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Nine Inch Nails, Photo: SomewhatDamaged2 (Wikimedia Commons)

Photo: SomewhatDamaged2 (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY 2.0

Independent research by truerecs. Not affiliated with, endorsed or verified by Nine Inch Nails. Every item links to its public source.
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What synths does Nine Inch Nails use?

Trent Reznor has said his first synth was a Moog Prodigy, that Pretty Hate Machine was made almost entirely on an E-mu Emax, and that he now writes in Ableton with a Prophet-6, ARP Odyssey, Oberheim Four Voice and Elektron Digitakt. He has called Moog the only constant in his career, and keeps reissue Moog Model 15 and IIIc modulars.

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What synths Nine Inch Nails uses: a sourced gear guide

Independent research by truerecs: every item links to the public source it comes from.

Trent Reznor's synths

5 items

In the studio

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Robin Finck's rig

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Alessandro Cortini's rig

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Questions

About Nine Inch Nails's gear.

What synth does Nine Inch Nails use?

Nine Inch Nails has said they use the Moog One (synthhistory.com, September 2022). Nine Inch Nails has said they use the Sequential Prophet-6 (synthhistory.com, September 2022). Nine Inch Nails has said they use the ARP Odyssey (synthhistory.com, September 2022).

What synths does Trent Reznor use?

In a 2022 Synth History interview he named a Moog One, a Prophet-6, old and new ARP Odysseys, Dreadbox Nymphes, an Oberheim Four Voice, a Doepfer modular and reissue Moog Model 15 and IIIc systems.

What was Trent Reznor's first synth?

A Moog Prodigy, which his grandfather bought him. Before that he had a Wurlitzer electric piano with an MXR Phase 100, and later a Korg Mono/Poly.

What was Pretty Hate Machine made on?

Reznor told Synth History that his first real sampler was an E-mu Emax, and that Pretty Hate Machine was pretty much all Emax.

What DAW does Trent Reznor use?

He said in 2022 that for the last few years he has written exclusively in Ableton rather than Pro Tools, and has moved to hardware drum machines like the Elektron Digitakt.

What guitar does Robin Finck play in Nine Inch Nails?

Premier Guitar's 2018 Rig Rundown shows Reverend Sensei and Charger models, two Gibson Les Pauls and a Jerry Jones baritone, through a Fractal Axe-Fx II XL, with a Voodoo Lab Proctavia as his one must-have pedal.

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Nine Inch Nails
About this guide · Last checked

Nine Inch Nails are Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the band behind Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, With Teeth and the Tron: Ares score. This guide covers the synths, drum machines and software Reznor has named in interviews, the With Teeth studio rig, and touring guitarists Robin Finck's and Alessandro Cortini's rigs from Premier Guitar's Rig Rundown.

truerecs put this guide together from public videos, interviews and posts. Each item says how we know and links to the source. Nine Inch Nails didn't write it or choose anything on it. How we source gear guides.

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