Nicolas Melis – Melodicolas

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

One of my favorite knobs is the filter cutoff on the Moog Matriarch. There’s something incredibly satisfying about how responsive and musical it is—just turning it slightly can completely transform the mood of a sound. It’s one of those controls that feels alive under your fingers. It really connects you to the instrument, and that tactile element is a big part of why I love working with hardware.

Moog Matriach cutoff

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

I’d say the Sequential Prophet Rev2 is almost perfect for me. It’s incredibly versatile, sounds fantastic, and it’s become a core part of my workflow. Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything about it — it just works.

Sequential Prophet Rev2

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

I don’t get much holiday time during the year, so when I do, I like to spend it swimming, relaxing, and enjoying good food. But if I happen to find a piano around, I’ll definitely play — can’t resist that!

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

One software I really wish existed as hardware is the Valhalla plugins—especially their reverbs like VintageVerb and Supermassive. They’re my favorite effects plugins, and it would be amazing if they came in a hardware pedal or rack unit form.

As for hardware that hasn’t been emulated yet, honestly, I can’t think of any off the top of my head. These days, so many classic and unique pieces have great software versions. That said, nothing quite replaces the hands-on experience and vibe of the actual hardware, so I still love both worlds.

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

I definitely regret selling my Sequential Pro 3. It’s an incredible synth with so much depth and character. I also regret selling my Roland Jupiter-4, which had a warm, unique sound that’s hard to find. And I have to say, I regret selling my very first synth, the Roland Super JX10 — it was special as my entry point into synthesis.
As for regretting buying, nothing really stands out. Every piece of gear I’ve invested in has brought value in some way.

Racks of keyboards

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

The Sequential Prophet Rev2 has been a huge source of inspiration for me. Its rich sound and deep modulation capabilities really spark creativity and let me blend my classical background with electronic textures seamlessly. It’s become a central part of my music-making process and always pushes me to explore new sonic territories.

Nicolas Melis

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

If I had to start over, I’d begin with a computer and dive into learning synthesis through VST plugins first. It’s a great way to explore sounds and concepts without a big upfront investment. After that, I’d probably invest in a good used polyphonic synthesizer with a quality keybed to practice and bring those ideas to life more expressively.

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

In general, my old analog synths can be a bit annoying because they require regular maintenance, and unfortunately, I don’t have a tech nearby to help with repairs. Despite that, their unique sound and character make them irreplaceable in my setup—I just have to accept the extra care they need.

MiniMoog

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

One cool trick I like with the OB-6 is using the second oscillator as an extra LFO. If you set Oscillator 2 to a low frequency and turn off keyboard tracking, you can use it to modulate things like the filter or pitch via the X-Mod section. It adds a nice layer of movement that makes the sound feel more alive. I know many people already know about this, but it’s one of my favorite things..

Sequential Prophet Rev2 on top and OB-6 below

Artist or Band name?

Nicolas Melis

Genre?

I don’t think I’ve defined a specific genre for myself yet. I’m really drawn to cinematic music that combines synths and piano — if that makes any sense. I’m also inspired by a mix of styles like IDM, dark ambient, glitch, and experimental electronic — all of which have that deep, atmospheric feel I really enjoy.

Selfie?

Nicolas Melis

Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Cyprus, but I’ve also spent many years in Germany — both places have shaped who I am, musically and personally.

How did you get into music?

I got into music at a very young age, starting with classical piano. Growing up practicing almost every day really shaped the way I connect with music. I eventually went on to study Piano Performance in Classical Music as well as Contemporary Improvisation in Germany.

Those studies gave me a strong foundation, both technically and artistically, and over time, my curiosity pushed me toward synthesizers and electronic music. Blending that classical background with modern technology has become a defining part of my musical identity.

What still drives you to make music?

