Jérôme Vergez – Minimanalog

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

SSL Console Faders
SSL G serie console faders

My favourite fader is the motorized fader of the first SSL I touched. I wasn’t 20 years old when I had the chance to work as a sound assistant on a SSL G serie console… I’ve always had this fascination for analog consoles, especially SSLs. But I also love fiddling with the Cutoff of my Moog!

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

Verbos modules are almost perfect except their price… They are so perfect when they are combined all together.

Verbos Electronics Eurorack
Verbos Electronics Eurorack

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

I don’t really have a fixed setup. I like to change following desires or projects. On holiday, I usually only bring one machine, like a synth, a mini modular or a drum machine.

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

Nothing in particular. The software and hardware offerings are so wide.

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

I am constantly buying and selling… I have even sold and bought back up to 3 or 4 times the same machine… I really have to stop doing this. Today I’m trying to stabilize my setup by keeping only the essential parts.

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

The eurorack modular modules are the most inspiring instruments for me. There are so many possibilities that you can build the instrument you want according to your style and your objectives. I can’t stand the idea of empty spaces in my case. I try to stay on a certain size of case with modules that I like to exploit at 100%.

Eurorack modules

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

Starting over would mean buying a powerful MacBook with Ableton Live as you can produce whatever you want on a laptop. And since I need a knob box and real cables to be inspired… I would buy a Moog Sirin.

Moog Sirin
Moog Sirin

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

My Synthi A. This is by far the most inspiring. It is known for being a synth of research and experimentation, but used in a more classical way it produces sounds with extremely rich harmonics. Before realizing my dream and acquiring one in good condition, I think I had all the clones, copies, or modules inspired by this synth.

EMS Synthi A
EMS Synthi A

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

When I discovered that you could use a spring reverb like a drum machine, simply by turning off the power and plugging it back in.

Knas Ekdahl Moisturizer
Knas Ekdahl Moisturizer

Artist or Band name?

Jérôme Vergez

Genre?

Ambient, Minimal, Techno, EBM

Selfie?

Jérôme Vergez

Where are you from?

Toulouse, France.

How did you get into music?

When I was 18, I got my hands on a Roland S50 sampler, and it was already too late, I was infected.

What still drives you to make music?

I’m always looking for something. A quest that still doesn’t seem to me to be finished, a work that is never finished. That’s why I always have trouble finishing my titles. I have to focus on one task at a time, and move forward step by step, preventing myself from referencing the things from the previous stages.

How do you most often start a new track?

I don’t have any rules. It can be a sample, a patch on my modular, a bass line, an idea that’s lying around… etc.

How do you know when a track is finished?

Never! That’s the problem (see above…)

Show us your current studio

Jeromes Studio
Jeromes Studio
Jeromes Analog Synth Rack

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

To not necessarily try to respect the rules that can be heard or found on the web and not to fall into habits (especially those of others…).

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

https://linktr.ee/jeromevergez


Peter Griffiths – Yunome

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

KNAS Ekdahl Moisturizer Spring reverb
KNAS Ekdahl Moisturizer Spring reverb

The Multimode Filter knob with its flashing lights and the red LFO Filter knob on the modified KNAS Ekdahl Moisturizer Spring reverb makes me smile when I feed it noises which can often become thunderous, scary sounds, and this unit is an instrument in its own right with a preamp, a multimode filter and an LFO. Sorry, that was two knobs! Oh, and don’t get me started on the switches on this thing 😉

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

Erica Synths Zen Delay

I have a thing for hardware delay pedals, and I love the Erica Synths Zen Delay; it’s almost perfect; it would have been nice to have software control or an app to have deeper controls/options like the new software version, which has bit depth and sample rate controls. 

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

A desktop of synths

I have taken the 1010 Music Nanoboxes, Lemondrop and Razzmatazz, as they are mighty and creative little machines. Usually, I take one FX pedal, such as the Chase Bliss Habit, and it all gets recorded into the Tascam Portacapture X-8.

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

I got my wish recently when Erica Synths made a software version of the Zen Delay, so that’s pretty cool! 

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

I haven’t regretted selling any hardware to date. Once I decide it’s going, it’s because it isn’t making sense in my current setup. My worst purchase was the Roland TR-8.

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

Soma Laboratory Pulsar-23

The Pulsar-23 is a drum synth on steroids with 23 independent modules, I use it to synthesise drums and rhythms, bass and melodic lines, effects and sound landscapes, and it’s a crazy source of control voltage and a decent analogue FX processor all in one unit. 

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

Any Soma Laboratory gear. The Rumble of Ancient Times is a clever little deep and gnarly synth with a Chaos button to randomise and shake things up.

Soma Laboratory – Rumble of Ancient Times

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

Not so much annoying, but my trusty old Erica Synths Fusion Mixer I use for spicing up drums or synths. It’s only irritating because it’s in euro rack format and is one of only two modules that survived my euro rack cull. So I had to buy a wee case for them.

Erica Synths Fusion Mixer

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

Not input mixing (no external input) This is routing the output back to one of your inputs on your mixing desk and using gain and EQ to create different tones/noises/synth-like sounds internally, call it a feedback loop. You can spice up your feedback loop by adding FX into the signal chain, and then you have infinite sonic possibilities.


Artist or Band name?

YUNOME, aka Pete Samplers and 12modes.

Genre?

Dancing across experimental electronica, house, techno and breakbeat 

Selfie?

