Graham Massey

One syncing system the group have employed in the past runs as follows. The TR909's code is recorded to the multitrack and then used to sync an MC202 to tape. The 202's two DIN sync outputs run a TB303 and the 909, with MIDI output from the 909 running the computer which in turn can sequence the other MIDI instruments.

"It's just a matter of what you can get your hands on", Massey confirms. On Newbuild the group used almost exclusively Roland gear, with a TR808, TR909, TB303, four SH101s and a Juno 106 which sports a broken key and a note which sticks on every patch except patch 41.

"The [Roland] Juno 106 is practically on every track. It was our workhorse when we came to the bass on every track. You can hear it really well on Sunrise, on that classic [early House producer) Mr Fingers sound, which we're constantly referring to on the bass. We would leave the two main oscillators off and use the sub oscillator on the Juno 106 with Chorus Number 2 on. Then lock it into mono. If you do that you get that empty sub sound, which makes it sound bulbous. Pacific comes back in this track, like a motif. But then it takes off in a completely different direction."

"We're using a lot of Pro 1 on that track. You can hear, it's got a much more dirty filter bite to it."

"We're using the [Roland] D50 for a lot for melody lines, just because it had this glassy quality that would float over the dense rhythm stuff."

"A lot of the sounds were from a Pearl Syncussion unit, which is an instrument that goes right through our early stuff, It's actually a Disco drum, and it was most popular on Disco tracks, but it actually does lots of other things too. It's two synthesizer units has a trigger in, and you can get deep 808 bass sounds all the way to very 'sample and hold' ring modulator sounds. I think Sunrise shows that off."

"We get a lot of mileage out of the JD-800. We use it more like a drum synthesizer rather than just a sample source," says Graham. "Like, you can take a CR-78 snare which is very 'biscuit-tinny' and add a little bit of a metal sample to it, but only so that you can only 'sense' it, rather than hear it. It makes everything a lot harder."

Casio CZ5000 is included in the gear list.

"One of our favourite sounds, that we've used a lot and that keeps cropping up, is from an old ARP Quartet that we picked up for £30. It's a really 'cheesy' string synth of which we're great fans - we've also got a Moog Opus III. The trouble with old stuff is that it's always going down, but we're lucky in that we've got this friend Tony Wride, who we call Captain Techno, who helps out. He's an airline pilot [and ex-SOS writer] and he flies to America a lot - he's also an analogue freak and he brings over synths, repairs them, and then sells them. In fact we've got another ARP 2600 coming over with him - that's a synth that we've used a lot on this album."

"There's also the Oberheim 4-voice which is a wicked sounding synth. Each voice has two oscillators, and it sounds like it looks really - you can blow holes in walls with it! The main riff on 'Timebomb' features one of those."

"Graham Massey infamously named his band ‘808 State’ after the famous Roland TR-808 drum machine, which – along with the TB-303 – was an essential component to the way the band produced their music."

"We did hire a Minimoog at the beginning of this album, but it wasn't MIDI, and we ended up sampling it, and you can hardly hear it. So, there's bits of Moog on Donkey and 808080808, but by the time we reached next album we went Moog mad, 'cause [legendary UK producer] Trevor Horn gave us his Moog by that point."

A token nod to contemporary keyboard equipment comes courtesy of the Waldorf Microwave and Proteus 1.

"We've had them for over a year. The Waldorf is just horrendously complicated, but generally I find we're using about four sounds out of it; the 'Scanalogue' is a good one. The big crunchy sound in 'Cubik' is made up of about three or four sounds from the Waldorf, put in an FZ1 and multi-sampled. We still use the FZ because we've got a big library for it, and it's a lot easier to use than the Akai. The Proteus is pretty bog standard - we don't tend to use it a lot, mainly because a lot of people use it. We used the Moog sound on it before we got the Moog."

A Korg DVP- 1 voice processor is used for "really cheesy 10cc-type vocal sounds", and the Roland JX8P is another favourite.

"There's a whacking bass on that. You have to doctor the pre-set, but it's got a gorgeous sound to it. It sounds very analoguey for a digital synth. It's got a warmth to it. The only other digital stuff we've got is a Bit One and a Bit 99, these weird Italian keyboards that Chase used to bring in, which are great for hard, digital sounds."

A Korg DVP- 1 voice processor is used for "really cheesy 10cc-type vocal sounds", and the Roland JX8P is another favourite.

"There's a whacking bass on that. You have to doctor the pre-set, but it's got a gorgeous sound to it. It sounds very analoguey for a digital synth. It's got a warmth to it. The only other digital stuff we've got is a Bit One and a Bit 99, these weird Italian keyboards that Chase used to bring in, which are great for hard, digital sounds."

"The only other digital stuff we've got is a Bit One and a Bit 99, these weird Italian keyboards that Chase used to bring in, which are great for hard, digital sounds."

"We use the internal sequencer and arpeggiator on the Memory Moog, and the arpeggiator on the Jupiter 8 for coming up with lines too. They're run off the [TR-]909 click trigger."

"We use the internal sequencer and arpeggiator on the Memory Moog, and the arpeggiator on the Jupiter 8 for coming up with lines too. They're run off the [TR-]909 click trigger."

"We've started to use the 2600 for synthesized drums too after we read about Vince Clarke making his own! And we use the old Pearl Syncussion unit too: we like sampling and layering sounds from that. You have to get a uniqueness to drums, 'cos that's something that always sounds the same on dance records."

"The cheesy strings on Lift [from Ex:El are a combination of ARP Quartet and FZ sample," says Graham. "The FZ samples seem to have far more character than the Akai. I'm leaning towards that machine nowadays, because of the lack of quality. It's not awful, it's just a difference in quality which we like."

ARP Axxe is included in the gear list.

E&MM Spectrum Synthesizer is included in the gear list.

Korg M1 is included in the gear list.

Roland SH 2000 ins included in the equipment list.

Moog Prodigy is included in the equipment list.

In the article "Art Of The State - 808 State" on 808state, Graham Massey is noted to have the Moog Rogue synthesizer in his equipment list.

EDP Wasp is included in the equipment list.

Yamaha CS-30 is included in the equipment list.

Casio CZ1000 is included in the equipment list.

Fender Rhodes MKII is included in the equipment list.