“real acoustic samples from the Fairlight together with the old ARP Odyssey.”

Photo: Trivialist (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA 4.0
What's in Yello's studio?
Boris Blank has said the Fairlight CMI Series III is his main instrument, used as a sampler next to an old ARP Odyssey. He has said he loves the Roland JD-800 and Kurzweil K2000, and his Zurich studio was reported with Oberheim, Waldorf, Korg and Yamaha synths and Otari tape machines.
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Where to start with Yello's gear.
What studio gear Yello uses: a sourced gear guide
Independent research by truerecs: every item links to the public source it comes from.
Boris Blank: studio
“basically I'm only working with the Fairlight as a sampler.”
“real acoustic samples from the Fairlight together with the old ARP Odyssey.”
“The JD800 is my favourite of the digital keyboards to work with for that reason.”
“I play with synthesizers like a child plays with toys, and I really love the K2000. It's a wonderbox”
Early days
“I worked with a Revox tape machine at the time.”
Records that shaped them
“I listened to “Warm Leatherette” by the Normal. That was a big influence for me.”
About Yello's gear.
What sampler does Boris Blank use?
He has said the Fairlight CMI is his main instrument. In 1994 he told Sound On Sound he owned a Fairlight Series III MFX2 and worked with it mainly as a sampler, with a library of his own samples.
What synths does Yello use?
Sound On Sound listed an ARP Odyssey, Sequential Pro-One, Waldorf Microwave, Oberheim Matrix-12, Korg Wavestation SR and DW-8000, Roland D-50, JD-800 and JD-990, a Yamaha SY77 and a Kurzweil K2000 in Boris Blank's studio.
What tape machine did Boris Blank record on?
He has said he started on a Revox tape machine, and his Zurich studio was reported with two Otari MTR-90 24-track machines.
Yello is the Swiss electronic duo of Boris Blank and Dieter Meier, known for Oh Yeah and The Race. This guide covers the samplers, synths and studio machines Boris Blank has talked about building Yello records with.
truerecs put this guide together from public videos, interviews and posts. Each item says how we know and links to the source. Yello didn't write it or choose anything on it. How we source gear guides.
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