Jim Wylde – Sp3ct3rs D3mos

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

Currently, the Pulse Generator switch on the Resonance Circuits – Empathy Generator. Can just flick it on, with rate at 0, then slowly raise the rate knob to get these beautiful rhythmic drifting shifts in sound.

Resonance Circuits – Empathy Generator

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

The Outerspace Sounds Mostro FM synth is an almost perfect piece of gear. I would add more flexibility in the onboard looper. Speed variations and reverse or randomization would be amazing. Would also make the patch save feature a bit easier to use. Finally, a dedicated on / off switch. Still, it stands heads above most other FM synth modules out there that I have tried and is a pleasure to use plus pulls amazing sounds. 

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

For the longest time it was the Microgranny, ipad, 3 pedals and the irig… Now if I go on holiday, I’m not sure what I will take. I feel like for exploration and just deep setting up of patterns and sounds for later play the Synthstrom Deluge may be just the ticket. Especially with the latest 4.0 update.

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

Software that I wish was hardware would be Borderlands. It’s a pretty spectacular app and I have had tons of fun with it since I first got it. Haven’t played with it for awhile as trying to cut down on screens while creating music. 

I don’t really use a lot of software and apps to be honest. I think Skot Wiedmann’s Hyve synth would make a pretty cool iPad app though. 

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

Regret’s a bit of a strong word for this, but I bought the Red Witch – Medusa because I love tremolo and although I kept it for maybe 3 years, I never really loved it although I tried. I learned a few things about what I want as opposed to what I bought. I think overall we, for those of us who are not just collect them all type folks, we learn what sounds we want to create and work with and when something isn’t the right fit, have no issue parting with it.

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

So far it has to be the Mostro Synth. A great little FM synth that had a quick run with a company Outer Space Sounds (they made about 50), then the company broke up. It has a great and simple workflow with greatly adjustable parameters. It’s stereo and has midi in and out and is polyphonic. It is pretty perfect for me.

Mostro Synth

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

I would get the small cello set up I have right now. NS Wav4 cello [EU], Voodoo Labs – Pedal Power 8 [US, EU], Aclam pedal board, Nux Optima Air, Jackson audio – Bloom, Screwed Circuitz Irvine’s Fuzz, drolo Stamme[n], DBE – Space Bender, Fairfield Circuitry Meet Maude [US, EU], and the Old Blood Noise Endeavors – Sunlight [US, EU]

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

The most annoying piece of gear is the Synthstrom Deluge. It is too damn deep to be honest. As a piano roll style sequencer, synth and sampler it is probably more versatile than tons of other gear out there. Like a swiss army knife of possibility. But the number of shortcuts, things you can change etc… is more than overwhelming for someone who doesn’t have tons of free time to learn it all, let alone the bare minimum of what is needed. Yet, when I need this tool, I grab it without hesitation along with the manual, plus the printed-out updates… so much reading… always.

Synthstrom Deluge

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

I have nothing to add here to be honest.


Artist or Band name?

Jim Wylde, sp3ct3rs, Soft Altars, The Dead Fairies

Genre?

Ambient, lofi-ambient, lofi-doom, ambient-noise, experimental, horror-scapes

Selfie?

Jim Wylde
Jim Wylde


Where are you from? 

Montreal Quebec, by way of Vancouver British Columbia

How did you get into music?

When I was in university, I got my first personal laptop since I was a kid. I was given a cracked copy of FL10 and started playing with samples and recordings I found online. It was a free thing I could do as I was broke most of the time, although it went nowhere. Years later I worked on an ep with a friend in Italy, and that got me going into my own solo work. 

What still drives you to make music?

I am driven by the need to create, to explore sound, to see what I can come up with usually using one sound source. I like to spend evening playing around until I find something I like, a small pattern, a set of loops interacting with each other or granular samples shifting over time… 

As I have been doing pedal demos for about 3 years now, a lot of my inspiration for further creation comes from setups that I put together for building my YouTube and IG videos as sp3ct3rs d3mos.

