Studio Blog #1
The Analogue Solutions Oberkorn 3: She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.
This weekend was a very productive one in Synth Nerd Central. I did a lot of work on the new track, creating several new loops and running through various structures for performing it. A lot of fun was had with the new Oberkorn mk3 (actually, my second one, reacquainted at an absolute steal on reverb).
The Oberkorn is a very simple and straight forward device, having one knob per function without any sort of display or menu system to contend with. This makes it easy to master, yet also deceptively powerful. I’d bet a lot of eurorack users now would scoff at that simplicity, but there is a lot to be said for it. Within an hour of plugging it in, I had it creating a quick and cool bass line driving my system (free to download on SoundCloud, under CC license. Download here and do as you wish with it). I can’t remember the last time I got piece that was so immediately impactful. The hard part now will be avoiding over use.
The other things making studio work so simple was the Akai Force. Sometimes, when working with it, I wonder why I even have other samplers and drum machines. The sound is great, the interface is simple enough and the results are top notch. Working with it is really getting easier as I’m starting to develop that muscle memory of where things are in the OS. No doubt they will now completely rearrange it in the next iteration. I am starting to strongly prefer it to my MPC, since it has a lot of smaller functions that’s missing (being able to select an object for editing without triggering it…GENIUS!). The 8x8 grid is also far superior to the 4x4 grid on the MPC, even if those pads are a bit bigger and maybe a little more comfortable for playing velocity. If they just port over the song mode from the MPC and the MIDI I/O functions implemented in the last MPC OS, it would easily knock the MPC out of my rig. In many ways, it already has.
Split mode: Top half launches clips, bottom half acts like a keyboard. Remind me why I have an MPC again?
On the not so good studio news, the Mackie mixer seems to have a couple issues with it. A couple channels seem to have balance issues where the left channel is not feeding the main at the same level as the right. I’m starting to look at replacing it with something like a Presonus digital rack mixer, as that would also upgrade my MOTU interface and consolidate both into one. Then I could send the Mackie off to be serviced and decide if I want to keep it, which I’d like to do since it’s just so damn useful.
One last thing I accomplished this weekend was come up for an actual name for my next project. The concept has been boiling in my brain for a while, but now the project, how it is going to work visually and what I’m going to go for over all has started forming in my mind. I’ll hold off on giving any details on that for now.