digitakt Archives - Martin Yam Møller

OliverHald – 4 Tracking Duo

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

The switches of our Pioneer RT-707 reel to reel that was a gift from Mikkels wife’s uncle Peter!

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

Tascam 424 mkiii – Is so perfect, but I really wish it looked like the older brown portastudios with the vu-meters and all the colorful knobs. This model has a very, shall we say, nineties aesthetic. Once we started recording with that instead of an interface, it all just made sense!

2.1 Hagström Viking Baritone guitar.

It’s so pretty and the perfect size for me (Mikkel) to play. Mikkel plays it “Chalie Hunter-style” with two bass strings and four guitar strings for extended tonal range. A “Submarine Pro” pickup sends the two bass strings out one output and the four guitar strings are sent though another output. I guess it has already undergone plenty of modifications, so no more are needed.

2.2 Volca Beats

It just sounds really cool and dusty – I just wish it could save more than 8 patterns…. And included a mono synth……. So we use it together with a Volca Kick, Volca Modular, a walkman and have an Elektron Digitakt midi sequence everything:

2.3 Jacobs Fender Rhodes MKII from 1985

So so so, perfect…. Except for the weight!!!!!!

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

3.1 Mikkel Hald

A childrens guitar and a notebook for gear-dreaming and a Zoom R8 for recording sketches if anything good should emerge from holiday noodling.

Zoom R8, sketch book and acoustic guitar

3.2 Jacob Oliver

Yamaha Reface CP and my notebook for sketches. The Reface is easy portable, runs on batteries and small. The perfect “sketchbook”.

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

I really wish we didn’t need software at all.

Trying to get as close as possible with our 4-track tape (Tascam 424 mkiii) setup for recording and mixing down to 2-track reel to reel (Pioneer RT-707) The “mastering” is just a limiter and an EQ to cut a lot of bass before going to the 2-track reel to reel. The output from the 2-track is then recorded to a computer to send to streaming services.

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

I regret selling the original MFB Tanzbär. The sounds were really cool and seventies dusty in just the right way, but the build quality, and the sequencer interface put me off.

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

I (Mikkel) have always hated delays…… until I “discovered” tempo-synced delays. So an electric guitar with a tempo synced delay and Jacobs Fender Rhodes.

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

Mikkel: A nylon string guitar – it’s just such a lovely and acoustic sound.

Jacob: A vintage vibe electric piano, which is a new instrument, that is a mix of a Rhodes and a Wurlitzer….. but it’ so much lighter than my actual Fender Rhodes from 1985.

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

Stupid, stupid computer that we need to transfer our perfectly flawed analog creations from tape to wav-files so that it can uploaded to streaming services.

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

The Tascam 424mkiii is really great for our creative process. We record live to all 4 tracks at once and do a mix down to a 2-track reel to reel (Pioneer RT-707). The 424 only has a basic eq and for reverb we just send direct to a spring reverb tank and mix that in when mixing down to the 2-track reel to reel (Pioneer RT-707).

Some people are very talented at mixing – we are not. So we try our best to embrace the “demo-sound” in our recordings. We would never ever be able to make it sound any more professional anyways – so might as well embrace the “sound”, mistakes and all:-)

Artist or Band name?

Oliverhald

Genre?

Nordic electro-acoustic jazz

Selfie?

Where are you from?

We both live in the Copenhagen area of Denmark, but met at gymnasium (high school) in Aarhus, Denmark.

How did you get into music?

Mikkel – My father plays the guitar, and my mother played the organ when she was young.

Jacob – My father played the cello and my brother and sister also played music. I was the only one to keep playing. And the real eyeopener was when I started exploring jazz music. That was so nice!

What still drives you to make music?

It’s so cool to actually make something from scratch that you get to take way way too seriously and nerd-out about full throttle.

How do you most often start a new track?

Most of the time one of us brings a tiny groove/chord snippet to rehearsal, and we build melody and song structure together from there. Sometimes Jacob plays something while Mikkel tunes the guitar or Mikkel plays something when Jacob is adjusting the Rhodes with a screwdriver.

How do you know when a track is finished?

With the very limited recording setup (4-track cassette and 2 track reel to reel) we have, there is not a lot that can be done after recording. We listen back, pick the take that we like the most, do small eq adjustments and mix down to 2-track from there. And then it is done.

