Martin, Author at Martin Yam Møller

M. Beckmann – Post Droner

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

The “E” switch on Count to 5 by Montreal Assembly, specifically on mode three. I love the eight seconds looping mode and that switch is the one that allows you to add a second and a third playback of the same loop, also reversed and pitched up or down, chromatically or at different intervals. I love the ability to abruptly add some sped-up elements.

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

Since I primarily loop stuff, I have to go with Blooper by Chase Bliss. Even though it has a 30 seconds limit and it’s mono (which contextually is what I would change), it’s a very powerful and versatile looper, and I could probably perform just with it – and say a guitar and reverb, or OP1, or a keyboard in general – and get plenty of inspiration.

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

Usually on holiday (since I don’t do many livesets) a backpack with my norns and grid by monome, OP1 Field and a stereo pedal – Zoia or Mood MkII, or Walrus M1 – maybe now the latest addition, Chroma Console.

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

I recently discovered Ridgewalk by Aqeel Aadam as AU on my iPad and I really love it, an original and accessible take on a looper/delay/granulator. I’d love to have it in pedal form. I guess I would expose my laziness by saying that I’d love to have any Spitfire library on hardware – because I could “just” learn cello or something. Though, since I love portability, I’d love if they could do some cheaper libraries for OP1 or stuff like that. That would be great.

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

I regret selling my 2019 monome norns shield. After I got my hands on the original
manufactured by monome, I kept it for 6 months or so, and then I decided to sell it. I really wish I didn’t, norns scripts are a real source of fun and potential ambient-electronic bliss, and having a couple of units should be really nice in a live DAWless setting.

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

Probably a tie between the app Samplr (I started 14 years ago heavily using iPad for making music) and the OP1 (I had the OG before the field), mainly for their sample mangling and looping capabilities. I love treating dusty recording as samples or loops, and both excel in that.

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

If I had not much money I would start over just like I started 14 years ago, which means an iPad and apps in the AUM ecosystem. I think iPad music making is also a good combination of software flexibility and tactile experience. There’s lots of inspiring stuff to explore. If I had plenty of money I would go modular – always in a sample-oriented way, like granular and looping modules above all. That’s very tempting!

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

My Zoom H6 recorder, it is annoying in that it is old and also for the fact that five years ago or so I decided to set the screen as always backlit when powered on: the constant high brightness level started whitening the corners about 3 years ago and now the display is all white except for a central circle, where I can barely see the levels. I will need to change it some day.

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

This is not so much a trick or tip on a piece of gear, I probably have very little wisdom in that regard, but something I find useful to balance my dark EQ instinct, so to say. I very often tend to cut a lot the high frequencies while recording, but I do know that “they are good for me”, so I started using Baklengs by Pladask Elektrisk in its octave up mode right after Blooper, which creates a fluffy and digitally-warbly higher pillow of sound to lift up the whole piece. I mix it in as I go.

Artist or Band name?

M. Beckmann / the volume settings folder

Genre?

Ambient-drone-post rock

Selfie?

M. Beckmann / the volume settings folder

Where are you from?

Padua, Italy

How did you get into music?

Gawd, it’s been a journey! I was into techno-eurodance stuff between 7th and 9th grade, then a friend at school lent me a copy of Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, and I was hooked. From mainstream modern metal (here is where I started playing guitar, obviously) I started exploring the fringes – drone, post metal, post rock, ambient, electronica… and here I am!

What still drives you to make music?

I love making sounds and compositions that evoke the feeling of nostalgia, even if it’s not attached to a particular event or person (I recently found out that this is called anemoia, the nostalgia for a time you never experienced). That’s it. Better making this music myself than waiting for someone else to please my taste.

How do you most often start a new track?

By throwing a couple of chords – or a melody if I’m really inspired – into my pedals, start looping and building up from there.

How do you know when a track is finished?

I always finish a track – and by that I mean that since my approach is mainly improvisational and recorded on the spot, I can’t and I don’t want to treat it much further on my DAW (even though I sometimes do it). In fact, the feeling of knowing that I will not need to expand on what I recorded with some post-production is what makes me say that I did something good and I can consider it finished.

Show us your current studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

To force yourself into using sounds or gear that you don’t like in principle, or make you uncomfortable, and incorporate even bits of these into your music. I don’t always put it in practice, but I have to admit that when I do the results are very good, more original than usual. I can’t remember who said this.

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

Here’s a link to my bandcamp page with the latest releases, and to my social network pages:
https://linktr.ee/thevolumesettingsfolder

Invictus Hi-Fi – Esoterica

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

I use a Nektar Panorama CS12 controller which has a fader you can easily assign use for automation in Logic, so I’ll go with that. Not just good for plugins and hardware synths either – I’ve a fair few MIDI enabled guitar pedals it gets used for too.

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

It’s a recent purchase but the Vult Freak Manifold Filter is just amazing, and I say that as someone who isn’t a heavy user of filters normally. I cannot understand how something digital can sound so organic. Leonardo, the guy that makes them, must be some kind of coding genius.

The only change I’d make is more filter types but that’s being greedy as there is already a fair few and I imagine that will happen eventually anyway.

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

Something not too different from the setup I used on my new live album Appearance, but now I’m the proud owner of a 4ms Metamodule I’d use that rather than the the Mod Audio Duo. There’s a Pam’s Pro Workout and Bitbox Mk2 sampler in there too – you can get a lot done with that setup.

As for holiday, I’d normally just take a laptop or use that time to get a break from music and recharge.

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

I wish all of those excellent UAD and Softube plugins I own were hardware – as I’d be asset rich in that instance, although space poor as the studio is at capacity in terms of kit!

There’s a few modules on VCV rack that I wish were hardware but the Metamodule is increasingly making that a reality.

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

My GAS would never allow me to regret a purchase but the one thing I regret selling was a Dreadbox Abyss synth – which is both sonically and aesthetically beautiful. I had used it too much on tracks though and didn’t want it to define my ‘sound’.

Also the WMD Crucible, a Eurorack drum module for cymbal type sounds that can be pushed to some really interesting places – but that’s less of an issue now those guys are back in business so I’ll be getting another one eventually.

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

Gear comes and goes in order to keep things fresh but both albums so far have had kit which has inspired the most. For The Market Deities it was the Moog DFAM, the only Moog thing I’ve ever owned, and the 4ms Ensemble module – which can create really unique tones and textures.

For The Vanishing it was the aforementioned Dreadbox Abyss and the ASM Hydrasynth, both of which helped me push sonic boundaries a fair bit.

I think the Waldorf Iridium, Michigan Synth Works Xena (an excellent take on the Mutable Instruments Ambika synth) and the Nord Drum 3 will probably define the next album, as they’re seeing serious use right now.

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

I’d probably just start with a laptop and VCV rack, and then learn the aspects of Eurorack I enjoyed before dropping cash on random modules in the hope they might chime with me. Also a great way to understand the fundamentals of Eurorack too.

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

I have an OXI One sequencer which is excellent normally but for some reason is misbehaving at the moment. I’ll have sort it out soon though as I genuinely cannot live without it, especially for controlling Eurorack drums through its CV module.

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

One thing I do often but don’t hear much of elsewhere is using clocked LFOs and sequencers to creatively modulate Eurorack drum and FX parameters – especially using less common LFO shapes and sequencer patterns at irregular and shifting speeds.

I use this technique to add additional rhythmic aspects and it makes the drum parts feel a lot more organic, as well as adding some weird offbeat variations to their tone and texture.