Gary Numan

When recording “Cars,” arguably his most well-known track outside of “ME”, Numan deployed a Polymoog. First introduced in 1975, the Polymoog offered users presets for strings, organ, harpsichord, and other instruments in Moog’s distinct electronic sound. Numan eventually owned two 203a's and six 280a's, making great use of the Vox Humana preset a number of times.

On “Cars,” the Polymoog’s iconic string sounds can be heard throughout the song. It can also be seen in Numan’s evocative music video for the single. Numan used the synthesizer throughout the recording of The Pleasure Principle, particularly on “Films,” as well as on his 1980 album Telekon. It can also be seen on Numan’s 1979 Top of the Pops performance of “Cars,” just to the right of him, as well as on Old Grey Whistle Test.

Gary Numan can be seen playing his Roland SH-2000 right in front of him in this live tv performance, visible all the way through but best viewed around 3m10s. The SH-2000 was also used on the album Replicas.

“The cross between normal, original hardware and computers; the one that bridges the gap. A mixture of genius and nightmare — it came out with the most amazing sounds, but was very difficult to work. It started a massive leap forward in technology because it was the first of its generation.”

Just seen the amazing new Omnisphere 2 promo by @spectrasonics. That's the rest of my life taken care of then.

Gary Numan used the Arp Odyssey in the studio (Telekon album) and live in the early eighties.

Well I've got five JX8Ps,' he reflects, 'because very soon we'll be going on tour and I'm going to have two keyboard players each using two JX8Ps. I'm going to keep one spare as well because you can never be too safe even though everybody's telling me that they're the most reliable synths you can use. I really like the idea of that sort of uniformity on stage from an aesthetic point of view and from a sound point of view it's great because the JX8Ps sound brilliant when they are MIDI'd together.'

MT: In recent years, we’ve witnessed the return of the analogue synth with new models from the likes of Moog, Sequential, Oberheim, companies who provided you with your synths originally…

GN: “Well, I’m watching it, but I’m still deeply immersed in software. Omnisphere 2 is the best thing ever invented – more useful than the wheel! It’s an amazing bit of kit, so I think software is still very much the heart of it for me.

I’ve got a Moog Voyager XL, but you’ll see it leaning up against the side of the studio as I’ve not actually plugged it in yet. It’s a good bit of kit, though. I’ve also got a couple of Roland bits coming. I don’t have the names yet, but it’s a big red thing – the JD-XA…”

"There is quite a lot of synth on the album though, including the Roland JX-8P, the Yamaha DX7, some Emulator sounds sampled into the PPG, and even a Synclavier which we had for a short time."

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.

"Although Numan writes all of his music on an aged upright piano, slowly adding effects, synth sounds and big beats, he also works with modern gear: Emagic Logic Audio Platinum and Digidesign Pro Tools on an Apple Mac G4 with two iZ Technology RADAR 24 digital recorders and a Mackie d8b desk. His synths are both soft and hard: Korg Wavestation, Alesis QuadraSynth, Korg M1, Roland D50 LA, GEM S2 Turbo and a Korg electric piano."

"During the course of recording, Native Instruments brought out updates, including the Rammfire plug-in [emulation software based on Rammstein’s Richard Z. Kruspe guitar rig], which is great for guitar parts."

In an interview on bbc radio 6 Gary mentioned this as his desert island synth.

Numan can be seen playing a Gibson Les Paul Custom in this photo.

Numan can be seen in this photo playing a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Cherry Sunburst.

"Although Numan writes all of his music on an aged upright piano, slowly adding effects, synth sounds and big beats, he also works with modern gear: Emagic Logic Audio Platinum and Digidesign Pro Tools on an Apple Mac G4 with two iZ Technology RADAR 24 digital recorders and a Mackie d8b desk. His synths are both soft and hard: Korg Wavestation, Alesis QuadraSynth, Korg M1, Roland D50 LA, GEM S2 Turbo and a Korg electric piano."

Rrussel Bell : “I was the guitarist and I had five synths!! I had a Polymoog, two Minimoogs, Moog Taurus pedals, Synares and a Roland guitar synth !”

Source : Electricity Club

...my OBXa was amazing, the best of that generation by far. It could make sounds that were so useable and different to what was coming out of the other machines around at the time.

(from Gary's interview with Side-Line magazine, Dec 2015)

Gary Numan used the MXR M107 Phase 100 phaser pedal with a Polymoog Keyboard for the intro to "Cars," as noted on Isatellite.

In the late 1970s, Gary Numan walked into a studio to record his first album with his punk band The Tubeway Army. Upon entering the control room, he noticed a synthesizer off in the corner. Numan walked up to it, plugged it in, and began fiddling around with it. It was Minimoog Model D. This unexpected encounter changed the entire course of Numan’s musical career, and indeed pop music history.

“I didn’t know how to set the Minimoog up, so I just pressed a key for whatever it was set on, and it made that famous Moog sound, that famous low growl and the room vibrated,” Numan recalled in an interview with The Quietus. “It was the most powerful thing. It was like an earthquake and I just loved it. And before the band was even finished setting up the gear I was in there working on changing the songs we’d arrived with into pseudo-electronic songs.”

"After the initial piano, it’s usually one of two things. Spectrasonics Stylus RMX, an amazing sample and loop player, it’s the fundamental background of the groove, at least in the early stages anyway."

Link to Gary's Official Facebook page where he is thanking Moog for his Voyager XL!

Here's Numan pictured using a Fender Rhodes Stage MK1 during the recording of Tubeway Army's Replicas album at Spaceward Studio ...

"Although Numan writes all of his music on an aged upright piano, slowly adding effects, synth sounds and big beats, he also works with modern gear: Emagic Logic Audio Platinum and Digidesign Pro Tools on an Apple Mac G4 with two iZ Technology RADAR 24 digital recorders and a Mackie d8b desk. His synths are both soft and hard: Korg Wavestation, Alesis QuadraSynth, Korg M1, Roland D50 LA, GEM S2 Turbo and a Korg electric piano."

"Although Numan writes all of his music on an aged upright piano, slowly adding effects, synth sounds and big beats, he also works with modern gear: Emagic Logic Audio Platinum and Digidesign Pro Tools on an Apple Mac G4 with two iZ Technology RADAR 24 digital recorders and a Mackie d8b desk. His synths are both soft and hard: Korg Wavestation, Alesis QuadraSynth, Korg M1, Roland D50 LA, GEM S2 Turbo and a Korg electric piano."

Used primarily on the Sacrifice and Exile albums (Absolution is almost entirely this synth) although it was also used on Pure, Jagged and Splinter.

Used extensively in the early years on pretty much everything from the Telekon album up to The Fury.

Looking back rather than forward, the main studio area of Rock City is equipped with a very nice Bosendorfer grand which unfortunately will have to be sold off. Gary also has a good selection of guitars and keyboards lying around, including a Linn LM-1 drum machine, Oberheim OBXa and the Wave Team's new Yamaha DX5.

Gary Numan is shown using the Roland AIRA TR-8 in a post on his official Facebook page.

"I use the E-magic Logic sequencer through a Mac Quadra 650 computer. This is linked to the instruments and to the studio via an Opcode Studio 4 interface. The studio desk is a Soundtracs Quartz (32 Channel, the little one), Quad amp and Tannoy Little Gold speakers. I have an Otari MX-80 24 track 2" tape recorder which I mix onto DAT via a Soundtools hard disc editor. (An Atari version so it will have to go soon). I wired the room myself and, surprisingly, it works quite well."

Gary Numan is credited with Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 in the liner notes for Telekon.