Show us your current studio

We rehearse and record in Mikkels basement in Valby.

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

“Don’t overthink it and just do something”.

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

We just finished playing 3 gigs as part of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival that we are extremely proud of.

Besides that, we have released our first EP on vinyl and CD:

https://elasticstage.com/oliverhald/releases/sma-album

Our music is of course also on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/70bhgkzt4Sguy8HsNXRWoY?si=kzrtLyDDQYifDa_8g42ycg

Chrome Shadow – David Eilertsen

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

Not really a knob, but I love the matte black clicky buttons on the Digitakt and I’m a bit of an Elektron fanboy. The buttons are just very satisfying and of high quality. I definitely prefer hardware over software.

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

I love grooveboxes and I’m still searching for that perfect one. The Digitakt is pretty close, especially with the new firmware adding song mode and new machines. It’s a future classic.
I do wish it had a rechargeable battery, stereo sampling and more than 8 audio tracks.
I made the internal battery mod for it, but it wouldn’t fit inside because of the way i attached the bms board. Plan ahead man! Oh well, I had to desolder the thing and along the way I sort of shorted the battery pack. I might give it a go again someday.

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

I often take the Korg Electribe 2. It’s definitely a favorite of mine and the one piece of gear I have kept the longest. I also have the sampler version with the hacktribe mod. Looks very techno in matte black, nice! It’s portable, well built, battery powered and has lots of hands on control. It can export stems to Ableton (all 16 tracks) and even chained patterns, making it easy to make a full track. I think it’s a very underrated machine. Check out rbeny on youtube.
He created some great ambient and droney stuff with it. Also check out Legowelt he also used the tribes for live stuff. The box does have some limitations though (voices). Korgs latest update was in 2016 which makes me very very sad.

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

I can’t really think of any. I think that there are so many options today in both realms. Wavetable, FM, granular, modular etc. With software I use Ableton Live for arrangement, mixing and so forth. Izotope Ozone for basic mastering. And that’s it basically. I used to be a Native Instruments Komplete user, but moved over to hardware.

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

When getting a new piece of gear I usually sell some other stuff and I don’t mind my setup changing and evolving. I love the chase of finding used gear for a good price and I enjoy fixing broken stuff. Sometimes it’s just a bad solder joint or a part that needs to be replaced.
I’ve had many different synths and nerdy stuff over the years and I don’t regret buying or selling any of it. But I have to say I do miss the Synthstrom Deluge sometimes. It ticks a lot of boxes. If it had the possibility to edit waveforms on that new Oled screen, that would be fantastic. Who knows it might come in a future update.

The Korg Electribe EMX-1 is another great device that was hard to let go of. I got it for a very good price because it had a bad power socket. I replaced it with one from an old guitar pedal. Worked like a charm. It’s a very fun and immediate machine and it sounds great with those tubes.

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

I think all the instruments I have owned have been inspiring and fascinating in that certain period of time. It’s always inspiring when you get something new. But this can also be a hindrance in regards to finishing music. Mostly because there’s a lot of learning involved.
Maybe the goal is just to learn and have fun with those toys that make bleepy noises.

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

I would learn to play one instrument really well. Like a piano, the double bass or maybe a nyckelharpa?

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

I recently got an old octatrack mk1 in rough condition. It was covered in stickers, had some bad encoders and a broken compact flash connector. I got a really good deal and was able to fix it with parts from Elektron. Now it almost looks new again. I was afraid that I would hate it, because of its complex workflow and steep learning curve. But actually, I love it! It’s a lot of fun and definitely annoying.

At one point I got into modular. Built a 9u rack, then decided to downscale as I got tired of the sounds and sold most of it. I had some modules left and used them in this little retro suitcase project which I think turned out great. It’s a little cumbersome to tune the oscillators every time and I don’t use it that much. But still, there’s something engaging with that playful, experimental approach to making music. And sometimes the patch you create just sounds like shit. So annoying, but so addictive.

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

I’m still learning the octatrack and recently discovered that you can use external gear as send effects. The dark reverb on the machine is ok but not great. So being able to use the Eventide Blackhole with the octatrack is awesome.