Thomas Dolby

"Dolby's lead vocals (which he terms "theatrical") were recorded using a Neumann u87."

All those vocals are captured via a Crown CM-311 headworn microphone ("You can't use a lot of distancing and mic technique, but on the plus side, I'm definitely into the mobility that I get with the Crown"), but it vies for headspace--literally--as he also wears Sensaphonics personal monitors and a head-mounted camera originally designed for the military to wear during synchronized building entries.

Occasionally the ambient mic does more than just pick up idle chatter--it can give him a good scare as well. "I got a bit of a shock the other day," Dolby said with a laugh. "I was on the same bill as George Clinton; I saw him briefly in the dressing room before the show and I mentioned that for my encore, I was doing a song, 'Hot Sauce,' which I co-wrote with him. So later on, I was playing it, and suddenly I heard this very strange sound; it turned out that George had wandered on stage, spotted my ambient mic which is just an SM58, picked it up and started wailing into it! I was hearing him very loud and the audience couldn't hear him at all, so I had to quickly sweep that away from him and replace it with a radio mic."

Thomas is pictured here with his Voyager XL on Moog website.

Pictured here with his Motif 8 on stage.

Pictured performing live with Jupiter8.

"Dolby's toybox still contains the Transcendent 2000 synthesiser that began his collection of musical diversions."

"I've never sold a keyboard, even my first two-a Micromoog and a Roland JP4 with which I recorded everything in 'She Blinded My With Science.'"

"I've never sold a keyboard, even my first two-a Micromoog and a Roland JP4 with which I recorded everything in 'She Blinded My With Science.'"

"The Transcendent was soon joined by a Moog Micromoog, a Crumar string synthesiser, a Fender Rhodes, a Roland Jupiter 4, an early PPG system (with which he performed his original solo concerts), a PPG Wave 2.2 (a gift from PPG because the original instrument was so unreliable), a Jupiter 8, a Fairlight Series II and a Fairlight Series III."

"The Transcendent was soon joined by a Moog Micromoog, a Crumar string synthesiser, a Fender Rhodes, a Roland Jupiter 4, an early PPG system (with which he performed his original solo concerts), a PPG Wave 2.2 (a gift from PPG because the original instrument was so unreliable), a Jupiter 8, a Fairlight Series II and a Fairlight Series III."

"The Transcendent was soon joined by a Moog Micromoog, a Crumar string synthesiser, a Fender Rhodes, a Roland Jupiter 4, an early PPG system (with which he performed his original solo concerts), a PPG Wave 2.2 (a gift from PPG because the original instrument was so unreliable), a Jupiter 8, a Fairlight Series II and a Fairlight Series III."

"I chose to use the largest part of the space for the control room, in order to accommodate my video equipment (a small Sony 3/4-inch editing system, Fairlight CVI, and a large screen Barco projector over the mixing board) along with a large battery of electronic percussion (E-mu SP12, Linn 9000, and assorted Simmons and PPG modules) and my new Fairlight Series III and Emulator II."

"It's a question of horses for courses; there are some things that I'd still use the older keyboards for. For example, the sound of a Solina string synth was never really duplicated by anything else. For a certain kind of string sound it's the only thing to use."

"The sound of a Moog has never been duplicated either, in fact the bass sounds on 'Airhead' are a Minimoog MIDI'd up to a Fairlight sequence. I knew that was the only instrument that would really give me the sound I was after."

"There are three sound sources", he explains. "There's an Akai S900 which has samples transferred from the Fairlight Series III, a Roland Super Jupiter and a Roland MKS20 piano module. All of those go into an Akai MIDI mixer and through two effects: a Yamaha SPX90 and an Alesis Midifex. They're all mapped by a Cooper Electronics MIDI Link, and I play them from a KX5 slung round my neck and a couple of Yamaha pedals. They put out program numbers to the MIDI link and that sends out separate program numbers to everything else. In other words I'll build up an entire patch with sound sources, a mix, effects and a stereo output, and store it. Then, when I send one program number into it from either the keyboard or from the pedal, it'll send the appropriate numbers out."

"There are three sound sources", he explains. "There's an Akai S900 which has samples transferred from the Fairlight Series III, a Roland Super Jupiter and a Roland MKS20 piano module. All of those go into an Akai MIDI mixer and through two effects: a Yamaha SPX90 and an Alesis Midifex. They're all mapped by a Cooper Electronics MIDI Link, and I play them from a KX5 slung round my neck and a couple of Yamaha pedals. They put out program numbers to the MIDI link and that sends out separate program numbers to everything else. In other words I'll build up an entire patch with sound sources, a mix, effects and a stereo output, and store it. Then, when I send one program number into it from either the keyboard or from the pedal, it'll send the appropriate numbers out."

Logic acts as his MIDI host for the three keyboard controllers (CME Pro 7, Novation ReMote SL25, and a Virus TI Polar, which is the only sound source) and a variety of plug-ins, both built-in ones and others such as Stylus-RMX; Arturia's MiniMoog; RMIV drums; Slayer2 guitars; UltraFocus; Camelspace gating effect and T-racks mastering.

A Nord 3 rack unit shares rack space with a PreSonus Firepod FireWire audio interface, MOTU Express 128 MIDI interface, Shure P4M keyboard mixer, ART DTS II mic preamp, Roland JV-1080 synth, QSC amp, Juice Goose power conditioner, APC uninterruptible power supply and a Muse Receptor.

Seen sometime in the mid 80's.

He is actually using a Jupiter-6 on this photo.

Thomas Dolby's Roland RD 2000 can be seen at 4:19.

Thomas Dolby's Roland A300 Pro can be seen at 4:29.

Logic acts as his MIDI host for the three keyboard controllers (CME Pro 7, Novation ReMote SL25, and a Virus TI Polar, which is the only sound source) and a variety of plug-ins, both built-in ones and others such as Stylus-RMX; Arturia's MiniMoog; RMIV drums; Slayer2 guitars; UltraFocus; Camelspace gating effect and T-racks mastering.

Logic acts as his MIDI host for the three keyboard controllers (CME Pro 7, Novation ReMote SL25, and a Virus TI Polar, which is the only sound source) and a variety of plug-ins, both built-in ones and others such as Stylus-RMX; Arturia's MiniMoog; RMIV drums; Slayer2 guitars; UltraFocus; Camelspace gating effect and T-racks mastering.

Logic acts as his MIDI host for the three keyboard controllers (CME Pro 7, Novation ReMote SL25, and a Virus TI Polar, which is the only sound source) and a variety of plug-ins, both built-in ones and others such as Stylus-RMX; Arturia's MiniMoog; RMIV drums; Slayer2 guitars; UltraFocus; Camelspace gating effect and T-racks mastering.

"Pro Tools is really the essential piece of gear. I still do a lot of my sequencing in Logic. I don't like working in Logic; I prefer Pro Tools. Unfortunately, Logic performs a lot better in terms of processing memory. I have some favorite plug-ins, things like Omnisphere, Slayer, Stylus RMX and so on. There's also a fair amount of Virus on this album - the TI Polar. I just plug it in, take the audio outputs, and I play."