Thomas Dolby

"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.'"

Pictured performing live with Jupiter8.

"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."

Pictured here with his Motif 8 on stage.

"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.'"

"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."

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

"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."

In a mid-1980s image on Vevo, Thomas Dolby is seen using a Roland Juno-106 synthesizer.

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

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

"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."

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.

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

In an interview with Sonicstate, Thomas Dolby confirms at 45:51 that he has a Moog Minimoog Voyager monophonic synthesizer with him, despite primarily working with digital audio workstations (DAWs) currently.

In an interview with Sonicstate, Thomas Dolby mentions at the 45:55 mark that he owns a Clavia Nord Lead synthesizer.

In an interview conducted by Sonicstate, Thomas Dolby mentions at 46:24 that he owns a Yamaha CP-70 electric piano, describing it as one of his favorite instruments.