Guitar pedals were one of the catalysts for me getting into music technology. Through listening to various bands who created these non-guitar-like sounds I became fascinated in the guitar more as a vehicle for making weird noises rather than just being a traditional instrument.
Right from the start, I knew I wanted to get my modular working with my computer. I imagined all the possibilities of running MIDI to a from my system, using Reaktor, Ableton Live, OSC… all that stuff.
Perhaps due to budget constraints, or a desire to always have something that few others did, I’ve always sought out music technology on eBay rather than buying new.
If you caught our eurorack introduction and have the bug to start embarking on your own system, then you’re in the right place. If you didn’t, I do highly recommend reading it, as some of the terminology in this will be more properly explained in the first part.
Something that regularly crops up is questions about demystifying mastering, and whilst I’m not the person to go into detail about exactly how to master your own music, there is a case for shining some light on the subject.
There was a time when studios were only comprised of hardware. Whether that be sequencers, drum machines, synths, reel-to-reel tape recorders, mixers, effect units, patch-bays, compressors, EQs and such – these were the mandatory tools in order to take your music from concept to something physical.
A while back I started writing the following piece for Equipboard but for one reason or another it never came to be. Despite the click-bait-y subject matter it’s still a half decent list, so I thought I’d publish it here and adapt it slightly to fit more with what we do here at Zeros and Ones.
There have been countless words written about kick drum synthesis and layering kicks within Ableton and Logic (in these pages and elsewhere), so I thought I’d try and bring something new to the table.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been butchering my perfectly functional Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ soundcard. The end goal is to place it inside my portable audio rig, which is a combination PC and MIDI controller currently at the Jack Skellington stage – all bones and no skin.
Most people are familiar with the modern synthesisers. It’s likely if you’re reading this you’re a bedroom producer of sorts and have probably heard of most of the main plugins people use – Serum, Massive etc.