Thomas Dolby

"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."

"Elsewhere, my favorite sequencer is the Fairlight Page R, and my favorite echo machines are the Roland 555 Chorus Echo and the Yamaha REV-1."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Thomas Dolby's Roland TR-08 can be seen at 4:29.

In an interview with MusicRadar, Thomas Dolby's CME UF7 76-key MIDI Controller is visible in the accompanying photo, highlighting its role in his creative process for the album "Map Of The Floating City."

Featuring just a few keyboards, a drum pad, and a MacBook® running synthesizers from Roland Cloud, Dolby’s rig for this live event is simple, but the output will be projected onscreen during the performance to give the audience a unique “under the hood” perspective.

Featuring just a few keyboards, a drum pad, and a MacBook® running synthesizers from Roland Cloud, Dolby’s rig for this live event is simple, but the output will be projected onscreen during the performance to give the audience a unique “under the hood” perspective.

Percussion/drum machines

Simmons SDS-V module + suitcase/seven pads; Boss DR-55 for "basic patterns".

Percussion/drum machines

Simmons SDS-V module + suitcase/seven pads; Boss DR-55 for "basic patterns".

In a video interview conducted by Sonicstate, at the 17:23 mark, Thomas Dolby is seen discussing his use of the Blackmagic Design Fairlight Desktop Console during the recording process for tracks from Foreigner's album "4."

In an interview with Sonicstate, Thomas Dolby discusses his use of the Opcode Studio Vision DAW at the 24:14 mark in the video, confirming that he began utilizing this software later in his career. This serves as direct evidence of his engagement with this music gear.

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.