Pattrn – Brice Deloose

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

Xaoc Belgrad

As a proper gear junkie I can’t choose just one, but I can limit my addiction to two knobs 🙂 For the feel – Xaoc Belgrad cutoff frequency. That knob is just the perfection! It’s both solid and fluid, the size is perfect for precise dialing (I can play melodies with just with this filter in high resonance configuration, and I even do this live sometimes). If anyone wants to feel what a knob should feel like, then they need to try this one out!

The second one is feature/playability oriented, it’s Shakmat’s Knight Gallop “pulses” one. I love how easily and musical I can play complex beats and percussions with it just by twisting it. To be honest it’s my secret trick for percussions programming… I don’t program, I just play with Knight’s Gallop and I have been doing this for over two years on all my records that have percussion sounds in it.

Shakmat Knight’s Gallop

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

Not really, I like to craft things from the start (or nearly from start) for every track. I love to experiment, jam for hours on my modular synth and then just edit and cut pieces out of all this improvisation, to start building a track.

Pattrn Eurorack

I feel sometimes people are too obsessed by the quest for perfection and forget that it all comes down to context. A “shitty kick’ can sound awesome in the right context. At the end, it’s how it all blends together to create a story.

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

Elektron Analog Rytm

I always have my Elektron Analog Rytm. It’s such a powerful and compact machine, but is also very fun to play with. Next would be my laptop with Ableton Live (I’ve been using that for nearly 20 years now) and RME Fireface UC sound card.
It’s rock solid, drivers and sound are just on point and I use the bigger Fireface800 in the studio, so I’m very confident with this setup and how stable and reproducible it can be between studio and live.

RME Soundcard

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

Tricky question… soft synths wise I love Serum for its flexibility and modulations capabilities and Omnisphere for it’s amazing lush and organic sound, so I’d say these two could be lovely to have in a hardware format, yet, somehow in my workflow I realize that I like the recall features of my soft synths and, for example, I don’t use my beloved Access Virus at all anymore. It has stayed on a shelf now for over 5 years (even if it has midi in/out and I could record all knobs movements as automations).

Access Virus

I think it’s a matter of perspective and your approach to these things. I like twisting knobs on my eurorack to create sounds, but then I love to mangle this audio and simply draw automations (by mouse or controller) in the DAW. It’s like fixing things on a canvas and moving forward with what has been done.

Actually I think it’s nice that some things are only accessible in some format, it forces you to make choices on how to use them and in this frame of ideas, limitation is also a tool to move forward. Maybe i should give this whole question a deeper reflection, but I’m pretty happy with how things are :p

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

Nothing 🙂 I have difficulties to sell things :p Still got my first Yamaha RM1X collecting dust and like i said earlier my Virus as well. Only thing I sold were some modules and no regret at all.

I spend a lot of time before i decide to buy something, i watch many videos online or try it out at friends, so I only got one regret of buying (and regret is a strong word as it was a very cheap thing and I sold it again easily)… that was the Volca Bass.
It doesn’t sound bad, but I didn’t like the ergonomics and it didn’t integrate in my workflow, neither live or in the studio.

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

My speakers without any doubt. I’m always amazed when I see studio pics with guys owning crazy amounts of expensive gear and only using tiny HS8 or mini 8010 Genelecs. It all comes down to what you hear!
How can you enjoy expensive gear if you don’t hear it properly. I’m deeply convinced that I can make better music with good speakers and a laptop only, than with a crazy wall-of-modular and shitty speakers.

Kii Three’s Controller

Also quality speakers make you dive into sound, which is so enjoyable, plus the decision making process is way faster, so I’m more efficient and work not only faster but better, which ultimately keeps me in the flow. Actually i have been a very lucky owner of Adam S3XV for over 13 years and just decided to upgrade to Kii Three’s for the exact same reason.

Kii Three’s

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

The speakers and of course some proper room treatment.

Acoustic panels

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

I don’t have any… A piece of gear simply cannot be annoying or it breaks the flow and this is a no brainer for me. Menu-diving? Hell NO! Or maybe then I’d say the computer. As it’s not an instrument, but it can do everything, but you need to remap, re-adjust things for every track.

I tried some “automap” controllers but i can’t work with these. I’d dream for an ultimate controller for the computer with like nano-bots that build the interface every time you create a new channel or load a new plugin so everything is always ready at a twist of the fingers… maybe technology will be there in a few years from now… but then this thing would become a huuuge console and would create all kinds of other problems in terms of ergonomics and horrible early-reflections from the ‘desk’.

