Tag: korg

Aage Johnson – Sounds like ‘Oh’

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

The mighty Hammond Organ

After giving this a lot of thought, I must admit it’s the power switch on almost any piece of gear. If not all gear. Being a Hammond organ player by heart, it’s always a bit of a cliffhanger, if the instrument will work or even turn on from one gig to the other – and with newer synths, the joy of seeing the lights flicker across the instrument when turning on, is pure bliss! The rest seems purely functional, but that first way of making contact with the instrument by turning it on does it for me. That almost sounds wrong.

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

What first comes to mind is my Holy Grail (old reverb pedal). It has one knob: reverb amount. There’s absolutely nothing I would change on it. If not that, it’s gotta be the Korg MS-10. Super simple and perfect for what it can do and does. If I could change anything, it might be another oscillator – or the possibility of hearing a polyphonic version of it. Oh, and midi.

EHX Holy Grail

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

Holidays and commutes is where I bring the outcome of other people’s gear and ideas: their music. Since most of my worklife is based around music, holidays are not really a thing. Other people’s holidays are my busiest times of the year, and… well, as musicians, we don’t really take time off, do we? There’s always some sort of music going on… and this question got me thinking: if there was a piece of gear, I could bring – and this is sort of a dream for me – it would be the Vongon Replay. I don’t own one, and unfortunately never tried one, but wow… just look at it!

Vongon Replay

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

I only use Ableton when it comes to software, but definitely wouldn’t wish all my hardware had turned to software overnight.

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

I bought an MS-20 and an MS-10 in 1998 and paid 2100 Danish kroner (about 300 dollars) for both of them. However, they seemed to be broken, ‘cause none of them produced more than one note at a time. Disappointed as I was, I sold them again for 2500 kr.
I did, however, buy an MS-10 a few years back, and love it to heaven and back.

Korg MS-10

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

The Hammond Organ. No doubt. The simplicity and it’s way of letting it sound like you can actually play, when all you do is just switch between a couple of keys and know your C7.

Hammond Organ

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

A band. Definitely. That has always been the main reason for playing music: hanging out, sharing stories and creating music. Dreaming.

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

The Roll’or’kari’s (dolly to haul the Hammond B-3 around). It’s heavy as hell, even by itself, and then you slap them on a 150 kg organ and carry them both. Hate it.
If it’s playable gear, it would be the Chase Bliss Mood. Not even the MKII. The first one ‘cause it’s such a beautiful piece of aesthetic wonder. Can make anything sound good and musical. Thing is, I still don’t really know exactly how it works or what it does and when it does it. Sort of like eating food when on vacation. You don’t really know what it is, how it tastes so good or what the consequences will be…
When it comes to annoying gear, that I wish I could sell, it’s the Chase Bliss CXM 1978. I wish I’d just sell it, but it just sounds so damn good. And those motorized faders… (getting chills just typing this)

Chase Bliss CXM 1978

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

Ooooh, this is a great question! Nikolaj Svaneborg from Svaneborg Kardyb taught me this trick for the Juno-6 and 60’s:

Set the resonance at 7 or 8, set the ‘kybd’ knob to 10, turn off all three oscillators, set the filter to 10 and then slide the fader down until tones start to come out. You can tune it quite precisely, but you never get it to tune perfectly – that’s the charm:-)

This sound can be heard on the track ‘Balancen’ from their newest album.

Juno-6

Artist or Band name?

The Orgelheimers, Nairobi Auto Service, Me Llamo Speedos and Hippie Da DA

Genre?

Hammond stuff, Ethiojazz, souljazz, surf, electronica, calm stuff

Selfie?

Nikolaj Aage Høi aka Aage Johnsen

Where are you from?

Copenhagen based

How did you get into music?

Wanted to hang out with the kids playing music in the small town I grew up in. It was an easy transition from skateboarding into music.

What still drives you to make music?

Good question. I’ve been low on drive for a while. The hassle of playing live, working with musicians (who run different notions of time and professionality) and a general “Why do we do this? Why do people need to hear this?”. And frankly, this is still a question for me. The key so far is sharing. Bringing music to people for whatever reason. As long as it means something. As long as it matters.

