This thread is solely for discussion and contributions on what instruments and sound gear was used on the U-Vox album (aka "dreaded pink thing"). Please post away (this thread is NOT for criticism of this album - there are plenty of threads devoted to that elsewhere on the forum - thank you!).

Cheers!

Billy - Yamaha KX-88 (masterkeyboard), Technics PX-1 (??)

Yes, that sounds correct Nils - I
remember that too.
Billy Also used the OSCar live- so...I think
he did that on the album too.
I remember the video for "The Same Old Story"
where Billy "played" a Roland JX10P - Craig
Armstong also played that synth plus the Emulator
2 live. Chris played a Sequential Circuits
Prophet 2000/3000 (???) sampler live (some of
the string-parts in "All In One Day".
So...they probably used these synths in the
studio too.

Jesper from DK

I remember the concert in Copenhagen (SAGA) where Billy played on the Yamaha KX-88 mother keyboard....What a gig! Oh I remember....

I remember seeing the guys in Edinburgh in '86 & Billy played a Technics PX1 digital piano, a Yamaha DX7 & an OSCar monosynth.

They were making a point of using fewer synths for that album, both in the studio and on tour. I remember reading an interview from the time when the writer said that "a stand featuring a PPG Wave 2.2 and a Yahama DX7 stood near a wall with the synths not even plugged in let alone being used!".

The KX88 was a 88-note master keyboard that Billy favoured during the U-Vox era and later with Humania and the Furnelle-fronted line-up. I expect he had all the string, piano and pad sounds either on samplers backstage or on modules with the OSCar to replace the Odyssey for solos.

I saw them on that tour at Wembley Arena (5.11.86), possibly the worst performances of theirs I ever saw. The atmos remained flat a good deal of the gig, they made the heinous mistake of medleyising several songs together (eek!!) and you could just feel that something had been lost overall. They thanked us for coming by putting on some fireworks outside afterwards though!

The gear they used on the 'U-VOX' tour was primarily made up of samplers & digital synths
I'm sure they used a couple of Emulator ll's.

Billy used a Technics PX1 digital piano & an OSCar monosynth, & a Yamaha DX7

Chris used a Sequential Prophet 2000 sampling keyboard.

I agree with you mate, utter rubbish, an almost accoustic version of 'All Stood Still' nearly made me ears bleed!!!

you forgot... Selmer ?
(joke)

Sorry for replying this soo late.
I remember the concert in Milan (Winter 1986) and I saw on the stage the instruments you're mentioning. But the Yamaha KX88 was used to control a huge rack filled with eight Yamaha TX816s, therefore eight Yamaha DX-7.
Chris had a Prophet 2000 and no keyboards for Midge. Craig Armstrong had a Yamaha DX-7, one Roland JX-10 and an Emulator II.
It wasn't such a nice concert, Max Abby on guitars was not like Midge and Mark Brzecky wasn't like Warren...

Thanks for reviving an old thread here.
I keep reading Midge saying the on thelast tour they had 26 keyboards on stage???

Not on the U-VOX tour, but not even on the Ste Movements either?

Billy'S Rig:

OSCar
PPG Wave 2.2
Sequential Circuits Prophet T8
Yamaha CP70
Yamaha CS80
Yamaha GS1
Yamaha SS30
Yamaha DX7 (?)...hmmm maybe not

Chris's Rig:

Minimoog
PPG Wave 2.2
OSCar (?)

Midge's Rig:

Yamaha SS30
PPG Wave 2.2
Roland VP-330 (Mk1)
Yamaha DX7
OSCar (?)

Messengers Rig:

Yamaha SS30
E-mu Emulator
Roland VP-330 (?)
Yamaha DX7 (?)

Eeven with the ? i make it 20! Maybe MU means Warren's Iron Lung & spares for the tour???

You can tell i don't get out much these days eh!

Hi Sleepy!

