The FSOL Message Board

Maybe this topic has been brought up before, but have FSOL fans put together a gear list of all the instruments they've used over the years?

I know they have mentioned in different interviews and on album notes the gear they've used like the EMS Synthi AKS, Akai S-Series samplers, Roland TB-303, Roland JX-3P, etc.

Also figured out that the keyboard synthesizer pictured in the inner sleeve art of Lifeforms is the Oxford Synthesizer Company OSCar

https://www.vintagesynth.com/oxford-syn ... pany/oscar

And the bit of gear at the bottom of the same sleeve art is the Roland Space Echo

https://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/re-201-space-echo

I like this thread idea.

I am quite curious as to what equipment they used to do the EP re-imaginings of things like My Kingdom, Yage and Cascade. Also how they transferred the original sounds to presumably more modern equipment, which could just have been done by sampling (I don’t know!!).

The insert for the Tales of Ephidrena CD had a diagram of the equipment they used for it. Probably the same as you mentioned above.

moxlox wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2024 11:49 pm I am quite curious as to what equipment they used to do the EP re-imaginings of things like My Kingdom, Yage and Cascade. Also how they transferred the original sounds to presumably more modern equipment, which could just have been done by sampling (I don’t know!!).

All the sample sets and MIDI sequences are saved on floppy disks, so they're fairly easy to transfer over - wouldn't be surprised if the direct recreations were literally done using the old gear, though, I know Brian has a lot of stuff set up like Earthbeat.

Brian's a bit of a synth collector these days, so there are undoubtedly a lot of synths not mentioned in '90s stuff, but otherwise I reckon a lot of it's mentioned in the Tales booklet and a couple of interviews. I'll try and collate it all together at some point.

That'd be cool Ross. Thanks for above in the meantime!

Was Gaz involved in the re-imagining EPs? Sounds from your comments it was a Brian pursued activity.

From the sleeve notes to Tales of Ephidrina:

EMS Synthi AKS
Jen SX 1000
ARP Synthesizer 2600
Roland SH-101
Roland TB-303
Roland TR-606
Moog System 55
Bode Frequency Shifter 1630
4 x Akai S1100 plus expanders (32 Mb)
Digidesign Sound Tools
Bode Ring Modulator
Trap Lunar Reflection II
Oberheim Matrix-1000
Trap Multi Effect Collector
OMM Space Enhancer

It's curious looking at the release dates for the equipment they were using by 1993. A lot of it was already vintage gear that was 10-20 years old with the newer stuff being mostly samplers and digital manipulation tools.

Bode Ring Modulator (1964)

ARP Synthesizer 2600 (1971)
EMS Synthi AKS (1972)
Moog System 55 (1973)
Bode Frequency Shifter 1630 (1974)
Jen SX 1000 (1977/78)

Roland TB-303 (1981)
Roland TR-606 (1981)
Roland SH-101 (1982)
Oberheim Matrix-1000 (1988)
Digidesign Sound Tools (1989)

4 x Akai S1100 plus expanders (32 Mb) (1990)


I'm assuming most of these are effects units although I'm not finding much information on them doing a cursory search online:

Trap Lunar Reflection II
Trap Multi Effect Collector
OMM Space Enhancer

Radio Active Magazine Interview 1994:

• Accessit RIAA Amp
• Alesis ADAT digital 8-track (x2)
• Alesis BRC Remote Controller
• Alesis AI-2 Synchroniser
• Atari 1040 running Emagic Creator
• Carver Power Amp
• Digidesign ProTools (4-track version)
• Sony CDP-770 CD player
• Sony DTC-1000ES DAT
• Soundtracs IL3632 mixing desk (36 input)
• Tannoy Little Gold monitors
• Urei Model 838 (time aligned) monitors
• Yamaha NS10 monitors

KEYBOARDS & SYNTHESIZERS
• EMS Synthi AKS synth
• Jen SX1000
• Moog MiniMoog
• Oberheim OB8
• Oscar Monosynth
• Roland JX3P
• Roland SH101
• Roland TR909 drum machine
• Roland TB303 Bassline
• Yamaha DS55