‘Air’ and space in the studio

As I’m a bit of an acoustic freak this won’t work either. Also having space around me and a feeling of “air” or freedom becomes more and more important. When you spend over 8 hours a day in the same room, then when there are too many things much to close to you, it becomes claustrophobic somehow.

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

Resampling in Ableton. I love it. Just create a new audio track and record onto it everything that goes trough your master bus. It’s the best trick to create new textures that are evolutions or answers to previous ones. Sometimes I just solo some effects on some return busses and record those, pitch them down, stretch them, warp them, slice them and then feed them back into the same (or others) effects chains. I like to approach sound like clay and really get to sculpt it.

Also fixing things while bouncing audio is again a way to move forward. If at some point you wished you didn’t do it and wanted to go backwards then you have to become creative with new solutions and this is also something I love, as it pushes you out of your comfort zone and often results in a more creative outcome, than if I could just change a note on a midi clip or reopen the filter on a synth for example.


Artist or Band name?

Pattrn

Genre?

Deep Techno, Dub Techno, Ambient and Acousmatic music

Selfie?

Brice Deloose aka. Pattrn

Where are you from?

Brussels

How did you get into music?

Started learning the violin when I was almost 4, then discovered electronic music with cassettes that my big brother made me and ultimately started playing with Fruity Loops before diving into Ableton.

What still drives you to make music?

That indescribable feeling of just loving doing it, falling into a vortex and not seeing the time fly. And later to share it with people, spread love and joy while playing and giving the opportunity to people to escape their struggles, their pains for a little time… or simply get out of their day-to-day life.

How do you most often start a new track?

I really don’t have a routine, it can be a loop from some previous modular recording, a preset on a synth, an idea or theme I want to depict, … for me routine is killing the fun and the creativity. Some tracks have been made fully into Ableton with only VST’s, some others are nearly fully made from jamming on my modular synth.

Euroack cables

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I don’t see the point/added value to change something. The structure works and is coherent, I like the sound design and the mix is clean, with depth, space, width and all elements are intelligible.
This is the thing that took me the longest to achieve, the “letting go”. The quest of perfection is the worst enemy and can completely kill a track. The thing that helped me was to start working on many (4, 5 6 or 7) tracks in parallel.

Sony and Sennheiser Headphones

I have a round of listening to all of them and take notes, then I start editing and adjusting what was in my notes (without playing the whole track back). Doing so allows me to keep my ears fresh and avoid the trap that the rabbit hole the loop pushes you into.

Also no spending hours tweaking a sound until the whole track is drafted, because every element needs context. Spending too much time listening to the same thing in a loop is killing objectivity and I tend to get bored by my own work, making me want to change things just because my memory knows how it has been and wants something fresh, but this is not how people receive a “finished “ track.

So avoid at all costs the loop, taking breaks of sometimes days not listening to a track helps. Only at that moment can you really know if doing something helps the track or is just satisfying your brain as giving something fresh to your memory.

Also accepting to let go of things. You can spend hours doing something, if it doesn’t help the track, don’t force it, just throw it away and try something new. Often this works faster and better.

Show us your current studio

Pattrn Studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Start as fast as you can to draft the track in its full length, listen to it from start to finish without stopping to keep an eye on the big picture or the overall story/structure and then at last, if at some point you feel bored, try instead to add something on top, or to find a way to tweak what’s there, to make it evolve and support the whole story.

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

Check out a FurtherSession that I did –
https://furthersessions.bandcamp.com/album/pulsing-light-in-a-frozen-solitude


Dominik Malue – Actias

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

Waldorf Iridium
Waldorf Iridium

For me, its definitely the two filters on the Waldorf Iridium (Cutoff & Resonance). When I first experienced the deeply psychedelic soundscapes of this device, I was astonished by how the entire atmosphere can be influenced by just two filters. It sucked me in and left me speechless.

Waldorf Iridium screen

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

Yes absolutely! In my opinion, the combination of Matrixbrute and Polybrute is a colorful audiovisual paradise for music researchers, audio pioneers and bassmonauts. Above all, the control via the mod matrix and the resulting learning effect – because you can easily see the modulation route for each preset visually on the matrix. No hidden 2nd or 3rd functions for each knob and fader. Everything can be controlled in the most direct way.

