Orbital

Orbital's Paul Hartnoll talks about his experience with the Bass Station II synth:

"…having spent years using Novation stuff, I know the quality of it. But with all these modular synths that I’ve got, big polysynths and things like that, I tend to think, really what’s another little mono synth gonna do for me? I have to say I was incredibly surprised when I started playing with it, and it has sat here and it’s helped me finish my album. I used it the 1st time and thought ‘Oh, thats good.’ I got a baseline out of it which was just what I needed at the time, instead of turning to the System 100 M (which is what I’ve been going to recently). It really did nail the job. And I’ve been going to it ever since for bass and lead, actually. It’s been pretty amazing! It’s got a really nice bouncy sort of sound - rubbery kind of sound. Some synths you find you have to really push them into a mix. But this, just kind of sits in there. The overdrive before the filter is amazing. I’ve been finding that just gives you that extra punch. It’s been really good for basslines, bass sounds. It’s instantly got that bit of velocity to it as well if you want it. For me the first thing I noticed about it - apart from helping me troubleshoot the last few tracks of my album - I found this has been doing nearly all the basslines in that job. Not ALL the baselines in the album, but all the ones that are broken that need fixing. I haven't had to go out to the modulars yet, which is saying a lot!"

Wavestation keyboard is included in equipment list.

Quote: "I try to write with Massive, it’s like my pencil, do you know what I mean? Then when I have the structure of the song or the idea I like to bust it out to analogue synths to see how it sounds. Sometimes you end up keeping the Massive because you’ve written with the character of it. It’s not the deepest sounding synth but it has a good vibe to it."

In this Roland Users Group article, the Hartnoll brothers are asked about "What Roland gear made it onto The Blue Album?" They reply, "God almighty. The 303, the 808, the 909, the Jupiter-6, the SH-09, which is still a personal favorite of mine... The Jupiter-6 has also been a favorite. It was semi-customized with two outputs before I bought it. That synth was our workhorse. All of our early albums just thrived on the Jupiter-6. I remember doing things for TV, and people would come up and try to put gaffer tape over the logo. I’d say, ‘What are you doing?’ I can honestly say that I’m not the kind of person who likes to display corporate logos and things like that, but I’ve always felt quite proud of the word Roland across my gear."

“We were given a beta copy of this and it’s one of the few soft synths that I always go to. I never feel like I’m compromising my sound by using this program rather than a hardware synth.”

can be seen on the left hand side of table, being used for bubbly acid line from controller toward the end.

Orbital is listed as using the Roland R-70 Human Rhythm Composer, according to their gear list on Hyperreal.

Included in equipment list

Included in equipment list

Orbital uses the Alesis HR-16 drum machine, as listed on Hyperreal's gear list.

Included in equipment list

Orbital includes the Novation Bass Station Keyboard in their equipment list, as documented by Hyperreal.

“This is absolutely incredible. I did a film score recently with just analogue synths and Synplant. It has a different mindset and that’s what you go to it for, plus it’s got some amazing capabilities. There’s the way that it’s like a different sound on each note, which you can then spin while it changes the assignment of where the sound comes from. It’s a really quirky but infinitely usable soft synth.”

"I love the organic deep nature of the Tassman 4, which I have found very inspirational on my new album. The percussive abilities of this synth are truly remarkable. It seems to have a kind of melancholy attached to it that you would expect from a really old good "real instrument" if that makes any sense."

Paul Hartnoll's MacBeth Studio Systems M5N can be spotted at 1:21 into this video interview of him in his studio. He has two units side by side.

In an article where Orbital talks about the gear they used on The Blue Album, they talk about the Roland SH-09. Paul Hartnoll says it's "...still a personal favorite of mine. I know there are so many bigger-sounding synths out there, but we always go back to the SH-09 for bass lines. It just has this direct, head-first sort of feel about it. I even pitted it against an Andromeda to get the bass line, and I ended up conceding and had to use the SH-09."

In their full performance on KEXP, Orbital uses an Apple iPad, visible at the 24:51 mark.

In the YouTube video by Novation, Paul Hartnoll of Orbital discusses using the rare EDP Wasp synthesizer, seen at the 0:22 mark.

In the YouTube video titled "Novation // Paul Hartnoll, Orbital and the Bass Station II," Paul Hartnoll of Orbital can be seen using the E-Mu E4XT Ultra audio sampler at the 16-second mark.

seen at 0:50 of his live performance in kcrw studio

"the faithful 909, thats been with us for.. oof donkey's years"

Orbital uses the MFB Dominion X as a substitute for their larger MacBeth M5N synthesizer, as shown in the "Orbital Shows Off Their Synths & Other Onstage Gear at Moogfest" video by Nightgeist Media on YouTube.

You can clearly see a TB-303 in Orbital's live setup in this 2019 interview.

Orbital is listed as using the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer in their equipment inventory, as documented by Hyperreal.

Orbital lists the E-Mu Emax II Turbo Keyboard in their gear inventory, as documented by Hyperreal.

Orbital is listed as using the Sequential Circuits DrumTraks drum machine, as detailed in the equipment list from Hyperreal.

Included in equipment list

Included in equipment list

In the Spitfire Audio video "Creative Cribs - Paul Hartnoll (Orbital)," Paul Hartnoll is shown using the Elektron Analog Keys synthesizer at the 12:29 mark.

Quote: "I always use Valhalla reverbs..."