Peter Griffiths – YUNOME, aka Pete Samplers and 12modes.

Where are you from?

I am from the Wirral, a little Peninsula in the North West of the United Kingdom close to Liverpool.

How did you get into music?

One chance gig at my local youth club when I was 13, and I was hooked on Electronic music. I was lucky to grow up close to Liverpool and Manchester, which had great music scenes back in the 90s. I spent most of my teenage years in record shops and clubs there. 

What still drives you to make music?

My deep curiosity for how music makes people feel and my need to make sound with whatever I can get my hands on. My wife says I am a much better human when I make music.

How do you most often start a new track?

It can be many ways, but it usually starts with me seeing or reading something that inspires me, then that gets interpreted as a synth line, or I program some drums and riff off of that.

Chase Bliss Habit, Boss DS-1 Distortion, Zen Delay, Eventide H9, Source Audio SA 263 Collider Delay+ Reverb

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I am not fussing around it anymore, once it gets to the stage where adding anything else will ruin the vibe and simplicity of the arrangement, it is time to park it.
It is always best to return to it later with a bit of distance; then, you can see with rested ears and a fresh perspective.

Show us your current studio

Younome studio dektop
Younome studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Press record! Said my friend and fellow producer, Euan Murchie.

I often jam for hours and sometimes cannot re-create some of the things that happened during some sessions when I wanted to translate some stuff into arrangements, so having the record button armed is an obvious solution.

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

There are two 12modes tracks on my Bandcamp right now. 

A YUNOME album which will drop in the autumn.


[Editor: There are affiliate links to the relevant gear throughout the articles. It helps to support this blog. In fact, should you be needing some patch cables or guitar strings. Then clicking on one of the above links and buying any product that you prefer, will help the blog… doesn’t even have to be the ones in the link. Thx]


Joseph Holiday – Snakes Of Russia

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

Two way tie: my filter cutoff on my Moog Model D, and the one on the Roland SH101 because they are probably my 2 favorite filters of all time.

Moog Model D
Roland SH101

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

The Lyra 8 [US, EU]. It’s absolutely brilliant…but I kind of wish it had more CV control, but I end up using it a lot with my euro rig so absolutely no complaints!

Lyra 8

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

I have a smaller skiff case that I like to bring with me sometimes…either that or a newer piece of gear that I want to go deep with and some headphones.

Small eurorack skiff

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

This is such a great question! Usually stuff that I wish were hardware actually IS hardware, just completely out of reach to me. I love the Arturia Synthi V, and it’s the closest I will probably get to an actual Synthi. Also the Waves Abbey Road Collection… I don’t think I will have access to those plates anytime soon haha. And the other way around…I just got an Overstayer Modular Channel which is incredible on its own as hardware…but being able to automate some of the parameters would be insane.

Overstayer Modular Channel

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

I have way too many string libraries.

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

Definitely my eurorack rig.

Eurorack setup

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

Ableton and a laptop.

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

My Roland RE201 Space Echo. I use it on almost every hardware synth I am tracking to some degree. It is easily the most temperamental piece of gear in here, and completely unpredictable, but I love it.

Roland Space Echo RE210

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

For a long time I never paid attention to the “external instrument in” on a lot of things like the Lyra and Model D. Now I use those all the time, sending kicks or something through them.


Artist or Band name?

Snakes of Russia

Genre? 

Dark electronic 

Selfie?

Snakes Of Russia

Where are you from? 

Born in NYC, raised in NJ, but I have been in LA for 20 years.

How did you get into music?

I’ve always been into music really, I started playing drums at 13 and then into electronic music shortly after when I discovered sampling.

What still drives you to make music?

It’s literally the only thing I can do well.

How do you most often start a new track?

I try to start something new every day…sometimes this will turn into a track..or a sample, preset, or just a fun experiment. I firmly believe there is no such thing as writers block. You just gotta show up. Write every day. 80% of that will be stuff you don’t use, but in that 20% there will be something, even a spark to a bigger idea. And in our world of electronic music, even in the ideas we don’t use…there is a cool patch, sound design element, chord progression or something to pull from so save all of that stuff and revisit it from time to time.

How do you know when a track is finished?

I am a firm believer in both deadlines and proper mastering, and those two work really well together. The day I start a mix, I schedule mastering a week or two out…so it has to be done. Then mix and revise, with usually with a day in between each revision (for perspective) until its feels good. Then I let it go. I learned a long time ago, you have to just walk away at some point…there is always something to tweak and it will drive you insane and you will never finish anything.

Show us your current studio

Snakes of Russia Studio
Snakes of Russia Studio
Knas Ekdahl Moisturizer
vocal booth
Snakes of Russia Studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

It’s a ridiculous one…”write drunk, edit sober”…I think it’s been incorrectly associated to Hemingway all these years. The way I interpret it is… just get it all out while it’s happening…then go back and refine it with fresh ears and perspective and fine tune things.

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

I’ve just released a 3 song single on Errorgrid called “Carried to California In A Swarm of Bees”. You can stream it or purchase with the link below! 

Snakes of Russia Bandcamp


[Editor: There are affiliate links to the relevant gear throughout the articles. It helps to support this blog. In fact, should you be needing some patch cables or guitar strings. Then clicking on one of the above links and buying any product that you prefer, will help the blog… doesn’t even have to be the ones in the link. Thx]