Wolfgang Merx – Mr. X

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

Moog Sub 25
Moog Sub 25

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?

Moog Little Phatty Stage II
Moog Little Phatty Stage II

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?

Arturia Minifreak
Arturia Minifreak

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?

Moog Little Phatty
Little Phatty

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?

Nord Electro 5D
Nord Electro 5D

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?

Behringer Model D
Behringer Model D

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?

Doepfer A-121-3
Doepfer A-121-3 in the thick of it

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.


Artist or Band name?

Wolfgang Merx a.k.a. Mr. X.

Genre?

Berlin School, Kosmische Musik, Ambient, Synthwave and a bit of Funk.

Selfie?

Wolfgang Merx a.k.a. Mr. X

Where are you from?

Bedburg, Germany, close to Cologne and Düsseldorf.

How did you get into music?

I started listening to hard rock and prog rock when I was a teenager. The most important band that started my interest in synths and making music is Emerson Lake & Palmer. Hearing the sounds that Keith Emerson made with his famous and enormous Moog modular has been mind-blowing and very inspiring, even to this day. Klaus Schulze is my other major influence, along with Tangerine Dream which I discovered a few years later. Schulze’s spacy and dream-like music is amazing and shows what one person can do …with a lot of synths and keyboards. Tangerine Dream, being a band, expanded this idea in their unique way, adding a sense for fantastic group improvisations.

What still drives you to make music?

Listening to other people’s music and hearing sounds, for example in nature or in everyday life.

How do you most often start a new track?

Most of the time by either improvising a soundscape with pads or Mellotron sounds or by improvising a synth sequence.

How do you know when a track is finished?

I think that music is never finished if it is performed. But when I record music for a future release, I simply feel when the music calms down and a jam is coming to an end.

Show us your current studio

Mr. X’s studio setup

Mr. X’s studio setup

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Miles Davis once said: “Don’t play the butter notes.”

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

This is my latest album „Time Stands Still”, available on most platforms and Bandcamp, of course: https://wolfgangmerx.bandcamp.com/album/time-stands-still


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