Downtempo Artist's Equipment
Summary
Bassic
— Apple Power Mac G5
— Radium 49 MIDI keyboard
— Cubase SX
— Albino
— Reason
— MicroTonic
Blockhead
— ASR 10 by Ensoniq
Boards of Canada
— mixture of old and new equipment
— hi-fi gear
— other tricks
Bonobo
— Ableton
— Couple of MPCs
— Alesis synth
— MicroKorg
— Logic version 6 for recording
— Emu SP12 for drums
— Real instruments like nylon guitar, vibraphone, harp, bass guitar, drums, sitar, etc.
DJ Shadow
— AKAI MPC60 12-bit sampling drum machine
— a pair of turntables
— Pro Tools setup
— two Akai MPC 3000s
— Korg Triton
— A-Dat
False Mirror
— Propellerhead Reason
— Ableton Live
— Max MSP
Four Tet
— DAT recorder
Gramatik
— Ableton
— Ozone Izotope Suite
— Native Instruments Massive, FM8, Pro 53
— Moog Simulations
JFoBTQ
— Reaper Digital Audio Workstation
— Line 6 POD HD 500
— M-Audio Key Studio 25
Mitch Murder
— Renoise
— Various VSTs
Mr Scruff
— 3xVestax PDX-2300pro turntables, modified by Justin Greenslade at Isonoe with Rega tonearms & Isonoe feet
— Formula Sound PM-100 mixer
— phono preamp rack, custom made by isonoe. It is a 1U 19" rack, with three phono preamps in
— tc electronics D2
— Logic 8
— MPC 60, SP1200 & korg ms2000
Prefuse 73
— MPC 2000
Quantic
— Space Echo [a Roland RE101]
— two Pye four-channel mic mixers
— spring reverb from a Hammond organ
— Apple Macbook running Logic Pro
— Otari MX5050 eight-track tape machine
— Studer C37 tube-based two-track
— EXS24
— real instruments like guitar, Fender Twin and Gibson ES150, violin, horns, percussion, etc.
Skelic
— FL Studio
— Soundforge
Stellardrone
— Reason (software)
— Ableton (software)
— virtual synthesizers
Teahman
— Triton
— Very old Roland keyboard
— MPC2000XL
Conclusions
MPCs are used for five of the thirteen artists. MPC stands for MIDI Production Center (or sometimes Music Production Center).
Ableton is used for four of the fourteen artists.
Details
Bassic
equipment:
— Apple Power Mac G5
— Radium 49 MIDI keyboard
software:
— Cubase SX
— Albino
— Reason
— MicroTonic
Source: his youtube channel
Blockhead
— ASR 10 by Ensoniq
[
Q: What was the first equipment set up you made beats on, and what do you find yourself using most often nowadays?
A: I use the same thing I started with. An ASR 10 by Ensoniq. I'm not a gear head really and I prefer to work within the limitations of my equipment.
]
Source: rapnews.co.uk, interview conducted on March 15th, 2005
Boards of Canada
— mixture of old and new equipment
— hi-fi gear
— other tricks
We use a mixture of old and new equipment. We don't have lots of synths, we use hi-fi gear and other tricks to achieve our sound.
BoC's beginnings began, like every proper electronic experimentation combo should, mucking around with tape loops while still at school. Briefly tapping their cap to the "originators", they see their humble beginnings as the first necessary steps to what they produce today. "…we used to chop up shortwave radio recordings on an ancient portable recorder, and make tunes out of them by punching-in and layering tracks in a crude way. I'm talking about 1981 - 1982. We still do that now except that we use better equipment.
Their avoidance of a purely synthetic sound gives their music a warmer, emotive quality often meant to inspire nostalgia. This is helped by the use of samples from 1970s television shows and other media prevalent in the era of the brothers' shared childhood, especially the nature-inspired documentaries produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
1 Secret weapon
2 Synthesizers
2.1 SH-101
2.2 CS1x
3 Native Instruments
4 Tape decks
4.1 Grundig
4.1.1 Unknown tape deck
4.2 Tascam
4.2.1 Unknown 4-track
4.2.2 MSR-16
5 Samplers
5.1 Akai
5.1.1 S1000
5.1.2 S3200
Secret weapon
BoC themselves have, in multiple interviews, mentioned the use of a "secret weapon" they use to generate their unique sound. As the name implied, they have declined to provide any specific information on what this "weapon" might be, but most expect it to be some sort of old analog synth.
