Martin Yam Møller

Syed Ali – Qareebi

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

The spring reverb module and the dwell knob

The dwell knob on my spring reverb module. It’s basically the input drive level for the spring reverb and when it’s all the way up you can hear the audio if you bring your ear to the springs, Gives it a verrrryy distorted sound when its turned up to the max, i love turning it up for dubby snares and hihats. It might not be the prettiest looking knob on my rack but it’s definitely my favorite because this was the first module on my rack and it was handbuilt by me.

The insides of the spring reverb driver module, point to point soldered.

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

Probably the Mutable Instruments Anushri, it’s a mono synth, drone machine and a groovebox all in one, it can do so many things, but I always have to use it with the manual open on the side because each knob in the bottom 2 rows maps to something different in different modes and the panel doesn’t really show what they are, I’d maybe redesign the panel to have more information, but otherwise its relatively perfect in my chaotic and imperfect collection of things.

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

I’ve recently built a really cheap (1500 INR, 17 EUR at most) midi controller that’s based on the MIDI Fighter Twister, it has 16 knobs across 4 pages and across 16 midi channels. So I bring that, and my APC MINI because I work on Ableton. This, plus my laptop (Samsung Galaxy Ultrabook 3) and my zoom recorder that works as an audio interface. If I’m expecting a jam session to happen as well, I try to bring along my shruti box, I’m also trying to use it more often in my live sets. I’d like to travel with my modular rack but that thing is too heavy and delicate in its current state.

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

I’d really like to buy something that’s a hardware version of the Fors FM Dyad, it already has some pretty good Push integration, but like a dedicated box for it would let me just connect it with my modular and not having to stare at a screen would just make it so much more fun.

Hmmm… Hardware that I wish was software I’d probably go with my Fuzz module for its self oscillation and deep frying capabilities

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

I kinda regretted selling my AKAI APC 40 MK2, but then I basically ended up building the same thing with my 16 channel midi twister and the much cheaper APC Mini.

Something I regret buying is this Arturia 49 key keyboard, I bought it for like 2500 INR (27 EUR) from the side of the road in Mumbai and it does work flawlessly, but its just so big and I don’t have space for it so it just never gets used,

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

Fors FM Opal and Fors FM Dyad, they’re toooo fucking fun, best purchases I’ve ever made.

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

A better 4-in 4-out audio interface honestly. Maybe the Motu M4 because it’s also DC coupled so I can send CV out.

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

My Akai EIE Pro 4×4 Audio Interface, for obvious reasons, it’s the interface between all my hardware and Ableton and sometimes I feel like the noisy pre-amps on it hold me back. But it is absolutely rock solid, it’s built like a tank and is probably almost 10 years old and it still works really well.

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

Probably the self-oscillation on my fuzz module, I found a way to tune it by just blowing on the feedback pot or very very lightly touching it, it holds that pitch really stable and then whatever input I give it kinda morphs it into that tone, it adds a really fat sustain.

Artist or Band name?

Qareebi

Genre?

Ambient, Noise, Jungle, Dub, Techno

Selfie?

Where are you from?

Bangalore, India

How did you get into music?

I was an obsessive child (I still am) and I got really into skrillex when I was 14 (I’m 23 now) and I just wanted to learn how he did all that. I started making music when I was 16 with a pirated copy of FL studio. I was making lo-fi hip hop and future bass back then hahahaha. I’ve also always had friends who would talk a lot about music and it just made sense to me, as a teenager trying to find a personality, that I would be a musician. More recently my practice has evolved to incorporate my electrical engineering hobby and now I build a bunch of things to make music with as well.

What still drives you to make music?

Many things but I’d say primarily, the sense of community that I derive from being a musician with other musician friends, and also moments of intense satisfaction and joy when I’m playing something – and just for a few seconds, all thoughts vanish from my head, and only the music remains. It’s intoxicating.

How do you most often start a new track?

I usually just try and listen to tracks in my library by artists I like and try and maybe make something with influences from them, like if I’m listening to Photek i might try and make some weird percussive jungle break call and response type 32 bar loop and then see where it takes me from there.

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I want to start a new track instead haha, but I’d say it’s finished when it’s at least 3 min 30s long and when I just want someone else to hear it and tell me what they think. Sometimes I come back and continue working but I try to keep the tweaking session short.

Show us your current studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Find friends to make music with, seek out community when you feel like your practice feels isolating, and share everything you can, when you can. What goes out comes back tenfold when you’re with the right people.

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

I’ve spent the last year or so just building things to make music with but haven’t really been making enough music, if you’d like to see what else I’m up to please follow me on instagram 😀

https://instagram.com/qaree.bi

and for a small archive of my music:

SoundCloud Qaree.bi

Simon Thomas – MosaicTapes

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

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with gear and regularly purge almost everything, but there are a few bits that bring so much value to me that I think they are here to stay. The Mannequins modules by Whimsical Raps are such examples, and the ‘big’ knobs on them are so smooth and lovely. They’re really fun to play around with (especially the one on Silhouette).

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

I don’t think I do have anything even approaching perfect, to be honest! There are some bits that provide unique value, like the Cocoquantus, and for me I think I prefer having a select number of pieces that make up a ’near perfect’ picture rather than having to rely on one thing.

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

I rarely make music on the go – I like to create in a quite private way, so making music while commuting feels a bit distracting and uncomfortable. I have taken my laptop on holiday before; I’m a big fan of Max, and patches like ppooll and Leafcutter John’s Forester, have both been really important to me creatively. I also have a young son, so our holidays are really busy, so having my laptop allows me to get going on something very quickly with very little other dependencies.

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

I absolutely would love to see a hardware version of Slate + Ash’s Cycles. That thing is amazing, and having a stand alone box would genuinely be the stuff of dreams.

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

As I said before, I often sell everything, and I don’t think I regret much, if any. The only thing that comes to mind is a lovely Telecaster which I think I may have had around 2008, and sold probably in 2012.

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

Without a doubt Max MSP (does that count?) I never make music with hardware – it’s a tool for performance for me, and all my music is made in on my laptop.

I remember when my son was born, I had a 6U/104hp Eurorack case, and I would try to carve out time to make something using it, as I felt insanely guilty for having spent all this money on something which wasn’t being used. Looking back, it felt like a real struggle to get it all out, patch it up, find a spare surface to work on and then try and muster some creative energy. I think within a year I had maybe 2 or 3 half-baked ideas.

There was this thread on Lines about non-traditional DAW like environments (or something like that), and Forester was listed on there. It cost £45 so I decided to give it a go, and within two or three days I had made my first album, The Children of Several Famous Geophysicists. On top of it being creatively freeing, I also felt like I had discovered my sound. I jumped into ppooll soon after that and that became totally indispensable for me (helps that my heroes Fennesz and Tim Hecker both use it).

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

Definitely a laptop – there’s so many cool things to explore; not just Max, but things like Tidal Cycles – there are endless possibilities, and most of them are free! If not, I’d go for a Norns – you can pick up a Shield relatively cheaply and there are so many amazing scripts to explore… plus you can record to the hard drive.

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

That’s an incredibly difficult question – I tend to get rid of things that I find annoying. With that in mind though, I’d probably say my guitar – I’d obviously never get rid of it as I dearly love it, but I think my annoyance comes from my poor technical ability. I also think that as a sound-making device, I find it hard to make it sound like anything other than a guitar, which I find frustrating.

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

It’s not gear specific, but re-amping things I think is a really cool trick to transform sounds into something new, especially using ‘crappy’ recording devices – iPhones, cassette players, children’s toys (especially if broken). Magic.