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


Pattrn – Brice Deloose

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

Xaoc Belgrad

As a proper gear junkie I can’t choose just one, but I can limit my addiction to two knobs 🙂 For the feel – Xaoc Belgrad cutoff frequency. That knob is just the perfection! It’s both solid and fluid, the size is perfect for precise dialing (I can play melodies with just with this filter in high resonance configuration, and I even do this live sometimes). If anyone wants to feel what a knob should feel like, then they need to try this one out!

The second one is feature/playability oriented, it’s Shakmat’s Knight Gallop “pulses” one. I love how easily and musical I can play complex beats and percussions with it just by twisting it. To be honest it’s my secret trick for percussions programming… I don’t program, I just play with Knight’s Gallop and I have been doing this for over two years on all my records that have percussion sounds in it.

Shakmat Knight’s Gallop

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

Not really, I like to craft things from the start (or nearly from start) for every track. I love to experiment, jam for hours on my modular synth and then just edit and cut pieces out of all this improvisation, to start building a track.

Pattrn Eurorack

I feel sometimes people are too obsessed by the quest for perfection and forget that it all comes down to context. A “shitty kick’ can sound awesome in the right context. At the end, it’s how it all blends together to create a story.

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

Elektron Analog Rytm

I always have my Elektron Analog Rytm. It’s such a powerful and compact machine, but is also very fun to play with. Next would be my laptop with Ableton Live (I’ve been using that for nearly 20 years now) and RME Fireface UC sound card.
It’s rock solid, drivers and sound are just on point and I use the bigger Fireface800 in the studio, so I’m very confident with this setup and how stable and reproducible it can be between studio and live.

RME Soundcard

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

Tricky question… soft synths wise I love Serum for its flexibility and modulations capabilities and Omnisphere for it’s amazing lush and organic sound, so I’d say these two could be lovely to have in a hardware format, yet, somehow in my workflow I realize that I like the recall features of my soft synths and, for example, I don’t use my beloved Access Virus at all anymore. It has stayed on a shelf now for over 5 years (even if it has midi in/out and I could record all knobs movements as automations).

Access Virus

I think it’s a matter of perspective and your approach to these things. I like twisting knobs on my eurorack to create sounds, but then I love to mangle this audio and simply draw automations (by mouse or controller) in the DAW. It’s like fixing things on a canvas and moving forward with what has been done.

Actually I think it’s nice that some things are only accessible in some format, it forces you to make choices on how to use them and in this frame of ideas, limitation is also a tool to move forward. Maybe i should give this whole question a deeper reflection, but I’m pretty happy with how things are :p

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

Nothing 🙂 I have difficulties to sell things :p Still got my first Yamaha RM1X collecting dust and like i said earlier my Virus as well. Only thing I sold were some modules and no regret at all.

I spend a lot of time before i decide to buy something, i watch many videos online or try it out at friends, so I only got one regret of buying (and regret is a strong word as it was a very cheap thing and I sold it again easily)… that was the Volca Bass.
It doesn’t sound bad, but I didn’t like the ergonomics and it didn’t integrate in my workflow, neither live or in the studio.

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

My speakers without any doubt. I’m always amazed when I see studio pics with guys owning crazy amounts of expensive gear and only using tiny HS8 or mini 8010 Genelecs. It all comes down to what you hear!
How can you enjoy expensive gear if you don’t hear it properly. I’m deeply convinced that I can make better music with good speakers and a laptop only, than with a crazy wall-of-modular and shitty speakers.

Kii Three’s Controller

Also quality speakers make you dive into sound, which is so enjoyable, plus the decision making process is way faster, so I’m more efficient and work not only faster but better, which ultimately keeps me in the flow. Actually i have been a very lucky owner of Adam S3XV for over 13 years and just decided to upgrade to Kii Three’s for the exact same reason.

Kii Three’s

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

The speakers and of course some proper room treatment.

Acoustic panels

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

I don’t have any… A piece of gear simply cannot be annoying or it breaks the flow and this is a no brainer for me. Menu-diving? Hell NO! Or maybe then I’d say the computer. As it’s not an instrument, but it can do everything, but you need to remap, re-adjust things for every track.

