BoBeats – Treats from BobEats

1. Favourite knob or fader or switch on a piece of gear and why?

Since I am a poor keyboard player I really like the Digitakts buttons. Playing on them is for some reason easier to me than playing on regular keys. I guess its because they are just simple on/off buttons. Feels like typing on a keyboard. 

Elektron Digitakt buttons

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

I would say that Maschine+ comes very close to perfect. Being in love with the Maschine workflow and now being able to use it without a computer. Its kinda dreamlike. 

Native Instruments Maschine+

3. What setup do you bring on holiday or tour or commute etc.?

It varies a lot. Next summer Maschine+ will 100% come with me to the cabin. Digitakt & Circuit is always nice too. I do like my grooveboxes. 

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

Hardware that was software… Maybe a Subharmonicon VST? It is a unique synth and a software version could be pretty epic. Especially if you could play it polyphonically somehow… 

Moog Subharmonicon


Software in hardware form? I wouldn’t mind having an Ableton Push 3 be standalone! That’d be kinda cool having the Ableton Live DAW in hardware form.

[Editor: This too would be my wish]  

Ableton Push 2 (so close)

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

I regret selling my old Yamaha RM1X. 

Yamaha RM1X (photo:wikipedia)

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

Korg Minilogue. 

Korg Minilogue with custom knobs

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

A good audio interface. Something to grow into, with expandability (adat) and decent latency. 

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

Octatrack MK2. It is so good, yet at the same time so frustrating at times! 

9. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

I had a Digitakt beta unit and when I was playing with it I noticed it could make some epic synth sounds. Turning it into a groovebox and not just a drum machine.


Artist or Band name?

Bobeats

Genre?

Mostly electronic stuff, I’ll let others label it.

Selfie?

Nobody beats like BoBeats

Where are you from?

Sweden

How did you get into music?

I watched a friend make music on the Playstation ”game” Music.

What still drives you to make music?

It brings me joy.

How do you most often start a new track?

Usually by going thru sounds and finding something that click. That gets me interested.

How do you know when a track is finished?

You don’t. You have to decide that it is. You learn this from the experience of doing it many times. 

Show us your current studio

BoBeats Studio – Lots of grooveboxes and synths
BoBeats Studio – iMac and speakers
BoBeats Studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

”What matters isnt what you do in life but that you do something you feel passionate about”.

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

Videos at https://www.youtube.com/bobeatsmusic


[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…
]


Matthew S – Matteo Scapin

1. Favourite knob/fader/switch on a piece of gear and why?

I love the Cutoff knob on my prophet Rev 2. Thanks to it, I can modulate the sound in a thousand ways.
Aesthetically the monopole is not beautiful, but I have a lot of fun to use it!

Sequential Prophet Rev 2

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

Roland MC707

My kit is satisfactory, but I like to change musical instrumentation often. I would love to try as many musical instruments as possible! Collaborating with different brands I have the good fortune to try many different instruments, which I have used a lot, for many of my musical projects.

Arturia MicroFreak

3. What setup do you bring on holiday/tour/commute etc.?

My travel kit consists of Keystep pro + Ableton + Zoom H6.
When I’m on tour or on vacation I avoid carrying too many tools! I like to be as comfortable as possible!

Arturia Keystep Pro

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

I always wanted a version of Max by Cycling ’74 in a hardware format, that would be pretty cool. I wouldn’t know what to turn into software, I prefer hardware!

Abletob Push 2 and studio desk

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

Hmmm, I have no regrets.
Maybe, thinking about it, I’m missing my Deepind12 by Behringer a little bit. I used it very little, maybe I underestimated the sound of this synthesizer, it had very interesting sounds for my productions!

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

In this period I used a lot the prophet rev2. In every one of my productions there is the sound of this synthesizer. I love the sound depth of it. I love it!
This synthesizer together with my pedals creates sound textures that no VST can create! I use VSTs a lot, but the analog heat is unmatched!

Earthquaker Avalanche Run and fx pedals buddies

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

Maybe I would have liked to have started with Analog Rytm by Elektron.
A lot of my producer friends recommended this drum machine.

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

Surely the ZOIA by empress, I love to use this instrument, I often use this pedal/ Synth for my productions. Unfortunately it is very difficult to create presets for my projects!… But I love it.

9. Most surprising tip/trick/technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

I use the prophet rev2 with the particle by red panda and the FABRIKAT by Pladask elektrisk to create the audio textures for my projects. This is a great kit to create infinite audio landscapes! Every time I use these tools pre satisfied with the final result!


Artist or Band name?

Matthew S

Genre?

Electronica/Ambient

Selfie?

Matthew S

Where are you from?

Italy

How did you get into music?

