90's technology, 90's vibe.

I made this using only sounds from my very first synth, the Korg 05R/W, multi-tracked and mixed with plug-ins rather than the onboard effects.The filter sweep on the bass is the built in one though and although it's far from the analogue fun you can have, it does a job.

Oh Five Are We?

First experiment done with the new Pocket Operators. I would probably track them separately when using in a track, but here the drums are running through the bass operator which has added to the dirt I think.

Operator Dirt

Just a simple loop on the rhythm operator with the effects dropped in throughout and a little additional programming at the end.  

Operator Drum loop

Made with a Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator PO12 rhythm machine. All the sounds have been multi-tracked in using a click sent from Cubase. Eight channels of sounds used with only some level balancing, a reverb on some channels and bus-compression over the mix courtesy of the UAD Moog filter - it act as a form compressor and can add subtle, or not so subtle distortion, subtle in this case. The filter part is bypassed. All other effects are from the PO12.

I shall be doing a part 2 with the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator PO14 sub synth added to it later, but just wanted to show what you can do on just the one machine.

Building Operations Part 1: Drums

This is the first track I made that I felt was a proper finished piece and it is from 1998 or 1999. 

The E-Mu provides most of the sounds and the TR- 909 drums are sourced from a sample CD that came free with The Mix magazine bought in 1995, both of which I still have. The magazine contains a review of the then recently launch Doepfer A100 modular range and the legendary sample CD 'Jungle Warfare'. 

The acid part is courtesy of a FAT Freebass FB-383, which I still own and use. I think the panning 808 style hat comes from the Korg 05R/W. Effects courtesy of the internal E-Mu ones and the Digitech Studio Quad. Recorded onto Mini-Disc and then archived to DAT later.

I made this by having the track on a short loop and muting/un-muting parts, which may explain the excessive length!





Archive 2: Acid

An old one  of mine from 99/00. I think the moral of the story here is: don't do drugs kids. Various tempos, the Amen break at one point and some parts I'm not sure are even in key. It does however have some parts I still really like. And tonnes of reverb.

Archive 3: Tempo Shift

This little oddity from the archives features a sample of boxer Eddie Neilson speaking on HTV news about his forthcoming fight with Frank Bruno in 1983. The interview was sourced from an old videotape my flatmate had.

The track was made in 2000. 

Archive 4: Learn how to lose

Another one from the archives. The track has some influences from Depeche Mode and Aphex Twin's "I care..." album. The strings were arranged on a Korg 05R/W, and other parts were courtesy of my E-Mu sampler. The whole thing is drowning in reverb.

It is named Tical, although I think Guillotine would be a more accurate name as it is inspired by the main riff from the Raekwon track of that name. The riff turns up in the intro to Tical and Meth vs Chef by Method Man on the Tical album, hence the name I gave it.

Made in 2000, some odd artefacts from the DAT recording, but nothing too serious.


Archive 5: Tical

A freaky one built up around the Snaq synth that provides the main rhythm/bass with some rambling preacher deliberately obliterated popping up in parts.

This track has had the alternative title of 'Music is my religion', to counterbalance the preacher rambling away on the track. Another title for consideration was 'False Prophet', but it is too close to the track that inspired me by Urban Tribe called 'False Gods'. I've decided to stick with the original title I made it under.

Noise and Delays

There is no denying there is a Caustic Window influence here. Dirty processed drums, distorted synths, Juno pad. There is a little Tetsuo influence here too; that film is excellent on many levels.

Snare courtesy of a pedal bin. Hi Hats courtesy of tinfoil; so actual tinfoil hats.

Fast, Hard, Dirty

Having just been having a chat about the capabilities of the Nord Lead, I found this in my archives. Made in 2010 using only the Nord, including the drums, hi-hat and clap/snare. 

Extractions

Having just moved and re-built my studio I needed to test all the stuff was hooked up. This is the first track from the new place and it is made using solely hardware instruments.

Welcome To The New World

Second offering from the new studio set up. ER-1 providing the drums, DX21 on a classic FM bass, a bit of Rhodes and even guitar for that Loose Ends vibe. Analogue chorus, tape delays and acid vibes.

Paracas Topara

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