Tag: studio

David Lord – Forest Standards

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

Manley Variable-Mu

The on switch on my Manley Variable-Mu. I never tire of hearing the beautiful sound of gentle tube compression. Before selling my MCI JH-24 tape machine, the record button on that machine was my favorite. 

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

1982 Gibson 335 and Fender Princeton Reverb

Probably my 1982 Gibson 335. It is my most used instrument or piece of gear. But I still feel like I’m searching for my perfect guitar. Although very good, the tone and playability on that guitar both feel like they could be beat.

Gibson 335 and 1955 Gibson L4C

I also love the Princeton Reverb for recording, but I wish it were louder for performance. Although I don’t use them as much, I can’t complain about my Juno-106 and Fender Rhodes. They seem about perfect.

Roland Juno 106
Fender Rhodes

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

Fender Deluxe Reverb and a Quilter Pro Block 200 with a 12” speaker

For my solo guitar tours, I have been running two amps- a Fender Deluxe Reverb and a Quilter Pro Block 200 with a 12” speaker. I typically play my 1982 Gibson 335, but occasionally play my 1955 Gibson L4C. The pedals that I use the most are the Strymon Flint, Electro-Harmonix Freeze, Strymon El Capistan and Jam Tubedreamer. I create loops using the MXR Clone Looper and use the Eventide Pitchfactor for low end pitch shifting. I recently added a Chase Bliss Mood.

Pedalboard

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

I would enjoy the Chase Bliss pedals as software. 

Chase Bliss Audio Mood and Blooper

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

I had a Manley Massive Passive that I had gotten at a very good price. I used it in my studio for many years, but decided to sell in order to buy some preamps and microphones. It is the one piece of gear that I miss the most. I also miss the JH24 tape machine, but I don’t miss the constant troubleshooting and repair involved. 

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

Gear isn’t typically a starting point for me in music, but occasionally a piece of gear will inspire my compositional process, most notably the Electro-Harmonix Freeze and Eventide Pitchfactor. Of course the primary inspiration has simply been the guitar as an instrument, not specific to a particular guitar. 

Eventide Pitchfactor

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

If I were to lose all of my musical gear, I would probably just buy a nice classical guitar and compose solo guitar music for a while. From there I might look at a simple, high quality recording device like a Nagra and a few nice microphones. Recently I’ve been interested in experimenting with a recording setup apart from the computer. It sounds fun, and the shock of whatever led to me losing all of my musical gear (likely a tornado, given my location), might inspire trying something new. 

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

I don’t like using a looper, but for my solo guitar set, it is helpful. 

MXR Clone Looper

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

Everything on my new Chase Bliss pedals surprises me currently, because I’m still figuring them out. In addition to learning how they actually function, it’s also fun to pull up a mix I’m working on, run something like a guitar solo through them and just start randomly twiddling the knobs. I’ll print the results as an FX track and have generated some surprising sounds that have been shaping the mixes. On guitar, introducing hi-strung guitars is constantly surprising and exciting, given the octave displacements and close voicings inherent in the tuning.

Artist or Band name?

David Lord

Genre?

Experimental Jazz

Selfie?

Attached

Where are you from?

Wichita, KS

How did you get into music?

Playing guitar in middle school, playing in rock bands through high school, studying jazz in college, pursuing my own concepts, theory systems and compositional concepts. 

What still drives you to make music?

It’s my favorite thing to do. 

How do you most often start a new track?

I have developed a musical system called Extended Lydian Polychordal System. There is a process involved that typically starts with either warping a standard chord progression or drawing extended lydian chord voicings from my chord bag. Before starting the musical process, I name the song, typically inspired by nature themes such as fungi, trees, butterflies or moss. I then begin running the theme through my compositional process.  

David’s Chord Bag

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I have removed enough unnecessary overdubs for it to feel “right” and I give up on trying to keep tweaking the mix. 

Show us your current studio

Studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Create your own world. Develop your own concepts and systems.  

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

My most recent album is Way Over the Rainbow, featuring Jeff Parker, Charles Rumback and Dale Black. It can be found on streaming services or Bandcamp: davidlord.bandcamp.com/album/way-over-the-rainbow 

Teitur – Lassen from Faroe Way

[Editor: Oh, yes. It’s really Teitur! Equal parts singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist composer. Bridging nordic pop-folk and artful soundtrack music. It’s quite exiting to be able to bring you this interview … Enjoy!]

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

The Q-link knobs on MPC X are super satifying to use, especially when zooming in on samples points.

Studio desktop and Eurorack and Akai MPC X

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

I wish computers weren’t so… computery and so… fingers and mind only and that I didn’t have to work with constant digital issues and being a programmer. Like this morning spending 20 minutes trying to find a digital output inside a program, going on forums, just to lower a volume and then the next 20 minutes you are back working and the computer is like a wizard, doing actual magic.

Studio Mac Desktop

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

When travelling it’s just my iPad Pro or laptop if I am in the middle of writing something in Sibelius. I find it nice to get away from all the gear. If I am in the middle of a recording project I might bring an Apollo Arrow. Always bring a pair of SONY MDR 7506 headphones too.

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

I have seldom befriended software synths in my DAW, somehow drum machines and synths are best hardware for me, even though I love what you can see and do with them in the software programs. I guess it’s just a tactililty and digital vs analog audio thing. When I tour I wish pianos didn’t weigh a ton and cost a fortune. I have tried owning a digital piano and I just can’t play them. It’s like cooking with thin plastic utensils for me. I will rather break my back with a Rhodes or play in venues with pianos.

Studio backroom with gear

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

When I was seventeen I helped my friend sell his TR-808 for 2000,- kroner (270 euro), I regret not buying it. Today I try to get rid of what I don’t use after two years, so I only have what is useful. For me creating is a lot about learning to use what you already have and when you get something, make sure it’s a great version of it and not an almost-good instrument and then really learn it until wizardry.

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

I think it’s my two acoustic guitars Arlo & Betty – a 1968 Gibson Hummingbird and 1964 Gibson J-50 and my Yamaha U-3 upright piano.

The Grand piano

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

I (now) think the right creative mindset is way more important than gear. Knowing what, why and how you want to create. The gear is for your motor skills and to practice with and it’s good to start there early too. To start over, I would first study music, culture and people, practise a lot, learn my DAW, learn to play piano and an additional instrument.

Api mixing desk and Revox reel to reel and other outboard hardware

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

Apple lightning (or USB-C) to 3.5 mm headphone adapter. I mean, the people who decided that headphones should have several connections should be sat on a chair in front of a screen and watch all the footage of the world’s population one by one needing them, looking for them under beds, not having the right one, wedding receptions delayed, children crying etc.

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

Silence in music. The voice and shutting up.

Artist or Band name?

Teitur

Genre?

There is no bad music, only bad musicians.

Selfie?

Teitur Lassen

Where are you from?

Tórshavn, Faroe Islands.

How did you get into music?

It started with goosebumps.

What still drives you to make music?

The path to learn and discover is neverending, the reward is meaningful and in my priviliged part of the world we live in a musical golden age.

How do you most often start a new track?

I try to know what I want to do and achieve first and then I allow anything to happen. Often it’s best to start with a pause or walking my dog instead of pulling up a preset or hammering on a piano (that’s called practising). Write a form on a piece of paper, what, why, how, when and then have fun.

How do you know when a track is finished?

When it’s satisfying to listen to or when there are too many tracks and it’s finished in the sense that you know it’s time to start over.

Show us your current studio

Studio overview. Note hammock
Studio doggie and drums

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Simpler is always an improvement!

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

https://ffm.to/kvaedi

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