Midge Ure

Midge Ure plays an E-mu Emulator II during Ultravox's performance of "Vienna" at Live Aid (beginning at 2:50).

This has been edited from the Schools programme "Science Topics" broadcast in 1983. This episode was title "Electronics In Action" and contains footage of the band performing on the Oxford Road Show in 1982, tinkering with Lament in the studio and Midge demo-ing antique synth!

This interview with Electricity Club indicates that in 1977 Ure "was able to negotiate with the Japanese company to make his first synth purchase, a CS50, at half price."

This has been edited from the Schools programme "Science Topics" broadcast in 1983. This episode was title "Electronics In Action" and contains footage of the band performing on the Oxford Road Show in 1982, tinkering with Lament in the studio and Midge demo-ing antique synth!

Most of his classic synths have been made redundant and today he works predominantly with soft synths and samplers augmented mainly by hardware such as his Roland JV2080, Kurzweil K2500R, and Proteus 2000. The system uses MOTU 828 audio interfaces and an AMT8 MIDI Interface.

Most of his classic synths have been made redundant and today he works predominantly with soft synths and samplers augmented mainly by hardware such as his Roland JV2080, Kurzweil K2500R, and Proteus 2000. The system uses MOTU 828 audio interfaces and an AMT8 MIDI Interface.

From 1984 Sound on Sound interview:

"The DX7, on the other hand, I still think is impossible to programme! I can't be bothered with it. It's capable of producing some great sounds I admit, but Casio have now come up with some synthesizer that's just as good I feel - and a lot easier to work. I'm a great advocate of user-friendly instruments you know!"

Although he's far from a virtuoso keyboard player, Midge prefers to arrange and perform his own keyboard lines allowing him, "to get it just right." Apart from the aforementioned Yamaha PS6100 keyboard he previously used one of Yamaha's cheap-ish "Portasound things with one speaker and preset rhythms." While using the PS 6100 as a compositional tool (and more recently Casio's CZ101) most of his studio work is carried out on the Emulator II sampling keyboard. With samplers being used on everything from Frankie Goes To Hollywood to Bruce Springsteen (his 'snare' sound) Midge brings in the Emulator only when it has a specific task to fulfil.

can be seen centerstage on TOTP infront of Midge Ure, it was supposedly also used by Ultravox for the refrain of "Vienna" and at the beginning of "Western Promise" and during the later parts of "Sleepwalk"