How do you most often start a new track?

By hearing a melody, beat or bassline in my head.

How do you know when a track is finished?

Usually doesn’t take long. when there are no more ideas that present themselves in relation to the piece I’m working on. Sometimes it’s as simple as others saying: “I think it’s great like this!”, then it’s done.

Show us your current studio

Studio space

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

“No matter how much you practice, you can’t run away from who you really are”. Meaning: you are you, and you’ll sound like you. That’s who people go to see/listen to. They don’t listen to you to hear Bowie or Engelbert Humperdinck.

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

Maybe this odd piece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6hVgcTTGJg

Thanks for reading:-)

Tristan Rodman – Simulcast

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

Back when I was working as a recording engineer, I got to assist on a session at Electro-Vox, which is just on the edge of Hollywood. They have an unbelievable gear collection — Neve console, every synthesizer you could name, Hal Blaine’s old drum kit, that kind of thing.

Tascam 4-track and 500 series rack

But when I think about the week or so I spent there, I think about the knobs on the Eventide PS101 Instant Phaser that they had racked alongside all the classic Altec and UA preamps. They’re shiny, tactile, and resist with the perfect amount of heft when you turn them left or right.

Even now, it’s easier to see what they look like by seeing Eventide’s plugin emulations, because so many of the original knobs have been replaced on the outboard units they belong to. They’re similar to the knobs on the H910, but I always liked the simplicity of the Instant Phaser better. Still sounds like the future.

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

Univox Mini-Korg K2

I have a 1974 Univox Mini-Korg K2, which is my favorite monosynth. When I got it, the previous owner had installed a CV-to-MIDI conversion in the back, but the voltage has always been off when I try to sequence it. So I suppose to make it perfect, I’d just have to dig in and get it fixed 😂

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

Critter & Guitar 5 Moons

These days, I like to bring a bunch of tiny, weird microphones and plug them into a Critter & Guitar 5 Moons. Contact mics, transducer mics, a Crank Sturgeon Town & Mouth Report — whatever I can throw into a lunchbox. It makes it fun to invite people in and collaborate.

If I can swing it, I’ll also bring my Casio SK-1, which is my favorite small keyboard for so many obvious reasons.

Casio SK-1

And I’m not sure if this counts, but I purchased a small Bluetooth speaker for my Crocs, which has been really handy around the campfire.

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

The answer to both questions for me is simple: filters. I want all my filter plguins to be hardware because it’s impossible to capture the sound of analog filters. And I want all my outboard filters to be software because it’s so easy to recall!

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

I sold two things when I was in high school before going off to college, and I regret both sales deeply.

  1. A Casio DG-20 electronic guitar
  2. A pair of original Technics SL-1200 turntables

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

Casiotone 701

Outside of my electric guitar, which wins on sheer quantity because I’ve been playing it since I was 12, the answer is my Casiotone 701. It’s been my primary keyboard in almost every apartment I’ve lived in, and so it’s been the machine I go to when I have an idea and need to bang it out.

There are 2 or 3 drum patterns on there I always return to, and the electric piano sound is perfectly soft. There’s no velocity sensitivity so it forces me to put a ton of emotion into the progressions and melody, because I can’t summon any dynamic change. Then later, when I’m able to play with quiet and loud, everything can be that much more impactful.

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

I don’t think I’d change a thing, honestly. Every detour led me to where I am today.

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

AM radio transmitter

I have an AM radio transmitter than I’ve hooked up into my patch bay. It’s a pain in the ass to get a signal, and a pain in the ass to get signal into it. But it’s the coolest thing in the world to be able to send a track out from Ableton, into the airwaves, and then back in by recording a handheld AM radio. Magic.

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

I love outboard drum machines, but I don’t nearly have the money for my favorites — a Linn Drum, a Drumulator, or a DrumTraks. But! I do have an Alesis HR-16 and some hacked ROM cards you can find on eBay. Does the trick in a pinch.

