I've always loved music that contained both heavy guitars and synthesizers. The genres I listen to a lot are prog-rock, prog-metal and '80 rock. The metal band I was in didn't really care for incorporating synth sounds beside the occasional FX so I didn't look into it. Eventually the band broke up and it gave me the opportunity to explore new musical directions. 
I've always loved creating new sounds and as of last year I started tinkering with soft synths. At the end of last year I caved in and bought myself a hardware synth. Because of lack of space my choices where limited to desktop/ rackmount synths or synths with mini keys. As I already had a keyboard controller I went with the Moog Slim Phatty. I bought it used and the price was right. It gives me great hands-on experience and the sound is awesome! It's an American-made synth with a stereotypical "American" sound. It sounds big, full, fat, rich and the filter sounds, for lack of a better word, very "chewy". Its filter can also sound quite aggressive when being overdriven. 
I have a habit of making personal demo songs to get more accustomed to new equipment. This is no different so I've made a demo song of the Moog Slim Phatty. Logic X provided the drums, rest is the Phatty. It's not locked to the tempo grid to give the song a bit of a loose and human feel instead of quantizing it to death. Some parts even are not perfectly in tune... doesn't matter, it's my demo track for personal use. Basic processing has been done like eq, compression, limiting, reverb and delay. 
Because the Moog-sound is so big and "chewy" I titled this track: Mookiee (Get it? Yes I'm a nerd...). Have a listen if you're curious to the song. Enjoy and until next time!!!

Ian Nieraeth - Mookiee

Well, another synth means another demo. After buying a monophonic synth I wanted a cheap but great sounding polyphonic synth. After watching lots of demo's on YouTube and reading lots of reviews I settled on a Roland JX-03. The JX-03 is a 4 voice digital emulation of the 6 voice Roland JX-3P analog synth but housed in a small book-sized desktop enclosure. It sounds great and compared to its sibling, the JU-06 (Juno emulation), also surprisingly versatile. Sounds are not as fat as the JU-06, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This could mean it's easier to stack tracks on top of each-other without eating a lot of headroom. It can sound a bit harsh and sterile at times but that can be solved with a bit of eq or saturation. It even does great Junoesque sounds with some PWM (using sync1) and using the free TAL-Chorus-LX plugin, which fattens up the sound a lot! (if you want the extra sub of the Juno you could use a sub harmonic generator plugin) I've run the synth through it's paces and came up with a demo song. Drum-sounds are programmed with Logic X, the rest is the JX-03. Next to pumping side-chain compression minor eq, leveling and limiting has been done. Some additional reverb and delay is used. I've tried to show-off as many sounds that would fit the arrangement. The first part focuses on bass, strings, leads and layered sounds. The breakdown has a bit more filter-action going on. Have a listen and tell me what you think!

Ian Nieraeth - JX03

Band: Ending Credits
Song: Retrieve

Drums: Ralph vd Louw
Bass: Efraim Demirel
Guitars: Ian Nieraeth
Vocals: Chris Groenen
Backing Vocals: Ralph vd Louw

Recorded & Mixed at IN-Music

Ending Credits - Retrieve

Artist: Ian Nieraeth
Song: Shred Frustration

Title says it all. Fed up with softsongstuff. Needed to relieve some stress. This is the result. Enjoy! (lol, just noticed I only played descending guitar runs in the solo)

Recorded & Mixed at IN-Music