Many believe the Yamaha CS80 to be this weapon. In the WATMM thread "ATTN BOC-sessives, CS-80 on eBay, however, jbible refutes this, saying
The synth used by BOC often mistaken for a CS80 is a Crumar with a BOC emblem covering the name of the synth on the back.
.
Since jbible has seen BoC live (and is the source of the Live @ ATP bootleg), his comments hold some weight.
Here is a detailed "write-up" of the CS-80, courtesy of the SynthMuseum.
Synthesizers
SH-101
It appears that BOC use the SH-101 extensively. It possible that it is their only mono-synth.
It's hard to prove this definitively and the tone of the sounds are nearly always altered in the mix making a perfect copy of any particular sound extremely difficult.
However, having used this synth extensively in my opinion there's almost no mono-synth sound on BOC's records that couldn't have come from the 101.
In this link I show how to make the Roygbiv bassline on a 101 (actulaly a 202 but the sound generation circuitry is identical). WATMM forum link
CS1x
A blue Yamaha CS-1X is visible in a 1999 Lighthouse Party photograph. It is more likely to have been used to trigger samples than generating its own sound, though this could ostensibly have been used for such sounds as Olson's filtered piano.
Native Instruments
In a 2001(?) interview with Mate Galic of Native Instruments, Boards of Canada is listed as one of the artists using NI products (but not details on which ones). [1]
Tape decks
Grundig
Unknown tape deck
“We love these low-quality tape machines,” Eoin says. “The great thing with machines such as the Grundig is that it's tragically bad. Whatever you record into it just doesn't come out unscathed. There's a ‘magic eye’ valve display on it, and when you hit the tape deck with the right volume, enough to fill out the magic eye, it's at that exact sweet spot that it is saturating the tape. So if you then sample back the playback, it's got a thousand years' grain on it.” Remix, 2005
Possible models:
TK 1 Luxus
TK 5
Magic eye article at Everything2
Gallery of Magic Eyes
Tascam
Unknown 4-track
We drop a lot of our music down onto a Tascam 4-track that has a great saturating effect on the sound. Remix, 2002
MSR-16
Whether they're working separately or together, getting ideas down is generally a result of recording extended jams to tape on anything from a Tascam MSR-16 reel-to-reel to an old Revox recorder to a Grundig machine to an ordinary cassette. Remix, 2005
TASCAM Company History
Image
Samplers
Akai
S1000
We have five or six samplers, but my favorite by far is still the Akai S1000. It's an old tank now, and the screen has faded so that I almost can't read it, but I know it inside out. It's the most spontaneous thing for making up little tunes. It adds something to the sound — maybe the lower bit depth has something to do with that. - Remix, 2002
Vintage Synth Explorer
Image
S3200
The rear of an Akai S3200 can be seen in these live photographs: [2] [3]
Vintage Synth Explorer
source: bocpages.org
Bonobo
— Ableton
— Couple of MPCs
— Alesis synth
— MicroKorg
— Logic version 6 for recording
— Emu SP12 for drums
— Real instruments like nylon guitar, vibraphone, harp, bass guitar, drums, sitar, etc.
Q: What do you play?
A: I'm playing bass mainly but I'm also doing Ableton and a little bit of synth, but mostly bass. I've got a man on Ableton over here...so we share that. I've got an upright and electric [bass] and an Alesis. Ableton is kind of a new thing for this tour. Before we had a couple of MPCs and we were just firing off samples over the top but there's going to be more of a sequenced feel to this show, it's going to have 3 movements. There's more electronics on this record. It's going to be a continual show that's going to build and drop...light and shade and all that stuff.
Q: Has your equipment changed over the years?
A: Yeah it does, definitely. I need to keep things interesting for myself. You can rinse a piece of equipment to the point where it's not exciting anymore. There's nothing more inspiring than a new piece of kit.
Q: What sort of kit have you been using for this album then?
A: Little synths, like that Alesis, that MicroKorg, lots of nylon guitar...I hired a vibraphone for a few days, that was fun...and a harp. I think hiring stuff is the future- basically the first thing you do with something is going to be the best thing you do with it. Because it's all new and all the sounds are really exciting. Once you've had a synth for 3 years and you know exactly what it does....I keep getting stuff, rinsing it and selling it, keep the kitlist evolving.
Q: Are you using Logic to record?
A: Yeah, it's the end of the chain. I'm not a massive software head. My version is 6, I think they're on version 10 now [I think you'll find it's version 9- nerdy Ed]. But I don't need it to do anything else- I've got a setup with nice compressors and it does what I need it to. I make my drums on an Emu SP12 too- dump it all onto Logic.
