New England Digital Synclavier II

The New England Digital Synclavier II system (sometimes shortened to N.E.D. Digital Synclavier II) was a digital synthesizer system and worstation released the early 1980s, used by Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel.

Tony Banks' NED Synclavier II
Tony Banks was known for using the Synclavier II for Genesis (and solo) work throughout the 1980s, primarily for its variety of keyboard & synthesizer sounds. Despite admitting the Synclavier was "such a sweat to program", he felt the it had a range of marvellous preset sounds not heard in rock music - in particular the FM synthesis sounds. The keyboard solo on "That's All" was played on the Synclavier, closely emulating a Hammond B3 organ - note that the video shows the real organ, more so for its greater visual appeal.

Tony purchased the instrument in 1981 when recording the Abacab album with Genesis, via distribution company Syco Systems. Syco Systems were also distributing the Fairlight CMI, which Tony had also a feel of; as much as he loved the sounds of the Fairlight, he felt the Synclavier was much better as a synthesizer. And the sampling feature on the Synclavier was promised within a few months' time, so he went with it. But it never came in time.

In fact, the first use of the Synclavier in Genesis' music was the unique violin/string sound on "Me And Virgil" from the 3x3 EP (1982) - a song which didn't make the cut for Abacab. As mentioned in 1981 interviews, he found the Synclavier's sounds were excellent on their own, but was hard to mesh into the band's music at the time as the digital quality sounds of the instrument were at odds with the band's more natural/analog sound. Not only that, it demanded a whole different approach to playing, so Tony would to spend more time trying to get to grips with it. However, Tony's first one and a half years with the Synclavier were marred with persistent functional problems, so he had to send it to Syco and New England Digital to get it fixed.

Tony Banks quotes on the Synclavier
"'I really think the [Synclavier] is way over-priced. I had a lot of trouble for the first year and a half I had it. It didn't work at all. Considering it was very expensive, I was very upset. But then the English company [Syco Systems] changed the handling of it. We've got a much more efficient company now, and they got it back to New England Digital, who fixed it. I love the sounds on it as a synthesizer. I got the E-mu [Emulator] because it was much cheaper. The Synclavier system is amazing, but I think it'll be a complete white elephant in a year or two because of things like Yamaha stuff coming out. There's no need to mortgage your house to buy them. I mean, you're paying 50 or 60 thousand dollars for one instrument with the Synclavier. That's fine if you're at an institution and you can afford to do that. But you can pick up 20 different instruments for that kind of money, and between them they produce far more than what the Synclavier can. Also, with MIDI you'll be able to combine synthesizers.' (Keyboard magazine, November 1984)"

"'I'm not sure which of the keyboards I'll be taking with me on the next tour, but I should think I'll take the Synclavier and the Emulator. I had five instruments on the last tour, and that is four too many as far as I'm concerned, but that's the way it is. There was the Quadra, the Prophet, the Yamaha piano, the Vocoder Plus and the strings. I managed to get away with not taking the organ with me - instead I used the Prophet. Now that I'll be using the Synclavier on stage it will be even easier for me to get the organ sounds. That old style organ solo on 'That's All' (on the new LP) was all done on the Synclavier and it's probably the best organ sound you could ever get - it's perfect. I'm also going to try and do without the Quadra, again because the Synclavier can take over from it, and I may knock out the Vocoder and take the Emulator along.' (Electronics & Music Maker, November 1983)"

"'I originally bought the Synclavier in the days when the decision was between that and a Fairlight. When it came out you needed a third mortgage on the house to buy it! The original Synclavier was a great digital synthesizer with some great FM sounds. It's still a more sophisticated instrument than later cheaper instruments like the DX7, and you can control the sound better. It has a much better character to the sound - very resonant, almost like a voice.' (Sound On Sound, September 1989)"

Peter Gabriel and the Synclavier II
Although Peter Gabriel is best known as an advocate and a pioneer of the Fairlight CMI (a notable competitor to the Synclavier in the sampling and workstation synth market), the only known time he played the Synclavier was on "Excellent Birds", a collaboration with Laurie Anderson which was released on the Mister Heartbreak album in 1984 (and on So in 1986, in reworked form). And therefore is the only known song he ever played a Synclavier, most likely one that belonged to Laurie Anderson.