Sascha Haber – Northern Light Modular

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

That one is easy… the knobs on my Tegeler Audio Manufaktur Schwerkraftmaschine.

Tegeler Audio Manufaktur Schwerkraftmaschine

I don’t have much outboard gear, but the Tegeler gear is simply outstanding.

They spend a good amount of practical engineering on those motorised pots and switches and seeing them turn while using the plugin is just magic.

And then you touch them during a session and they do not resist, but instead write the automation…

Wonderful german engineering 🙂 

Tegeler Audio Manufaktur Schwerkraftmaschine insides

2. What bit of music gear are you particularly proud of?

That is my TTSH/1601 combo… the piece of gear that started my soldering career i would say.
I always dreamt of owning and playing with an ARP 2600, and 6 or 7 years back there was no re-issues like today.

But then I hear about this swedish project that was around for a while and ordered a kit from Jon. Little did I knew what it takes to build an instrument! It took like 3 months and occupied most of the living room space all the time.

But there I started to invest in tools like a proper DMM, my first real soldering iron and a scope. I actually managed to finish the project, got it fully working and learned so much in the process.

So I started the Facebook group called TTSH and at some point I did a group buy and talked Behringer into selling us a few thousand fader caps.

TTSH/1601 combo

3. How do you see your gear in the landscape of music?

Very much as accessories to existing Buchla systems… like Akrapovic makes racing exhausts for Ducati, we make expansions for 4U systems.

When we started Northern Light Modular both Marc and I had a small DIY system.

Well, mine grew at that time as I built each and every kit that i could get my hands on and after a year I had a massive 24U system blinking at me.

But then we looked at things like the Ornaments and Crime, Temps Util or the offerings by Mutable Instruments at the time and thought, that kind of stuff is missing in the 4U world.

And instead of cross patching Euro to 4U we got in contact with Max, and Patrick and of course Emelie and looked into collaborations to port them into 4U.

The 2OC was our first project and at that time in 2017 very much a Euro module behind a 4U panel.

It took another year or two to adapt all the software to work properly in the 1,2V range, revert negative voltages and show proper values on the displays.

But it was a great time, 3D printers allowed us to experiment with front panels and making your own PCBs was exotic and fun.

2OC in 4U

4. What music has inspired you to produce this gear?

I am a sucker for Berlin synth school…Tangerine Dream etc.
The O_c is in my opinion the best multi tool one can add to a rack, even if it takes a bit of learning .

But once you figured out how to cascade the quantizer playing variations of simple shift register notes, it plays generative music that is not just random noise.
And I like that a lot.

5. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about your gear?

Haha… the stuff other people do with my gear compared to what I intended it to be used for always amazes me.

Like, we build this massive 3 voice oscillator, spend countless hours to make it track 8 octaves and FM in sync with each other.

Sounds like angels singing and then someone comes and cross modulates the FM with the sync and all hell breaks loose.

So I am just watching and standing in awe, one part of me wants to yank out the cables and the others is like, that is super impressive, bro.

Northern Light Modular Animated Tricillator Model 2AT

6. How did you get into music gear making?

Well, after that TTSH adventure, diverse EuroRack modules that came and went i stumbled upon the 4U crowd and how few options they had.

So we talked to Émelie Gillet (Mutable Instruments) and Max Stadler (Ornaments & Crime, Temps, Utile) about porting some of their designs and they were very helpful sharing and helping us up on the horse.

My lovely girlfriend Katrine, who built many of the SMD designs we have now, also is a wizard with the 3D printer and so we could prototype our new modules very quickly.

Like a great danish philosopher once said : 
Life in plastic, it’s fantastic  🙂

hOChTU

7. How do you most often start a new piece of gear? Where do the ideas come from?

Necessity I want to say, but that’s not quite true.

More often it is actually artists airing out ideas, pointing me to existing gear, or just imagining things.

Though the latest thing we’re making, was born from an idea to have a multi effect that works without any cables.
I have had a handfull of different guitar pedals and it really gets out of hand at some point with power and audio and midi cables.

So I wanted to build something that works straight in the Music Easel and can use its modulation.

We made a Kickstarter to found the project, I learned to program with Max/MSP at Notam/Oslo  over winter and BLAM!… we had a multi effect.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nlm/model-cardme-a-multi-effect-slot-card-for-the-buchla-208

Northern Light Modular – mobile effect engine

8. How do you know when a piece of gear is finished?

Is it ever ?

Most of our modules evolve constantly… either we fix small things here and there or sometimes, when they need a bigger change we made a V2 or V3 like with the Ornaments.
The latest version has input and output attenuators and LEDs indicate the actual level produced…
I think no other O-c in the market has that… and the software still works with that added hardware part.

Every year we also do special edition that we auction off for a good cause, and last year we made one for the international trans fund.

Northern Light Modular – Dual CV Polymorpher

9. What is the best creative or production advice that you’ve ever heard?

Go with the flow ! 

Turn off Facebook, put the phone on silent and jam… just record what you are doing, maybe you strike gold, maybe not 🙂


Selfie

Sascha Haber

Where are you from? Where are you based?

From Germany…the south…and based in Copenhagen since 2006 and Northern Light Modular has been operating since may of 2017, for six years now.

Show us your current studio/workshop!

