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Per Hansen – SongsFromTinPanAlley

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

Definitely the structure-knob on the Rings-module in Sympathetic strings-mode. I just love turning it and hear the subtle changes of harmonics! And it’s bigger than any of the other modular knobs I have.

Mutable Instruments Rings-module Structure knob

I also recently got the Microcosm from Hologram and the filter knob is turning out to be a favorite too. Turning it all the way clockwise and the reverb cranked nearly all the way up results in such beautiful and musical textures.

But to be totally honest, then I’m more of a fader-man. I actually think knobs tend to be tedious and not so expressive and musical as faders. Just purchased the Sweet 16 from Tesseract Modular and I love being able to control my Disting ex and especially parameters on my Norns with it. I feel more focused and in control with faders.

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

The Deluge is the mothership of my setup. Even though it has some flaws, like its lack of a decent file structure where you have to scroll through all the synths till you find the one you need, killing the flow, I cannot live without it. In an almost dawless environment, it is essential!

And of course, I cannot live without my feelings. I consider feelings my main instrument and 100% my most perfect kit. All compositions start and flourish from the state of mind I’m in and it’s important for me to embrace it and let it unfold without any dogmas and restrictions.

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

My Oscar Teller guitar and the Deluge! Used to own the OP-Z, but unfortunately had to let it go to finance other gear. The Zed has a more handy size compared to the Deluge, but the Deluge has some other aces up its sleeve, like the fact that you are able to record very long samples on it and its ability to create an endless amount of tracks.

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

I’m actually trying to spend the least time possible with software. I get impatient behind a computer screen. What I love about making music is the tactile experience. Tuning “knobs” and “faders” with a mouse doesn’t give me that 😉

It could be cool, though, to have the Qaunta by Audio Damage in a hardware eurorack- or synth version, with all the matrix possibilities.

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

Went down the eurorack-rabbit-hole and had to let go of my OP-1. I miss it every day, but they’re too expensive compared to what they can do!

I also sold my two polysynths – Digitone and Novation Peak. Miss them dearly every day. Maybe I have to buy a new secondhand Peak in the near future.

I usually don’t regret buying anything. Cause every purchase is a new adventure for me.

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

Definitely the Rings module. Whenever I send a sequence to it, it turns out to be a keeper.

I also get very inspired when looping random objects and instruments using the Cheat Codes script on my Norns.

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

A Grand piano in my own giant palace. Joke. It’s just a dreamers mind speaking, living with four kids in a relative small apartment.

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

My mini Mac!

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

Thanks to @perbarfot I discovered how cool it is to run an instrument through the Marantz PMD 222, while giving the loop tape a good scratching massage. Love the wow and flutter effect it gives. Also tried it on my Revox B77 using the tension arm with very good results.

Artist or Band name?

Songs From Tin Pan Ally

Genre?

Ambient

Selfie?

Where are you from?

Denmark, Copenhagen

How did you get into music?

When I was 15, I got a worn-out classical guitar from my grandmother and my first step was to learn every GNR song from a tabs book! Must have sounded pretty bad because I didn’t know how to tune a guitar 😉

But I really loved it and after learning the basics a friend of mine and I started a band and from there I began writing my own songs.

What still drives you to make music?

I’m always striving for music of chance. That’s my drive. Love the way a simple melody or a sound of any kind of music instrument can turn into something totally mind-blowing! And you end up asking yourself… Did I really do this?

How do you most often start a new track?

I often start a new track while patching my modular stuff and turning knobs. It can be a sound, a melody or just a drone-kind-of-sound that express a feeling or a mood. That’s the foundation. From there, I just try to add different layers to that foundation.

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I press stop rec 😉

I listen to it many times the following days and if it still blows my mind, it’s a keeper.

Show us your current studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Don’t think too much. Just play and make a lot of mistakes!

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

I’ve just released ‘tænkeRUM’ on bandcamp and not long before that ‘Time’, which is also available on any streaming platform. In a couple of months, my first physical release is a reality. I’m planning on releasing it on cassette. At the moment, I’m calling it ‘autumn lullabies’

https://songsfromtinpanalley.bandcamp.com/album/t-nkerum

https://songsfromtinpanalley.bandcamp.com/album/time

[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…]

Close your Eyes – Wide Open

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

Feedback knob on my Strymon El Capistan dTape Echo. I like balancing on the edge of a wild totally uncontrollable feedback. Or even crossing this edge sometimes 🙂

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

Red Panda Particle 2. For me it’s a perfect granular delay pedal. It can go from gentle reversed echoes to the wall of glitch and chaos in sound. And it’s stereo! It is important, as I use to process synths, drum machines or even groups of tracks through it.

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

I’ll go with Digitakt and Hokema Electro Kalimba. Digitakt is an in-a-box workstation which allows sketching, playing jams on my own or with fellow musicians, and almost to do a finished track, while this kalimba is just tiny magic.

