Vince Clarke And The Temple of Synth

Synthgasm alert! Synthpop legend Vince Clarke is the latest subject of Electric Independence:

Vince Clarke is a man synonymous with synth pop and a legend in the history of electronic music. He’s famous for founding three of the most popular and lasting musical acts in history: Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure. But his distinct sonic output depends upon another feat: he has spent the last 30 years amassing one of the world’s most impressive collections of rare, ‘holy grail’ analogue synthesizers.

In 2004, Clarke left England for the unsynthesized woods of Maine, where he constructed a temple for these monolithic machines he calls ‘The Cabin,”. and began branching out into (gasp!) software synths too. Recently Motherboard made a pilgrimage to Clarke’s purpose-built digital/analogue studio to meet the musical titan, hear the story of his musical journey, learn how to make the perfect pop song, and get a little demonstration of one of his signature moves: building a drum pattern from a wall of modular synths. To Clarke, music is still magic even now, an alchemy in which he gets to make “something from nothing.”

Here’s Vince Clarke’s Gear List:

  • ROLAND SYSTEM 700
  • ROLAND 100M
  • ROLAND JP8
  • ROLAND JP4
  • ROLAND MKS80
  • ROLAND SH1
  • ROLAND VP330
  • ROLAND JP8000
  • ROLAND JUNO 60
  • ROLAND JUNO 106
  • ROLAND SUPER JX
  • ROLAND D550
  • ARP 2500 MODULAR
  • ARP 2600
  • PPG WAVE 2.2
  • WALDORF MICROWAVE
  • WALDORF PULSE
  • MOOG MODULAR
  • MINI MOOG
  • MOOG SOURCE
  • EMU MODULAR SYSTEM
  • PROPHET 5
  • PRO ONE
  • OSCAR
  • SYRINX
  • KORG MS20
  • KORG MS10
  • KORG 700
  • KORG M1
  • KORG DVP
  • SERGE MODULAR
  • POLYFUSION MODULAR
  • OBERHEIM XPANDER
  • OBERHEIM SEM SYSTEM
  • RSF KOBOL
  • SYNTHI VCS3
  • SENNHEISER VOCODER

Good thing he’s over his synth fetish, eh?

10 thoughts on “Vince Clarke And The Temple of Synth

  1. Amazing – batshit crazy number of synths, but I see how he's got it setup to be all useable.

    Why oh why isn't there a good VSTi Pro-One??? (I'm aware of the RTAS one, but I don't use Pro Tools).

  2. Amazing – batshit crazy number of synths, but I see how he's got it setup to be all useable.

    Why oh why isn't there a good VSTi Pro-One??? (I'm aware of the RTAS one, but I don't use Pro Tools).

  3. hi my names terry ,ive allways been inspired by your work im 42 and im coming your house for a cup of tea and a tweak,if u dont like it it tuff ,which is how u 1 it int it ,i like making noise with machines ,also i learnt how to keep up with andrew,brave man but ive lost it now im just a man with lots of ideas goal hanging

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