Juan Atkins

"Back then I was also using a Sequential Pro-One keyboard, a Roland RS-09 string synth, an ARP Odyssey and an ARP Axxe. And I had a Boss DR-55 and then an 808, obviously, when they first came out."

"Back then I was also using a Sequential Pro-One keyboard, a Roland RS-09 string synth, an ARP Odyssey and an ARP Axxe. And I had a Boss DR-55 and then an 808, obviously, when they first came out."

The digital hybrids that came along, like the EMU Morpheus, had some great sounds – really way-out and spacey. Sometimes new machines have sounds that are so unconventional that people are scared to use them.

Keyboards got so advanced that the presets started to prevail, then people started wanting more programmable synths again. I remember when the Roland JD-800 came out – it was a digital keyboard, but with easy-to-use faders.

"Back then I was also using a Sequential Pro-One keyboard, a Roland RS-09 string synth, an ARP Odyssey and an ARP Axxe. And I had a Boss DR-55 and then an 808, obviously, when they first came out."

"Back then I was also using a Sequential Pro-One keyboard, a Roland RS-09 string synth, an ARP Odyssey and an ARP Axxe. And I had a Boss DR-55 and then an 808, obviously, when they first came out."

The Korg MS10 was incredible for weird, UFO-type sounds and effects. It was just a monophonic keyboard, so you couldn't even play chords on it. I would sit for hours on that MS10 just making sounds… I had a great time.

We liked digital because it presented a new sound. I'm always looking for something fresh, and when Yamaha came out with the DX7, which I think was the first fully programmable digital synth, the sounds were amazing. They had those ring modulators and ring sounds – the ring-modulating overtones and undertones that the DX7 provided, no other keyboard had. The digital keyboards were a nightmare to program, but if you were just starting out programming synths, the DX7 was like your first bicycle. You could get really good at it.