Elektron Digitakt and Hokema Electro Kalimba

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

It’s a tricky question, because all of my favorite plugins already have hardware prototypes. At the same time, I’m not a big fan of software to wish anything hardware turned into soft.
Nonetheless, recently I discovered amazing plugins by Puremagnetik. Although they obviously have some hardware inspiration, the plugins are truly unique and have strong personality in sound and usability. So yes, I wish I could have these in hardware.

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

The only thing I got rid of without any doubt was an AKAI MPK249. Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing midi controller which is perfect for its purposes, it just doesn’t work for me personally, cause I’m not really a controller-kind person. In this case I clearly realised that I cannot rely on computers in creating music. With this MPK249 in setup, I had an almighty controller and a laptop with awesome software, but I couldn’t come up with any idea for weeks. Being honest, I actually don’t regret buying it, because it helped me finally to understand that midi-controllers are not my thing, speaking on composing workflows.
Talking about selling, I didn’t sell that much to regret something.

APC Key25 (the midi controller that stuck around)

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

Definitely my piano. If you’d do me the favour to call it “gear” 🙂

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

No surprises — a piano! 🙂

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

Definitely any computer. Now I set myself a goal to reduce the computer part in my music production and live sets. However, I’m far from this right now, the computer still does lots of work. I don’t like endless possibilities which computers give, preferring a simple gear which is capable of very limited things — but does it perfectly.

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

Turning a three-headed cassette recorder into a tape echo by creating a feedback loop on a mixer. I do it with my Marantz PMD 222, it sounds lovely.

Artist or Band name?

closeyoureyes

Genre?

electronic

Selfie?

Where are you from?

Saint Petersburg, Russia

How did you get into music?

I was obsessed with the idea of playing guitar in high school, so I tried to self educate. I played several bands, something like indie/funk/rock, we all know this good old story. Then I realized that composing music with the band doesn’t work for me personally, and no matter how awesome the band is. So I quitted all bands and started to search how I can do music on my own. This led me to electronic music — as a field where I can compose and perform alone. Nonetheless I still love acoustic instruments, therefore I use a lot of them in my production. Like ukulele, melodica, kalimba, flute, toy pianos, obviously not to mention guitar and piano. So the outcome is an electronic music filled with tricky processed acoustic instruments.

What still drives you to make music?

A conviction that for me it’s the very best way to communicate with the world and to release feelings and ideas that I carry inside.

How do you most often start a new track?

I start with a piano or polyphonic synth mostly. The very first thing is the sound. Usually, I need to prepare my piano with felt because a quiet sound with a lot of rustle going on is what I really like, and also do some experiments with mics positioning. At the same time I may apply some effects like delay or granular stuff because these effects drastically change the way I will play the piano. When the sound is ready, the next step is to come up with a nice chord progression or/and melody. At this stage I try to catch the idea of the whole track with all its changes and turning points, and then use other instruments to amplify the emotions which are already included in the piano part.

How do you know when a track is finished?

I listen to it a lot. Mostly while walking in the streets, I listen and ask if I want to add something or get rid of it. When everything’s fine, it’s finished.

Show us your current studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

There were two actually.
1) Listen to your most inner voice. You have a lot of inner voices, but there’s one that always was there since your early childhood. Find it and listen to it.
2) Start to compose with the opposite of what you used to associate with yourself. You will add all this to your common features later, but the start should be far far away from your familiar territory.

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

Well it’s been a while since I released new music, but something new is coming really soon, so I’ll leave these links in case you want to stay in touch:
instagram.com/closeyoureyesmusic
(here I share most recent news, studio sketches and some daily music related routine)
youtube.com/closeyoureyesmusic
(here I share live sets, both electronic or acoustic, gear demos, tutorials and all this YouTube stuff 🙂
And if you want to support what I do, you are always welcome to my bandcamp
closeyoureyes.bandcamp.com

[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…]

Droid Zen – Robot Meditations

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

The election of the music gear depends on the emotion feels, desires to learn new music vocabularies or the song itself ask you the tools to create it, but the DMG-01 (any Game Boy model, with LSDJ and other music rooms) is one of my favorite music instruments, because is probably the best example that making music is a game and working with this tool is so fun. You know, you can made the DMG-01 a synth, sequencer, drum machine and MIDI controler; all in one, is fantastic. When you compose music with DMG-01 the form to see the complete music enviromment and aproach the ideas conditions the results, and let you explore unique options, wich would be impossible to conceive with other kinds of music tools; mantra: “one thing is with a guitar and another with a violin”; new mantra, “one thing is with a traditional synth and another with DMG-01”. Another favorite tool to ordering sounds is the Speak & Spell, it´s very rock, and the tape machines are pure magnetism.

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

Another nice odd question my friend. I think if that chaos or randoms sounds are incorporated in all music tools, we could see the extra layers of the marble to create a better scupture. Sometimes we can control and generate our own chaos and random ideas, it´s part of the creative drift, but if we had the option to turn on and off an alternative chaos to compose is that what would change everything.

