stephengardener.com » Equipment

Machinedrum

stega — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:34:10 +0000

I bought myself one of the new MKII Machinedrums from Elektron the other day. Have fancied one for years, but was always put off by the high price. Said sod it a few weeks ago when I got my new job, and went and ordered one from their website.
Bloody fantastic machine! Its a drum machine of sorts, but so much more than that. It really does sound good, with four different synthesis types, which can all produce very useful sounds. It is a percussion synth, but can be talked into making melodic sounds as well. Saying that, adjusting the pitch to try and find the note I’m looking for is not always that easy, but can come up with some interesting results never the less. But its the whole work flow that just suits my style of writing so well. I can see my self writing complete tracks on the MD alone, although I imagine that more often than not it will be accompanied by Matt on (real) drums and me on guitar. Routed my wee blue Nova synth through it last night – sounded better than I’ve managed to get my Nova to sound on its own – the filters on the MD gave the it that edge that it lacks sometimes. The MD will definitely be accompanying me back to Wales for Christmas
Other toys on the horizon – I’m tempted to say a Monomachine, the other synth that Elektron produces, but first more practical issues need to be sorted. I am speaker-less at present, so a set of monitors is needed. I also need some guitar stands to tidy up the studio a wee bit, plus lots of clips for the million leads that are everywhere. Matt has set up his drums in the room as well, so I am trying to find a way to accommodate both live playing of all this stuff as well as having it all set up for recording.
Time to start writing music again

New Toys

stega — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 01:26:00 +0000

Got some new toys – a nice custom Telecaster and a Yamaha RS7000 The Tele is fantastic, and making appearences on most of my newer material as well as being incorporated into several of my completed songs. Have an albums worth of material written now, just need to record it all so Im (relatively) happy with it. Have 4 songs recorded and done at present – will wait till the others are finished before putting them here for download.

Fender electro-acoustic mandolin

stega — Sun, 02 Dec 2001 00:48:00 +0000

Bought this a few years back. Nice instrument, but never really got round to playing it. Sounded a lot better to me plugged in than acoustic. This was another bit of kit that was sold before we left New Zealand (wasn’t allowed to carry 3 guitars on the plane ).
I played a round bodied acoustic mandolin when i was in Egypt last year – really nice sound. More the sort of sound i was hoping for when i bought this one, to be honest. So if i do ever decide to get back into mandolin thing, it will be a nice round bodied acoustic for me.

Fender Telecaster

stega — Sun, 02 Dec 2001 00:44:00 +0000

A Japanese ‘62 reissue custom Tele, with American vintage pickups, all in a lovely black colour with white edging. Bloody lovely instrument, this one rivals the Proph at producing sounds that make me want to melt. Looks as good as it sounds as well I made a half hearted attempt at selling this when we left NZ, but couldn’t let it go in the end. Nothing else comes close any more – been spoilt, i have.

Korg Prophecy (1996-2009)

stega — Sun, 02 Dec 2001 00:43:00 +0000

Absolutely gorgeous analog modeling synth – love the sounds this can make. This was my longest surviving piece of kit, but I sold it recently as it just wasn’t getting used as much as it should. The Prof was on bass duties, and well as providing chunky synth lines and strange squelchy noises. It was a pain in the arse to program, and the outputs were rubbish (given up fixing them, and now plug the headphone socket straight into the mixer), but it was my first proper synth and one of the best sounding machines I’ve owned.

Yamaha Electro-acoustic guitar

stega — Sat, 01 Dec 2001 21:19:00 +0000

This ones great, and managed to survive several years being dragged around South East Asia, Norway and New Zealand without even a broken string. Of course its battery (for the preamp) runs out far too quickly, and its not the best sounding acoustic when its not plugged in (obviously, as it has a half sized body), but it plays nice and is always there when i need it. Probably should change those strings now though.