Davide Coretti – Dave Bundy

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

Doepfer Wasp filter

It’s definitely the Frequency knob of the Doepfer Wasp Filter, when the Resonance is 100%. I have two of them, because that filter has a unique character and timbre which i love!
They say it’s noisy and dusty dude, but that’s the way we like it.
All you need to do is to put the Resonance at 100% and tweak the frequency a little bit and you’ll find all the sweet spots you didn’t know you needed. LOVE IT.

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

XOR Electronics NerdSeq for sure.
It has tons of functions and possibilities, but triplets and 3 based tempos aren’t well implemented, so you’ll need to find lots of work-arounds to achieve it.
I must say that if you use the module the standard way – only with its built-in I/O – you’ll have a easier time with it, but if you push it, as I do, using tons of expanders and connections… then it can be very complex.

XOR Nerdseq

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

Through the years I tried to achieve the “standalone-repeatability” in modular synth world and I think i made it using the Nerdseq combined with the ES-9 and the MPC One.
I have a pre-patched system where every single module is patched to the NerdSeq and its CV Expanders, so I can reach and modulate most important knobs with the sequencer per step. The MPC is connected to the class compliant modular audio interface ES-9 from Expert Sleepers, which provide me an audio track per module (channel strip, eq, noise gates, compressor, fx, etc per single module).

MPC One and Eurorack

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

In my opinion there’re already so many possibilities both hardware and software that I can’t really tell which one I wish it was real/vst.. but for sure I’m still looking for a sequencer as the one in the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators or the Erica Synth Perkons HD-01, that can control external gear so easy as they do… maybe with integrated fx per step too?

Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator PO32

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

7 years ago, when I moved from my hometown (Taranto) to the city where I live now (Camerano) before buying a house with my wife – I needed to sell a bunch of gear and instruments that I still miss.
One of those is the 5U portable system from Synthesizers.com which I really loved and I would have loved to integrate with my current studio gear, to see what it could do with the latest sequencers and newer midi-cv connections.

Synthesizers.com 5U modular

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

If we talk about software I would say Propellerheads Reason 3.0 because it was my first love with a DAW and I still find some lost projects in it, like some ancient hard-disk that I try to recreate with new sounds and gear and it still is inspiring to me.

On the hardware side I would say the Make Noise Shared System with the CV Bus case for sure.
I didn’t have all the exact modules from the original shared system – because I didn’t get it as a whole piece, but module by module – but it was definitely the most inspiring gear that made me jam a lot and record some videos and tracks.
My only problem was the one-shot approach: once you switch it off you’ll never be able to recreate it perfectly (which IS also motivating/inspiring somehow)

Make Noise Shared System

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

Following my heart I’d say the Moog Voyager that was one of the synth I loved the most… but now a days it would probably be a Moog Matriarch, because of its character, paraphony, possibilities, easy layout, semi-modular structure and so on.

Moog Voyager

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

It’s the NerdSeq again. It was the game changer of my gear, but I had to choose an approach that fit its needs and it was – and is – not so simple.
I still use some of note sheets as summary of knob connections and reminder of hexadecimal values to reach certain sounds.
It’s probably the most annoying piece of gear to get prepared, but once it’s done.. just wow!
To avoid losing the flow – in fact – I use to get the track ready in Logic with VSTs and plugins and then translate it in NerdSeq language.

Nerding out with the Nerdseq

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

It is the Erbe-Verb secret drums!
Try sequencing the size knob of the Erbe-Verb module and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
Advice: set big differences between steps to hear it better. Check it out in this video here:
Dave Bundy – Floating (MakeNoise Shared System)


Artist or Band name?

Davide Coretti aka Dave Bundy.

Genre?

Industrial, OST, electro with constant melodic component.

Selfie?

Davide Coretti aka. Dave Bundy

Where are you from?

Italy.

How did you get into music?

My journey began in 2001 as a drummer, then in 2006 I discovered Nine Inch Nails and it all started… software, pedal effects, hardware, synths, modular synths, outboards, and so on.

What still drives you to make music?

Making music – to me – is a need and that’s the reason why most of the things I do are still on my hard-disk years later.
I used to share more in the past, but I don’t know when or why I stopped doing it.
Probably when internet got flooded by people talking too much, instead of playing something.

How do you most often start a new track?

The real question is “How often do you FINISH a track?”
As I said I do it for a need, so I start a new track anytime I need to put it out… recording an audio note on my phone, while working or driving, recording a jam or just sitting in the studio with an opened project.
All that’s not finished is still new.
It’s easy to start something fresh, but finishing it and moving on is the real point.

How do you know when a track is finished?

In my opinion a track is finished once it’s released or published.
But even in that case there’ll be remixes and alternative versions!
For this reason I keep all the unfinished tracks and projects in my hard-drives as a sort of Harry Potter’s Pensieve, where I can find old memories and feelings through years.. believe it or not but i remember every single project and the feelings that moved me, to start it in the exact moment I recorded it.
Yeah I know, it sounds a little bit weird and I probably am, but let me say that it is so good to open an old project and add something fresh to it, as a constant evolving train of thoughts through the years.

Show us your current studio

Studio 1
Studio 2
Studio 3
Studio 4

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

I think I heard it from Deadmau5 Masterclass.
He said to store every single pattern, project, sound or idea – apparently useless or without context – in a personal library, because there’ll always be a moment where you think that you’re stuck and that library would save you from using other people ideas, keeping your authenticity.

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

Not my latest, but one of my favorite one for sure (as Dave Bundy)
Dave Bundy – Amorphous
This is the latest one from my historic band, which I am the drummer and co-author of some songs. In this track I played drums and recorded most of the synth you hear using the Moog Slim Phatty.
It’s Today Or Never


M. Beckmann – Post Droner

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

Count to 5 by Montreal Assembly

The “E” switch on Count to 5 by Montreal Assembly, specifically on mode three. I love the eight seconds looping mode and that switch is the one that allows you to add a second and a third playback of the same loop, also reversed and pitched up or down, chromatically or at different intervals. I love the ability to abruptly add some sped-up elements.

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

Since I primarily loop stuff, I have to go with Blooper by Chase Bliss. Even though it has a 30 seconds limit and it’s mono (which contextually is what I would change), it’s a very powerful and versatile looper, and I could probably perform just with it – and say a guitar and reverb, or OP1, or a keyboard in general – and get plenty of inspiration.

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

Usually on holiday (since I don’t do many livesets) a backpack with my norns and grid by monome, OP1 Field and a stereo pedal – Zoia or Mood MkII, or Walrus M1 – maybe now the latest addition, Chroma Console.

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

Ridgewalk iOS app

I recently discovered Ridgewalk by Aqeel Aadam as AU on my iPad and I really love it, an original and accessible take on a looper/delay/granulator. I’d love to have it in pedal form. I guess I would expose my laziness by saying that I’d love to have any Spitfire library on hardware – because I could “just” learn cello or something. Though, since I love portability, I’d love if they could do some cheaper libraries for OP1 or stuff like that. That would be great.

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

I regret selling my 2019 monome norns shield. After I got my hands on the original
manufactured by monome, I kept it for 6 months or so, and then I decided to sell it. I really wish I didn’t, norns scripts are a real source of fun and potential ambient-electronic bliss, and having a couple of units should be really nice in a live DAWless setting.

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

Probably a tie between the app Samplr (I started 14 years ago heavily using iPad for making music) and the OP1 (I had the OG before the field), mainly for their sample mangling and looping capabilities. I love treating dusty recording as samples or loops, and both excel in that.

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

If I had not much money I would start over just like I started 14 years ago, which means an iPad and apps in the AUM ecosystem. I think iPad music making is also a good combination of software flexibility and tactile experience. There’s lots of inspiring stuff to explore. If I had plenty of money I would go modular – always in a sample-oriented way, like granular and looping modules above all. That’s very tempting!

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

Zoom H6

My Zoom H6 recorder, it is annoying in that it is old and also for the fact that five years ago or so I decided to set the screen as always backlit when powered on: the constant high brightness level started whitening the corners about 3 years ago and now the display is all white except for a central circle, where I can barely see the levels. I will need to change it some day.