According to the "Beatroute" scematic I got
describing the complete Set Movements setup
, this is the gear that was used:

Billy:
OSC OSCar (+ Boss flanger and Boss chorus)
Yamaha SS30
Yamaha CP70 (+ Boss chorus and MXR Doubler)
Yamaha GS1
Yamaha CS80 (+ Yamaha E1010 analog delay)
Yamaha DX7
PPG Wave 2.2 (+ Yamaha flanger)
SCI Prophet T8
+ Roland SDE 3000 digital delay on a send
on his mixer
Violin (+ Yamaha compressor, Yamaha chorus,
Yamaha flanger and MXR pitch transposer)

Midge:
Ibanez Roadster and Fender Stratocaster
(+ Nady tranceiver system, Yamaha compressor,
Yamaha chorus, Yamaha flanger, Yamaha distotion,
Yamaha chorus, Yamaha tone-boost, Vox Conqueror
with 2x12" cab)
Roland GR700 guitar synth and controller
Yamaha SS30
PPG Wave 2.2
"Countryman" mic via Nady system

Chris:
OSC OSCar
Moog Minimoog
PPG Wave 2.2
SCI Drumtraks
+ Yamaha E1010 analog delay and Roland
SDE 3000 digital delay on sends on his mixer
Steinberger and Squier Precision basses
(+ Nady transceiver system and Yamaha preamp)

Warren:
Yamaha 9000 series drumkit (22" BD, 14"x 6½ snare, 12" and 13" racktoms, 16" floor tom,
Ziljian cymbals (14" and 16" crash, 22" ride,
20" china, 13" hi-hat)
2x Synare pads
Simmons SDS3 pads
Simmons SDS5 pads (stage front: 3x Simmons SDS5 pads)
Linn 1 + Linn 2 + SCI Drumtraks

+ Pete Woods trigger router

Danny:
EMU Emulator 1
Yamaha DX7
Yamaha CS40M
Yamaha SS30
Roland VP330 Vocoder

Yamaha SG2000 guitar (+ Boss flanger, Boss
flanger, Boss chorus, Boss overdrive and
Yamaha G100 combo 1x12")

PHEW!!!

Jesper

PS: Warrens efx`s are missing!?!

Yeah and so are the Simmons Brains? Where is the Roland CR-78 drum machine?
I stil only make that 18 keyboards...26?

Well, I think the SDS3`s and SDS5`s are
including the brains/modules - one for
each pad! Warren had at least four in the
setup!
Somebody I once knew had a Simmons set
- sounded bloody cool!!!

The CR78 - perhaps he didn`t use on the
Set Movements tour.

...I don`t think there was 26 keyboards
...well perhaps including backup!?

Did Warren not use an SDS7 too?

Return to Eden, Equipment.
Looking at the tour programme photos, it looks as if the band have been using Ableton Live Software for the gigs?

Can anyone confirm this????

No, they run Logic - Warren said so in a recent
interview.

Yep on titanium Macbook Pro's
Chappie noticed a rack of Protools in the wings, they were also using Novation / CME remotes

Minimonsta is being used for the Moog bass

Might be wrong (and probably am), but one of the bass patches sounded very like the one I use all the time on Arturia's MoogModular. Which I suppose Minimonsta's bound to sound similar to.

I assume that Billy's running ImpOscar and Oddity?

Sorry for going further off-topic...

...and further...

...wonder if the ProTools rigs were for recording the gigs? At Glasgow, there was an AKG414 set up either side of the stage labelled as "Amb" mics, which suggests pretty strongly that proceedings were being taped.

Sure I read an interview with Billy for the U-VOX period where he was using a TX816 midi'ed to a KX-88, but also with an Oberheim Matrix 6 keyboard. Still using the OSCar as well.

I'll still have the article (never throw anything away, me), but it's all in storage right now, so not easy to get to.

Damn right they sound cool. I have an SDSV and it's by far the best thing Dave ever made. I have an SDS-7 and had an SDS-3 (but it got nicked

I'm a massive CR-78 fan as well - you just can't beat that Metal Beat, but again - just recently missed getting a TR-77 for £58 on eBay

Sleepy : MiniMonsta...great choice. I think it`s
the best Minimoog emulation (plugins). But
that`s just me.

Phildo : Yes, Billy uses both Oddity and
impOSCar and the CS-80V from Arturia.
He said so in a recent interview - there
is a link to that interview on his website.
At the time that interview was done, Billy
talked about using a Yamaha Motif, but he
chose the CME instead. Why...I´m not sure
about (perhaps he did get some problems
as he talks about in the interview).

Pete C : Great info! Thanks a lot! I didn`t
know about the Matrix-6!
I wish I had a Simmons set too!
I´m sure you will get the drummachines one
day!

All The Best
Jesper

Picked one up up about 5 years ago for £99. Immaculate. Of course, the first thing I did was...well, nip on over to www.myspace.com/stoliday and check out the song "look at the view"...I just couldn't help myself!

I was chatting with Peter Dudley who was the keyboard tech on this tour and only Warren was running Logic Express - as he needed to run particular sequences.