I tried some “automap” controllers but i can’t work with these. I’d dream for an ultimate controller for the computer with like nano-bots that build the interface every time you create a new channel or load a new plugin so everything is always ready at a twist of the fingers… maybe technology will be there in a few years from now… but then this thing would become a huuuge console and would create all kinds of other problems in terms of ergonomics and horrible early-reflections from the ‘desk’.

‘Air’ and space in the studio

As I’m a bit of an acoustic freak this won’t work either. Also having space around me and a feeling of “air” or freedom becomes more and more important. When you spend over 8 hours a day in the same room, then when there are too many things much to close to you, it becomes claustrophobic somehow.

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

Resampling in Ableton. I love it. Just create a new audio track and record onto it everything that goes trough your master bus. It’s the best trick to create new textures that are evolutions or answers to previous ones. Sometimes I just solo some effects on some return busses and record those, pitch them down, stretch them, warp them, slice them and then feed them back into the same (or others) effects chains. I like to approach sound like clay and really get to sculpt it.

Also fixing things while bouncing audio is again a way to move forward. If at some point you wished you didn’t do it and wanted to go backwards then you have to become creative with new solutions and this is also something I love, as it pushes you out of your comfort zone and often results in a more creative outcome, than if I could just change a note on a midi clip or reopen the filter on a synth for example.


Artist or Band name?

Pattrn

Genre?

Deep Techno, Dub Techno, Ambient and Acousmatic music

Selfie?

Brice Deloose aka. Pattrn

Where are you from?

Brussels

How did you get into music?

Started learning the violin when I was almost 4, then discovered electronic music with cassettes that my big brother made me and ultimately started playing with Fruity Loops before diving into Ableton.

What still drives you to make music?

That indescribable feeling of just loving doing it, falling into a vortex and not seeing the time fly. And later to share it with people, spread love and joy while playing and giving the opportunity to people to escape their struggles, their pains for a little time… or simply get out of their day-to-day life.

How do you most often start a new track?

I really don’t have a routine, it can be a loop from some previous modular recording, a preset on a synth, an idea or theme I want to depict, … for me routine is killing the fun and the creativity. Some tracks have been made fully into Ableton with only VST’s, some others are nearly fully made from jamming on my modular synth.

Euroack cables

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I don’t see the point/added value to change something. The structure works and is coherent, I like the sound design and the mix is clean, with depth, space, width and all elements are intelligible.
This is the thing that took me the longest to achieve, the “letting go”. The quest of perfection is the worst enemy and can completely kill a track. The thing that helped me was to start working on many (4, 5 6 or 7) tracks in parallel.

Sony and Sennheiser Headphones

I have a round of listening to all of them and take notes, then I start editing and adjusting what was in my notes (without playing the whole track back). Doing so allows me to keep my ears fresh and avoid the trap that the rabbit hole the loop pushes you into.

Also no spending hours tweaking a sound until the whole track is drafted, because every element needs context. Spending too much time listening to the same thing in a loop is killing objectivity and I tend to get bored by my own work, making me want to change things just because my memory knows how it has been and wants something fresh, but this is not how people receive a “finished “ track.

So avoid at all costs the loop, taking breaks of sometimes days not listening to a track helps. Only at that moment can you really know if doing something helps the track or is just satisfying your brain as giving something fresh to your memory.

Also accepting to let go of things. You can spend hours doing something, if it doesn’t help the track, don’t force it, just throw it away and try something new. Often this works faster and better.

Show us your current studio

Pattrn Studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Start as fast as you can to draft the track in its full length, listen to it from start to finish without stopping to keep an eye on the big picture or the overall story/structure and then at last, if at some point you feel bored, try instead to add something on top, or to find a way to tweak what’s there, to make it evolve and support the whole story.

