As you can see from the videos, Nigel plays a lot of Hardware synthesizers, as well as using Soft Synths.
Some of his favourite Hardware Synthesizers are:
Moog Little Phatty
The Little Phatty is a powerful synth with a layout and design that looks less into the past and more towards the future.
The Little Phatty boasts a 100 percent analog signal path, 100 user editable presets and a 37-note keyboard. It is a monophonic synth with two oscillators. The filter is the classic Moog ladder design.
EKO P15
The EKOsynth P15 from the Italian make EKO is a very rare preset-based synthesizer, circa 1979.
The signal path is entirely analog from start to finish, and the result is very warm sounding.
Casio HZ-600
Synthesizer keyboard 5 octaves – 61 keys size.
Late 80’s, HZ SERIES
– 8 notes polyphony
– Sound: Tone Upper = 20 + 20 pRSET sounds sound internal
Lower Tone = 10 + 10 preset sounds sound internal
800 sound combinations is possible.
Korg Karma
KARMA is a music workstation with a revolutionary new phrase technology.
KARMA lets you play complex moving synth parts that could normally take hours of programming.
Kawai K 5000S
K5000 was Kawai’s top of the line music workstation digital synthesizer when it was released in 1996. It’s a bold and elegantly designed synth with a large LCD display, real time controls and incredible sounds! It’s immensely powerful and capable of some really unique sounds.
Yamaha SK10
Yamaha’s SK-series are combo-keyboards with synthesizer, organ, brass and string sections. The SK-10 was the first of the SK-series, released in 1979. Not exactly feature-laden, but a lovely string synth sound.
Korg M 500 Micro Preset
The Korg Micro Preset synthesizer was released in the late 1970s. it has a slightly bizarre matrix of pre-set sounds, including woodwind and similar noises and a keyboard all housed in a wooden box! It’s a 32-note monophonic preset synthesizer with 6 push-button presets including voice, synth1, synth2, brass, string, and wood. Its single-oscillator design has decay/release envelope controls.
Korg Delta
Korg’s Delta is an analog semi-poly synth/string machine. Though limited in the range of sounds compared with other synths of the same genre, the sheer quality of the sound from the Delta really does make it something of a marvel. The synth is split into two sections, Strings and Synth, for which there are separate audio outputs along with a combined output for headphones or mixing. Each section has its own controls.
Oberheim OB-12
The OB-12 is a 12 voice synth with 4-part physical modeling synthesis. Loads of real-time knobs (22), sliders (24), and buttons (33) with a traditional layout that gives you fast hands-on access, and control of most parameters. Extra hands-on goodies include a ribbon controller, pitch bend, and modulation wheel. Aside from great analogue sounds, the OB-12 has an amazing set of hi-tech features! The OB-12 features a high-quality LCD display that actually draws out all of the parameters you are changing. There are on board 5-band graphic & parametric EQ, ADSR’s with delay time and double decay. An addictive Motion Recorder and manual or auto oscillator morphing for animated sounds or effects. Phrase Recorders and Arpeggiators with Independent tempo controls and 5 dedicated buttons are onboard with plenty of features and are MIDI sync-able. There is also an extensive effects section that gives you reverbs, delays, chorus and lots of overdrive algorithms.
Sequential Circuits MultiTrak
Sequential’s MultiTrak had everything and to this day, it still sounds great! During the era of the Roland Juno synths, Sequential overhauled their programmable little SixTrak analogue sequencer synthesizer and came up with the MultiTrak. It’s a six voice analogue synth with sophisticated filters, envelopes, modulation capabilities and built-in sequencing. As was the developing trend around this time in the mid-eighties, programming was being streamlined into using the buttons on the matrix keypad to assign parameters to a rotary knob. (The only dedicated knobs are for sequencer volume and speed, chorus depth and rate, master tune and volume.) There are 99 memory patches for your analogue sound creations. It also features a nice arpeggiator withhold and transpose functions. But lying at its heart is a sophisticated (for 1985) onboard sequencer. It could store up to four polyphonic sequences with a metronome, 1600 note memory, an overdubbing mode and quantizing autocorrect) functions, individual track volume and speed controls. Sequences could be chained together and patches could be changed on the fly. Sequences are recorded in real-time.
David used a different microphone on all his vocals. David used a Sontronics microphone routed through an Avalon pre-amp.
Being a Guitarist first, Nigel has quite a few Guitars!!
Some of his favourites being his Les Paul Elegant Alloy, his original Fender StarCaster and Fender Flame Elite, his Zemaitis and his Vigier Expert
For Bass Nigel uses his Vigier Arpege IV, Epiphone Firebird and a 1980’s Vox Standard Bass.
Fender 1976 StarCaster
Fender debuted a totally new model for the 1976 production year: the Starcaster. The Starcaster featured a semi-hollow, double cutaway body with offset waist and their popular Seth Lover designed Wide Range humbuckers. The bridge was a fixed/raised Stratocaster inspired bridge with individually adjustable saddles. The headstock shape too was a modified Stratocaster shape with unique relief cut they used for an accent color.
