arturia Archives - Martin Yam Møller

Kyle Runge – DJ Doughy

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

The volume knob for my computer. It’s usb based, has a semi-heavy aluminum knob to it. All it does is adjust volume, and it does it VERY well.

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

The KeyStep Pro from Arturia. Powerful sequencer, great for on the fly adjustment. Just wish it had more channels to expand it.

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

I have been known to bring basically my whole studio sans computer (use a laptop instead for streaming). The past 3 years during a synthesizer conference called KnobCon based outside of Chicago, I have streamed a live set from my hotel room with a few people from the Golden Shrimp Guild (a Twitch.tv guild of synthesizer folk) hanging out and enjoying the tunes.

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

Software to Hardware? Massive from NI. Great bass and lead VTSi with easy automation.
Hardware to Software? I don’t think I have anything that ISN’T software now. However, wish there was a SID chip synth software that had the same warmth and sound as original hardware SID chips have.

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

It’s rare that I sell anything. I almost sold my first synth I owned, a MicroKorg, to help pay for a MiniFreak, but forgot to. Thankful that I didn’t.

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

Again, with the KeyStep Pro. I’ve been producing music over 20 years now and for a few years things had really come to a halt. It was only these past few years have I been doing “live” music. It was suggested to me when I was just started getting into the modular/eurorack ecosystem. The KSP was super intuitive, I could hit the ground running with it, and it helped me take off on my live music streaming. A very close second would be the MiniFreak. It’s wide range of sound makes it an inspiration in itself.

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

Depends on where I start over at, there has been so many chapters of my ‘career’. Hardware-wise for performance, I would have loved to start out on a semi-modular synth if I was able to afford it.

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

A eurorack module called Temp_Utiles. Great clock divider/multiplier, deep features for syncing. But just a bit too menu-divey.

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

Making your own synth is a lot easier than you think. A bit of solder, some patience and a kit of parts, you can make synths at a fraction of the cost.

Artist or Band name?

DJ Doughy

Genre?

Broad; ranging from electronic, hip hop, dub, and ambient.

Selfie?

Where are you from?

Kansas City Area (Kansas side! hah!)

How did you get into music?

Been playing piano and violin since I was in early grade school. Electronically, finding a copy of Acid DJ 2.0 (linear DAW) back in 2001 for cheap and playing around with it till I got decent at it.

What still drives you to make music?

The friends I have made along the way whilst streaming my performances on Twitch.

How do you most often start a new track?

It’s rare that I sit down to do an actual track, but if the inspiration hits, I drop what I am doing and start it. Sometimes middle of the night!

How do you know when a track is finished?

Scope creep is real. I often have to put down a track for days or a week at a time. Come back and listen. If it sounds “complete”, or something that resembles a song “made for radio”, then I will call that a track!

Show us your current studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Don’t be afraid to experiment. There are tons of great resources and artists out there to learn from.

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

hivemindsynthesis.com is a synthesizer co-venture I am apart of with a good friend of mine.
djdoughy.com is a good place to find anything new or extra about my work, with all my socials and music links

Wolfgang Merx – Mr. X

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

Look at this great filter cutoff frequency knob on the Moog Sub 25, one of my recent additions and mainly part of my setup for gigs. I guess the resulting filter sweeps when turning this knob are the most famous synth sound!

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

This Moog Little Phatty Stage II is the first synth I ever bought and still my go-to synth when simply wanting to play or starting a session. It’s almost perfect because of its sound and the stripped-down layout, but exactly this one-knob-for-all layout has one flaw: it results in “jumping” of the values when turning the knobs after selecting a different feature. For example, you set the cutoff first and then select the resonance, but the value will jump as you move the knob. As always with synths, it is better to try and hear it than to read about it.

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

Mobile Modular Euro Rack — Mobile Modular Rack

This is my Mobile Modular Rack which I use for gigs because it has many essential modules and offers five or six separate voices, depending on the patch (details are available here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/1933212). I use an Arturia Keystep Pro with this rack.

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

No idea. I rely on hardware, but I use Ableton for mixing. I still added a picture of my Arturia Minifreak because they added a VST along with the hardware synth. I think this is a very good idea of combining both worlds (despite the VST having its flaws).

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

No regrets! I take a lot of time before buying or selling anything. Planning my setup before buying anything is crucial to me.

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

I must get back to the Little Phatty again. The classic Moog sound is what made me want to make music in the first place. Of course it is monophonic, but melodies which sound good on this synth will certainly have more to offer when you add more instruments and introduce polyphony and harmonies.

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

Despite loving synths, I would get a Nord keyboard like the Nord Electro 5D. It is the most versatile instrument in my setup and covers a lot of ground.

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

I had a Model D, the MiniMoog clone by Behringer, but it suffered from pitch drift in such a severe way that I couldn’t use it for performances anymore unless I wanted to tune every 30 minutes. This was a problem with the early runs of that model. It was long out of warranty, but to my surprise somebody bought it from me. Still, I bought another model because I need that sound in my setup. The pitch is stable so far.

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

I don’t know whether this is a trick or not, but I like to combine multimode filters and two crossfaders to create a pseudo-stereo sound. The Doepfer A-121-3 multimode filter offers four filter types: low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and notch. You can pair them and send those outputs to the crossfaders. When the crossfaders and the filter module are modulated, you can create constantly evolving soundscapes with these few modules already. This works in a similar way with the Nonlinear Circuits Feague which is a filter module and a quadrature VCO. It has four outputs: two low-pass and two band-pass.