How do you most often start a new track?

I usually start with the idea of what sound I want, pick instrument and pedals, tweak out pedals until I get the right sound then, just explore

How do you know when a track is finished?

I am never really sure; I just reach a point where I need to leave it alone. 

Show us your current studio

Jim Wylde Studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

“It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.”-Miles Davis

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

Well there’s tons of music and compilations here: Music | fallen lo- (bandcamp.com)

And all of my demos are here: https://www.youtube.com/c/sp3ct3rsd3mos


[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]


Mike Berndt – Pedal Of the Day

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

Feedback knobs

I tend to lean towards the Feedback areas of pedals that can perform that function, so Feedback knobs, on Delays especially, and Gain knobs on dirt pedals would probably be tops. If you can mix the two and get an overdriven or distorted signal to feedback into self-oscillation, with the possibility to get completely out of control, that’s my happy place.

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

For years now, all of the demos I record have run through a Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo, and I recently upgraded to the Twin X Duo. The preamps are so nice, and the plugins you can get replicate so much vintage gear right at your fingertips…it’s pretty incredible. The functionality / ease of use is perfect, it’s almost a plug-and-play type of situation, with as big or small of a learning curve as you want.

Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo

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

Well, we haven’t really left or gone out or done anything over the last year, but usually when I travel for a vacation, I just bring along an acoustic guitar. I’m surrounded by electronics and hardware and pedals the majority of the day, and vacation is a time to get away and take a break from all of that. The acoustic lets me get back to why I started playing guitar in the first place, lets me focus on the raw energy that those instruments bring, and opens up or reinvigorates a passion for stripped-down music that can sometimes get lost in the world of effects. Been using an Alvarez AD60SC for about 16 years now, and still love it, but really want a nice Martin or Taylor or something along those lines at some point.

Alvarez AD60SC

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

I use some plugins with my UA Apollo Twin X Duo to clean up and finalize the audio for Pedal of the Day’s demos, but there’s something about having an actual rack of gear right in front of you that just can’t be replaced by a computer screen. Having a Teletronix LA-2A, Studer A800 and an actual vintage Tape Echo unit here in the studio would be rad. As for the opposite, they’re making pretty much everything you can think of into some form of plugin or patch these days, and there are many devices which let you run your analog effects straight into your recording, so the sky’s the limit there.

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

TONS of gear. I wish I could keep every single pedal or guitar or keyboard that I have ever owned, but I don’t have the space, and I wouldn’t make any money!

During the last Covid-infused year, I have had to get rid of some long-time favorites, but I think the ones that really hurt were my Moogerfooger Delay, Phaser,

Mooger Foogers LowPass, Murf and 12-stage Phaser

Low-Pass Filter and MuRF. I’d like to say I’ll have them all back again someday, but even since I sold them last year, the prices have skyrocketed, so those might just be gone for good.

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

I think all gear can be inspiring, even a piece that you may find boring or dull at first. With pedals especially, you need to sit down and really get to know them, how they act/react, what their key functions are, any hidden features or treasures they hide, waiting to be discovered, etc… Part of the fun of this line of work is the constant exploration and uncertainty about each effect, and since we all use them differently, there’s really no wrong way to go about that.

I think the demo community provides a lot of different perspectives on how each pedal can be utilized and exploited – the companies themselves seem to enjoy how different all the demos sound, as we each are giving an individualized interpretation of the effects, and come up with sounds the original designers might not have even thought of.

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

A vintage Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb, a cheap-ish guitar (maybe a Strat or Tele) that I could mod and customize, and a Delay pedal. I have enjoyed swapping pickups and wiring out of guitars over the years, but haven’t had the time or focus to do so recently, and think that would be fun to jump back into.

Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb

The Deluxe Reverb is a perfect pedal platform, plus you already have the Reverb and Vibrato built in. Delays are by far my favorite effects, so it wouldn’t even really matter how wild or crazy it was, just something simple to get started, like a Boss DM-3 or a Way Huge Supa-Puss, something along those lines.

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

Years ago I bought a couple of old Ibanez rack delays from the ’80s, a DM1100 and a DM2000. They each have this Hold function that can be controlled by and external switch, and the DM2000 has one for its Modulation settings as well. The DM1100, when it’s set the way I have it and you play a note or chord and hit that Hold, it takes the audio and continually ramps it up and down, with a thick, seemingly uncontrollable modulation sound that is different every time. It can get super annoying, but also adds a certain layer of chaos into the mix that is just lovely to experience.

Ibanez rack delays DM1100 & DM2000

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

There isn’t one specifically, but I love to dive into the more complex pedals (Microcosm, H9, ZOIA, etc) and see what hidden treasures await. The designing and execution of musical ideas over the last couple of years has been astounding, and I’m glad to be a part of bringing these sounds to people everywhere.


Artist or Band name?

I haven’t released anything new in a number of years, unfortunately. I had a number of little side jam projects starting to happen right before Covid hit, so those are all obviously on the back burner for right now. Years ago, I was in a bar band called Alcoholocaust, and we just played bars around Boone, North Carolina, where I was living at the time. I also released some tracks under the name DJ Big Berndt a couple years ago, mostly chill, ambient kind of background music, and that was a lot of fun.

Genre?

I love ALL genres of music, except for pop country. REAL country I can listen to all day, but the pop garbage I can’t do. Classical, metal, rap, jam bands, disco, yacht rock, classic rock, techno, you name it….I love it all.

Selfie?

Mike Berndt

Where are you from?

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, currently reside in Weaverville, North Carolina (USA)

How did you get into music?

My dad bought a drum set when I was 8, and he taught me a little bit about it before my folks split up. The drum set stayed, though, and I learned to play down in the basement with headphones, playing along to Zeppelin and Guns n Roses and the like. I got a cheap neon yellow guitar and a little Gorilla amp when I was 12, but didn’t stick with it for whatever reason. I finally got an acoustic when I was 19 or 20, started taking some lessons from a friend of mine, who ended up selling me his Epiphone Sheraton, and it was all over from there.

What still drives you to make music?

Music is everything! Constantly looking for inspiration in not only the music I create but from all kinds of outside sources is just the greatest. The way that different tracks, genres, artists and sound can influence you at any given time of day, or with anything that’s going on in your life, at any moment, is a pretty spectacular thing to be a witness to. The fact that music has and continues to evolve constantly, around the world, on a daily basis, is just a spectacular phenomenon, one I hope that never goes away.

How do you most often start a new track?

As a drummer, the rhythm parts are the keys, so getting a simple beat and maybe a little bass line down is always a great place to start. However, sitting around jamming on your acoustic can open up a can of musical worms as well, and when inspiration strikes, you gotta capture it. I have a lot of handwritten notes scattered around the office that have been building over the years, as well as a bunch of quick ideas I’ve recorded into Amplitube on my phone. Whether any of them will ever turn into something more or get recorded remains to be seen, hopefully I can revisit them soon and start working more on finishing some of them up.

How do you know when a track is finished?

You don’t. You can sit and overthink and tweak over and over and over, and still never truly be satisfied with the result. The first mix that sounds the best, stick with that. It’s kinda like recording a number of different guitar solos and then trying to decide which is the best – chances are, the first one was the best, because you were just playing, rather than comparing it and second-guessing yourself, you know?

Show us your current studio

Amp wall
Amps and friends
Mike’s Pedalboard
Studio desk

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

My grandpa used to say, “As you go through life, let this be your goal: keep your eye on the donut, and not the donut hole.” I think that you need to focus on all aspects of whatever you do, not just on one particular thing, whether it’s how you approach a new recording session, or how you cook a meal, or how you interact with your family and other humans in general on a daily basis. Focusing on the little things can be key, of course, but seeing the bigger picture, breathing and taking it all in is how I try to live and create.

