Roy Hay

"I basically used everything you can think of except the Synclavier. I wrote and programmed most of the stuff here on the 9000 and the Studio 440 then transferred all the drum parts to a Fairlight III via a Simmons converter. For one song the basic program was on a Linn, then I had a clap from the Emulator, a bass drum from the Fairlight and a conga from the DX. Which meant I was using the Fairlight as a bass drum."

In order to retain as much control as possible over the writing and recording of his music, Hay has built the studio that currently surrounds us. The ubiquitous Fairlight is conspicuous by its absence, but the equipment surrounding us would be enough to satisfy the most avid technophiles: racks of keyboards, a 32-input Soundtracs desk, a pair of Fostex B16 eight-track recorders run in sync and a pair of Westlake monitors that dominate the room.

"The first thing I did when I decided I was going to be serious about this record was get this in. It was either B16s or the washing machine in the corner of the room - a 24-track. I know people who actually use B16s to master so it's a pretty good setup. A Commodore 64 actually runs the desk and I'm going to get the Soundtracs SMPTE Interface that runs with the Commodore and reads SMPTE off tape in real time to allow me to mute and edit mutes and so on."