omni.

In this interview from the March 1985 issue of Electronics & Music Maker, Bernard talks about acquiring the ARP Quadra after New Order's Omni was stolen in New York on their first US tour.

"We used S1000s; Korg T3; Juno 106; Prophet V; Voyetra Eight (best sounding poly analogue, but hard to program); DX5; Moog Source; MIDI Moog; Roland SH101 (red); Roland TR909; MT32; D110; Mac SE; Mac IIex; Sound Tools for stereo mastering, with Up Beat and Pro 4 for sequencing, though we have now changed to another sequencing package as neither of the two used previously worked correctly, a situation which I find extremely annoying."

In this interview, Bernard is asked, "Are you still using hardware synths, or have you begun using the virtual ones? What experiences have you had with them?" Showing a preference for hardware, he replies, "We used the Nord Modular on the new album... I think it's good to take your sounds from a lot of different sources - that way everything's not going through the same d-a. However some of the virtual ones make really interesting new sounds. I just can't stand doing everything with one hand and two eyeballs. Well, some things are alright!"

"We used S1000s; Korg T3; Juno 106; Prophet V; Voyetra Eight (best sounding poly analogue, but hard to program); DX5; Moog Source; MIDI Moog; Roland SH101 (red); Roland TR909; MT32; D110; Mac SE; Mac IIex; Sound Tools for stereo mastering, with Up Beat and Pro 4 for sequencing, though we have now changed to another sequencing package as neither of the two used previously worked correctly, a situation which I find extremely annoying."

"We used S1000s; Korg T3; Juno 106; Prophet V; Voyetra Eight (best sounding poly analogue, but hard to program); DX5; Moog Source; MIDI Moog; Roland SH101 (red); Roland TR909; MT32; D110; Mac SE; Mac IIex; Sound Tools for stereo mastering, with Up Beat and Pro 4 for sequencing, though we have now changed to another sequencing package as neither of the two used previously worked correctly, a situation which I find extremely annoying."

According to the BBC Documentary "Synth Britannia" Bernard combined the Bontempi B8 with the Solina Strings Synth when writing the song "Atmosphere". It isn't clear if these synths are what ended up on the final recording. Bernard said it was a Wurlitzer. However, I believe he was mistaken as what he described and what BBC shown was the B8.

"We used S1000s; Korg T3; Juno 106; Prophet V; Voyetra Eight (best sounding poly analogue, but hard to program); DX5; Moog Source; MIDI Moog; Roland SH101 (red); Roland TR909; MT32; D110; Mac SE; Mac IIex; Sound Tools for stereo mastering, with Up Beat and Pro 4 for sequencing, though we have now changed to another sequencing package as neither of the two used previously worked correctly, a situation which I find extremely annoying."

"We used S1000s; Korg T3; Juno 106; Prophet V; Voyetra Eight (best sounding poly analogue, but hard to program); DX5; Moog Source; MIDI Moog; Roland SH101 (red); Roland TR909; MT32; D110; Mac SE; Mac IIex; Sound Tools for stereo mastering, with Up Beat and Pro 4 for sequencing, though we have now changed to another sequencing package as neither of the two used previously worked correctly, a situation which I find extremely annoying."

"We used S1000s; Korg T3; Juno 106; Prophet V; Voyetra Eight (best sounding poly analogue, but hard to program); DX5; Moog Source; MIDI Moog; Roland SH101 (red); Roland TR909; MT32; D110; Mac SE; Mac IIex; Sound Tools for stereo mastering, with Up Beat and Pro 4 for sequencing, though we have now changed to another sequencing package as neither of the two used previously worked correctly, a situation which I find extremely annoying."

"We used S1000s; Korg T3; Juno 106; Prophet V; Voyetra Eight (best sounding poly analogue, but hard to program); DX5; Moog Source; MIDI Moog; Roland SH101 (red); Roland TR909; MT32; D110; Mac SE; Mac IIex; Sound Tools for stereo mastering, with Up Beat and Pro 4 for sequencing, though we have now changed to another sequencing package as neither of the two used previously worked correctly, a situation which I find extremely annoying."

"We used S1000s; Korg T3; Juno 106; Prophet V; Voyetra Eight (best sounding poly analogue, but hard to program); DX5; Moog Source; MIDI Moog; Roland SH101 (red); Roland TR909; MT32; D110; Mac SE; Mac IIex; Sound Tools for stereo mastering, with Up Beat and Pro 4 for sequencing, though we have now changed to another sequencing package as neither of the two used previously worked correctly, a situation which I find extremely annoying."