The Other Side of My Living Room: 1998 – 1999

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

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SPIRIT ABSOLUTE 2 [1998 – 2004]

My first real monitors. A huge difference compared to my earlier plastic boxes. Managed several years with them, but ended up upgrading them to active monitors. As one does.

Sounds like a Swedish product. The name, not the sound.

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CLAVIA NORD MODULAR [1998 – ]

This is one of my all time favorites. The modular concept is extremely pedagogic, you simply can’t avoid learning how synthesis works while you patch, or even while you study what others have patched. The user community makes sure that you really don’t have to make your own patches if you really don’t want to (you do want to, though. It’s inevitable). There are tens of thousands of patches downloadable for it, each patch potentially an entire synthesizer model (as opposed to a single sound), and new patches show up daily on the NM mailing list. I still have have thousands of patches on my HD which I haven’t checked out. The NM shifted my interest from sampling technology to analog synthesis. The only gripe is the “mere” 4-part multitimbrality,

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KORG WAVESTATION SR [1998 – 2000]

I eventually sold this one, but I remember it had a few very nice sounds, and I particularly liked the reverb, which sounded very warm and “distantly present”. My main problem with this was simply that it was a pain to program, due to the 2-line display and what felt like a deep menu hierarchy, so I never really got past the presets, which is a crying shame, as I am sure there were some interesting possibilities. I also never figured out why the effects settings kept changing even though I didn’t want them to. I regret selling it, and it is likely I will get another one at some point. I have now also invested in Sound Diver, which should make the programming much easier (or, in this case, possible). Another possibility is that, as Korg has released it as a soft synth, I might go for that one instead.

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AKAI S-2000 [1997 – 2002]

This was the first machine that really felt like a synth, with LFO’s, filters and the works. A very straightforward machine and very easy to use, but it didn’ t sound quite as warm as the Emax, but that didn’t really bother me. The Akai got me into actual sound programming, and having used this for a while, I started to get the hang of synthesis, at least the sampler kind of synthesis. FOr several years, it was my main instrument, but once I noticed I hadn’t really used it for anything else than as a HD recording device for the past year or so, I traded it for a Yamaha DTXPress drum set in the beginning of 2002. Even though it is fondly remembered, I don’t regret selling it. My K2600R does everything the Akai did, and more.

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E-mu EMAX II [1997 – 2002]

My first sampler. A definite nostalgia factor associated with this one, as Depeche Mode toured with Emaxes for several tours. So I just had to have one. The moment I got it, I realized that its 2 MB memory simply wasn’t enough, so the same week I bought an Akai S2000. I never really used the Emax’ sound engine in my music. I still loved the sound, which was very soft and powerful, but compared to the Akai, it simply was too cumbersome to use. It served mainly as my main keyboard until I sold it in 2002.  Visually the Emax is extremely pleasing, and it is a very versatile keyboard: for example, in case you didn’t have a real mixer, you could connect 5 (I think) external stereo sound sources to the insert buses at the back and let the Emax mix the signals and output them all through the Main Out. Therefore an excellent first keyboard for anyone who might want to expand their setup later. With more RAM and a software editor I probably never would have sold it. A real beauty. I regret not having it anymore. The nostalgia factor is still enormous.

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The Corner of My Living Room: 1994 – 1997

Eventually I moved to a bigger apartment. With one additional room at my disposal, I thought I could invest in a modular system. Or maybe a sound module? I don’t think I could tell the difference in those days.

That little barely visible Roland SC-88 in the right-hand side lower corner, next to the JX-1, is what I bought in late 1995. Both Rolands had practically zero learning curve, so I was quite lucky in that aspect. The SC mostly used cc’s for controlling various things (mostly reverb and chorus), but the real news came in the shape of NRPNs, which it used for envelope and filter settings. I thought it was pretty hardcore.

The keyboard was situated behind me, as I couldn’t comfortably place it on my desk. The newly acquired SC didn’t really change the appearance of my still-not-referred-to-as-a-studio. This is not true for the Emax II and the Akai S2000, which I bought just a few days apart, in early 1997. This was also the first time when getting something new necessitated getting something else: now I had to buy a MIDI interface to get all the machines connected to my PC. I got a MIDIMan 4×4, and I had it for 7 years and it worked like a dream.

Getting the samplers made me rethink my furniture arrangement, and I ended up getting a two-tier X-stand for the Emax and the JX-1, and placing the Akai underneath my monitor. I also ditched the small plastic speakers, and got bigger plastic speakers instead. The gear still only occupied one corner of my living room. The actual corner varied somewhat during the years, but the idea remained the same. The setup started to become noticably different from standard living room equipment, and I almost felt like calling it a home studio. During this period, I also got an external 135 MB SyQuest drive for storing samples for the Akai. I learned a lot about sampling. I also got introduced to filters and LFO’s, which was way more hardcore than anything else previously.

Sadly, no pictures exist of that setup.

Musical Output From This Period

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WINMAN MIDI 4×4 INTERFACE [1997 – 2003]

For the JX-1 I a friend built me a MIDI interface from scratch. Piece of cake, he said. I thought that was pretty hardcore.

This was my first commercial MIDI interface. Plugged into the ISA slot of the PC. Plenty of MIDI channels for my current setup! For the rest of my life? Nahh…but still for quite for many years.

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SYQUEST EZ-135 DRIVE [1996 – 2000]

Me and a bunch of guys I was working with all got one of these, because they were so cool. Having removable cartridges with insane amounts of rewritable storage capacity was so much better than burning CD’s. I used mine to hold samples for both the Emax II and the Akai. My first external SCSI-device as well, and I seem to remember that SCSI-termination was a bitch, especially if you didn’t know you needed it.

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