What still drives me to make music is the need to express things I can’t put into words. It’s a way of processing emotion, time, and experience. That feeling when a sound or a chord progression clicks into place and evokes something real — that’s still magic to me. Also, I’m always curious to explore new sounds and techniques, and that curiosity keeps pulling me back to the studio.

How do you most often start a new track?

When I start something new, I usually begin by improvising on the piano. That’s where I discover ideas. I record what feels interesting, and from there I build on it. I haven’t released any original music yet—just a few classical interpretations like Bach and Satie on a synth—but I’m working on my own material and hope to share it in the future.

How do you know when a track is finished?

For me, a track feels finished when it communicates the emotion or atmosphere I had in mind—when nothing feels unnecessary and everything has space to breathe. I tend to strip things down rather than add more, so it’s often about knowing when to stop:)

Show us your current studio

Studio 1
Studio 2

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

The best creative advice I’ve heard is: “Don’t wait for inspiration—just start.”

Creativity often shows up once you begin, not before. Showing up consistently, even when you don’t feel inspired, is what leads to breakthroughs.

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

Lately, I’ve been focusing on growing my YouTube channel, but I’ve found it a bit challenging to get my Instagram followers to make the jump over there. If you enjoy synths, vintage keyboards, and creative performances, I’d really appreciate your support!

🎬 Check out my YouTube channel here :
https://www.youtube.com/nicolasmelis
Every like, comment, and subscription means a lot — thank you! 🙏

Also check out my bandcamp:
https://nicolasmelis.bandcamp.com/album/bach-on-a-synth


Tyler Cassidy – Studbagl

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

Sequential Mopho X4

My favorite knob is actually a combination of knobs; cutoff frequency (LPF in particular) and Resonance. Coming from a jazz saxophonist background, I did not have any interest in gear until my mid 20’s when I was at a music store with a good friend of mine. We sat down at the synths, found my way to a Microkorg XL, again with no real interest in them, and then I somehow managed to play around with the filter knob. I was mind-blown how cool sweeping a filter was! It was so space-sounding and magical and a sound I didn’t expect to find. I sat there for 30 minutes just playing a chord, letting it sustain while I swept the filter/resonance to get the dreamy space sound. The picture is of my Mopho x4, which has a stunning LPF Cutoff and Resonance combo.

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

Pedalboard

I love my pedalboard! Again, as a saxophonist, there was no clear tutorial I could find on YouTube to figure out how to get the sounds I wanted to now achieve using a saxophone. I started experimenting with pedals in 2017, and have found a great balance between in-home solo ambient jamming and live performance utility. At home and by yourself, you can try any pedal/combination for anything, but playing with a live band, especially in a jazz setting, it becomes difficult to find the right pedals. The saxophone is a very difficult instrument to use with pedals live because most of the sound still will come acoustically. Therefore, I had to choose effects that would compliment my sound rather than change it. Looping makes a cool background in live settings, delay/reverb always nice because it lingers in the spaces of your playing, and the right kind of pitch shifting will add depth to your playing. No dirt here because it doesn’t really work well live because you’ll basically only hear the acoustic sound.

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

Recording setup – saxophone with pedals

With the pandemic going on, there has not been much opportunity to travel for musical reasons however, I was able to go and record my dream album in Washington D.C. back in December. It is an all-original music album of mine where I utilize the same pedalboard in the picture above in combination with my saxophone. When traveling home for holidays, I usually only bring the saxophone. I don’t end up playing much but will sometimes get some practicing/noodling in to try and stay in shape. The picture is of my set up from the album recording back in December

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

To be honest, I don’t use too much software as far as instruments/effects are concerned. I mostly just use Ableton to record my solo-ambient music and lightly mix/master it there. I prefer the hardware due to my tactile way of approaching music. I learn best through my sense of touch and it is crucial for me when playing/writing music. This is probably why I am so bad at vocals, but also why “button” oriented instruments like saxophone, piano/synth, pedals are my instruments that I use the most.

