Curious if folks have thought much about what kind of small setup they would use for processing and cross-patching a la Brian Eno. He used the DX7 and the VCS synthi a lot. Wondering what the present day setup would look like? I’m thinking deep instruments that can be used or mis-used multiple ways.
Not really into the Syntrx, had one of those and I think it just lacked that oomph. And I’ve got an Opsix and that’s not really the same as the DX7 (plus it feels kind of cheap)
A DAW to do your looping, multitracking, and verb/shimmer/chorus/whatever.
Two ears, mounted bilaterally.
An interesting polysynth of your choice, with a reasonably wide tonal palette—hardware or software. Needed for the tonal, chordal side of Eno (APOLLO, SHUTOV ASSEMBLY, etc.).
Optional: A monosynth to make interesting noises (like Eno’s broken Moog, VCS, etc.). Maybe #3 could cover this too? I don’t know the early Eno well, so not much to say here.
You could probably fuel an entire ambient /experimental music career with Analog Keys and an Octatrack. Might just want some extra effects on the side, but I don’t think it’d be necessary…
I just ordered the third leg of my small experimental stool, the Meng Qi Wingie2. The other two legs are the M8 and Stylophone DS-2. I’m not sure how I’m gonna hook everything up yet, but there are a lot of options…
Sure, but also it allows parallel processing with very fine control, nested feedback loops, and very flexible routing. I use a Noizhardware 6x6 stereo mixer but a 4x4 mono is very useful too.
Anyway - my thoughts about an experimental setup for Eno inspired music.
I think approach and method is probably more important than gear used. That being said, if I were trying to compose and record ambient music on hardware I’d be wanting at least:
A portable recorder (record sounds/textures from wherever/whatever)
A sampler to feed the found sounds into:
granular tools would be fun here maybe?
I’d want lots of ways to manipulate the samples: time- and non-time based fx and processing, pitch / warp etc
I’d want to plenty of performance controls to tweak my patches
I’d want a good display to see my waveforms
A sequencer (could be the same device as the sampler).
MPC Live and a mic?
OT, some delay/reverb unit(s) & portable recorder?
You could add more stuff but this would be sufficient for the aim for me to get going!
There’s that Koma Field kit thingy too? Looks fun and experinental!
Best thing is to watch the video. From what I understand, the colored knobs have a function. It’s not just random colors. The same color means parameters that are related together (just like on the miniKORG).