Matrixbrute and PolyBrute

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

Korg KP2

The two jam veterans from Korg (Kaoss and Kaossilator) are just as practical in their size as they are fun to experiment with. Samples and automation can be recorded on 4 tracks each. Operation is shockingly simple and the library of sounds and effects is gigantic. Especially if you have a small budget, but just want to get some experience in sampling, that would be my first choice. The control runs via touchpad and can even be used by people having issues with rhythm or less musical people.

Korg Kaoss

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

There is the synthesizer VST from Serum, which I mainly use for my psychedelic leads and basslines in my tracks when i leave the hardware behind. Let’s see what surprises this year’s Superbooth 23 has in store. Maybe one day they create a controller on which you can load a software synth and then DAWless you are able to access this synth. 

Serum VST

As a second plugin I would love a hardware version of the Arturia Efx Fragment. Rarely have I seen such a fascinating tool that allows you to experimentally construct complete rhythmic percussions, drones and ambiences from noises and foileys.

 Arturia Efx Fragment
Arturia Efx Fragment

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

In fact, over the past few years I’ve swapped my setup and adapted it to my workflow so often that I no longer own a superfluous part or am missing a device that I absolutely want to have. Let’s see if the upcoming synthesizer fair in Berlin will change that. Maybe my Vochlea Voice to midi Microphone. I have not used it once. Sad truth.

Vochlea Voice to midi Microphone

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

One of my first studio devices was the Roland MX-1 mixer, which really motivated me to fill every channel with sound. The possibilities that this mixer has in its luggage never ceases to amaze me. It’s also a fabulous interface for Ableton and does everything I want in a device like this. Endless effect combinations with step sequencer and built-in sidechain. Furthermore, you can easily route each channel digitally instead of analog and fill and control it via Ableton.

Roland MX-1 mixer
Roland MX-1 mixer

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

It depends on whether I want to focus on pure track production first or live jamming. For the former: Nowadays, the first thing I would definitely do is get a good laptop or desktop PC and basic software with the most important VSTs and free sample collections. On the other hand, if I wanted to establish myself in the synthesizer profession, I would probably do the same thing as I did back then – get a small collection of Korg Volcas to set the foundations for understanding synthesis. 

Korg Volcas
A tower of Korg Volcas

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

I’m already annoyed when I hear the word ‘midi’. Therefore it is my midi routing. I upgraded my setup last year with the Erica Synths midi thrubox. Since then I wasted less nerves on unsynced synthesizers.

Erica Synths midi thrubox
Erica Synths midi thrubox

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

Not really a trick but I truly fell in love with my Arturia Polybrute‘s morphee. Beautiful sounds can be created and morphed using this 3D touch knob. It’s incredibly playful and fun to use.

Arturia Polybrute's morphee
Arturia Polybrute’s morphee


Artist or Band name?

Actias

Genre?

psychedelic house / slow psytrance

Selfie?

Dominik Malue - Actias
Dominik Malue – Actias

Where are you from?

Berlin, GER

How did you get into music?

By two very close friends from my Hometown. They took me to DJ nights with them in their basement studio.

What still drives you to make music?

Creativity, weirdness and curiosity

Creativity, weirdness and curiosity
Creativity, weirdness and curiosity… and a little bit of magic

How do you most often start a new track?

Each track has its own reason of arisement and as well its different story. Mostly, i feel an impulse out of a sudden and then i have to create. 

How do you know when a track is finished?

There is always a point, when I can’t listen to the track anymore. When this happens, I stop working on it at least a week and then listen again. If I don’t want to change anything, it stays like that and soon will be mastered. 

Show us your current studio

Dominik Malue - Actias studio
Dominik Malue – Actias studio
Dominik Malue - Actias studio
Dominik Malue – Actias studio
Dominik Malue - Actias studio
Dominik Malue – Actias studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

– create music with your ears not your brain –

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

Here are 3 links:

My latest album: Orbital Ceremony

One of my singles from 2022: Amethyst

My Instagram profile for all the hardware stuff:

https://www.instagram.com/actias_music


[Editor: There are affiliate links to the relevant gear throughout the articles. It helps to support this blog. In fact, should you be needing some patch cables or guitar strings. Then clicking on one of the above links and buying any product that you prefer, will help the blog… doesn’t even have to be the ones in the link. Thx]


