Tag: magazines

Dream machines

Everyone has them, dream machines from your younger years which you would have loved to have. For me these are plentiful, mostly electronic music machines. Way before the internet became a real source of information, the go to place where magazines. Sound on Sound, Future Music and Interface (in the Netherlands) and a couple I have forgotten about.

Future music was the one for me, within budget and it had my favorite type of article, “In the studio with”. Lot’s of pictures of the spaces and the gear and info on how they were used. Lot’s of unknown equipment to spot which to me were unknown and very intriguing.

The machines

One of the machines most often featured was the Akai MPC 2000 XL, or the 3000. The 3000 at that time was already out of reach budget wise. But the 2000 XL was still in production and while still expensive, I would in theory, be able to save up the cash with a few summers of holiday work. Dreaming is allowed.

There was however another novelty out at that time, the Nord Modular G1. In a rack and keyboard version. Lot’s of people where after the 303, 909 and 808 as there dream machines and although I would have loved to add those to the list. They weren’t as magical to me as the combination of the MPC & the Nord Modular. Im my mind, these machines would let me build everything I could think of.

Added to this was that some of my favorite artists at the time were in possession of the Nord. I thought I had the magazines laying around somewhere, but I got rid of most of them apart from a few really nostalgic ones. Funnily enough not the ones with the Nord Modular reviews or the interviews featuring one.

I have tried and look for the interviews, didn’t find them. If I am not mistaken  Jori Hulkkonen & Christan Vogel had them at the time.

Also Dr Macabre had one,  and much later I came across one in an interview with Frank Bretschneider in al lovely combination with an  een mooi rack met een Octratrack and a Sherman Filterbank. Very nice combo.

Nostalgic

We all get nostalgic from time to time, and every now and again I look for a Nord G1 keyboard, and it’s always just a bit too big of an expenditure to justify. An MPC 2000 XL is very doable, and it will work. I have had one for quite a while. Until there was a good moment to sell it.

Now you have the MPC One, Live 3, and the new and very fun MPC sample which in a way has the limitations of the 2000 XL, or any of the other older MPC’s which made them so much fun (and to be honest, frustrating at times) So outside of the nostalgic reasons there is not much of a reason trying to get my hands on one.

The Nord Modular, in the other hand, keep lingering in the background, and I will search for one from time to time.

The software side

The Nord Modular is a platform consisting of hardware and software where you build the patches and sent them to the Nord Modular over midi. All the DSP power sits in the Nord Modular. The Nord Modular was built by a small company and the product weighed heavily on them and with the advents of ever more powerful computers the need for a pricey DSP platform subsided. With the rise in software synths, samplers and the like the need for it diminished.

So you not only need the hardware, but also get the software running. And don’t forget the right midi interface to keep things running. You could go for the old windows or Mac machine and the latest official release of the software, match the midi interface from those days and go full retro.

Nowadays there are modern editors re engineered which for some reason I never got up & running. So option one will take up too much space. Option 2 has not successfully been implemented by me. Which makes it a very expensive object for just looking at out of nostalgic reasons. And for that, I can just as well look at pictures.

A solution

Owning old gear for nostalgic reasons and getting it to work, maintaining and using them is a fun hobby on its own. My fear is that the hours I would have to invest into it versus the hours of actual music making with the machines will be too limited. The fun would be mainly in the first bit, getting things to run. In the end the working with the machines might disappoint slightly. These are not sums of money fit for impulse buys. And it would be a shame not to use the stuff.

While not a one on one replacement of the setup, modern solutions are plentiful. I will miss the nostalgic feel, that being said. Lot’s of cool options out there. Modern modular synthesizers in different formats are available, most notably the Eurorack form. Which has been doing lot’s of cool stuff over the last few decades. Software wise we have MAX MSP, PureData, and live coding tools like Tidal Cycles. With a nice controller to go along with it, workflow wise you will get  close. And be in modern times.

In the MPC realm there are numerous options, which I previously mentioned. The MPC sample being the machine most closely related to the older machines in workflow, like the MPC 2000 XL.

Then there is the learning curve, time I would rather spent learning MAX MSP. Which is a great environment with endless possibilities. But still, every once in a while, indulging in nostalgia I am searching for these old machines. And in the event of a gigantic price drop, I might still go for this combination.

Single machine music, learning music tech before the internet.

I used to think the music I listened to came from one machine, mostly a sampler. As the pictures I had seen upon that point mostly consist of producers with one machine, as the technological marvel everything originated from.

A lot of the time this was an Akai S950 or MPC. Then I discovered a book in the library which had interviews in it with all sorts of producers and Dj’s in their studio’s.

This was a real page turner for me and the first time I saw that there was a lot more equipment involved than just one machine. I couldn’t remember the title but some of the artists featured in the book where 808 state, A guy called Gerald and many others.

It was in the very beginning of the acid house explosion in the UK. So it must have been around 1987/88 when the book was released. Searching for it has not been easy and I haven’t found it yet. Tips are very welcome. 

Shortly thereafter I found a magazine called Sound on Sound, which was very expensive for me at the time, so I tried reading it in the bookstore and write down as many interesting things as I could. 

Another big thing were instrument folders, Which you could read and learn a thing or two about what everything could do. Information was scarce in those days. Some music shops were reluctant to pass out these folders to youngsters like me which obviously couldn’t afford these instruments back then. Others, which had more of an eye for future business, made sure they had enough material to pass out. And indeed my first purchase was with a shop that did. 

Important lesson learned, be nice to other people, it’s the best investment you will ever do. 

A few years later Future music arrived in the shops. Cheaper than Sound on Sound and more accessible, for me at least. The best thing about Future music where the artist interviews and the pictures. I think I learned a lot from just studying the pictures. A great magazine and one I looked forward to every month. At some point there was even a Dutch version. 

Ever since those days I am still reading Future music & sound on sound. This week Future music announced they will stop producing the magazine. Although I had switched to the digital version I always had a subscription and still looked forward to each new issue every month. Just like I did when I was a kid. Call me nostalgic but I like the format, the pictures and the way information comes to you at a slower pace. The online world might suite a lot of people better nowadays and the way information is available is great. But it also has another side, things disappear when people stop hosting them, what if YouTube shuts down and all the tutorials vanish? 

The physical form, whether it is a book, a magazine, a record, always ingrains itself differently into the brain. I can’t count the number of times I flipped trough old issues of Future music to find an interview or read something about a technical subject. It’s your personal library which you can organize the way it works for you. With the disappearance of yet another publication this ability to build and maintain my own library is diminished. 

Which to me is sad. As it is an invaluable part of how people really learn and internalize things.