Steinberg Pro24

In the late 1980s/early 1990s, Tony Banks was using Steinberg Pro24, which is a MIDI sequencing software for Atari ST computers.

Tony Banks on the Steinberg Pro24 software: "Steinberg Pro-24 [Atari ST software]; I haven't tried the updated version, Cubase, yet. Pro-24 does have certain limitations, but it's a good system. I got it about a year and a half ago, while I was doing [the Bankstatement album]. One thing that I find magical is linking it up with a tape recorder for instruments that don't have MIDI, like the piano, and my old Synclavier, for which I couldn't MIDI without mortgaging my house. It's marvelous the way the sequencer will pick up at any point on the tape. And being able to run through different sounds in order to hear what everything sounds like in combination. I love it! In the past, I've gone into the studio with an eight-track tape from my home studio and transferred it to 24-track, but then I'm stuck with what I've already recorded. With the sequencer you can play around with sounds, form, tempos, keys, all sorts of things, even at the studio stage. When I'm doing a solo project, I need to have something at least to start with, so I can be in the control room while the drummer's drumming, and things like that. I'd like to do some songs next time around where I'm actually in the studio, playing with the drummer. (Keyboard, February 1990)"