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Vangelis uses a system he designed himself. It's often referred to as his "Direct System" because the system allows him to compose, mix and record live.

Each of the small white modules provides comprehensive MIDI control access to a (off the shelf) synthesizer or module situated remotely and connected to the module over copper-net and MIDI. While I don't have a full understanding of the module capabilities, each module provides MIDI control and access to program selection, edit functions, arpeggiation and sequencing and so on.

Critical to the system is the use of a series of volume / expression pedals - one per module - which I believe not only allows him to add expression, but possibly transmits MIDI data for articulation / layering type capabilities (though evidence for that is tentative). Note that expression pedals have always been important to Vangelis in creating expression and recording it live to tape.

The current system is a distant cousin / evolution from a hardware sequencer released in the 80's called the ZYKLUS. That device incorporated 12 polyphonic sequencers, playable live (and playable in various modes such as repeat/loop, or 'one shot' (forward or reverse)). So on the ZYKLUS you could record up to 12 polyphonic sequences into it, and then play/trigger those sequences from a connected MIDI keyboard controller during live performance. All sorts of possibilities were realizable. For example, lets say you recorded a 4 note sequence into sequence 1 comprising notes c-d-e-f. Once recorded, you could immediately trigger the sequence to play simply by holding down the c note on your keyboard. If you held a chord down, the sequence would play three times in parallel producing sequenced chords (though no intelligent transposing going on - just parallel playing based on each note acting as root for that instance of the sequence). If you recorded 12 different sequences - all 12 could be triggered on each note - offering staggeringly complex multi-sequencing play back (up to a maximum polyphony of 48 simultaneous notes) - and every note played on the controller retriggers the sequences. Of course you could assign separate MIDI channels and keyboard zones to separate sequences. Overall, an extraordinary realtime sequence device that has never been repeated or surpassed. The desigenr, Bill Marshall, sought to sell the underlying technology to Ableton quite recently and whether or not they bought it, they have not implemented it. Surely a next step for MIDI clip sequencing (incorporating intelligent transposing too?). Only 40 ZYKLUS's were ever made (and I own one ).

However, as interesting as all of that is, this is not what caught the interest and triggered the fascination for Vangelis. The other aspect to the ZYKLUS is that it is a very capable device of managing MIDI hardware setups. You can program all manner of program-changes and midi-hardware midi configurations within the ZYKLUS, and with the press of a button, transmit all of that data around an entire MIDI hardware setup via the ZYKLUS's 8 separate MIDI OUT ports. This is why Vangelis liked it. Being a hardware only composer (even to this day he records live and does not use any of the standard DAWs (I think he uses a Radar HD recording system); in the 80's, Vangelis liked the idea of being able to reconfigure his plethora of MIDI synthesizers fast, on-the-fly, and immediately by simply pre-programming the ZYKLUS with all the required program changes and so on - and by simply selecting a new ZYKLUS program, having the entire setup re-configured to his immediate desire. A 'Direct' system. So he used this on his 'Direct' album in 1987, and even hired Bill Marshall subsequently to develop a new and more comprehensive system which was called the 'Direct System'. So his current system is an evolution of that, where each small white module is basically a a hardware MIDI controller for a back end synthesizer (and of course where Vangelis has implemented many custom features and requirements that remain largely a mystery).

Hence to this day, he uses MIDI only as a control protocol, and records little if any MIDI note data to a DAW, instead preferring to perform live on the keyboard and record straight to audio only. I'm on the mailing list for a Belgian company called Alyesum who implement smart audio network technology and posted just the other day that they have just completed a custom upgrade of Vangelis' system to accommodate 32 of these modules, using copper-net and MIDI, an improvement from 16 modules which seems to have been the upper limit possible in the system until now.

Kevin.