Author Archive for synthvibrations

Famous electronic producers studio shots (Part 3)

Let’s take a look at a new gallery of  Studio and “Liveset rig” shots of some famous electronic artists and bands around the world.
Chemical Brothers Liveset Rig1

Chemical Brothers Liveset Rig1

Chemical Brothers Livest rig:

  • Doepfer MAQ 16/3
  • Clavia Nordmodular keyboard
  • Roland Jupiter6
  • Roland Octapad
  • Octave Cat
  • Roland SH101
  • 2 x Akai MPC3000
  • Korg MS10
  • Korg Mono/Poly
  • Akai S6000
  • Futuretro 777
  • Dave Smith Instruments PolyEvolver Keyboard
Chemical Brothers Liveset rig

Chemical Brothers Liveset rig (2)

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel with his Clavia Nordlead

Underworld

Underworld

UNDERWORLD :

  • Yamaha DX7
  • Clavia Nordlead2
  • Access Virus B
  • Waldorf  MicroWave XT (yellow!!!)
  • Akai MPC 2000
  • Akai S3000 i
  • Roland TR909
  • Korg Electribe ER-1
Bill Leeb (Skinny Puppy & Frontline Assembly)

Bill Leeb (Skinny Puppy & Frontline Assembly)

BILL LEEB (Skinny Puppy) :

  • Clavia Nordlead
  • Arp 2600
  • Arp Odyssey MK1
  • Moog Micromoog

Casio SK-5 review

Casio SK5

Casio SK5

The Casio SK serie started with the SK-1 (one of the best selling toy keyboard of the period) and the target was a the consumer market.
The little sampler was technically far from the professional counterpart like Emu or Akai, it was just a toy with a tiny memory of few seconds and no memory retain.
Soon after the SK1 the SK5 followed.
The sK5 was an upgraded version of the SK1 with more sampling time, the capability to sample 4 sounds and to retain the sound in memory even with the power swithed off (if the keyboard run on batteries).
The sampling specifics were the same as the SK1 (8bit- 9,38KHz) quite low even for the time, and apart from didattic use by children, the sk seemed at that time just a toy.

The cheap prices of second hads SK and the “Anti Theory” of Reed Ghazala made the fame of the little sk grow.
The interesting circuit bending capabilities of this instruments made them popular between the circuit bending community as a “must have” together with the  “Speak & Spell”.

The Antitheory statement , by Reed Ghazala, is that you don’t have to know anything about electronics to do circuitbending.
A circuitbend is like an energy flow thru shortcircuits…
A circuit is not designed to have shortcircuits , so you have to “think different” !

The SK5 is now a well known and is now considered  a “real instrument” , not just a toy, after many more or less inportant, famous or trendy artists used it.
Just to name a few…Autechre, Bjork, Portished, Nine Inch Nails , Blur, Aphex Twin, but the list is long…

The heart of the instrument is a 8 bit sampler with a very lo-fi sound and 4 voice poly.
It can samples 4 sounds and play them together with the rubber pads or with the keyboard.
The performance can be registered with the onboard sequencer, with no quantization (you cannot correct the timing).
Every sample can be edited with the “envelope shapes” that adds crescendo, sustain, vibratos etc., can be looped or reversed .
The sample memory can retain the samples if the keyboard has batteries.
There is also the possibility to choose a “long sample” time (it occupies 2 samples slots) to sample a loop for example.

The strenght of this keyboard is without any doubt the sound, because the samples are totally mangled and they sound really different , like pixelated…
This is really great for lo-fi sounds.
The second point is that the SK 5 is an easy instrument to circuit bend and the mods add a great variety of  “tools” to shape new sounds with the twist of a knob or a simple switch, a variation not known, an aleatoric change, that’s why Ghazala called his mods projects “aleatrons”.

Famous electronic producers studio shots…Part 2

Here are some other studio shots from the electronic music producers crowd…

Bookashade

Booka shade

BOOKA SHADE :

  • Sequential Circuits Pro One
  • Yamaha DX7
  • Moog Source
  • Clavia Nordlead
  • Arp Avatar
Nitin Sawhney

Nitin Sawhney

NITIN SAWHNEY :

  • Yamaha AN1x
  • Yamaha CS6x
  • Quasimidi Sirius
  • Akai MPC4000
Stuart Price (Les rhythm digitales)

Stuart Price (Les rhythm digitales)

STUART PRICE :

  • Arp 2600
  • Korg MS20
  • Korg SQ10
  • Roland TR909
  • Access Virus TI

Famous producers studio shots…

Here are some famous electronic producers studio shots…

I listed the synths I identified.

Alan Wilder (Recoil)

Alan Wilder (Recoil)

RECOIL :

  • Akai S3000xl
  • Emu E4
  • Novation Supernova
  • MidiMoog
  • 2x Oberheim SEM modules
  • EMS VCS3
Apparat

Apparat

APPARAT:

  • Korg MONO/POLY
  • Clavia Nordlead
  • Crumar Stratus
  • Clavia Nordmodular G2
  • Syntechno TeeBee
Kid 606

Kid 606

KID606 :

  • Clavia Nordmodular
  • Clavia Micromodular
  • Clavia Nordlead2
  • Clavia Nordlrack3
  • Sequential Circuits PRO ONE
  • Yamaha DX200
  • Roland MC-202
  • Roland TR-606
  • Korg MS20
  • Access Virus KB
  • Yamaha CS15
Jamiroquay

Jamiroquay

JAMIROQUAY :

  • Elka Synthex
  • Roland System100m (3 cabinets)
  • Moog Source
  • Fender Rhodes
Eno