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

Pladask Baklengs

This is not so much a trick or tip on a piece of gear, I probably have very little wisdom in that regard, but something I find useful to balance my dark EQ instinct, so to say. I very often tend to cut a lot the high frequencies while recording, but I do know that “they are good for me”, so I started using Baklengs by Pladask Elektrisk in its octave up mode right after Blooper, which creates a fluffy and digitally-warbly higher pillow of sound to lift up the whole piece. I mix it in as I go.

Chase Bliss Blooper

Artist or Band name?

M. Beckmann / the volume settings folder

Genre?

Ambient-drone-post rock

Selfie?

M. Beckmann / the volume settings folder

Where are you from?

Padua, Italy

How did you get into music?

Gawd, it’s been a journey! I was into techno-eurodance stuff between 7th and 9th grade, then a friend at school lent me a copy of Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, and I was hooked. From mainstream modern metal (here is where I started playing guitar, obviously) I started exploring the fringes – drone, post metal, post rock, ambient, electronica… and here I am!

What still drives you to make music?

I love making sounds and compositions that evoke the feeling of nostalgia, even if it’s not attached to a particular event or person (I recently found out that this is called anemoia, the nostalgia for a time you never experienced). That’s it. Better making this music myself than waiting for someone else to please my taste.

How do you most often start a new track?

By throwing a couple of chords – or a melody if I’m really inspired – into my pedals, start looping and building up from there.

How do you know when a track is finished?

I always finish a track – and by that I mean that since my approach is mainly improvisational and recorded on the spot, I can’t and I don’t want to treat it much further on my DAW (even though I sometimes do it). In fact, the feeling of knowing that I will not need to expand on what I recorded with some post-production is what makes me say that I did something good and I can consider it finished.

Show us your current studio

Table of fx pedals
Studio desk

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

To force yourself into using sounds or gear that you don’t like in principle, or make you uncomfortable, and incorporate even bits of these into your music. I don’t always put it in practice, but I have to admit that when I do the results are very good, more original than usual. I can’t remember who said this.

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

Here’s a link to my bandcamp page with the latest releases, and to my social network pages:
https://linktr.ee/thevolumesettingsfolder


Toto Ronzulli – Trumantic

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

Moog Cutoff filter

I really like the filter “cutoff” knob on my Minimoog Voyager. I love it because it’s so big and easy to use. It’s a pleasure to play with it anytime when you’re looking for the right filtering for your sound.

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

Ah… I think that easily changes over time. Hard to answer, but if I think of a “perfect effects kit” I say the trio Particle, Microcosm and Space. I’m using this combo heavily for my next record. I’m putting everything in it, from guitars to vocals and so on.

Red Panda Particle, Hologram Electronics Microcosm and Eventide Space

Many times I’ll throw in my Boss RE-20 Space Echo as well. Definitely changing over time is natural, so I would never want to have a “definitive kit”, especially when you start working on something new, changing something is a good way to be more creative.

Roland RE-20 Space Echo

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

During vacations I try not to think too much about music, but I always have with me my laptop with many vst, a small two octave midi keyboard by Korg and my Beyerdynamic heaadphones.

MacBook, midi keyboard and Beyerdynamic headphones

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

UAD Plugins

I have an Apollo rack unit from Universal Audio as my audio interface and it’s fantastic the quality of the included plug-ins, they sound so good and the sound is so hardware-like, I couldn’t ask for more in a way. Until a few days ago my dream was to get a Tascam Portastudio 414 MKII and it’s amazing that a soft-synths company called Robotic Bean has reproduced one and at such a low price, it sounds really great and I can’t wait to try it out. 

4 Track Cassette Tape

I love the endless possibilities of virtual instruments and their fidelity compared to hardware, but I would still love to get a Revox B 77 MKll to record anything onto tape and to add some wow/flutter turbulence and saturation to my songs. I love that recorder and will be buying one soon!

Revox B 77 MKll

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

I try to have “the essentials” in the studio, having a lot of equipment would be really nice, but it would confuse me during production and take up too much space. That’s why I choose my gear carefully, but I probably regret buying the Digital Multi Echo RE-1000 by BOSS. It’s a fun and uncontrollable unit because it doesn’t have the “rate” knob, but I use it so rarely and that’s why I think I can do without it. 

