Martyn Ware

Martyn with his Korg 700s behind him in his studio .....

Martin has used the Roland System 100 (Full set) all through his career with Human League, Heaven 17 and BEF and still uses it today.

“’Bigger than America’ was our last attempt at having a big international hit album with proper financial support. I’m very proud of that album, by the way. I think it stands the test of time. I remember thinking at the time that we wanted to make an album that was our last chance to use all the original synths. We used a lot of Jupiter 8 and Jupiter 4—all the original synths and the original Linn Drums as well. That’s why the album sounded so great."

Included in this list of Martyn's Roland gear.

In Mark Jenkins' book, Martyn Ware discusses his use of the Roland S-750 Sampler, highlighting its role in his music production.

From 4:40-6:30, Martyn talks about software synthesizers and says he uses Arturia Moog Modular.

"At one point I was interested in kind of retrofitting MIDI to my analogue pieces, so I had like a Roland Promars, I had a Roland Jupiter-4 which had no MIDI on it so I got that retrofitted with some Kenton MIDI kit and then I had an outboard Kenton kit for the System-100. I used it, not very much to be honest, I kind of like the kind of hands on messiness of the non-MIDI connection, so as soon as the sampling element of everything got a lot simpler I just sampled bits that I wanted."

Included in this list of Martyn's Roland gear.

Martyn Ware is listed as using the Roland TB-303 in a tribute to Roland’s founder on KitMonsters.

Martyn Ware is listed in a March 1982 Electronics & Music Maker magazine profile as using a Linn LM-1 drum machine, which he often synced synths to. The Linn LM-1 was used on Heaven 17's Penthouse And Pavement (1981) and The Luxury Gap (1983), though on the latter it was credited simply as "LinnDrum" (in fact the name of its successor).

Instrument-wise, the S1000 inevitably features on the album, along with the EIII, and various other keyboards. A Mac II handles sequencing duties. "We've got a massive library for the EIII now, some great samples. We've spent 18 months sampling, so that's our main tool. We've also been using the Korg T3, and we've just got the new Roland D70, which is very good because it gives you much more of the analogue style live fader control, which is what you want. You don't want to read through manuals and alter every Partial — all that matters to the musician in the studio is that you can get the sound in your mind as quickly as possible."

Instrument-wise, the S1000 inevitably features on the album, along with the EIII, and various other keyboards. A Mac II handles sequencing duties. "We've got a massive library for the EIII now, some great samples. We've spent 18 months sampling, so that's our main tool. We've also been using the Korg T3, and we've just got the new Roland D70, which is very good because it gives you much more of the analogue style live fader control, which is what you want. You don't want to read through manuals and alter every Partial — all that matters to the musician in the studio is that you can get the sound in your mind as quickly as possible.

In Mark Jenkins' book "Analog Synthesizers," Martyn Ware discusses his use of the Roland JP-8000 Synthesizer.

Instrument-wise, the S1000 inevitably features on the album, along with the EIII, and various other keyboards. A Mac II handles sequencing duties. "We've got a massive library for the EIII now, some great samples. We've spent 18 months sampling, so that's our main tool. We've also been using the Korg T3, and we've just got the new Roland D70, which is very good because it gives you much more of the analogue style live fader control, which is what you want. You don't want to read through manuals and alter every Partial — all that matters to the musician in the studio is that you can get the sound in your mind as quickly as possible."

Martyn Ware uses the Roland V-Synth GT during live performances with Heaven 17, as seen in a 2014 photo on Wikimedia.

Martyn has an MS-20 in the background of this picture.

In Mark Jenkins' book on analog synthesizers, Martyn Ware discusses his use of the Roland XV-5080 sound module.

In Mark Jenkins' book "Analog Synthesizers," Martyn Ware discusses his use of the Quasimidi Sirius synthesizer.

Martyn talks about using a "little M-Audio Oxygen keyboard."

In Mark Jenkins' book "Analog Synthesizers," Martyn Ware discusses his use of Apple Logic Pro for music production.

Martyn Ware mentions using Native Instruments Absynth 2 in his work, as referenced in Mark Jenkins' book "Analog Synthesizers."

In "Analog Synthesizers" by Mark Jenkins, Martyn Ware discusses his use of the Spectrasonics Stylus RMX for music production.

Martyn Ware talks about using Spectrasonics Atmosphere.

“’Bigger than America’ was our last attempt at having a big international hit album with proper financial support. I’m very proud of that album, by the way. I think it stands the test of time. I remember thinking at the time that we wanted to make an album that was our last chance to use all the original synths. We used a lot of Jupiter 8 and Jupiter 4—all the original synths and the original Linn Drums as well. That’s why the album sounded so great."

"I’ve toyed with Ableton, I know a lot of people love it, I’m probably a bit old school. You know, the thing about Ableton, it’s very good as a creative tool for idea generation, particularly for dance music. My issue is, I’m not really short of ideas to be honest and also I don’t want everything to sound like dance music. It’s very good for loopy-type things, I’ve done a few things with Ableton which I’ve quite liked. But Logic is my workhorse. That’s basically it."

Included in this list of Martyn's Roland gear.

Martyn Ware is noted for using the Roland System 700, as highlighted in a tribute on KitMonsters to Roland's founder.

Included in this list of Martyn's Roland gear.

Included in this list of Martyn's Roland gear.

Included in this list of Martyn's Roland gear.