Hard-Core Gear Porn Friday!!!
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
For a change of pace, I thought I’d show a smaller home studio that was actually obtainable, rather than some multi-million dollar Fiesta Del Gear. The tasteful rig above belongs to Matthew Stretta, and is a good example of a well-thought-out collection of analog and digital synths that will get you pretty much any sound you might need.
The first thing to note is that he has two of the Holy Trinity, the Prophet 5 and the Memorymoog. A Voyager holds pride of place, obviously, and the excellent Kurzweil is doing controller duties, it would seem. In the rack to the left, he’s got a Focusrite stereo input strip, an Ensoniq DP4 (I tend to look suspiciously at these, but some people swear they have mojo, so I’ll let it slide), a Blacet rack with a Wiard joystick, the breakouts for the Voyager, six racks of Euro modules, two Frostwave Fat controllers, and a Moogerfooger.
Since this is such a good collection of sound-generating devices, I’ll pointedly ignore that little grey mixer next to the Voyager, or whatever the hell that black plastic synth is on top. But just because there’s room for improvement is no reason to go jumping all around. This is a good rig, and anyone would be proud of it. More pics of the rest of his room at his site.
31 comments
Chris: That piece of plastic is a black painted Yamaha VL-1... Not just a piece of plastic, but one of the most innovative piece of equipment built during the 1990's. Sadly he has sold it now!
Penzoil: I now what you mean, saw the cut-down version; VL7 on german ebay twice a couple of months ago 850 euros, but sadly I had invested all my synth-buying-money in other stuff. The VL1 though most be one of the most rare pieces produced during the 90's. I still long for Chris to post a gear-porn-friday shot of several of these and maybe a couple of Korg Wavedrums!
Does anyone know how many that got produced of these (vl1 and wavedrum)?
You forgot the Orgon Enigizer analogsynth! A true rarity of the 90's!
Well, we have the both hated and loved OB-Mx...
Oh, good one. OB-Mx.
Did that dude actually ever make an Orgon Energizer for sale? The name alone cracks me up. I'm pretty sure there aren't any, so it is automatically ruled out for inclusion in our studio by virtue of not actually existing.
-CR
I saw one going for 4000 SEK (about 450$) second hand in Sweden last week. It was serial number #0050, so I guess atleast 50 got sold!
http://www.annonsdirekt.se/asp/soegning/detail2.asp?sekt=13&rub=60004&annonceid=3653894
Just to show you I ain't fooling you!
I am wondering whether that mono-wavetable-synth that was reviewed in Future Music in the mid 90's ever got produced. I think it's name was Syntrack or something similar.
I start to get boring but I have a couple of add-ons:
90's studio:
Marion MSR2 - Tom Oberheims little project in 94.
00's studio:
Red Sound - eleVAta - Crap, but still pretty rare.
Hey, I'm trying to get up to speed regarding your beef with crap mixers. Unfortunately i have a Behri mixer of my own i hope to soon be rid of. What would you say is the most high-value, somewhat low-priced mixer? I guess i don't need Aux sends or EQ on the channels since i do most stuff on the computer, but i would like to do some 'summing' stuff at mix-down. Any suggestions?
Do you need mic pres at all, or is this just for keyboards and summing?
-CR
Don't forget all the other great stuff at Matthew's homepage: http://www.stretta.com/~matthew/index.html
Dowloadable Excel spreadsheets for planning studio patchbays, a freeware DSI Evolver editor, packing tips for music gear, a PDF version of Eno's Oblique Strategies cards etc etc etc etc.
Chris: That piece of plastic is a black painted Yamaha VL-1... Not just a piece of plastic, but one of the most innovative piece of equipment built during the 1990's. Sadly he has sold it now!
Ah. The VL-1 is a great synth. My bad. I thought it was some Alesis Techno-Crap-A-Thon. Hard to tell when its colors are wrong. But now that I look at it, I'm surprised I didn't know.
-CR
Nice setup, but I imagine it generates lots of clicks, though... eh? Ehhhhhhhhh?
(too subtle?)
from his site:
"The Mackie Big Knob is larger, heavier, better constructed than I expected it to be. You really have to feel it to appreciate."
Now I've seen pictures of Greg Mackie (think Neil Young with a stroke), and l'm quite sure I do not wish to feel or appreciate the Mackie Big Knob. ;)
oh, and I'm very jealous of the VL1. I have a VL70m and think it's a shame this brilliant technology hasn't been developed further.
Penzoil: I now what you mean, saw the cut-down version; VL7 on german ebay twice a couple of months ago 850 euros, but sadly I had invested all my synth-buying-money in other stuff. The VL1 though most be one of the most rare pieces produced during the 90's. I still long for Chris to post a gear-porn-friday shot of several of these and maybe a couple of Korg Wavedrums!
Does anyone know how many that got produced of these (vl1 and wavedrum)?
That got me thinking about a dream 90s rarities studio. What would we have? A VL1 for sure, a Korg Wavedrum, a Waldorf Wave. I can't think of anything else especially rare (or even that cool) from that decade, really. I'm sure there's a mess of cool/rare shit. I just can't remember any of it.
It looks like the '00 decade has its rarities already, in the Monowave, the Chameleon, the Hartmann Neuron,
-CR
Seriously, what's with that mixer? Go SSL or go home.
Oh, wait. That is his home.
hey heres an idea, lets slag gear we've never even used.
The Mackie Big Knob is a a god damned moniter switch, you dont fucking track with it, there arent any mic pres on it. I've got one in one of my work's studios and the signal path on it is crystal fucking clear. you dudes...
Maybe I'm unable to stupid (theres a nice body of evidence of that out there), but I don't even understand the big knob attack in the first place. whatever.
90's?
What about the Synton Fenix?
Orgon review: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/mar97/orgonenigiser.html
They were made, then he started making a series of very low cost frac rack modules, that maybe only a few were ever made.
Synton Fenix? Was that the rereleased syrinx?
Oh, shit, that's right. I forgot he made the Frac-Rack stuff. Synton Fenix is an excellent choice for the Analog portion of our studio.
So what do we have now?
VL1
Wavedrum
Waldorf Wave
OB-Mx
Synton Fenix
That's a pretty respectable rig. Now we need recording stuff. I submit the Spectral Systems DAW, running on a 486 Turbo. I used to edit the fuck out of some audio on that bitch. Or maybe a Mac IIc running an Audiomedia card, and PT1.
How 'bout a console? Yamaha DMP7?
-CR
I would prefeer a Atari Falcon to the 486. And what about an E-MU Paris system?
And for mixing-purposes I have a problem with all those Yamaha mixers (a dmp11 is sitting in the rack beside me being unused). I ain't putting a VL1 through those horrible A/D and back before getting it onto tape.
Ah. Good point. Okay, we'll go with Apogee AD8000 for our convertors.
-CR
Actually, in thinking about it, there's really only one recording system from the 90s we can consider. ADAT.
-CR
What was the name of the tascam ADAT-compatible system using Hi8-tapes?
if memory serves me right they were called DA-88s.
So, are there any rare outboards to add to our setup?
I can't believe the DMP7 got written off so quickly. I had one of these a few years back (which was stolen). I loved it. We are after all talking about an 80's studio here. It gives you basic mixing, and 2 buses of fairly unrealistic but interestingly crappy Fx. I would never use thing for rock or folk, but it can be very useful when fucking around trying to come up with sounds for electronics based music.
I was of the same mind. I've never used one, but I look at them quizically from time to time.
While I'm thinking of it, we pretty much have to have a Yamaha REV 5. The Active Bass patch makes everything better.
-CR
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