Instagramming with Mike

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

Pedal of the Day – https://www.pedal-of-the-day.com/
Pedal of the Day on YouTube – https://youtube.com/c/pedaloftheday208
DJ Big Berndt on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/DJBigBerndt


Red Means Recording – Jeremy Blake

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

The Hydrasynth main encoder knob. It’s huge.

Hydrasynth main encoder knob – it’s lit from beneath

Second place goes to anything that turns up the volume. 

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

I wish the Synthstrom Deluge had an OLED screen and I wish the Mashine+ could make actual synth patches from scratch. 

Native Instruments Mashine+

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

OP-1 or Deluge or iPad for granular apps like Borderlands.

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

I used to think a bunch about this, but after getting the Hydrasynth I don’t really care about software in hardware. If I could get Pigments as hardware that would be dope. I would love more wacky probabilistic and self-patchable software stuff.

Slow spagettification of a studio

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

Zero regrets in selling. Selling is freedom. 

A corona lockdown audience

Buying, I dunno. Everything I’ve bought I’ve bought because it had a reason to exist in my setup at that time. When I sell it, it’s because it’s redundant or I’ve outgrown it.

Vivid colors of eurorack

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

Neatified cables

Up until this year, the Teenage Engineering OP-1. This year it’s been eurorack.

A rainbow in eurorack

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

I still think a good DAW with a decent sample library, one good synth VST, and a hunger to learn is the best thing you could possibly start with. So I would do that.

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

Anything involving my computers, haha. I know that’s a cop-out answer, but like, man. They can do everything, but fuck up harder than anything else.

Can’t get around computers. But you can mount them up high!

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

I think audio-rate modulation, in general, is something that never occurred to me until recently. Everytime I see DivKid do something with it I’m like “oh right, I can do that”. It’s wild.

Audio rate mod everthing… in eurorack

Artist or Band name?

Jeremy Blake for music, Red Means Recording for YouTube

Genre?

Electronica, Downtempo, Alternative Electronic

Selfie?

Jeremy Blake aka. Red Means Recording

Where are you from?

Seattle, WA

How did you get into music?

I started playing the flute in Elementary School. Was lucky enough to be exposed to orchestral playing and jazz ensemble. Flunked out of music performance school because I was spending too much time sneaking into the studio to use the equipment and I didn’t wanna play the flute anymore. Was playing with trackers and anything I could get my hands on. Went to audio engineering school, kept experimenting. Eventually fell into YouTube music production videos. Most recently I’ve fallen hard for modular and I’m having a blast.

Desktop inspiration

What still drives you to make music?

When life gives you cables, make yellow shelving organisers

All the little pieces of things I know can be rearranged to augment some new idea. Everything can be recontextualized and spun into a new idea. There’s no end to the inspiration.

Gratuitios knobalation of the Sequential Pro 3
Knobalicious

How do you most often start a new track?

Lately, a lot. Modular has been a really refreshing platform for experimentation. I’m writing at least one new thing a week.

How do you know when a track is finished?

With modular and hardware it’s easy: when the performance is done and I’ve mixed and mastered it. With DAW-based stuff, it’s when I’ve gone through all my iteration passes, like idea, arrangement, mixing, re-arrangement, ear candy, and mastering. I go by a rule of three approach: if I can listen to a track 3 times and not mess with it, it’s done. If something bothers me 3 times, I change it.

[Editor: That answer is one of the most systematic and quantified approach to that question. That I’ve read. Excellent!]

Show us your current studio

Jeremy Blake’s very red Red Means Recording studio
Blackmagic ATEM Mini and a tuner

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Limitation breeds innovation, tied with “put a donk on it”.

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

I make music performance and education videos here: https://www.youtube.com/redmeansrecording

You can find my music on all platforms here: https://rmr.media/findme


[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]]