Once I’d heard ‘Are Friends’ Electric?” by Tubeway Army, I knew synthesizers would be a huge part of my life. Despite drums becoming my main instrument for many years, I dabbled and lusted after countless pieces of gear and started using computers to help me make my own music with a Commodore 64 and a copy of Electrosound.
Over the years, I eventually progressed to more professional tools and began to truly indulge my love of electronic music making, slowly building a collection of gear that covered most synthesis methods, from sampling to physical modelling and beyond. However, my love of the gear that soundtracked my formative years was strong and I was fortunate enough to be asked to work with the inventor of the Fairlight CMI on their more recent projects. This then led to me restoring Fairlight CMI’s, something I still do to this day.
My home studio is now filled with classic vintage gear of the 80s and 90s, as well as modern classics. In recent years, I have been producing podcasts for Sound On Sound, as well as writing articles for them and I also present a weekly live stream for the Pro Synth Network. I still drum, albeit now on e-Drum kits, which are far easier to move around and a lot quieter when practising! You can often find me delivering seminars & lectures and at various synth shows around the world, talking about and demonstrating iconic synths.
Boutique synth book publisher BJOOKS has announced their latest publication, Beat Gems, a quality tome that does for drum machines what Synth Gems did for synths!
Available now!
Wolfgang Palm and Cornel Hecht have joined forces to resurrect the last fully analogue PPG synth, the classic PPG 1002 and it looks and sounds incredible!
This week, we have Inner Space, a free bank of sounds for Cherry Audio's wonderful Crumar DS-2, something completely unique from Soniccouture, plus Industrial and IDM banks for Pigments and the JP-8000!
SUPERBOOTH
The Osmose revolutionised what an expressive synth could be. Now the Osmose CE sets out to bring that expression to the world of MIDI controller keyboards, with DAW integration and a software plugin-based ...
Available now!
Shortly after the JN-80, the Behringer BMX also arrived at Thomann. This sampling drum machine is available for immediate shipment!
Echoes of Machines sees a brand new set of 64 sounds for Moog's brilliant Muse poly synth by Anton Anru, with Kulshan Studios providing two of this week's other selections!
Augmented PERSIA from Arturia expands its range of fusion instruments into the Iranian plateau with a powerful and deeply expressive blend of the traditional and modern.
Galactic Spaces and Between Worlds... a distinctly astronomical feel with a twist to this week's column!
When Kodamo released the original MASK1EX, not even they were prepared for the mad rush that saw them sell out in 16 hours. The MASK1EX Mk.2 is a more powerful update and looks cute too!
UVI and Casio have officially collaborated on this new library that pays homage to the vintage Casio legacy of the 1980s
The wavetable revival continues apace with the surprise reveal of a brand new PPG Wave 2.3, plus a Nord Modular editor and a lunar rhythm machine!
Much-loved Swedish electronic instrument maker, Elektron, announced today that they have been acquired by Bonnier Capital, but it's business as usual.
Arturia's line of 'Freak' synthesizers gets a lot of love, and rightly so. This week, we have a bank for each version, one of them free, along with patches for Moog's Subsequent 37 and the Waldorf Iridium.
Akai's MPC Sample has caused quite a stir online, drumming up lots of debate on both sides. Has Akai created something special, or is it just a "toy"? How does it stand up to the competition?
We kick off with a companion bank for Crumar DS-2, Cherry Audio's latest synth, plus we look at new sounds for Modal's COBALT8, Live Suite 12 and the KORG modwave.
Swayed takes us back to the 90s, where digital synthesis and sampling collided and showed us what both methods could do when used creatively!
TAL brings us another chapter in Roland's analogue synth swan song from the mid-80s, before everything went digital for a while. Does TAL-J8X do the JX-8P justice?
The Crumar DS-2 by Cherry Audio continues their collaboration with the legendary Italian brand, bringing back an often overlooked analogue rarity.
The Roland JP-8000 has seen a bit of a reemergence in recent months, mainly because of clones and recreations. Now, Altitude 5 breathes more life into this vintage VA, as well as its imitators.
It's all kicking off this week in synth land as the Tembo Kickstarter hits $2M of advanced funding, whilst discoDSP have caused a furore with their dip into the open-source world of The Usual Suspects.
This week, we have Cinematica for your PolyBrute, be it a 6 or 12, plus one of our favourite sound designers, Jexus, delivers a bumper pack for Oberheim's TEO-5!
This week, we see the release of Drumopolis, a new SDX for Superior Drummer 3 created by Tony Visconti, plus new sounds for the MiniFreak, multi/poly and Omnisphere 3.
Where I try to choose my favourite hardware synths by their synthesis type, and realise it isn't as easy as I first thought!
Well, we didn’t have to wait long for the Iridium Mk.2 to break cover after its leak a few days ago! It’s here, and it’s packing quite a punch! Let’s dig in…