Gear used on 'Construction Time Again & 'Some Great Reward'

[VCO8]

I can't find a gear list of what Depeche Mode used on their 3rd and 4th albums...They did use a lot Drumulator and Synclavier, though.

[ppg_wavecomputer]

ARP 2600, most certainly. PPG Wave 2 and Synton Syrinx at a guess.

Stephen

[sandwich]

I ‘think ‘Some Great Reward' was mainly Synclavier, as Alan said at the time they were using over 90% samples and I know he was also really into the synth side of the Synclavier too. I’ve also read in a Daniel Miller interview that they used the ARP 2600 quite a lot on every album up to and including ‘Black Celebration’

They were also using a Jupiter 8 a fair bit around those times too along with the PPG, DX-7 and an OBX-A, certainly on ‘Construction Time’ anyway. I’ve also read Alan had a MiniMoog but just how much these synths were actually used on the studio albums is difficult to tell, much less as they got to ‘Some Great Reward’ anyway! You can certainly hear some of these on ‘Construction Time Again’ though.

[mute]

Vastly different albums. The 2600 has been on all their records.

Construction Time Again's sound relies heavily on the Synclavier, Emu Emulator I, and PPG Wave more than anything. They and Daniel consider it to be a concept record focused around sampling which was still a young concept at the time.

I don't like the vast majority of stuff that Monolake has done, but he has a good track inspired by DM's pipeline called... pipeline. Worth checking out if you are into the idea of a modern take on some of the sounds they used back then.

Alan also has relied (still does) on the ms-20 and oberheims (SEM/2voice) for his signature bass .. but I don't know if he was using either yet on CTA. He pretty much always owned Emulators from CTA and on and they were used on the records and live.