Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

New forum member here. I've been a guitarist off and on since my early teens (I'm 33 now), but I'm just starting to get into electronic music. I've always been a fan of electronic music especially 80's stuff but being a guitarist my playing revolved mostly around rock, metal, and blues.

Anyway, Howard Jones is probably my favorite 80's synthpop artist. Anyone know what is primary synthesizers were in the 80's? Especially on the Human's Lib and Dream Into Action albums. I've poked around the Internet but haven't been able to find much info.

Thanks for any info.

Thanks for that. I guess YouTube would have been a more logical choice instead of digging though Google...

I'm not sure how comprehensive it is. Forum member Micke might be able to get you more details - the man is an encyclopedia

Also look at:



And now get a JUpiter-8

On the "Like To Get To Know You Well" video (footage from his High Wycombe concert supporting Human's Lib), HoJo uses the following:

Roland Jupiter 8 - leads & brass
Roland Juno 60 - pads & organ
Yamaha DX7 - bass
SCI ProOne - sequenced parts (anyone know what he used to drive the ProOne? certainly not the onboard seq)
Emu Drumulator
Simmons SDSV
Moog Prodigy
Yamaha CP-80 (or 70) Electric Grand Piano

Not sure what was used on Dream Into Action, but HoJo started to incorporate additional musicians such as guitar, bass, horns and backing vocals.
I know that Fairlight was used quite a bit on One To One.

Even if you're not a HoJo fan, I recommend checking out the "Like To Get To Know You Well" video to see how talented of a performer HoJo is juggling the tasks of manipulating all that pre-MIDI gear by himself - no back tracks!

On Human's Lib he used the follwoing setup:

Roland Jupiter 8
Roland Juno 60
Yamaha DX7 (Hojo: "Well, I used a couple of DX-7's together a lot on the first album.... I've never been able to get those punchy bass sounds on analog instruments. I always get the oscillators cancelling themselves out").
Seq. Circ. Pro one
Moog Prodigy
Roland 808 Dr Mc
Drumulator Dr Mc.
Various drum sounds were replaced with samples using an AMS

He then added a Prophet T8, a TX816, a Simmonds drum brain and sequencer, for the Dream into Action recordings.

According to some sources on the internet HoJo's supposed to have used an Emulator II on Dream Into Action, but I can't tell whether that's true or not. I know that he had one by late '85/early '86 so maybe he just forgot to include it in the gearlist he sent me!?

Hope this helps

Z wrote: SCI ProOne - sequenced parts (anyone know what he used to drive the ProOne? certainly not the onboard seq)

The TR-808 perhaps!?

Micke wrote:

Z wrote: SCI ProOne - sequenced parts (anyone know what he used to drive the ProOne? certainly not the onboard seq)

The TR-808 perhaps!?

Actually, I meant to ask what did he use to sequence the ProOne with. The ProOne only holds 2 sequences and most of his songs have 2 or more different sequences. I'm wondering if he used a SCI Model 800.

In the "Like To Get To Know You Well" video, you can see a device next to the ProOne, but the video quality of my VHS tape is not good enough to make out what that device is.

Micke wrote:On Human's Lib he used the follwoing setup:

Roland Jupiter 8
Roland Juno 60
Yamaha DX7 (Hojo: "Well, I used a couple of DX-7's together a lot on the first album.... I've never been able to get those punchy bass sounds on analog instruments. I always get the oscillators cancelling themselves out").
Seq. Circ. Pro one
Moog Prodigy
Roland 808 Dr Mc
Drumulator Dr Mc.
Various drum sounds were replaced with samples using an AMS

From a gearfreaks viewpoint, those were his days of awesomeness. Now he just plays back pre-recorded sequences from ableton while he overdubs with a Fantom.



But I guess it is not much different from a sequencer playing the parts on loads of midi synths and racks, only simpler. Still, it is not the same...

In times like these with many old artists switching to the laptop, you got to hand it to Jarre and his crew -lugging his 50 tons of hardware p**n all across Europe. I love him.

My Roland MKS-70 Super JX and MKS-50 synths are straight out of Howard's studio following a clearout he had several years ago

Both lovely synths but sadly I don't have the programmers which make a HUGE difference to both of them.

Sadly I will never know which tracks these beasties were used in.....

HideawayStudio wrote:My Roland MKS-70 Super JX and MKS-50 synths are straight out of Howard's studio following a clearout he had several years ago

Both lovely synths but sadly I don't have the programmers which make a HUGE difference to both of them.

Sadly I will never know which tracks these beasties were used in.....

Cool! Did you inherit his patches too? Or did he reset them before he sold them?

D-Collector wrote:

HideawayStudio wrote:My Roland MKS-70 Super JX and MKS-50 synths are straight out of Howard's studio following a clearout he had several years ago

Both lovely synths but sadly I don't have the programmers which make a HUGE difference to both of them.

Sadly I will never know which tracks these beasties were used in.....

Cool! Did you inherit his patches too? Or did he reset them before he sold them?

Yes and no.... sadly my MKS-70 had been restored to factory presets but my MKS-50 did have some non-stock sounds in it - sadly many of them were also screwed up and so I reset it to factory.

Truly, that video a few posts back is one of the most depressing things I have ever seen. Tech geek idiots with stupid hairstyles, corporate chairs and tables, soulless bollocks, the antithesis of culture and beauty. As a Howard Jones album owner, I sit here in tears.

Micke wrote:
According to some sources on the internet HoJo's supposed to have used an Emulator II on Dream Into Action, but I can't tell whether that's true or not. I know that he had one by late '85/early '86 so maybe he just forgot to include it in the gearlist he sent me!?

Yes, he used the Emulator II for the slap bass sound on most of the Dream Into Action tunes, like "Things Will Only Get Better," "Is There A Difference?" and the title track.