Optimize the creative cables. We all need the chaos, it´s like an angry ocean, you know, removes sediments, and create opportunities to see new forms of musical life. Imagine a random 5th channel on LSDJ; or more crazy also, like an extra random rope in the guitar, piano, violin, etc., to change its pitch without our being able to prevent it; composing assuming that randomness would be a good exercise.

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

Game Boy DMG-01 of course (it takes up little space in the suitcase) and a Zoom H6N or H4N. Sometimes I carry my guitar, but a paper and pencil are always the best tools.

Zoom recorder. Boss Pedals and GameBoys running LSDJ

Now, let me ask you a similar question.

What setup would you like to carry on a vacation to Mars or Space Station?

And imagine that there is a weight limit per passenger… perhaps Carl Sagan could advise us better at that time.

[Editor: I’d bring a tank of oxygen, it’s great for making sounds and it’s my absolute favourite for breathing. 🙂 Throw us an answers in the comments below]

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

Reason´s Subtractor Synth please! But I´d be very happy with all Propellerhead Software hardware racks, and I would like to have a Circuit Bending software, but one in which you can add and also buy toys to short-circuit them, just imagine, go to the library and select a Speak and Spell as a base, and have the possibility of hacking it virtually, for example: add controls for pitch, loops, hold, glitch, CV ports, LFO’s, etc.,

Korg Volca FM. Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master and saucer

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

Yes, a wrong Mabuchi engine. I bought 2 of those motors to hack the Tascam Porta 03 and due to an inattention I bought the same motor model. Also I bought a TI-82 calculator and it still fills its main functions: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

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

Nice question my friend, and answer is: the Reason from Propellerhead Software, my guitar of course and the LSDJ. Most of my compositions start from any part of this trinity. Sometimes I imagine a melody playing a synth from Reason and continue it on LSDJ and other times I start something on LSDJ and take it to Reason, and my guitar is always there to solve any musical puzzle that comes up and initiate other ideas.

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

Tesla and Space X Stock when those companies started too; to be able to by more synths and audio equipment, but I wouldn’t change the order of things with which I started making music: my guitar, and actually, I have the desire to buy a drum set since my childhood.

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

TI-83 Calculator! It’s so heavy to use them with the Houston Tracker, sometimes I hate it, don’t get me wrong, because when I can make it sound, the bass lines sound so powerful, and I find it crazy to be able to make music with a calculator and place notes with sine and osine, but maybe I do several things wrong because I cannot turn off the calculator once I use them and I have to do the entire Houston Tracker installation process and when I compose something I have to take photos of the screen as a backup and breathe very deeply if unexpectedly it crash, but that “little calculating bug” produces good sounds and I would live very sad if I did not have my TI-83, I would even miss my TI-82 to which I still cannot install the Houston Tracker; somebody help me with that!

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

Synth Rotek’s Atari Punk tunes very well, it is unstable, but with patience it can sound very powerful. Atari Punk in general are valuable wildcards to create and express emotions, when I connect any sound source in its CV ports, like a DMG-01, sounds really fat, on fire!.

If you connect the Atari Punk to an arpeggiator or fuzz pedal, you can rock out for a long time, and with long reverbs they can sound like trival songs. Another trick is to rock the DMG-01. Using an overtone pedal and a distortion, you can get really crazy sounds! Sometimes it’s great to do power chords: two channels sounding at the same time, the first channel does the tonic and the second channel the fifth, but, to this channel different values are applied with the D (delay) command to each note, then you can spice it up with individual wrappers per instrument, put values in with the K (stop) command and Vualá, it sounds so close to a guitar.

Artist or Band name?

Droide Zen

Genre?

I’m going to paraphrase a great musician: Kevin Johansen “Soy un Desgenerado” (without musical genre).

Selfie?

Where are you from?

Guyaquil – Ecuador

How did you get into music?

I honestly don’t remember an exact date, because I liked the music for as long as I can remember, music is part of my biology.

What still drives you to make music?

Breathe.

How do you most often start a new track?

Again, breathe and feel peace by my limbic system, And have the fortune to see an idea that excites me. Jorge Drexler in an interview said that making music is like a hunting ground, with different entrance doors, where you enter to hunt the same, but through different doors. The song that starts from the text, a sequence of chords, a melody, noise or random proceses is different.

How do you know when a track is finished?

Perhaps intuition, you never know, maybe a track is never finished. Songs like that have only single chord have a life and their own and their own evolutionary path. The thermometer that I trust when I make music is the feeling, if the result transmits energy to me and when I add something the original emotion changes or that energy is lost, well, it’s time to stop and let the song breathe on its own, and listen to it after a long time and if it still retains the same feeling, it was always alive from the beginning.

Show us your current studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

A universal advice: live with the mistakes that we will make.

Another good advice is one that Leda Valladares gave to Pedro Aznar: feel the ancient cosmic, sing with the guts, without worrying so much about aesthetics, your song must be credible. In spanish you say: cantar desde las entrañas.

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

[Editor: Check out the Droid Zen channel below]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_-K0KHWU8JNWeBR8IHtXOg/videos

[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…]