Peter Griffiths – Yunome

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

KNAS Ekdahl Moisturizer Spring reverb
KNAS Ekdahl Moisturizer Spring reverb

The Multimode Filter knob with its flashing lights and the red LFO Filter knob on the modified KNAS Ekdahl Moisturizer Spring reverb makes me smile when I feed it noises which can often become thunderous, scary sounds, and this unit is an instrument in its own right with a preamp, a multimode filter and an LFO. Sorry, that was two knobs! Oh, and don’t get me started on the switches on this thing 😉

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

Erica Synths Zen Delay

I have a thing for hardware delay pedals, and I love the Erica Synths Zen Delay; it’s almost perfect; it would have been nice to have software control or an app to have deeper controls/options like the new software version, which has bit depth and sample rate controls. 

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

A desktop of synths

I have taken the 1010 Music Nanoboxes, Lemondrop and Razzmatazz, as they are mighty and creative little machines. Usually, I take one FX pedal, such as the Chase Bliss Habit, and it all gets recorded into the Tascam Portacapture X-8.

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

I got my wish recently when Erica Synths made a software version of the Zen Delay, so that’s pretty cool! 

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

I haven’t regretted selling any hardware to date. Once I decide it’s going, it’s because it isn’t making sense in my current setup. My worst purchase was the Roland TR-8.

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

Soma Laboratory Pulsar-23

The Pulsar-23 is a drum synth on steroids with 23 independent modules, I use it to synthesise drums and rhythms, bass and melodic lines, effects and sound landscapes, and it’s a crazy source of control voltage and a decent analogue FX processor all in one unit. 

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

Any Soma Laboratory gear. The Rumble of Ancient Times is a clever little deep and gnarly synth with a Chaos button to randomise and shake things up.

Soma Laboratory – Rumble of Ancient Times

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

Not so much annoying, but my trusty old Erica Synths Fusion Mixer I use for spicing up drums or synths. It’s only irritating because it’s in euro rack format and is one of only two modules that survived my euro rack cull. So I had to buy a wee case for them.

Erica Synths Fusion Mixer

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

Not input mixing (no external input) This is routing the output back to one of your inputs on your mixing desk and using gain and EQ to create different tones/noises/synth-like sounds internally, call it a feedback loop. You can spice up your feedback loop by adding FX into the signal chain, and then you have infinite sonic possibilities.


Artist or Band name?

YUNOME, aka Pete Samplers and 12modes.

Genre?

Dancing across experimental electronica, house, techno and breakbeat 

Selfie?

Peter Griffiths – YUNOME, aka Pete Samplers and 12modes.

Where are you from?

I am from the Wirral, a little Peninsula in the North West of the United Kingdom close to Liverpool.

How did you get into music?

One chance gig at my local youth club when I was 13, and I was hooked on Electronic music. I was lucky to grow up close to Liverpool and Manchester, which had great music scenes back in the 90s. I spent most of my teenage years in record shops and clubs there. 

What still drives you to make music?

My deep curiosity for how music makes people feel and my need to make sound with whatever I can get my hands on. My wife says I am a much better human when I make music.

How do you most often start a new track?

It can be many ways, but it usually starts with me seeing or reading something that inspires me, then that gets interpreted as a synth line, or I program some drums and riff off of that.

Chase Bliss Habit, Boss DS-1 Distortion, Zen Delay, Eventide H9, Source Audio SA 263 Collider Delay+ Reverb

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I am not fussing around it anymore, once it gets to the stage where adding anything else will ruin the vibe and simplicity of the arrangement, it is time to park it.
It is always best to return to it later with a bit of distance; then, you can see with rested ears and a fresh perspective.

Show us your current studio

Younome studio dektop
Younome studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Press record! Said my friend and fellow producer, Euan Murchie.

I often jam for hours and sometimes cannot re-create some of the things that happened during some sessions when I wanted to translate some stuff into arrangements, so having the record button armed is an obvious solution.

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

There are two 12modes tracks on my Bandcamp right now. 

A YUNOME album which will drop in the autumn.


[Editor: There are affiliate links to the relevant gear throughout the articles. It helps to support this blog. In fact, should you be needing some patch cables or guitar strings. Then clicking on one of the above links and buying any product that you prefer, will help the blog… doesn’t even have to be the ones in the link. Thx]