I started learning to play guitar in my city’s school when I was 13 years old. from there was born my passion for music. Fortunately now is my job!

What still drives you to make music?

I always have a strong need inside to continue to create and communicate through music, my best communication channel is music! I think it’s my addiction now!

How do you most often start a new track?

Usually to start a song I create improvisations with my synthesizer and sampling sounds with Ableton

Matthew S at the MC707

How do you know when a track is finished?

To create a song I take a long time, when I believe that there are no other changes or additions to do I consider it over and ready for the mix and master!

Show us your current studio

Matthew S Studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

“Set a goal and don’t give up until you reach it. The professionals do not give up in front of the first obstacle and already think 3 moves in advance. While your teammates are still discussing the reasons for the band’s dissolution, you must already be progressing on your next project: tempus fugit!”

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

My Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/57ZTe0YAuhG04dtH42nM1Y?si=c98CgImcRWSyC3XgIBJ7oA

or my website:

https://matthewess.com/


[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…
]


Kir Åge Jæger – Persian Electro Orchestra

1. Favourite knob/fader/switch on a piece of gear and why?

The ROLI Seaboard (midi-controller) has an X/Y-Pad which is very powerful because it connects with the software “Strobe2” that has a so-called “Euclid” processor. It’s way easier to show on a screen, but imagine that when you drag the “target” symbol with your finger on the ROLI, the small dot (orange arrow on picture) follows the target. You can program HOW the small dot should follow the target with different parameters like slew, damp and rate in order to create some pretty original soundscapes. So far I have only used it for film scoring.

Roli Seaboard with Strobe2

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

This is probably not very original, but just like clichés exist because they are usually true, the PUSH 2 (from Ableton LIVE) works very well for both music production and live performance. What would I change? The fact that Ableton LIVE does not include quartertones as a standard.

Ableton Push 2

3. What setup do you bring on holiday/tour/commute etc.?

My setup is quite simple, actually. Even when I play with my orchestra, I can carry everything myself. My laptop, soundcard (Behringer UMC404HD), microphone (sE2200A||C), and headphones (Sennheiser HD 280 Pro) usually do the trick. A small midi-controller is useful too (AKAI MPK Mini). I once brought this with me to Beijing to visit my friend and we ended up inviting a vocalist from Tinder to jam with us.

Travel setup

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

I would love to have the VsT-plugin “Manipulator” by Infected Mushroom as hardware. Manipulator is always in my effect rack when I perform live on my santoor.

Uuh.. Speaking of… A midi-signal santoor would give my music production wings!

Infected Mushroom Manipulator VST

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

Hmm… I really regret buying any “Waves”-VsT plugins. They tried so hard to prevent people from cracking their software that it ended up being a headache to use legally. I decided to boycut them some years ago. 

Waves

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

Well… If software is gear I think “Nexus” from “REFX” inspired me the most. It is a so-called ROM synthesizer. The sounds are so delicate (yet expensive) and the software is very intuitive. I even heard that they programmed the sounds in order for you to combine them.

REFX Nexus

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

I started in “Music Maker” for Playstation (1998), then I changed to FL Studio (2003) and eventually Ableton LIVE in 2013. I definitely would’ve skipped FL Studio and gone directly to Ableton LIVE.

FL Studio

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

Hehe… That would be my cheap-ass in-ear monitor system that I bought for my orchestra musicians so that I can talk to them during a live show and they can listen to their own performance on a backing track. The sound is absolutely awful, but they’ve accepted it so far. 

Wireless In Ear Monitoring

9. Most surprising tip/trick/technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

That would definitely be the world of Persian tonal systems through my santoor. They have 7 tonal systems in Iran. We only have one in the western hemisphere. Working with electronic music (and thereby frequencies) has made it easier for me to understand these systems.

Santoor

Artist or Band name?

Persian Electro Orchestra

Genre?

Hmm… Well… Downtempo/Techno/World/Organic/Persian

Selfie?

Kir

Where are you from?

Copenhagen, Denmark

How did you get into music?

No one in my family plays an instrument. The interest was kind of there from the beginning. I started borrowing cd’s at the library at the age of 10.

Free CD’s from the library

What still drives you to make music?

Music – and everything that surrounds music – is the reason I am alive.

How do you most often start a new track?

With a fat polyrhythmic beat!

How do you know when a track is finished?

None of my tracks are ever finished. I always make new mixes and arrangements for live performance, hehe.

Show us your current studio

Kir’s home studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Finish your shit and get it out there – even though it is not “perfect”. It will only make you thirsty for more when you get your first “real” feedback.

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

There is a bunch of songs being released soon, but meanwhile check out “Losing My Impatience”:
https://song.link/dk/i/1488153140


[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…
]