Is less really more? (when it comes to synths)

I make music in two different studios.

The first is a collaborative uber-project studio built with my oldest friend Will that boasts over 300 pieces of musical electronics. My second studio is a much smaller affair in my home. It is comparatively modest with about 20 instruments and a few effect pedals.

Not surprisingly the idea behind the big studio is to have the broadest sonic palette at our fingertips. The sonic arsenal here is vast and exciting. It took 15 years to build and, I have to admit, it is as much a gear-pig's wet dream as it is a place to make music. It ranges in vintage from the Clavioline through the Monotron and offers keyboards, drum machines, effects pedals, wind controllers, stringed instruments. Analog and digital mix in a completely organic fashion and we can (and have) connected pretty much everything together to see what would come out.

My "small" studio has only one underlying philosophy - fly under the objections of my wife. I make liberal use of a laptop and a one-or-two-instruments-at-a-time approach.

What is interesting (to me at least) is that I don't feel limited when working at home. I'm quite confident that I could spend the rest of life exploring the few items there without ever seeing the edge of my creative universe.

Also of note is how frequently I find myself gravitating to the same instruments in the big studio that I have at home. In two respects this isn't too surprising - familiarity breeds confidence and efficiency. These are barely acceptable alternatives to refined music talent (which I lack). They are also factors that maximize productivity in limited time.

So I wonder, does it make more sense to get to know a few instruments deeply, or to be able to change on a whim to any tool your fancy?

WaveDrum

Spent some time toying with my new Korg Wavedrum today. Here are my first impressions:

It's quite responsive. Really very good for even the lightest of finger tapping (which is great 'cause the wife gets unruly about the sound of anything more percussive than water dripping). The Wavedrum is so responsive that it almost behaves like a microphone transmitting the actual sound of itself being hit. This poses some intriguing possibilities for driving the head with a speaker and using it as a transducer mic.

The Wavedrum responds to head and rim triggers and sounds can be varied by applying pressure to the head. This a performance metaphor familiar to all hand drum players who control the pitch of the drum head by pressing on it.

The thing is sturdy. I tried it with drum sticks and suspect it would stand up to a pretty good smacking. Korg clearly intends it to replace/augment the snare in a trap kit.

The programming UI is fairly obtuse. Given the price tag of $700 CDN I'd expect at least a 2 x 40 character LCD not a 3 character LED and five mode buttons. Another downside is the absence of a MIDI, or USB connector. The Wavedrum is clearly intended to be a live performance instrument. This gives me a very strong (and perverse) urge to mod the thing and tap both its triggers.

It sounds great. As with most stuff from Korg, the Wavedrum emphasizes sound quality.

Next up I'll post a recording of it.

My rig at the recent 5 x 5 x 5 sessions

In the second week of July I got together with my oldest friend, and musical co-conspirator, Willi for a session of noise making. Self-dubbed, "5 by 5 by 5", the idea was to reconnect creatively after a long 6 month hiatus by making some semi-spontaneous noise in five days, using five instruments/signal processors each.

We tried to avoid digressing into weeks and months of tedious, one-note-at-a-time music composition that we had been at for some years now. While this old approach did produce results, it cost time and frustration that I just couldn't bear any longer.

As his five weapons Willi picked a TS-10, a Memorymoog, a SH-3A, an ASR-X and a couple of effects boxes. I picked the Karma Workstation, my Creamware Prodyssey ASB, an ESX-1, an EF-303 and (greatest of all), the Suzuki OmniChord (California Edition).

I'll write more about this session and, just possibly, post some of the noises we made.