Boss Digital Multi Echo RE-1000

I regret selling my Roland Gaia, I didn’t love its “cold sound” but through a few pedals you could make it awesome. I miss its front panel because it was very intuitive, I had the ability to play out wacky sounds in minutes.

Roland Gaia

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

The equipment that has inspired me to write new music are many, but if I had to pick one I would probably say my Minimoog Voyager. 

Minimoog Voyager

Currently though, I’m using the Prophet Rev2 Desktop really heavily for everything, especially on my upcoming album. I love that sound and its polyphony so much.

Prophet Rev2 Desktop

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

UAD Apollo Soundcard

Probably an Apollo interface. It has infinitely improved my mixes, production and recording. I realized that many times it’s just not enough to have great synths or a ’65 guitar, if you don’t have a good audio interface with high definition sound in recording and post-production.

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

Furman M-10x E

The “Furman M-10x E” because it is bulky and has so many cables on the back of the desk! It’s also not fun, it only has an “on/off” switch (it has 2! haha) on the front panel. The reason I can’t do without it is pretty obvious. It saves the life of all my equipment all the time and I feel safer having it. I will be getting another one soon. I’ve always had bad experiences with the unstable electricity in my town, I remember the day after I bought the Voyager, oscillator number 3 had stopped working. It was frustrating to send back and still wait for a replacement. I have since decided to get a stabilizer and “Furman” does the job just fine.

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

Lately I’ve been testing a mixing technique that doesn’t require an acoustically treated room.

Just apply a VU meter to your daw’s master bus, play the kick around – 3 and gradually raise the bass until everything gets to 0, then mix everything else in. It may sound wrong but it sounds really good if you have good EQ on the low end. I also always test my mixes on a very small JBL to get a concrete reference of how the track sounds elsewhere. 

Tiny JBL speaker

I’ll add that I love to dirty some parts of my songs with lots of layers of backing tracks that go into different equipment and pedal combinations to create that “dreamy” atmosphere underneath a melody for example.

Dreamy fx pedals

Artist or Band name?

Truemantic

Genre?

Alternative / Indie / Electronica

Selfie?

Toto Ronzulli aka. Truemantic

Where are you from?

Margherita di Savoia, Puglia, Italy.

How did you get into music?

I was born in a club! At the end of the 80’s my father opened one and later in the 90’s it became very influential in southern Italy. Artists like “Afrika Bambaataa” were performing. I was born in ’94 and all this pushed me towards this direction. I remember when I was 4 years old my parents bought a toy drum set and I broke it by banging on the drums! Ahahah.
In the mid-nineties the club closed and reopened in 2006. All my teenage years were spent at the console with resident DJs and international guest artists like “Tony Humphries”. That’s why I started as a DJ and later as a musician, studying theory, solfeggio and practicing piano for years.

What still drives you to make music?

I realize that every time I sit in my room I feel so fascinated by the creative process. In a way I can’t describe the feeling I get, it may simply be an emotional state that drives me to create something new. Some days it’s frustrating to spend hours in the studio, other times it’s all I want. It’s like something you have inside that needs to be released!

How do you most often start a new track?

I hum and record with my smartphone a melody I have in my mind. Next, I sit in the studio and try to develop the theme. I think a film or book can influence my stylistic choices, but I also think the production is more of a “try and try again” in my studio.

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I add final texture elements and not additional “tool track”.

Show us your current studio

Truemantic studio

It’s not a real studio really, but something like a room.

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Create your own sound! It doesn’t matter how… Just do it!

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

https://truemantic.bandcamp.com/album/truemantic

https://margueriterecords.bandcamp.com/track/truemantic-destruction

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbws5Iz5TcKjS3iN7O_tMiw

My last two releases were 4 years ago and a lot has changed since then, from production to my setup! My first album ‘Truemantic’ came out in 2018 and my single ‘Destruction’ came out a year later. I’m currently working on my new album, concretely for about a year. There are so many amazing collaborations on it! I can’t wait to share it and play it live. I hope to stop by Copenhagen too!