Stephen Luscombe

At the centre of Blancmange's sound over the last few years has been Stephen's Roland Jupiter 8, an instrument which he cherished and claimed to know inside out. His first excursion into the domain of electronic sound came some years before when he borrowed a VCS3. It turned out to be a good introduction: "The VCS 3 helps to understand how synthetic music works, because it has a matrix on it. You could see where one oscillator went through an envelope, then through a filter or whatever. And you could see why it did it and how it affected the sound." In spite of his mild disdain for digital synthesis ("I still don't like ultra squeaky clean things...") he has finally yielded to the times and switched to the JX8P.

Stephen says in this interview that he uses a Linndrum.

Stephen can be seen playing a Korg Polysix synthesizer in this video.

Blancmange used a Casio CZ-101 in their album "Believe You Me," according to this article.

"Other keyboards that we've tried are the Korg Trident (I must say that I didn't find it particularly impressive) and the Korg Delta which is a lot of fun."

Stephen can be seen using a Roland RE-201 Space Echo in this video.

Blancmange used a Casio CZ-1000 in their album "Believe You Me," according to this article.

"Other keyboards that we've tried are the Korg Trident (I must say that I didn't find it particularly impressive) and the Korg Delta which is a lot of fun."

"We use the Roland JP8, which is quite a versatile instrument and a Korg MS-20 mainly."

At the centre of Blancmange's sound over the last few years has been Stephen's Roland Jupiter 8, an instrument which he cherished and claimed to know inside out. His first excursion into the domain of electronic sound came some years before when he borrowed a VCS3. It turned out to be a good introduction: "The VCS 3 helps to understand how synthetic music works, because it has a matrix on it. You could see where one oscillator went through an envelope, then through a filter or whatever. And you could see why it did it and how it affected the sound." In spite of his mild disdain for digital synthesis ("I still don't like ultra squeaky clean things...") he has finally yielded to the times and switched to the JX8P.

Stephen can be seen playing a Roland Jupiter 8 synthesizer in this video.

Stephen can be seen using a Melos Echo Chamber in this video.

"At home I use the Roland 808 and the MS-20 for composing and trying out ideas. I record onto a Tascam Portastudio and I've also got a Teac 4-track reel-to-reel."

"As far as drums go we use whatever comes to hand at the time, or whatever we feel like, 707, 909, DMX. If you tune the clave and the clap on the Linn really low strange sort of things happen, so we use things like that as well as triggering the AMS etc."

"As far as drums go we use whatever comes to hand at the time, or whatever we feel like, 707, 909, DMX. If you tune the clave and the clap on the Linn really low strange sort of things happen, so we use things like that as well as triggering the AMS etc."

"As far as drums go we use whatever comes to hand at the time, or whatever we feel like, 707, 909, DMX. If you tune the clave and the clap on the Linn really low strange sort of things happen, so we use things like that as well as triggering the AMS etc."

“The first keyboard that Stephen bought for Blancmange was the Roland Super Jupiter"

Whether Blancmange's experiments will continue to be made public remains to be seen since their writing process has recently been enhanced by the acquisition of a pair (one each) of UMI 2B sequencer interfaces, which they use with the BBC micro. They are so chuffed with the UMI 2B that they now regard it as an essential part of the writing, and we waded through to the backroom where they put it through its paces for my benefit.

STEPHEN LUSCOMBE

RSD Studiomaster 4 Roland Space Echo Boss CE-2 chorus pedal Jupiter 8 synth Poly 6 synth TR909 drum machine TDK metal tape

"We've used the RSD for a couple of years and it's much better than the others — you get more control, there are six inputs, and it takes Cannons. We put everything down in stereo... first two tracks in stereo, then the other two tracks in stereo, then bounce them down to another hi-fi cassette deck, an Aiwa, and transfer that back to two tracks on the Studiomaster.

"We've done up to 16 tracks that way — four passes — and there's hardly any hiss, the quality is excellent, you can hear everything really well, even the vocals. I think it's because everything stays in stereo and things are clearer and easier to pick out.

"Part of the secret is not to eq until the end; get the balance right first then eq on the final mix — let the ear decide. We do put a wee bit of treble on for each generation as it goes to the other tape recorder, and maybe a bit of bass as well. We've got such good results, we don't even bother going to a demo studio any more.

"We tried using some of the Fuji metal tape and the quality was excellent on playback but we found we had trouble recording over it again, it wouldn't take another pass, so now we've gone back to the TDK metal.

"I've just got a Sync Track (MPC's device that lets you drive drum machines and sequencers from tape) which can be quite good. It means that you don't have to put the drums down at the beginning. We can put the sync code on one track and record on the other three then when we bounce down to the Aiwa we can use the sync to add the drums in stereo — you're getting five tracks in the mix.

"We don't use really good monitors, we use a pair of old speakers that a friend gave us from his hi-fi system: I reckon if things sound good on those, they'll sound even better on a pair of professional monitors."

Surprisingly, the pair have resisted the general trend towards sampling. "We let Roland do that on the drum machines. Some people just bung Fairlights on for the sake of being modern, and if it doesn't need it there's no point. All we used was JX8P, Casio's, Jupiter 8, a few other keyboards, DX7 only on one song thank God, and a Prophet to do the bass on 22339. The 707, real congas and drums, backing vocalists, Steinberger guitar, Hugh Masakela on flugelhorn. If I was starting again in 1985 and I wanted to make a big flashy Fairlight number", Stephen explains, "that's alright, if it's obviously a Fairlight job. But imitating other things is pointless, especially if you know people who can just come in and play it."

SL: "We've got these RSD Studiomasters at home, which we discovered by accident in the Sound Centre. Although we've now just bought a TEAC ½in 8-track each, I haven't had time to use mine yet."

NA: "When I saw the Studiomaster, I thought, 'It's a real studio!' Well, it makes you pretend a bit..."

SL: "Before we started the album, I did some music for the Alternative Miss World, all at home with the UMI and the 4-track cassette, and it sounded perfectly all right. Cost nothing, too. Similarly with our demos, we don't have to go to a demo studio unless we want to."