i’m curious about the exact transition point: what was the trigger that pushed you from listening to electronic music to plugging in your first synth or sequencing your first loop?
for me, it was wanting to escape static software grids. i became obsessed with the physical, tactile feel of machines and how parameters could drift and breathe in real-time.
was it a specific piece of gear you played with, or just wanting to escape mouse-clicking on a screen? and when you decided to start, what did you actually buy or do first?
fair point. did an update actually burn you right before a show, or was it just the constant stress of it? curious what you ended up switching to for live sets.
I played in rock/punk/postpunk/doom metal type bands for a million years, randomly saw something online about the volca drum, went down an internet research rabbit hole and wound up buying a model samples instead, fell in love, sold a ton of gear I’d accumulated over the years to buy more electronic stuff and became a midi goblin. This coincided with having young kids and therefore no time for proper bands with regular practices etc.
A big thing in my life has been reconnecting with younger versions of myself that ive lost touch with, and this reconnected me with a teenage version of myself who loved [all drugs including] e, Frankie Bones, Keoki, the chemical brothers, aphex twin and other electronic stuff. So making music this way has also been kinda Meaningful for me.
Was obsessed with autechre
Read an interview in which they particularly referenced using the Octatrack to take some of their stuff into a live context
Deep and wide rabbit hole
Here we are 15 years later
I played in punk/hardcore/math rock bands for years. Grew up listening to bands like The VSS, Mogwai, The Crimson Curse, Camera Obscura (the post hardcore one), and Milemarker. The synths always had me intrigued. We added a synth to one of my bands and then the bug took hold. I ended up with a Triton LE and that was my first time with a sequencer. Then I got a copy of Reason early on and that started my hardware curiosity. I wanted those sounds outside of a computer.
I used to use Cubasis on a PC and bought a Novation X-Station primarily as a MIDI Controller but also as it had a built in synth which I used to free up CPU. It was then I realised I preferred using hardware for sound design rather than a mouse. Never looked back.
no. luckily, i never used windoze that forces updates whenever it wants.
but there were quite a few situations when crucial stuff gets broken on update and does not work quite a while until workarounds found / fixes released — and that’s annoying.
Circuit Tracks + something, where «something» can vary from iPad running Groove Rider 2 (travel rig) to several mono synths & drum units (home studio rig).
and when i need 2nd sequencer (for units that does not have onboard one), it’s mostly Launchpad Pro or iPad/GR2 again.
The OG Digitakt was what got me into hardware. I was thinking about getting a Maschine, but then the DT vids came out and it looked so cool. I got one as soon as it was released
Count me in with the ones who started in bands so I was never ITB before I went OTB.
For me it all started when I tore my lisfranc tendon and had 6 weeks of paid leave while I recovered from having it pinned back together. I wasn’t allowed to put any weight on my right leg, which meant I wasn’t able to play bass for 2 months.
But I’ve always loved Drum n Bass and the more angular and asymmetrical styles of electronic music. Plus I don’t know any drummers so I figured I’d make drum loops for when I could put a bass on my leg again.
I asked a friend who’s a pro musician for advice and he suggested I get a Volca Sample to keep me busy. I loved it but the 16-step max pattern was to limiting, so I got a used ESX. About 2 years later the Digitakt came out. By that point I was well down the rabbit hole and had basically forgotten about the bass.
that band-to-box transition makes total sense. when you have kids, organizing a 4-piece practice schedule is impossible.
but that part about reconnecting with your teenage rave self really resonates. there’s a specific kind of magic in finding that kid who loved chemical brothers and aphex twin again through these machines.
when you got the model:samples to spark that back up, did you try a daw first or go straight to hardware to keep it screen-free? did you find grid sequencing a weird transition coming from playing postpunk?
As a high/school aged drummer in the mid-80’s, I was interested in drum machines as a practice tool and my first piece of electronic hardware was an Oberheim DMX for that purpose. Though my main musical interests had always been rock, metal, and punk, I was open-minded to all forms of underground music and was also listening to Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s early stuff coming out of my home town of Seattle, N.W.A., and the Beastie Boys. What actually got me into electronic music however was Drum and Bass in the 90s - Evol Intent, SPL, Current Value, etc. I wanted to know how to make it so I bought some hardware at that time: a couple of e-mu e6400s, a Z1, a Nord Modular, etc.
Tripping balls at a trance party. First I bought decks but it did not interest me at all. Bought deepmind 12 then and was hooked. I had tried earlier with Live and knew that the pure software route does not interest me. I did sequence using Live many years but after getting into Digitone been sequencing with it.
lisfranc tendon tear is brutal, but that is a hell of a silver lining.
when you were stuck on the couch recovering, did you ever try to just boot up a DAW on a laptop, or did you go straight to the Volca Sample? i’m curious if you had a screen aversion back then, or if the simplicity of the hardware was just the most immediate way to get a beat going for your bass.
that trance party trigger is real. i got sucked into this the exact same way—going from club nights directly into wanting to make the sounds i was hearing, rather than just playing other people’s records.
evol intent and current value era techstep is legendary. when daws and software plugins eventually took over, did you transition your dnb production entirely inside the box? if so, did you feel like the software route fell short on recreating that organic grit and filter modulation, or did you find workarounds to get that hardware dirt?
I was always also experimenting and using software like ReCycle and Reaktor. I did eventually sell all of the hardware and go 100% in the box. It was easier and that’s the way everything was going, but still tonthisnday regret doing so. I am still obsessed with the first three Current Value records and I still throw on the test pressing I have of SPL’s Death EP once in a while. I don’t make DnB anymore tho. My older self likes jamming techno live on my modern hardware for fun.
I don’t make DnB anymore tho. My older self likes jamming techno live on my modern hardware for fun.