Alesis HR-16

Artist or Band name?

Simulcast

Genre?

post-apocalyptic punk

Selfie?

Tristan Rodman

Where are you from?

Los Angeles, CA

How did you get into music?

When I was 5 years old, my friend Carly took me to the Virgin Megastore. She was friends with my parents, and the perfect non-parental adult figure in my life — the first person to give me perspective on my own family. She asked what CD I wanted to buy. I told her I wanted Irresistible by Jessica Simpson. She said no and bought me Daft Punk’s Discovery instead. The rest is history.

What still drives you to make music?

I work at Splice now, where I’m empowered to ask musicians how they make their music. Those conversations inspire me to keep going.

How do you most often start a new track?

Late at night, baseball on TV, sitting on the couch with an acoustic guitar.

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I start coming up with reasons why I shouldn’t put it out.

Show us your current studio

Tristan’s studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Someone repeated this to me from a songwriting workshop they took with Chris Cohen, so I’m probably getting it wrong in the game of telephone. But the general idea is that there are two creative modes: generation and organization. And I’ve extended that with the realization that whenever I’m stuck, it’s because I’m trying to force one when I should be doing the other.

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

This is embarrassing, because my “latest” is something from 2019. I’ll put out new music soon. But until then: https://open.spotify.com/album/6GG1EOSk4SLqmh7Dzfw6FV

Starsky Carr – Starry Racks

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

Midimini by Studio Electronics

That’s not something I’ve thought of before. I definitely have a least favourite and that’s the alpha dial on my Juno 2. But if I were to pick one it would be the very retro switches on the Thermionic Culture Vulture and especially the MIDIMini V30. In the US switches turn on when you flick them up, unlike most that turn on when you switch them down. Flicking them up reminds me of old Sci-Fi movies so for a brief moment I feel like an astronaut.

Midimini by Studio Electronics Switches

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

For what it does you can’t beat the Minimoog. I know it’s a cliche but there’s a reason it’s such a classic.  I have the 2016 reissue, and when I first used it I was taken aback by how much the experience of interacting with the interface influences your behavior.  If your first few years with a synth were trying to program the Juno 2 and navigating Roland’s 90’s digital interfaces on tiny screens, a big old simple analogue is a revelation.  You spend much more time sculpting tones, and it’s so self explanatory there’s no need for presets. It’s instant gratification, but more modulation options would improve it. I have recently purchased an AJH Synth MiniMod Keyz, and that takes the Minimoog to a whole new level. It’s not as instant, but there are new worlds to explore. A bit like a Minimoog and Odyssey combined in a modular setting. Wonderful!

Arp Odyssey and AXXE

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

It very much depends on what I’m doing at the time. Last year I took the Polyend Play with me on a few trips, and this year I’ve been playing with the Sonicware ELZ_1 Play. It has to be something I can produce more than a single tone at a time and something I can run on batteries. I did try doing stuff on my a few years ago iPad, but it soon got confusing and too technical to be anything but frustrating, although there are some amazing apps like the Animoog

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

I love Arturia Pigments, which would be nice as hardware. I guess Waldorf Iridium is the closest as a physical instrument. Mainly though I think most well designed software works well precisely because its software, and a good piece of hardware works because of the physical interface, as software it would most likely be underwhelming. But if I had to choose, a Pigments synth and Iridium in software…. But then they’re almost the same thing!

Waldorf Iridium and the gang

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

Roland Jupiter 4

I sold a Jupiter 4 and System 100 to a guy for £100 each on the same day. I was living in an apartment with no heating and he turned up in a Range Rover! Needs must and I needed synths that I could control via MIDI. In the days before DAWs when you were running 48 tracks live and using SMPTE to sync to 8-track tape, anything to make life easier was essential. I put the proceeds toward a BassStation Supernova which paid its dues for years. At the time it was the smart move, so I guess I can’t regret it too much, but everyone has a war story of selling classics for peanuts. Maybe I regret replacing the Jupiter 4 a few months ago. My younger self would be pulling his hair out at the price I paid!