Sascha Haber studio
Sascha Habers Studio

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

Northern Light Modular – http://northernlightmodular.com/
Modular Grid – https://bit.ly/2No5sus


Markus Mueller – Nebula Instruments

At SuperBooth 2023, I did an interview with Markus Mueller of Nebula Instruments.

He talked about his acoustic instrument the Euphone and the process of making it. It builds upon the tradition of the Cristal Baschet, but adds newer materials and features, such as the ability to re-amp sounds via the large metal reflector.

Check it out here: https://nebula-instruments.com/


nystada – Experimental Vibes

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

Klavis Twin Waves oscillator

One of the encoders on Klavis Twin Waves oscillator, which clicks so you can dial in tiny and well chosen amount of modulation. It’s good to have a haptic feedback on a knob for better control.

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

Elektron Model:Cycles

The Elektron Model:Cycles is quite close being perfect for my needs of sounds and sequencing. Especially the sequencer is fantastic plus the possibilities of sound shaping in a frequency modulation way, which I’m really into. On the downside it’s „just“ a fixed synth structure and this was one of the reasons I wanted to go modular. For example: just one LFO per sound engine didn’t felt right. in the way I want to explore sounds and movement. Included CV control would be a thing I’d want to change.

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

On holidays I normally take a break from music making itself. I take no gear with me, but maybe my laptop, so when I want to, I can open Ableton Live or VCV Rack and return to my roots of music production in a DAW.

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

I’d always prefer hardware over software, so in general there would be no reason for me to make a hardware into software. I’d like to have some Ableton Live sound shaping tools in Hardware, for example the Glue compressor or Color Limiter. Also the Spectrum analyser would be handy to have in a hardware environment. 

Ableton Glue compressor, Color Limiter and the Spectrum analyser

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

Not really. Since I was making music in a DAW for over a decade, I only bought some midi controllers, Once in a while a hardware synth or effect, but not that many and I always thoroughly considered which one to buy.
I still love my Microbrute for example or Akai LPD8 midi controller. I sold a Waldorf Streichfett and a Beatstep, but I’m still fine with it. 

Microbrute

Since my setup lately has become hardware only, it’s awesome to still have so many midi options that I’ve kept in boxes for many years. Same with cables.

Akai LPD8

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

Elektron Model:Cycles and Modular system. Hardware with many sound shaping options and hands-on control in general.

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

I’d still start with a DAW and VCV Rack to check out synths and workflow, if the fun continues then I’d get into hardware earlier.

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

Power modules which are 4hp wide, space which you need for another, nicer and more creative module, but without them the modular system wouldn’t even run. At least for my power system which I’m using at the moment.

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

The fact that so many tools in modular can produce sound like LFOs, envelope generators, filters… self-oscillation is fascinating.


Artist or Band name?

nystada 

Genre?

Electronic music with an experimental vibe

Selfie?

nystada

Where are you from?

Hamburg, Germany

How did you get into music?

Quite young as a kid I was into music. Watching music television in the 80s and 90s. Started playing the guitar at 12 years old. From grunge and Punkrock I got into EBM and synth pop, from Metal into Singer/Songwriter and TripHop.
I loved music so much and it is a reliable partner for most of my life. But besides playing the guitar from time to time, listening to music and writing for an online music magazine, it took a long time to feel confident with writing my own songs.
A good friend of mine was making music with DAWs and Midi controllers. I got more and more curious about it. The fact that I don’t need a band or other musicians to make complete songs was so fascinating, that I tried Cubase, but the whole thing started properly with Ableton Live 8.
About 2012/2013 I released my first songs via SoundCloud. Without my friend encouraging me on and on, I’d might never have started music production.

What still drives you to make music?

Mostly the love for sounds and the never ending urge for exploration of sounds. For me it’s a journey with many precious moments that’s like no other input for your heart and soul. Its good to tame the inner demons, to process the part of you that is simply beyond words. It just feels good and right to spend time, only me and my music. Pausing the every day struggles in life.

How do you most often start a new track?

By searching for nice sounds. By letting it flow and trying to have fun with all the shaping tools. Only when it’s fun and a bit feeling like a child playing with whatever what makes sounds, and I’m in a curious mood, one thing leads to another. The best tracks just happen by accident I’d say. Mostly it’s important for me that it is about having fun and enjoying the moment. 

How do you know when a track is finished?

Sessions on the eurorack

That’s a special topic for me. In my mostly DAW driven musical times, I couldn’t stop working on tracks, on master effects, mixing duties and so on. At some point it was no fun at all and I got frustrated more and more. At the moment recording Eurorack sessions to see if it turns out to be a nice track or not is the key for me.

If not I just start from scratch another day. When I’ve played the guitar it always felt good and calming, with hardware synths and modular I can reproduce that feeling. And if a session is good it may be a track or not. I’m not so into producing tracks anymore, mostly recording music and see if it fits.

Show us your current studio

nystada studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

It’s good to limit yourself sometimes, Limitation of the number of sound making machines and options you have in a studio environment. Taking part in some of the Disquiet Junto challenges is great, where you apply some compositional specifications and you are limited to special sounds and special topics for example, this had a great impact on my journey. https://disquiet.com

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

In the middle of July I’ve released a 2 track via the Zenvampires art collective. It features live recorded Eurorack sessions with only a few tweaks in Ableton.

https://zenvampires.net/2023/07/nutzpolitik/zenvampires.net

https://nystada.bandcamp.com