MODULES
• Emu Proteus 1XR (with Protologic upgrade)
• Emu Vintage Key
• Oberheim Matrix 100
• Korg Wavestation A/D
• Roland D110
• Roland MKS50 (plus PG300 programmer)
• Yamaha TX81Z

SAMPLERS
• Akai S1000
• Akai S1100
• Akai S1100EX
• Akai S900
• Lacom Hard Disk Drive

OUTBOARD & EFFECTS
• Alesis Midiverb II (x2)
• Alesis Quadraverb (x2)
• Audio Logic 2001 Digital Sampler
• BBE Sonic Maximizer
• Bel BD80 delay
• Bel BF20 Flanger
• Drawmer DS201 Dual Gate
• Fostex 3070 Compressor/Limiter
• Ibanez DM1100 Digital Delay
• Korg DRV-1000 Digital Reverb
• LA Audio MIDI Gate
• Tascam 103 Cassette Deck
• Yamaha SPX90
• Yamaha Q2031 graphic EQ

VISUALS
• Apple Macintosh Quadra 950 (36Mb RAM/1 Gig internal Hard Drive)
• Sony Digital Audio Recorder
• Sony PVW-2650P Betacam SP Videocassette Player
• Sony PVW-2800P Betacam SP Videocassette Recorder
• Sony BKE-9500 Editing Control Disk Unit
• Sony BVE-910 Edit Controller
• Sony PVM-2044QM video monitor
• Sony DXC537 Camera (with 9.5mm Canon lens)
• Umax Scanner


Remix Magazine Interview 2002:
FSOL GEAR MAIN STUDIO

Alesis ADAT AI-2 interface
Amek Mozart 64-channel console
Emagic Logic Audio software
Genelec 1030A near-field monitors
V2 Electronics hard-drive array

KEYBOARDS

Jen SX1000 (2)
Minimoog
Oberheim OB8
Roland JX-3P
Roland PG200
Roland SH-101
Yamaha DS-55

LEFT-HAND RACK

Akai S1100 sampler w/S100 Expander
Alesis ADAT
Alesis ADAT Type-2 20-bit digital audio recorder
JoeMeek Prochannel VC3
Roland RE-201 Space Echo
Roland Rhythm Composer
Yamaha REV7 digital reverb

RIGHT-HAND RACK 1

Alesis Midiverb
Alesis Quadraverb (2)
Audio Logic RDS 2000 Digital One Sampler
Bell Electronics BD-80S Stereo Delay Sampler
Ibanez DM100 Digital Delay
Ibanez DM2000 Digital Delay
Mutronix Mutator
Roland GP100 Guitar Preamp Processor
Yamaha XPS90

RIGHT-HAND RACK 2

Akai MD280 Sampler Disk Drive
Akai S612 MIDI Digital Sampler
ART 018 digital reverb
Digidesign 888 A/D/A Interface
Digidesign Pro Tools SMPTE Slave Driver
Drawmer DS201 Dual Gate
Fostex 3070 Compressor Limiter
LA Audio Midigate
LA Com DS-System Syquest

RIGHT-HAND RACK 3

Akai S900 Digital Sampler
E-mu Vintage Keys Classic analog keyboards
Focusrite Platinum Compounder
Korg Wavestation
Oberheim Matrix 1000
Roland D-110 multitimbral sound module
Roland MKS-50 synth module
Yamaha TX81Z FM tone generator

MISCELLANEOUS

Akai S1000 sampler
Akai S3200 sampler
Akai S3200XL sampler (2)
Alesis Master Remote Control, Fatar Studio 610 Plus Master keyboard
Fuzz Tone Bender




More recently, I know Brian has a few of Teenage Engineering's pocket sized devices (I now own a Pocket Operator which was used on A : E : V) and a bunch of Korg Volcas, but my guess is he's bought a ton of other synths in recent years.

Quiller wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 9:02 pm It's curious looking at the release dates for the equipment they were using by 1993. A lot of it was already vintage gear that was 10-20 years old

My guess: They were cheap ! At around this time it was approaching peak digital synth use and analogue was seen as old news. It wouldn't be for a few more years before the analogue revival came back and severely boosted the cost of the things in the second-hand market

Also a lot of those old machines defined the sound of that era - certainly the Roland machines.

Didn't Brian inherit some of those 70's synths from his father?

The 70s stuff was from his dad, yeah.