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

Check out a FurtherSession that I did –
https://furthersessions.bandcamp.com/album/pulsing-light-in-a-frozen-solitude


Bart Wolff – Sendepause

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

Buchla Portamento Knob

I think the Rogan knob on my Music Easel is kind of iconic. It’s also very much a “thing” for the old Buchla modules.

Buchla Rogan Knobs

Besides the easel i have a few pieces that are inspiring or important for me. First is the “Buchla signal converter” that i have build. It converts euro cv and gates to Buchla format (1v to 1,2v). It uses Cynovatron element pcb’s. It enables me to use the fantastic Frap Tools USTA as sequencer for my Buchla system. 

Buchla signal converter

Another pride possession is thge EHX 16 seconds looper / delay. Its just a fantastic delay and looper. And my my PMC monitors are also very dear to my. Normally unobtainable considering the price, but i got them insanely cheap :-). best bang for the buck, so to say hahaha. And my 200 system of course…

EHX 16 seconds looper / delay

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

Top half of a Buchla Music Easel

My perfect piece of gear is the Buchla Music Easel. I have built my Music Easel myself and it was my starting point for getting into Buchla. I love this thing. The picture shows only the 208 module because I have my 218 keyboard currently put in my 200 system set up. The Music Easel is a self contained musical system. It has boundaries and it is in a certain way, maybe even limited in its possibilities. But I love to explore and make music within these boundaries. It is in my opinion also very important to have with the 218 module. It needs tactile input.

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

I commute by bike so I only use a headphones and listen to music. On holiday: during family vacations it’s not really the moment to bring music gear. I get lost… My family members don’t really like that. 

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

No idea. I only use Ableton, mostly to record. 

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

Yeah enough: I regret selling my TR-909, TR-808, SH-101, Juno-106, Nord Lead, Nord Rack, Nord Modular.  Basically everything I had when I had a hardware studio during my studies….
[Editor: Ouch!]

PMC Monitor

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

I think the moment I started with eurorack. I’m not very good at making tracks / finishing tracks. But I am getting music on youtube, instagram or a bandcamp I manage. 

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

I don’t know. I think this is the way / was the way for me. Everything has a reason. And I try not to think too much about the things I sold in the previous question 😉
[Editor: Yes, indeed… This is the way]

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

Not really annoying but I think my Korg tuner is very important. Tune your VCO’s folks! Everything will start to sound better.

Korg Tuner

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

Not a trick or technique I guess: I’m not a trained musician. Never learned to play an instrument or learned how to read music. It is one of my frustrations, because I like to make “good” music. So reading a bit about music theory helps me make my tunes sound better. 


Artist or Band name?

Sendepause

Genre?

Melodic Buchla stuff, techno, beats and modular

Selfie?

Sendepause sent a pause

Where are you from?

Amsterdam The Netherlands

How did you get into music?

No idea! When I studied in Berlin in the mid 90-ties, I got hooked on techno. Coming back I started collecting gear and built a small home studio to make dance music. Never recorded anything (it was pre audio interface, DAT tape era so to say). Got kids, sold everything. 10 years later I was thinking about a career change. Did a part-time education for sound engineer. Wanted to make music again, started in the box, got frustrated. Did a workshop modular synthesizers and that’s where it started. 

Now I make music, i organize modular music events in Amsterdam under the name Voltage Control Amsterdam. I’m one of the organizers of Dutch Modular Fest. The modular music scene has become my family. I made fantastic friends from all over the world. Modular syths has become a very important part of my life. And i’m not talking about GAS  / buying stuff. It’s the community for me…

What still drives you to make music?

All the above

How do you most often start a new track?

Sometimes with a structured idea. Maybe I have read something about some music theory I want to try. Or I have some melodies in my head. Or I just set the drum machine to 138bpm, put a kick on, tweak my stuff till I get a tune…

How do you know when a track is finished?

I can make great one minute instagram tracks ;-). Doing real tracks is hard for me!

Show us your current studio

Sendepause Studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Always do your own thing.

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

Check my Instagram here and my Youtube page… https://www.youtube.com/@sendepause7164

I think the last couple of things i have uploaded sounds like what I had in my head…


[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]