About
So where to begin. Well I could talk about the time I saw a Moog keyboard
in Caveman's music exchange and played on it and saved the money to
buy it by working at three jobs and then blowing the money on booze.
Or I could talk about my earlier fascination with sound and making my
own "feedback" amp in my bedroom cupboard. Or I could just
go on about other stuff that interests me which is probably what I will
do.
I think one thing that lots of people forget with music and art and
all that stuff is that what you are actually trying to do when you create
stuff is relate an experience to someone else, to communicate and try
and tell someone else - "Hey I am here and this is what happened".
So thats what I do when I make music. I want to relate some things that
might or might not have happened to me. This gives me the great excuse
to go out into the wide world and do stuff just for the sheer joy (or
pain!) and then come back and try and collate and recollect and then
make stuff out of it. Which I think is half the fun of being an artist,
musician, writer whatever.
I have been doing the electronic music thing for a while - well about
seven years. I am getting to the point where I am using more and more
real instruments like guitars and vocals. I think my music is better
for this. I like mixing synthetic noisy textures with lush, real stuff.
Normally I write stuff on the guitar, sample bits in, make some more
noises, make some more beats, and keep going until it sounds finished.
My Studio:
Sony Vaio Laptop
AMD Athlon 700Mhz PC (so old it creaks)
Pro-Tools M-Box (worth the money - believe!)
Doepfer Pocket Control (ace but they have stopped making them - this
thing has survived large people standing on it!)
Soundcraft Mixer (Ex-HTV!)
Very old AKG Microphone
dbx 166-a compressor
Tannoy PBM Speakers
Beringer Patch Bay
Casio SK-1
Casio CZ-101
Korg Poly-800
Kenton Pro 2 Midi CV convertor
Roland 606
Roland Sh-09
Roland Sh-101
Amstrad Synthesizer (found in a skip, I think this thing is analogue
and it has MIDI!)
Squire Stratocastor
Eko Twelve string
Yamaha Classical Guitar
Jim Deacon Bass (??????)
Small scale bass (looks like an SG but most definately isn't)
Marshall Amp
Various effects including:
Digitech Rock Guitar multi-effects (got a 1 second sampler on it !)
Boss VF-1 (a smart bit of kit)
Crybaby wah-wah
DOD Stereo Flanger
Shaftsbury fuzz pedal
Echo Pet analogue delay
Various bits of crap including circuit bent toy guitar, cowbell, hand
drum, mouth organ, toy trumpet, dictaphone.
Software:
Audiomulch
Bidule
Smartelectronix Plugins - make teh aphex beats!
and other stuff I not gonna mention cos its probably pretty obvious.
It has to be said that most of this stuff has been given to me, loaned or I have found. The only thing I have spent serious cash on is the laptop and the M-Box - which are pretty essential really. Everything else you can beg, borrow and steal. I am definately not a "Go and buy a new synth" person. Infact I can heartily fuck that idea off. If you want to go and make music that sounds like you, then go and nick something that makes a sound and make music. Erm thats it.