The others were using MainStage - which is part of Logic Studio. With MainStage, they loaded all the required software synthesizers (GMedia should have been tour sponsors, and Apple) and mapped sounds to different keyboard areas of the MIDI controller keyboards. Each song has its own set of particular sounds and keyboard zones.

FYI - the reason Billy's keyboards died during Sleepwalk (of all songs!) at the Hammersmith gig was because a FireWire cable became unseated. Billy does love to jostle the keyboards.

Interesting! That'll teach those of us who were taking the mickey about Apple's supposed bullet proof reliability for not crashing...

Must be a bit of a sterile experience soloing on a MIDI controller live though... Still, I guess it means increased flexibility and portability for shifting the gear round.

Hi Phildo - love the tracks up there - good stuff!

I think Billy was doing all his solos on the novation remote SL49 "Compact" version, which has automap... i mean, the lcd show you the parameters mapped, and i guess it is easier to use than a lot of synths.. (+ it's is generally easier to use knobs rather than faders). You can decide to always use the same knob that will control this or that depending on the loaded plugin, i guess that's very flexible ( i might get one of those COmpact Novations, but they don't make them as 7 octave versions unfortunately, and i have no use for 49 keys anymore....
But it is really the same as doing it on the synth, what changes the experience is the quality of the controller.

All the rest was played on the CME (an UF version i think, not the VX ones), and i don't have the impression that the CP was used for anything else than an expander for the piano sounds...
For firewire and usb, there was a maker of cables who made a system to avoid cable to jump out of socket, but it requires that the equipment has a compatible socket (so it can be locked in) and haven't seen it used by any manufacturer unfortunately.... I taped and glued mine anyway.... to make it ultravoxy, i could paint the tape in grey... (but that's not what i've seen on the gig though, i saw a mac needed to be rebooted , firewire is generally very tight and those keyboard generally have usb only) (but don't get me wrong i am not "happy" that it crashed... i loved the gig and i am impatient to get it on DVD as i was @é# unable to get to the roundhouse...

I have a couple Drobo drives that use either USB or FireWire 800. The one hooked up on FireWire 800 has created problems when the cat walked by and unseated the cable. It's that flimsy. The FireWire 400 cable connections were better, but half as fast.

Here is a diagram I found on the web (FW 800 on right):
.

I would love to see someone introduce a fast FireWire cable with a better 'handshake' than the ones currently.

Kevo, both of those plugs are compatible with either FW400 or 800..
See the link you send... Both 6 and 4 pins are "native" FW400, not 800.
The big ones with 6 pins are the ones that allow to send power to soundcards and harddrives, the smaller ones with 4 pins cannot send power. That's the only difference.
In the future you will find only the small FW plugs on the ultra mobile laptops, whereas the big one will be reserved to pci extensions and pci-express cards and so called "pro" gear, justifying unjustified price differences...

Here is a "native" FW 800 connection (1394b) http://www.acmecables.com/images_products/large-6ft9p-6p.jpg , you can have them in various flavours,with the 1394b on both sides (1394b is the square plug on the left and has 9 pins).

On my FW hardrives and soundcards (FW400 because 800 is not very useful for audio even dozens of tracks), i can tell you i have to pull hard to unplug. Of course, they are all big plugs (6 pins). I don't know about FW800 "b" plugs as i never used them, it's very recent and e-sata outperforms it big time already.

USB can be firm, but all my recent usb keyboard or extensions have crappy connection, that move and unplug easily (and the worse happens to be a CME m-key keyboard, but it is still much better sitted than an nasty E-MU keyboard (those ones are really the worst you can find, in my experience). The best were the Edirol/Roland, with which i never experienced such problems (but they have certain keys that break down after a while in the upper keys, always the same keys die first...).

The smaller usb plug, which looks a bit like the small 4 pins FW is actually very firm on one of my external drive (a freecome Pro, which is FW and USB). Of course, less than the big and solid 6 pin connection. I guess that's a manufacturer choice to decide to use cheaper or better plugs. The small 4 pins are cheaper and better suited for the mobility which is the nowadays fashion in laptops especially (it's hard to find one with 6 pins FW nowadays and it will be impossible in the future, you will have to buy extensions, and the problem is that when plugged to an pcmcia or pci-express card, then power can't be higher than 1Ampere which makes it useless with many gear that are supposed to be "self powered" and which generally use between 1.5 and 3Amperes).
The best for external hard drives is e-sata anyway, but i never heard of a laptop with e-sata...