Archive for category: Studio (Page 2)

Soft synths don’t force you to rearrange your studio whenever you buy a new one. This fact alone did not keep me from getting new hardware during 2004 instead of focusing all my energy on the admittedly handy soft synths. This proved to be a hardware-intense year. Think Close Encounters of the Analog kind.

It started moderately; I gave in to Alesis-specific gear lust, and got me an Andromeda (ok, forget that about moderately) as well as the M1 mkII active monitors, in order to eliminate the extra stage of noise (old amp/receiver) from between the mixer and the monitors. Good move. Audible difference. The studio appearance didn’t change too drastically yet. During the summer I discovered eBay, and things were never the same. A bunch of analog gear, vintage and more modern, found their way into my studio, some with a little help from my friends (guys, you know who you are). To pay for these, I let my e-drums as well as some other stuff go, simply because I hadn’t used them enough to justify keeping them. Plus, they occupied an entire corner, a place which my gf had other plans for.

As I had decided that it was the year of the Soft Synths, I did not forget them. I tried several, including a “demo” version of the Oddity, which resulted in me getting the original ARP Odyssey. So who was it who said that soft synths were cheap? Well, I purchased both the impOSCar and the M-Tron, so if there is a pattern to be found, both an OSCar and a Mellotron will show up some day, probably much to my gf’s annoyance. The soft synths are really great, handy and extremely usable, but they are Just Not The Same As Hardware. A third soft synth to set its bits on my hard drive surface was the PPG Wave 2.V. I also saw a few real PPG Wave on eBay.

Other stuff I got this year was the Sequential Circuits Pro-One, Korg MS-20 (which actually started the eBay analog revolution), a Novation BassStation and a Studio Electronics SE-1. And a few MIDI to CV converters. 

I learned that I am definitely a hardware kind of guy, and that there’s no fighting it. I also learned that I am not fanatically against software, which I think is a good thing.

Musical Output From This Period

This period turned out to be quite heavily gear-oriented.

Come late 2000, and it was again time to move to a larger apartment. The new additional room became dedicated to my home studio. The Jerker setup travelled with me more or less in its original form, and I just planted it in its new environment. 

I turned radical and started to sell gear I didn’t use anymore. In the late 2000 and early 2001, I got rid of both the Roland JX-1 (with some hesitation) and the Octapad.

During the spring of 2001 I started to feel some GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) building up. For a long time I considered getting a Waldorf MicroQ to use as a multitimbral VA to complement the Modular, but I ended up getting a Kurzweil K2600R instead. Not the obvious alternative, but it proved to be a decision not to regret. My rack was pretty crammed by now, so I got two 18U racks and put everything from the QuikLok (synths, mixer, Lexicon) as well as the Jerker contents (PC, home stereo equipment) in them. Having absolutely everything in the two racks fixed the Cable Hell problem very nicely, and for the first time in years, everything looked quite tidy. I had no need for the full-sized Jerker anymore, so I dismounted the two topmost levels.

By now, I was definitely hooked on machines. It wasn’t as bad as getting stuff just for the sake of it; I still tried to maintain some reason behind the purchases. Having used the Modular for a few years already, I had developed an interest in real analog machines, and I had had my eyes on a Waldorf Pulse for some time. In early 2002 I finally got one. Another decision not to regret. This machine moves walls.

The Akai had by now been reduced more or less to a hard disk recording device, and since getting the Kurz, I had no need for the Akai as a musical instrument. When it occurred to me that I could connect the Lexicon’s S/PDIF out to the Digital CD in on the SoundBlaster Live and use the Lexicon as a digital HD recording interface, the Akai was left completely without a job. I soon sold the Akai and a bunch of other useless stuff, and got enough money to get an electronic drum set instead. Drumming was something I had always wanted to do. It still is. I learned something about having too little time to use all the gear I had collected.

