Introducing State Azure

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Updated: June 14, 2022

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Today I introduce you to State Azure, a UK-based producer of ambient electronic music.

His particularity is to offer lives sessions that easily exceed 3 hours in calm and relaxing style.

Furthermore, this musician has a nice studio very well equipped.

On the one hand, there is a modular setup that he uses, among other things, to produce generative music.

On the other side we notice a set of quality devices including the Waldorf Iridium.

Stater Azure has also produced a few videos centered on limited equipment approaching the mono-device approach.

This makes it possible to appreciate the qualities of the Iridium that also equips our studio and I will talk about one day in the context of granular synthesis.

To illustrate the work of State Azure, I propose you a video that I find mesmerizing, the cover of the excellent In the air tonight with a captivating female voice.

Do not hesitate to discover his work on the various streaming platforms or his Youtube channel.

CUBASE and inspiring People

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Updated: June 7, 2022

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Hello friends,

So far, we have presented you a few of our favourite hardware synthesisers (there are more to come… don’t worry 😉) but today we would like to say a word on the core tool that we use to gather all these instruments and let them play together in harmony… we name it CUBASE.

But what is Cubase? Probably everybody has heard about Photoshop and knows basically what it does. Well, here is a simplistic comparison: Cubase is to audio what Photoshop is to photo.

Cubase is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that makes possible to hold a mobile music studio in a minimal amount of space.

Image you can have this unaffordable setup we dream of…

…entirely built in into this nowadays common piece of technology

…so, it looks like

Using Cubase we record music notes (thank you MIDI) as well as audio waves (through audio card) from hardware synths, we arrange all recordings, we add them effects (e.g. modulation, delay, reverb, distortion, etc) to bring more life, we mix them all together so that they find their place in frequency spectrum, and we master the final output to match with today’s audio streaming platforms standards.

Cubase offers a huge – almost limitless – number of possibilities to transform and shape a sound, for example:

  • Sound can be equalised if we want to emphasise or cut one or several harmonics or give the sound a darker or brighter coloration
  • Sound can be time stretched to map with musical tempo
  • Sound can be sampled and sliced to generate ‘spin-off’ sounds
  • Beat alignment can be corrected after recording if we ever missed a beat
  • Even a single erroneous music note can be corrected…very useful when your fingers do not hit the right key 😉

Cubase offers almost infinite options but its power can sometimes be buried in ‘hidden’ buttons or menus.

Luckily, we can rely on inspiring people to reveal Cubase little secrets and let the magic operates:

Thank you both for the precious tips!

KEBU 2 – DRM-1

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Updated: June 1, 2022

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We recently introduced you to Kebu, this friendly Finnish keyboardist. But what does this have to do with E-dipti-X?

Well, in addition to a source of inspiration for the play and the live setup, there is the sounds of these devices that awaken our ears. The 70s and 80s devices keep a stamp that modern machines never cease to want to imitate. Without making here the analog / digital, hardware / vst (software) debate (less and less relevant regarding computer progress), we can’t resist seeking to approach these famous sounds.

And we are equipped with 2 similar devices we will try to make the most of.

The first: DRM1.

This model was produced by 3 manufacturers (initially Music & More, TBS (Touched By Sound) and today Vermona).

It is an analog percussion generator with very vintage sounds.

A generator only and not a drum machine. DRM1 has no sequencer.

Its sound palette makes it possible to produce round and deep sounds for techno or much more aggressive sounds for a more industrial style that particularly interests us.

We will come back to this aspect in later post about Soma equipment.

Here it will be the characteristic effect side of the oscillator 3 “multi” that will arouse our curiosity.

Here is a demo that we made in single-device mode.

The second is the Yamaha EX7, a workstation that includes among other things the syntheses and sounds of the S series.

To taste again the sweet melodies of Kebu and discover the sounds of the Yamaha, I propose the track entirely based on the Yamaha S30 (mono-device) “The Lunar Effect”

Thursday 26th of May session

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Updated: May 27, 2022

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Today I’m alone in the studio and I take the opportunity to work with the GR-1.
Updating the firmware, studying the manual to understand how to manage patches and performances and above all, working on the ambient sound that I have in mind for the intro of the live set.
I let you guess what the original sound could be 😉

I’ll take the occasion of another post to show you briefly how we use this very special device, the GR-1 granular synthesizer from Tasty Chips.
More info on the GR-1 to satisfy the curious: https://youtu.be/cYRCIcnGnbc

The sound is far from being finished. It will undergo another big modification by going through different effects. But that’s for another post as well (effects section).
Don’t hesitate to comment, share…

Artist discovery : Mr Firechild

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Updated: May 24, 2022

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Today I would like to introduce you to Mr Firechild. He is a Swedish keyboardist who composes 80’s tracks on a collection of extraordinary machines.