DJ Shadow
— AKAI MPC60 12-bit sampling drum machine
— a pair of turntables
— Pro Tools setup
— two Akai MPC 3000s
— Korg Triton
— A-Dat
DJ Shadow's first full-length work, Endtroducing....., was released in late 1996. Endtroducing would make the Guinness World Records book for "First Completely Sampled Album" in 2001. The only pieces of equipment Shadow used to produce the album are the AKAI MPC60 12-bit sampling drum machine, a pair of turntables and a borrowed-by-visiting Pro Tools setup from an early adopter of the technology, Dan "The Automator" Nakamura.
The book Behind the Beat documents Shadow's home studio (named "Reconstruction") through photos and a brief description (as of 2005). It is "nestled within a leafy San Francisco suburb" and Shadow apparently moved to the area "to be closer to the local record store". It also states that "Shadow only keeps a small selection of vinyl at home with the rest occupying storage units around town". His equipment as of 2005, according to Behind the Beat, consists of two Akai MPC 3000s and a Korg Triton. His album Endtroducing was "created on an AKAI MPC60 and an A-Dat".
source: DJ Shadow at Wikipedia
False Mirror
False Mirror is actually an ambient artist. He has videos posted to YouTube under Tobias Hornberger. His music is really good and as of 12/26/2013 he posts what he uses to create the songs in the info for each vid.
From that info, the electronic equipment he uses is Propellerhead Reason, Ableton Live, Max MSP,
Instruments he uses are: Bansuri flute, metal wind chimes, water drops,
Four Tet
— DAT recorder
Gramatik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju7ICGdu4O8
Gramatik Interview | DJ TechTools
Ableton
Ozone Izotope Suite
Native Instruments Massive, FM8, Pro 53
Moog Simulations
"I make all my music through Ableton and play live with Ableton like I like to use Ozone as the entire package Ozone 5 to master and mix and Native Instruments Massive and FM8 and Pro 53 and a lot of synths and of course a lot of like Moog Simulations and some hardware. Moogs are like definitely like my favorite synths."
Mitch Murder
— Renoise
— Various VSTs
i use renoise + various VSTs. all? software.
what mitch murder uses
source one of his videos from his youtube page answer to someone's question/comment
Mr Scruff
— 3xVestax PDX-2300pro turntables, modified by Justin Greenslade at Isonoe with Rega tonearms & Isonoe feet
— Formula Sound PM-100 mixer
— phono preamp rack, custom made by isonoe. It is a 1U 19" rack, with three phono preamps in
— tc electronics D2
— Logic 8
— MPC 60, SP1200 & korg ms2000
DJ Setup
For my DJ gigs, I use a 8x2’ or 8x4’ steeldeck with 2 ½ foot legs, paved with heavy concrete slabs. It is important that the DJ table is rock solid if you are playing vinyl, to avoid jumping & feedback.
If the stage/booth is a bit wobbly, I place the slabs on to of Dunlop training squash balls, each sitting on a roll of electrical tape for stability.
I use 3xVestax PDX-2300pro turntables, modified by Justin Greenslade at Isonoe with Rega tonearms & Isonoe feet. The transformers on these decks can be quite noisy, so I had mine put together in an external rack mount unit. I use Grado 200i cartridges, as these are by far the best sound quality of any DJ stylus. Unfortunately, they are very delicate, so back cueing can be awkward, and scratching is out of the question! The difficult handling is more than justified by the fantastic sound quality though, and the separation & image are incredible.
I use a Formula Sound PM-100 mixer, as the sound quality is excellent, it has 2 auxiliary sends & 3 inserts, plus the modular design means you can adapt it to your own needs.
I use a seperate phono preamp rack, custom made by isonoe. It is a 1U 19" rack, with three phono preamps in.
CD players are Pioneer CDJ1000s. If anyone knows of a way to modify these to make them sound better, please let me know! For some unexplainable reason, they output digital as 24 bit rather than 16..
For effects I use a tc electronics D2.
I bypass the master buss on the mixer, and go straight out of the record out into a custom made Isonoe EQ. It is a passive transistor EQ, with a sub shelf cut/boost, 6-way switchable low & high mid reductive EQ, and a switchable 6 way high shelf boost/cut. This is mainly for re-equing harsh or dull records on the fly, to add sub or HF, or cut out unwanted low & high mid resonances or harshness.
The cables are Van Damme.