I was starting to consider getting rid of the Emax (with much hesitation), as I had neither used its sound nor its mixer capabilities, and I felt it was such a waste to use it merely as a controller. My plan was to sell the Emax, by now my only keyboard, and swap the Kurzweil 2600R for the 88-key version, and hopefully be set for life in the keyboard department. Selling the Emax appeared to be easy enough, but nobody was interested in getting rid of their K2600X’s, and getting a new one was out of the question. I started looking into alternative keyboards, and I figured one with actual sounds wouldn’t be a bad investment. I had become interested in a Virus, the King of VA’s, so I started saving money for the keyboard version, and prepared myself emotionally to part from the Emax. Just before I was going to place an order on a kc, I found another dealer who could provide me with the virus c rack version plus the Oberheim OB-12 VA for a total of about 50 euros less than what I was originally going to spend on the kc. So I felt I was literally getting one extra synth for the same price. The only drawback was that Obie only had four octaves, but I considered that only a minor drawback, all things considered. I ordered the two machines and sold my Emax, which I actually regret a bit, which of course is totally irrational.

Having been without something to drum on for a while, I got a real eDrum set, the Yamaha DTXpress. I learned that drumming is as fun as it is hard.

Musical Output From This Period

The year 1998 started with me feeling like I wanted a “real” synthesizer and therefore buying a Korg Wavestation SR, which I didn’t know anything about. I also got a pair of Spirit Absolute 2 monitors, which made all the difference in sound compared to the plastic multimedia speakers I had prior to them. It became apparent that radical furniture rearrangement was called for. I split the livingroom into two distinct parts, one for usual livingroom stuff, and the other for my Home Studio, which I now felt totally comfortable calling it. I invested in an IKEA Jerker desk, which is really handy for a setup like mine. Jerker hosted everything except the keyboards, so everything was nicely within reach.

The year 1998 ended with me buying a Nord Modular. I got an amazing deal for a new unit, 30% off the list price, and I took a bank loan to pay for it, which is something I had never done before, nor since. The Modular changed my perception of how a synth should work. It stood for everything I always liked in electronic music, and I probably couldn’t have made a better choice at that time. I learned a lot about subtractive synthesis. Among other things.

I managed without a mixer quite nicely, even with this many sound sources, as the Emax performed mixer duties with its numerous inserts. 

Sadly, no pictures exist of that setup. But it was right there, I promise!

Musical Output From This Period

Getting my first PC (a 386) seriously re-introduced me to sequencer software (my first seq was WinJammer, if I recall) and music programming, something which had laid dormant in me for almost ten years.  After getting my first MIDI keyboard, the Roland JX-1, I gave it a permanent home on my desk. During this time, I learned something about SysEx, as used by the JX-1 to receive and transmit slider values. I thought it was pretty hardcore. I invested in small plastic battery-driven PC loudspeakers. Active monitors, as it were.

Sadly, no pictures exist of that setup, but you’re not really missing out on much.

Musical Output From This Period

This next paragraph is from elsewhere on this site, but it’s worth repeating in context: Late one night in 1993, while studying for an exam the following day, it occurred to me that composing was basically just a matter of putting notes in an order which sounded pleasing, and to surround them with even more notes in another pleasing order. So I skipped studying that night and wrote/produced my first song ever, from start to finish, following the by then very familiar Depeche Mode song structure. After the exam (which I, amazingly, passed, even though not having slept the night before), I went home, pulled another allnighter and sequenced my second song, went to bed, slept the entire following day and got up and immediately produced my third one. Needless to say, I was hooked and absolutely amazed I had it in me.

[Edit 29.11.2021] Yesterday I found the actual exam paper in question, dated 1993-09-03, so I can now happily state that my first song ever was made 1993-09-02.

During this period I started close to twenty songs, but they remained in Under Construction-mode for quite some time. Many of them were never finished, but maybe one day…

The original versions of my first three tracks have been lost. They are probably on a C-cassette somewhere, as in those days I couldn’t record onto the hard drive. These versions are structurally the same (same individual melodies), but the sounds are different (except for the lead sound the JX-1 makes in each song). The original Gravis Ultrasound sounds have been replaced with SC-88 and Akai S-2000.