Fender 1984 Flame Elite
The Flame Elite is made of alder with tone chambers and a spruce top and features snowflake fretboard inlays, multi-layer binding on body, bound neck, multi-layer headstock binding, pearloid tuner buttons, and on the headstock, inlaid pearloid logo and “fan” inlay with “Flame” written in cursive black. Other features of the Flame Elite include special Schaller humbuckers and Schaller hardware including roller-saddle bridge and tailpiece with fine tuners. The Schaller humbuckers are controlled by 3-way switch and coil splitter switch to allow choice of humbucker of single coil tones.
Gibson Les Paul Elegant Alloy 1997
The body is made of Mahogany and is capped with Maple. This is a Les Paul Alloy Elegant Model with a Copper Alloy Metal Finish, not Copper paint. Beautiful Abalone Inlays on a Dark Ebony fingerboard. According to the Custom Shop the Series numbers up to fifteen of each finish and were available in three finishes (Copper, Brass, and Aluminium). 100% ORIGINAL.
Zemaitis Metal Greco GZMF- 3000
The GZMF-3000 has a one-piece mahogany body but with unmistakable Zemaitis flare, its one-piece mahogany neck is appointed with a beautifully grained ebony fingerboard inlaid with mother-of-pearl dots and the guitar’s two DiMarzio DP103 PAF humbuckers have nickel-plated covers. Controls include a master volume and three tone pots, along with a pickup selector.
Vigier Expert
The Vigier Expert has an Alder body that is finished in a really cool Retro White.
The neck is crafted from naturally dried 3 year old Maple featuring the 10/90 System (10% carbon, 90% wood) and topped with a lush Rosewood fingerboard. It’s fast, smooth and supremely comfortable. With a zero fret, 11.81″ radius and 22 medium frets this thing is built for speed and precision.
With a trio of hand wound Amber True Vintage pickups, in the traditional strat SSS configuration, this Vigier offers great versatility. Delivering knockout tone, with insane clarity and note definition it’s the perfect axe for tearing up the fretboard!
1980s Vox Standard Bass Guitar
Made in Japan in the Matsumoku factory which built some awesome guitars and basses during this period such as the Epiphone Japan range, Aria Pro II and Westone to name but a few.
It has a Dimarzio split coil pickup and a solid maple body and a maple neck. It weighs 4.9 kgs
The action is really good and the bass has a great sound. The electrics work cleanly and well. The little micro switch between the volume and tone controls is a series parallel switch and gives a power boost in one position over the other.
Arpege IV
Vigier are World renown for their use of Graphite in the necks of their Guitars and basses, pioneering the concept back in the 1980s. The new 90/10 system gives you the undeniable stiffness of the graphite but with the warmth and added tonality of wood – the perfect combination! With its pickups mounted towards the bridge the tone is aggressive and punchy, but the pickups have plenty of depth and bass for a full tone. This bass is just alive when played and the neck is one of the slimmest and easier four string necks available. The Flame Maple top and back are beautiful and the construction is faultless.
Epiphone Thunderbird Bass
The Epiphone Thunderbird Bass was first introduced in 1963. Featuring new ProBucker™ Bass Humbuckers and a vintage styled 60s Thunderbird Tune-O-Matic bridge and Claw tailpiece.
Blueberry Groove Concert Golden dragon
Blueberry Guitars are handmade – carved in Bali and finished in Canada. They are unique and sound fabulous.
The best quality woods have been sourced throughout the world to be used at their workshop. African ebony, spruce, mahogany, East Indian rosewood, Macassar ebony and maple have each been selected for their exceptional quality towards the final tone. The thin, hard finish that we use on their woods, very similar to French polish, but without the danger of softening or alcohol damage, never dampens the sound with too much weight. It won’t crack, peel or chip and is especially wear resistant.
Larrivee D-03
The D-03 model, within the “Recording” series, is one of the brand’s standard models. A classic Dreadnought shape, built entirely with Mahogany, combined with a Sitka spruce top, make it a highly balanced and dynamic guitar to live performance, perfect for strumming open chords or playing arpeggios along the fretboard.
Its neck, with a soft “D” shape, is an authentic delight, making the time of study or live performance enjoyable. Its solid woods and excellent touch make this guitar great to play.
Gibson Hummingbird
The Gibson Hummingbird is considered by many to be gold-standard of acoustic guitars. Incredible design and construction make these guitars instantly identifiable, not only with their signature stunning looks, but also with their clear and vibrant sound. The Gibson Hummingbird has been sitting comfortably at the top of the acoustic pyramid since the 1960’s and it’s easy to see why.
The Gibson Hummingbird is generally built with the classic combination of solid mahogany and solid spruce. This tried and tested formula generates a large sound full of character, liveliness and body. This is perfect for both strumming and fingerpicking. Performers love this guitar as it provides a large and beautiful accompaniment to vocal performances.
DEVINE LIE.