Korg Polysix

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

Oberheim OB-X8

There’s been so many over the years.  The Akai S950 and S3000 were integral before software replaced them. I hammered the life out of them, as well as the Supernova. But after selling most of my typical “90’s collection” and going almost fully in the box for a couple of years, I started buying hardware again. Each piece has its moment. The Prophet 08 was a source of constant inspiration, but was replaced by the Prophet 6 and OB6. They couldn’t compete in terms of modulation options which is when I started getting into some modular pieces.  The reason I’ve ended up with such an assortment is so I can move regularly from one to another to avoid falling into the same routine.

Analog Solutions FuseBoxx and MoogerFoogers

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

If I had absolutely nothing the first thing would obviously be a computer. The studio I built in the 90s will have cost around £40k, which would be around £94k in today’s terms. Now you can have the same with a cheap PC, Roland Cloud and a couple of other subscriptions. It’s unbelievable really.  So for hardware, I’d start with something that can take you to places you can’t go with a DAW. I’d probably go with something wild like the PWM Malevolent that’s so good at delivering those little sonic hiccups and dirt. It’s another texture that you’re not going to get from software. Be warned, it’s a dangerously addictive gateway drug into eurorack and hardware.

Analog Solutions Ample

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

I would’ve said my Juno 2, but after picking up the Retroakctiv MPG50 controller it’s morphed into the perfect 80s/90s machine.  The Virus TI took that spot for a while. It was so good that I used loads of instances on every track, but the latency was infuriating. Now my biggest nemesis is cabling. You can’t live without it but it causes so much grief, especially when like me you move stuff around a lot. Today for example, I found a couple of things that need attention on my Odyssey, one of which I thought was the HP filter being stuck at a minimum of 75% so everything sounded thin and weedy. After checking over it for an hour or so then booking it in for a service, I happened to knock the interface and the bass came booming back. The number of times MIDI cables, balanced versus unbalanced cables, 3.5 to 6.3mm adaptors or mono to stereo, XLR to jack etc. cause a dodgy connection that takes hours to track down is infuriating.

Synth avalanche

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

Understanding wavetables was a revelation. I bought my Microwave XT in 1998 and never truly understood it until years later. Reviewers were excited by user wavetables and I just didn’t get the hype. I’m now all over them, and made a video demoing how you can create wavetables from anything for anything. I worked with Groove Synthesis recently to help put my Prophet VS wavetables into the 3rd Wave in its PPG mode to give all those lovely 80s digital artifacts. It’s one of those ideas that only exists due to the limitations of the technology, and if that creative spark hadn’t happened at the time it would never have been developed.

Artist or Band name?

Starsky Carr

Genre?

Electronic .. is that too broad? Probably to the detriment of my musical career, I can’t do that thing were people seem to write variations on the same track a 100 different ways.  

Selfie?

Starsky Carr Selfie Youtuber Synth
Starsky Carr

Where are you from?

Liverpool, UK.

How did you get into music?

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t into music. It maybe a Liverpool thing, it feels like part of my DNA.

What still drives you to make music?

See above!! I’ve no idea I just feel compelled. I get edgy if I’ve not done something for a while. 

How do you most often start a new track?

Almost always by fiddling around, looking for textures, tones and melodies that lead me somewhere.

How do you know when a track is finished?

They’re never truly finished, there’s always something else to do. But when you think you’re now doing stuff that only 1% of people will notice, when you find you’re spending 10 minutes tailing the delay perfectly, making minute changes to filter sweeps, adding another level of saturation or EQ, it’s time to step back and put the brush down.

Show us your current studio

Rack of outboard
Softube Controller
Roland SH-101
Soma PULSAR-23
Roland TR-606 Drumatix
The Cat by Octave
Moog Prodigy

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Whatever you do you have to like it. You have to be prepared to stand in front of an audience and play it. If you’re not proud of it, fix it or ditch it. I can’t attribute that to anyone in particular, it’s more a distillation of many pieces of advice that resonated.

The Moog Trinity + Godfather

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

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/starskycarr