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

Earthquaker Devices Avalanche Run and Meris Hedra

There is nothing that I regret buying. I take a very long time thinking about what gear I want and why I want it so I never really have impulse purchases that I regret later. I do have a few pedals that I don’t often use; for example, the Avalanche Run and Hedra. However, they are not regrets as I still will pull them out from time to time to create a song or two. They are just not as crucial for most of the things I do with my music. I also have never sold a piece of gear so I can’t really say I regret selling anything, ha!

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

Meris Polymoon

Finally, an easy question to answer! The Polymoon by Meris is ABSOLUTELY 100% the gear that has inspired me to produce the most music. It has so much to offer, especially when you run it at the end of your chain. It can do the simple delay stuff, but also has a gorgeous phaser-verb when you crank the dimension. Putting it 100% wet mix will give what I consider the most beautiful sound a piece of gear can offer to this day. Not only that, but it has a wealth of modulation options that I use in so much of my music. Most notably, the octave up/down pitch shifted delays add such a beautiful space-cruising sound to your song. Being in the end of the chain, after my loopers and everything else, you can manipulate your loops by doing any of those things mentioned above and it will really dynamically change your composition/jam.

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

Afterneath by Earthquaker Devices

If I had to start over… this is a tough question to answer. My first purchase was the Afterneath by Earthquaker Devices, and it was probably the best thing I could buy to get into this stuff. I really wanted to find a way to stack multiple notes on saxophone as it is a monophonic instrument. Afterneath having the capabilities of having a really long/pronounced sustain, it was perfect for what I was trying to do. The only issue I ran into was when I would stack a chord of some sort, playing over the top of it would get added into the Afterneath. So going back, I would probably get the NS-2 by Boss and run it in conjunction with it. That way, I could stack my chords, then essentially mute my microphone so I could, acoustically, improvise/play over the top of my new chord. Also, I would buy a phaser, because as Stefan from the Pedal Zone has shown, running a phaser after the Afterneath is just beautiful and has that sweeping motion that first got me hooked in the first place.

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

Boss NS-2

I don’t know if I would call it annoying per say, but I have found that the NS-2 by boss is absolutely necessary for probably any player who relies mostly on their acoustic sound. When playing live with a band, especially the louder bands, your microphone is going to bleed in all those drums, guitars, whatever. The NS-2 is SO useful with its gate function so it will only pick up whatever is directly in front of the mic. Not only that, but it cancels any feedback that I would get in those live settings which playing with a microphone will almost always give you (especially when using noisy effects). The only reason I would consider it slightly annoying is that because it takes up real estate (in my pedalboard picture you can see that I taped it to the side of the board) for something that I use basically as a one-trick always-on effect. However, it must be said that the NS-2 is a live-setting modified saxophonist’s biggest buddy.

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

I think the best trick I have learned about gear in terms of using gear as part of the compositional process is to experiment with your signal path and definitely put effects AFTER your loops. For example, having the Polymoon after my looper lets me change the composition so drastically that you almost wouldn’t believe it’s the same exact loop if I showed them separately. That is a very powerful thing to have at your disposal for those live gigs when a solo interlude to start the second set is warranted. Another idea is to put a pitch shifter after your loops so you can modulate to a different chord/key center to give you something new to play over the top of (this might require more parallel signal paths but I have done before and is very cool).


Artist Name

Tyler Cassidy (studbagl on youtube, Instagram, etc)

Genre

Adventure music, jazz, ambient.

Selfie

Tyler Cassidy

Where are you from?

I am originally from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, now living in Boston, Massachusetts.

How did you get into music

I played saxophone in middle school and was very neutral about it; it wasn’t fun or boring. But then my first day in high school in 2006, my grandad picked me up, who was the only other musician in the family. He had the music of Richie Cole and Charlie Parker playing on his CD’s and I couldn’t believe my ears. I didn’t know these things were possible on a saxophone. So when I got home, I opened up YouTube and listened to everything I could. It all spiraled from there.

