Peter Gabriel Birdy equipment

Birdy was Peter Gabriel's first soundtrack album, released in March 1985 and worked on over a two month period in late 1984.

This was also his first collaboration with producer Daniel Lanois, who was recommended to him by David Rhodes for his work with Harold Budd. They developed a working relationship and went on to work with him on his next two albums. On this album, they recycled and reworked material from previous Peter Gabriel solo efforts into appropriate film songs while also developing new tracks, given the relatively short space of time taken to make the record. The album is entirely instrumental.

In terms of technical/production details for the album, little concrete documentation exists. Hence a rough approximation of what would have been used is presented here drawing from a variety of sources.

Peter's instruments on the album would have been the following:
 * Fairlight CMI Series IIx sampler
 * Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer
 * Yamaha CP-70
 * Linn LM-1 drum machine (heard on "Flying Pigs")
 * Linn LinnDrum - possibly kick drum on "Quiet And Alone"

Peter Gabriel's usual line-up of musicians (plus Ekome Dance Company on drums) is credited on the album, plus Tears For Fears drummer Manny Elias who likely played on the new tracks.

Production
This album was recorded and mixed entirely at Peter Gabriel's Ashcombe House studio. Around then, his home studio is believed to have been equipped with:
 * Decca console (second-hand, modified to 24 or 28 channels)
 * modified Studer A80 24trk
 * Lyrec TR532 24trk
 * Ampex ATR-100 stereo mixdown

As for outboard, this album saw Peter rely more heavily on effects processing, most likely at the influence of Daniel Lanois and his previous work at Grant Avenue studios in Canada with Brian Eno & Harold Budd among others. Peter's go-to units would have been the following:
 * AMS DMX 15-80S digital delay/harmonizer
 * AMS RMX-16 digital reverb
 * Deltalab DL-2 delay
 * Quantec Room Simulator reverb
 * Roland SDD-320 Dimension D
 * Decca valve compressors

Auxiliary outboard likely included: Rebis RA402 Parametric EQ, MXR Graphic EQ, Eventide H910 Harmonizer, ADR Vocal Stresser, dbx compressors and more.