Pet Shop Boys synthesizer history

Gareth Edwards has written a good article on the Pet Shop Boys synthesizer history, charting the many pieces of musical equipment they have used over the years to get their distinctive sounds.

It includes the Fairlight CMI, EMU Emulator, Akai samplers, PPG Wave, various Yamaha’s (including the TG500 module which I have used extensively), Roland TR808, and many more (not surprisingly) They’ve also recently adopted soft-synths to a large degree.

I thought it was interesting that the PSB programmer Pete Gleadall seemed almost embarrassed to admit that he’d used a Yamaha TG33, as this module was considered to be a ‘home’ device. Hey, if the sound works, use it!

Interesting journey if you’re interested in the Pet Shop Boys music and synths from the 1980s and 1990s.