Eno

ENO : just a kaosspad on the right, but this is just an angle of the studio…

Orbital

Orbital

ORBITAL :

  • 2x Alesis Andromeda
  • Roland Jupiter 6
  • Roland SH101
  • Roland TB303
  • Macbeth M5
  • Elektron Machinedrum
Ritchie Hawtin (Plastikman)

Ritchie Hawtin (Plastikman)

PLASTIKMAN :

  • Akai S3200
  • 2 x Doepfer MAQ 16/3
  • Serge modular
  • EMS Synthi A
  • Roland TB303
  • Roland TR808 (on the oscilloscope)
  • Roland Juno106
    This shot was taken at the end of the ’90s…
Rude 66

Rude 66

RUDE66 :

  • Korg MONO/POLY
  • Roland SH101
  • Roland SH09
  • Roland TR909
  • Roland TR606
  • Roland TR808
  • Roland CR8000
  • Sequential Circuits Drumtrak
  • Syntechno TeeBee
  • Emu Esi32
  • Waldorf Pulse
  • Kawai XD5
  • Clavia Micromodular
Matmos

Matmos

MATMOS :

  • ARP 2600
  • Roland SH101
  • 2 x Emu E4

Doepfer MS-404 review

Doepfer  MS 404

The Doepfer MS404 was designed as a TB emulator with a lot of added features in a period  full of cheap and expensive tb clones.
The 404 in fact is not a clone but has a clear personality and can be considered more a single VCO monosynth.

First I want to describe the structure of the synth: a single VCO , with saw/pulse/PWM or noise with a 24dB ladder filter, a VCA with accent and a adsr Envelope generator and two indipendent LFO that can go up to audio frequency!

The VCO seems to be the A110 “standard vco” available as a module for the A100 modular system, but opening the case , I read on the board “HI END VCO”,and that sounds strange because I did not see any CEM3340 as on the A111 “hi end VCO”.
The VCO section has 5 knobs and 3 swithches.
Knobs are: GLIDE, TUNE (fine tune) , LEVEL (LFO1 amount) FREQ (LFO1 rate).
the switches select:

  • saw/pulse/none
  • vco/noise/none
  • pwm/fm/none
  • rate (hi-mid-low)

The VCF section has 5 knobs :

  • Frequency
  • Envelope
  • Modulation level(LFO2)
  • Modulation Frequency (LFO2)
  • Emphasis (Resonance)

and 2 switches : one for the filter tracking and omne for the LFO2 range (hi-mid-low).
The VCF is the same as the A120 MOOG ladder filter eurorack module for the A100.

The VCA has a knob control for the accent amount and the envelope is the classic adsr.

speaking about the sound the 404 has a distinct doepfer carachter, it sounds exactly as the A100 modular system, no audible differences.
The synth behaves as a tb clone if the added features are not used, and with the emphasis quite low.
When you rise the emphasis it takes squelching in a more hard way and at self oscillation it can produce a sine wave , musically playable switching the filter tracking ON.
the PWM sounds awesome, I like it very much, because it does not intend to clone but has a “new minimal sound” very interesting for those involved in minimal techno like Ritchie Hawtin…
It does not sound nor similar to a Roland SH-101, this is more acid and hard, the SH is fuller on low frequencies and smoother.
The interesting feature that makes the doepfer  ms 404 a distinct machine is the use of fast lfo to modulate VCO and VCF.

The LFOs are derived from the A145 (doepfer A100 system) and have a range switch that allows very low oscillation to fast audio range FM.
That’s interesting because the filter is a 24dB Moog Ladder type, a filter that has a fast reaction to modulations and can create incredibles sounds if modulated in self oscillation or nearby…
Using the other LFO on the VCO can create some interesting noise or FM sounds useful for percussions, drones etc.
One thing to say…
The waveform orf the LFOs are fixed, triangle or square and you can choose the one you want to use only using a jumper on the board, there are no external switches.

The impression I had playng the MS 404 is really good.
This is a interesting bassline synth , not so good at emulating the classic TB sound, but this is a good point!
Other than that can be used as a classic monosynth with a great modulation capability, and many sounds with a small amount of functions and knobs.

There is also an audio in (with gain) to process external audio signals  and a cv-gate interface (in/out) so the 404 can be played trhu cv by an analog system/sequencer or can be used to control other cv-gate synth.

I prefer the 404 to a Basstation , for example ,  it sounds more interesting and “analog” and is not the “wannabe everything” emulator.

ms404 schematics

Elektron Monomachine Sequencer

The Sequencer is one of the most interesting parts of the Monomachine as it can control anything on the machine.
The sequencer works as a realtime or step (Roland TR-like) mode , and it can be switched record on or off with the sequencer running.
That’s ideal for live performance!

Programming notes is easy, if a midi keyboard is connected it can record from midi in , but it can be programmed standalone using the step sequencer buttons as they act as keys.

After notes programming the most useful things is the PARAMETER LOCKS programming.
A parameter lock is a motion sequence of a parameter.
It can be done on a single step (using step programming) or it can be recorded realtime turnig the knobs while the sequencer is running in realtime recording.
This function enables to modify extremely every nuance of the sound in a very easy way , and It’an effective strenght of the Elektron philosophy.

Applied to to a digipro machine , for example, it can create programmed wavesequences…

Applied to an envelope can morph the shape of a sound, from percussive to sustained…

Applied to a efx can for example vary the delay time and feedback…

Every thing in the machine can be controlled by the sequencer and the intensive use of parameter locks can create sound sequences really complex and even really difficult to recreate with another instrument.

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