DFA board

SWAN808 · little buddy Joined: 13 Dec 2010 Posts: 7

Hi Nick - thanks so much for the responses its great to shed some light on your processes - now Ive got to get to work! Cool

SWAN808 · little buddy Joined: 13 Dec 2010 Posts: 7

Nick was just wondering - what synth did the gated lead sound on 'Hold On'? Such a cool hook...

NikSeven · dfa otaku Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 70 Location: *780*

sorry to resurrect this thread! Nick, what did you use to program the drums on 'Some Children'? i assumed they were live, until i looked at the production credits. are all the drums programmed on that jam? hi hats too? that's some really nice, natural sounding programming.
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nick · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 11:13 am Post subject:

The bulk of the drums for "some children" were done on an mpc2000xl. as the song evolved and the arrangment changed they were edited a bit in Pro Tools too.

And to answer the previous question the lead on "hold on" is a Roland Paraphonic played through a Gavin Russom designed "sound strobe" which provides the gating effect.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/rs505.php

NikSeven · dfa otaku Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 70 Location: *780*

rad, thank you for the reply, once again.
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Tomassey · little buddy Joined: 03 Jun 2011 Posts: 3

Thanks for great inspiration, both musically and technically.

I have a similar setup as yours, and was just curious how you record your synths and drums into your daw - just "short" loops or the whole track then edit from there?

Peace,
// T. - Sweden

nick · Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 5:55 pm Post subject:

by the time we track drums we usually have at least a rough arrangement to the song and track 1 long take and then edit as needed if/when the arrangement changes.

Tomassey · little buddy Joined: 03 Jun 2011 Posts: 3

Nice, thanks for reply! Been listening to the album a gazillion times now and cant really get bored with it. I guess it's the organic, analogue sound (and the songs, of course) - it's just wonderful.

andcunning · Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 3:01 pm Post subject:

Ok, so nobody asked: how amazing is your dotcom? I saw a video of your studio a while back, and I saw what I thought was a Synthesizers.com modular in the background. I live in Austin, and I like the idea of buying from a Texas owned business. Plus, from what I've heard they sound amazing and I like the 1/4" inputs. I had a Doepfer with mini jacks and patch cables were always breaking off, but my 25 year old MS-20 and MS-10 have their original 1/4" ins and I don't think they'll be breaking anytime soon.

Does it hold up to touring? Any issues? Did you get the tolex cabinet or the natural wood? Any prized modules? Have you used any of the dotcom sequencers?

Also, kudos on not being snobby about the 106! I love my 106, but all the kit-heads can't seem to hate it enough. Y'all should try to find an Ensoniq ESQ-1. I picked one up at a pawn shop for 100 bucks and it's another cheap gem. It has a great 80s sound- analog filters with digital waveforms. You can get FM and decent "analog" sounds from it.
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nick · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 4:54 pm Post subject:

I cannot say enough about my dot come modular. I have a very large 66 module system at home and we tour with a small two sided, scaled down version of that system which we are about to expand to 44 spaces for the upcoming US run with Jessica 6. So, yeah, I'm very loyal to dot com. In the studio we have used it on literally everything we've done since I started to put it together and live it is the hub of the set. Without the modular there is no show as it is responsible for all of the sequences, some mono leads played by hand via an SH101 as a controller and is the main clock source for everything on stage (sequences, voyager gate, sh101 sequencers and arpeggiators, gavin's sound strobe). In ALL my experience with them the only things that have ever gone wrong were ONE bad patch cable and 1 bad wall wart power supply (which Roger assured me had NEVER happened before and replaced immediately).

As a company, Roger and Margo are wonderful people. Over the years I have gone back and forth with them quite a bit and they are always quick to respond to emails and help troubleshoot problems which, in my case were always user errors.

At home I have their large 44 space angled case and a small homemade 22 space case. Our current cases is also something I made but it will be replaced with something else I'm building for future touring.

Prized modules - the dot com "state variable filter" is amazing. It's not really a clone of anything and has a pretty unique sound that, as far as our music goes, is best heard on the bass sound in "I Will Come Back." Live that sound is played on a Voyager which sounds close but I can never get it exactly right. Likewise, the "soundstrobe" that Gavin built for me (to which we essentially owe our career) and the Moon Modular Trigger sequencer are two things I couldn't live without.

And for my money the 106 is probably the greatest poly synth ever made in terms of function and bang for your buck. It's stable, and because of the additional hi pass filter and chorus well suited to emulate string synths and even a CS80 in a live setting. We actually might be adding a second one to our live setup.

Woah. Nerd Alert!

emking522 · little buddy Joined: 01 Oct 2011 Posts: 1

Yo Nick, I saw you guys at ID in Albuquerque--really great show.

Did I see an iPad on top of the modular? What do you guys use that for?

Posterranean · little buddy Joined: 23 Jul 2012 Posts: 1

So Nick......

Less a question about production on your end, and rather production on the remixer's end. I just heard Dim's EroDisco remix of It's Not Over. Very fantastic, very 90's house, really just a great treatment to an already standout track.

So what was working with Dim actually like? Did you just send stems over, or did you have any input on things like how "housey" you wanted it to sound?

nick · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:16 am Post subject: