Gary Numan on his kit

• Soundcraft Quartz mixing desk
  "Completely, totally impressed with it. 72 channels, comprehensive patch bay, looks cool. Not one single thing wrong with it since the day I bought it."

• Otari MX80 24-track
  "Not a moment's glitch. Absolutely perfect. But it's a £21,000 machine, so it bloody well should be."

• Atari STFM with C-Lab Unitor running C-Lab Notator
  

• Atari Mega 4 with DAC 770 Mbyte hard drive, running Digidesign Soundtools
  "You can get seriously creative at the editing stage. I can compile an entire album using Soundtools, which you just can't do with tape."

• XRI Systems XR300 SMPTE Synchroniser
  AMS dmx 15-80S digital delay (the "harmoniser")

• Lexicon PCM70 multi-effects unit
  Drawmer Noise Gate
  Drawmer Compressor-Limiter
  Six Micro FX Noise Reduction boxes
  "I use these for removing the background noise from the Lexicon. I'm surprised at just how noisy it is."

• Aiwa Excelia DAT recorder
  

• Akai S900 and Akai S1000 with DAC 50 Mbyte removable hard disk drive
  "I really resisted the S1000 because it was £5,000 when it came out. I wish to Christ I'd bought it when it first came out. It's brilliant."

• Korg Wavestation
  "This is phenomenally powerful, but I personally find it very difficult to operate and don't enjoy using it at all."

• Roland D-50, two D-550s (module version of D-50)
  "Still a classic, still has a lot to offer, though it's becoming very identifiable. It's a pity you can't add any more waveforms to it, as you can with the M1R. And the M1 doesn't have identifiable sounds."

• Korg M1R EX
  "The heart of the studio. This is what I use most, because of the sounds and ease of use. Very, very good library."

In your dreams...

"I would like to see a 16-part multi-timbral synth where every part can have a different effect. That would be brilliant.

And don't keep putting sequencers on them! Most people are using software sequencers - they don't need the technology or the expense of an on-board sequencer, and most of them are crap anyway. You can't get any more than a demo out of them. At least give them the option, so they can buy a good synth without the added cost!

"Other than that, I don't have a dream instrument or piece of kit. My favourite instruments are probably the sax, then the guitar after that, not the synth at all."

And why is that?

"Because they're horny to look at!"

Je ne regrette rien...

And what does he think about the singles that made him famous, Cars and Are Friends Electric?

"I think as songs they're alright, but I think the production could have been much better. If I could do them again, which I might, with the sounds you can get now and the better production, you could really do something with them. They all stand up as songs, but now I could make a lot more of it than I did then.

"Are Friends Electric was done on a 16-track; it took five days and about £500 to do the whole album. We did it in a studio in the West End. They had one keyboard, an SH2000 I think - it had a hole drilled in the corner so it could be chained to the wall!

I used to tune my guitar up so it sounded about right for where I normally sang. I didn't know about concert pitch and A being 440 Hz. You trying tuning to any of the songs on those albums!"