What still drives you to make music?

I love writing music! As I said previously, I wrote an album and got to record it with a bunch of my friends and some new people back in December. The feeling of writing songs and then having them come to life is nothing less than fulfilling; you feel proud, happy, and satisfied all at the same time. This particular album was special for me because I got the chance to record live with a huge band. It was 10 people, myself on saxophone/effects, an electric guitarist, nylon/steel-string/electric guitarist, pianist, bassist, drummer, string trio and person conducting the string trio. It was magical and I can’t wait to write more and bring them to life.

How do you know when a track is finished?

So this question is better answered for my solo ambient stuff. Being a live-oriented musician, I usually one-take all of my compositions. So whatever you are listening to was all done live and in one track. It basically boils down to if I was satisfied with it or not and that’s how I will know if it is finished. Most of these compositions are live jams, some have a little more planning, but never usually that much.

Show us your current studio

I call it the LazerMaze

Tyler’s home studio

Best creative advice I have ever heard?

Trust your ears. If your ears say it’s good, it is good. Sometimes it’s easy to let your brain get in the way when it says, “No, this definitely shouldn’t work” or “This wouldn’t make sense to go from this chord to this chord”. Your ears should always be trust! We are musicians after all.

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

The latest thing I have out is “Gentle Shore” which is a solo ambient album of mine. On my studbagl.bandcamp.com you can find 3 of my solo ambient albums as well as an album I did as a bandleader back in 2017 in Washington D.C. Definitely want to look out for the new album coming out in summer 2021 that I just recorded though; it blends all the jazz, ambient, post-rock, romantic adventure music that makes up my imagination into one.


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


Pyn – DiscoPopGrin

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

The Cut-Off knob on my Dave Smith – Prophet 6. I use this a lot when I play around with arpeggiators.

DSI Prophet 6

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

No, I’m always looking for new things/stuff, although I’m really happy with my Prophet 6 and Korg Poly 61 synthesizers.

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

My MacBook, a microphone and a guitar to write the basic of a new song/idea.

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

I don’t really have a wish like that at the moment.

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

Yeah maybe the Roland MC-303, it’s really difficult to program it, so I don’t use it a lot.

Roland MC303

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

I started playing guitar and I still do, so I guess guitar is the most important instrument for me. Ableton Live made me develop my production and beatmaking skills.

PYN and sparkly Telecaster

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

Still a guitar, a computer with Ableton and a microphone. And I would still want to learn how to play guitar first, it’s great to learn an instrument so you can play and sing your own songs.

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

I guess microphones, it is a constant search to find the right one that completely suits your voice.

Blue Mic and Shure SM7B

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

Use Guitar Rig on other instruments than just guitar. You can get crazy sounds when you put a Guitar Rig on synths, vocals etc. and tweak them to a cool sound. And of course the reverse knob in Ableton, who can live without that these days 😉


Artist name

PYN

Genre

Pop/Disco

Selfie

PYN

Where are you from?

Bloemendaal, The Netherlands

How did you get into music?

Playing guitar since I was 10, writing and singing since I was 15 I guess 🙂 When I was 21 I started my study at the conservatory.

What still drives you to make music?

Listening to new and old music of other artists drives me to be create, and ideas that pop up in my head drive me to stay creative.

How do you most often start a new track?

It can start by an instrumental idea I have, or a melody or line that pops up in my head.

PYN at the pink guitar

How do you know when a track is finished?

This is the most difficult part of music. It is never really done, so at some point when I am happy and my team is happy, I send it to mixing and mastering engineers and they finish it.

Show us your current studio

PYN’s studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Make room for playing while you’re creating. The fun of creating must never disappear.

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

My latest releases are the song ‘Spring Fever‘ an up disco track and ‘Night Drive‘ an 80’s duet with MATTEO.


[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…
]