Another very important item is Ben, my sound engineer. It is good to have someone on your side out front when you are djing, especially as many clubs & venues can have poorly set up PA systems.
When I am playing in mainland UK, I always take my own DJ kit, to ensure high sound quality.
Vinyl/CDs/MP3s
I play vinyl where possible. I don’t mind cds, and play some new promo material from cd, as well as some personal cd compilations of rare album tracks, or re-edits. I don’t use Serato/Final Scrach/Ableton but have nothing against it, if good quality 16 or 24 bit WAV or AIFF files are used. MP3s are fine for your iPod, mobile phone or car, but in a club? Are you mad?!
Studio Equipment
I record & arrange using Logic 8 on a Mac. I don’t have a lot of kit at home (MPC 60, SP1200 & korg ms2000), but I use Zombie studio in Manchester, who have a small but perfectly formed arsenal of quality outboard gear (Manley, Apogee, Avalon, Distressors, Al Smart, Kettle, Toaster etc) & keyboards (upright piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Hammond, Roland, Nord, Moog Voyager, Clavinet etc). I tend to use the studio for recording audio & mixing, and I do some arranging at home, or while travelling.
Prefuse 73
— MPC 2000
Quantic
— Space Echo [a Roland RE101]
— two Pye four-channel mic mixers
— spring reverb from a Hammond organ
— Apple Macbook running Logic Pro
— Otari MX5050 eight-track tape machine
— Studer C37 tube-based two-track
— EXS24
— real instruments like guitar, Fender Twin and Gibson ES150, violin, horns, percussion, etc.
I've got a Space Echo [a Roland RE101] and two Pye four-channel mic mixers, which I've done loads of mixes through. I use the spring reverb from a Hammond organ a lot, too. It's cool, 'cause you can use the transit dampener to make those 'dubby' sounds."
Playback comes either from Will's black Apple Macbook running Logic Pro, an Otari MX5050 eight-track tape machine, or a Studer C37 tube-based two-track, but his studio equipment is constantly changing: "In the end, I want to get down to using just the Pye desk and the C37, but I need to get it all working in stereo."
Most of An Announcement To Answer was recorded either in Will's studio or in one of the corridors in the studio complex. "All the guitars are done in here, as were the violins, and some of the horns and percussion. It's all pretty much in one room, and that's how it's always done." Samples are added using software, but Will admits that all is not as it seems: "A lot of that stuff is sampled, but most of the main elements are recorded fresh, and I've dolled it up as a sample — it obviously works!"
He plays a lot of the parts himself. An accomplished guitarist, he uses a Fender Twin and Gibson ES150 as his main setup, but has a Yamaha Hundred B212 combo and other guitars of various vintage at his disposal. Lying around the studio is a multitude of weird and wonderful percussive instruments, including an old Turkish Delight tin full of rice grains, a miniature cowbell and a selection of tambourines, which sit alongside some equally unusual microphones, including an Italian ribbon model, which Will believes to be from the '50s. "I've used it on drums and it's cool. The front of the mic says 'Si' and 'No'. It's like make it funky, Si? or make it funky, No!"
Although they're all made in the same room, there are stark differences in sound across Will's range of projects. He explains how, depending on the project, he uses the gear in different ways. "With the Quantic stuff, it's quite a hi-fi sound, so I'll be mixing in Logic, using the built-in effects. I use EXS24 and a lot of samples, but I also spend a lot of time programming drums using the audio editor. If I'm doing more lo-fi stuff, I'll mix through the Space Echo and the Pye mic mixers."
Skelic
— FL Studio
— Soundforge
xReturnOfTheDeadx: Hi,? which program(s) do you use? for your experiments?
Skelic: FL Studio all? the way! ^^
xReturnOfTheDeadx: Aha,? thanks. Do you? know Renoise?
Skelic: Yeah, ofcourse,? but I haven't tried it myself.
xReturnOfTheDeadx: All right dude, thanks. We? stay in touch. See ya!?
Skelic: Oh,? and yeah, I also use Soundforge sometimes for mastering and some other minor tweakage if necessary.
Stellardrone
Stellardrone is a pseudonym of amateur composer (Edgaras, b.1987) who started creating music in 2007. Using only computer software (Reason, Ableton) and virtual synthesizers.
Teahman
— Triton
— Very old Roland keyboard
— MPC2000XL
Q: what software/equipment do you use teahman?
A: @0ejmusik0 mainly a triton and an very old roland keyboard and a MPC2000XL. peace