His melodies are very nice and he has a real talent to showcase these exceptional synths.

Because yes, besides music, he makes all the keyboardists in the world dreaming by showcasing almost all the legendary synths in his studio.

He is an artist who likes to compose and record in “mono-device” way. Meaning he does everything on one single synth. Of course on many tracks in overdubbing mode. It’s not a set-up for live performance (like Kebu). This single-device approach is perfect to get an idea of the capabilities and sonic footprint of an instrument.

It is therefore quite logical that I present you Mr Firechild because he allowed me to choose some devices based on the sound that can be expected from them (for example the Waldorf Pulse). So I propose you the track “The Pulse of my heart”

Mr Firechild has plenty of other such demos and has also released many nice albums. Check out his channel and his website, http://www.firechild.se/

Devices : Implexus

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Updated: May 18, 2022

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Today I’d like to introduce you to a device. It is a new machine and it is not (yet) part of our setup. This allows me to share with you what I like about synths and what will contribute to the E-dipti-X sound.

I have been waiting for a few days for Blue Noiz’s review to share my enthusiasm for this original synth, the Implexus from Majella Audio.

Today the number of machines passed in our hands is quite significant and the studio setup tends to decrease. After a phase of research of 80-90’s devices, the tendency evolves towards modern devices with well marked sound character.

This is the case of the Implexus which, through its design, goes off the beaten track with its complex oscillator and its editing logic.

To give you an idea of the sounds I plan to get from it, I propose you an extract of this video https://youtu.be/xe8pV9FnWeU?t=141

It will certainly be evolving sounds with rhythmic patterns and yes, it’s only one sound based on 2 oscillators!

Don’t hesitate to tell us what you think about it.

And for the fans, I propose you the complete review (long version) of Blue Noiz (FR)

May 12th session

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Updated: May 14, 2022

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Very good news today.

Xav is putting the last touches to our 2022 HELEN album. There are still some small details (a reverb to be added on the end of a song, a phrase to be re-recorded) and we’ll be able to start the publishing process. Yeeees! And we are delighted with the result (are we impartial 😉 ).

Kim offers us the first version of the cover based on the story. And as always, it’s different from what we had in mind, much better… It’s always a pleasure to discover the fruit of his work. We offer you the first visual to which we just have to add the title and the logo.

And the next album is ongoing. The concept is established, many ideas already recorded, the whole thing starts to take shape and coherence.

Contrary to the previous purely studio albums, this time it is a composition that is entirely intended for live performance. An album of course (12 tracks), but our firm objective is to propose it on stage in order to go out and meet the public.

The concept will naturally be the continuation of HELEN, discovering this new world called Nephilion.

Artist discovery : KEBU

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Updated: May 14, 2022

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For this first artist presentation I chose Kebu.

Kebu is a Finnish solo keyboardist who developed in 2012 his own electro melodic style inspired by the 80’s.

Initially he was characterized by a fully hardware set-up of 70s and 80s devices. Even today even if more recent devices joined the set-up, his shows are still based on hardware (absence of laptop / pc as it becomes the norm) and are performances.

The soft and pleasant sounds plunge us back into the 80s, which have become up to date again (have they ever disappeared?).

Kebu now has 4 albums and several EPs to his credit.

I propose you to listen to the first piece I discovered of this artist and which remains my favorite, Perplexagone Part 3.

More info http://kebu.fi/main.html

The idea of these articles is to introduce you to artists we like and that you probably do not know. Good discovery!

Syntrx review by Blue Noiz (FR)

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Updated: May 9, 2022

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I can’t resist sharing this Syntrx review from my friend Blue Noiz (I promise I’ll present him longer, one day).
In the meantime, he tells us about this unusual synth, designed for sound design, as we like them. A device like any other right out of the dream of owning an EMS Synthi one day…
It’s a long review, for beautiful devices lovers. Otherwise the last few minutes are devoted to sound demo…

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