I’m in the unusual position at the moment of owning two original vintage ARP 2600s. There’s no practical musical reason for this - I don’t have the space to have them both set up and I will sell one of them eventually. Like most of my synths at one point or another, my original one was being very temperamental and needed repairing. I’d been meaning to get it repaired for a while and there came a point where I hadn’t got this sorted and wanted to put it to use. I was looking into getting it serviced and happened to look at what they were currently going for second hand. I then happened upon the most insane bargain on eBay. One was listed with a buy-it-now price so low that I thought it must be a scam. I was so convinced it was a scam that I asked the seller to send me a photo of it with them holding up three fingers with the synth, to prove that the listing’s photos weren’t taken from elsewhere. Even after I pulled the trigger and bought it I wasn’t convinced it would turn up. But it did, and it sounds better than the original one that I paid around twice the price for.
#arp2600 #synth #analogsynth #arp #herbiehancock
I’ve been experimenting further with the Rhodes improv from my last post and building it into more of a piece.
1976 Suitcase Rhodes through a Fender Fuzz Wah pedal and Maestro Echoplex.
Inspired by Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi-era Rhodes sound.
Properly recorded audio this time
#fenderrhodes #herbiehancock #sextant #echoplex #mwandishi
Some Sunday afternoon experiments in trying to capture a flavour of the Sextant-era early 70s Herbie Rhodes tone. Same signal chain as Sextant - Rhodes through a Fender Fuzz-Wah pedal and Maestro Echoplex
#fenderrhodes #herbiehancock #sextant #mwandishi #echoplex
An evening of electric cello recording with the wonderful @petergregson in the studio earlier this week
#electriccello #cello #recordingstudio #musicrecording #composer
Happy 86th Birthday to the singular musical genius that is @herbiehancock .
Five years ago I put this video of Herbie’s classic composition “Spiraling Prism” together as a tribute, transcribing and recreating all the original synth parts, along with @tomogradymusic on Fender Rhodes, @markmondesirdrums on drums and the track’s original bassist, the amazing Byron Miller (@psychobass1 ). Eventually this led on to me having the amazing opportunity to meet Herbie himself and thank him for all the inspiration.
The full video of the track is on YouTube. There’s a link in my bio
#herbiehancock #spiralingprism #jazz #synthesizers #analogsynth
Skye & Mull
Following the last two posts about composing on the move, here are some of the recent views on Skye and Mull. Two of my favourite places in the world
p.s. slides 7 & 8 are both locations from a classic film (one that Scorsese called a masterpiece). Does anyone know which?
#isleofskye #isleofmull #scotland #composition #travel
Portable composing rig.
Niche gear post, but I was asked about this after my last post so I thought it might be of interest to some.
I do some of my best composing away from home. A change of scene and being away from the desk can inspire creativity, and I’m sometimes more productive in a different environment. Last year I posted about my discovery of even composing in the car.
Over the years I’ve refined the setup I use for this and it is currently the best I’ve had in this respect.
Current gear:
MacBook Pro (16inch M3 Max 48GB)
Sample Library SSD (Crucial X10 Pro 4TB)
Projects Drive SSD (Crucial X10 Pro 2TB)
USB hub with iLok and USB dongle (for @wavesaudio licenses)
@m_audio Keystation 49 Keyboard
@neumann.berlin NDH20 Headphones
The really key thing that I’ve changed in recent years in terms of workflow is that the two hard drives (Projects & Samples) are the exact ones I use in the studio. In the studio I save all my work to the same Projects drive. So there’s zero copying of files across - I can just unplug from one, plug into the other and seamlessly carry on working. This was a game-changer for me (thanks to @rogergoula & @stuart_earl for suggesting this). Very important of course to keep both backed up.
I’m not a very samples-heavy composer - I work a lot with audio and real instruments - so 4TB is enough for me for my full libraries, but some people might need more.
Headphones-wise I also have a Bose wireless noise-cancelling pair and a Sennheiser HD650 open-backed pair. Bluetooth headphones cause latency so aren’t practical for composing with a keyboard, but can be ok for some mixing/editing (although I find that noise-cancelling rolls off some of the bass). Open-backed leak sound in both directions. The Neumanns are enclosed enough to do a degree of noise-reduction passively and are excellent quality - similar level to the HD650s without being open backed.
My keyboard criteria is full size keys and a proper mod wheel. I can’t work properly with things like ribbon controller mod wheels. Also I have managed to fit this one in a suitcase before.
Like my studio computer, the MacBook was secondhand from @hoxtonmacs
#composer #studiogear
Evening composing setup.
(Second pic shows a closeup of the quite spectacular view of snow-capped mountains in the distance)
#skye #isleofskye #composer #composing #music
Stopped in Carlisle en route up to Scotland and happened upon the most incredible secondhand bookshop - @bookcasecarlisle . A wonderfully sprawling rabbit warren of book heaven with multiple rooms across multiple floors. And a large selection of secondhand CDs too, including one of the best selections of secondhand classical CDs I’ve seen. My best ever haul of Lutoslawski CDs (probably my favourite 20th C composer).
With so many independent shops struggling these days (including our wonderful local bookshop in London recently having to close after many years), it’s a real pleasure to stumble upon a shop with real character on such a scale.
#books #bookshop #secondhandbooks #carlisle #lutoslawski
Spent the weekend in Toulouse, watching my brother Mark conduct a truly wonderful performance of Bach’s St John Passion by @maitrisedetoulouse and Baroque instrumentalists, celebrating the 20th anniversary of his founding of the Maîtrise. An amazing celebration of his work there, training and inspiring young choral singers at the highest level - absolutely magical.
#choralmusic #choir #toulouse #france #bach
One of Jessie Buckley’s earliest significant roles was in the 2018 BBC adaptation of The Woman In White. I think this had the strongest cast of anything I’ve worked on - as well as the three young leads of Jessie Buckley, Olivia Vinall and Ben Hardy, there were some really exceptional performances by Dougray Scott, Charles Dance, Art Malik, Riccardo Scamarcio, Joanna Scanlon, Vicki Pepperdine and more. I always felt that Jessie Buckley stood out with an incredibly strong performance that helps drive the whole drama. Amazing seeing what she’s gone on to.
I feel like The Woman In White might have been a little underrated overall. Brilliant direction by @tibbettscarl , and beautifully atmospherically shot by @ebenbolter .
(beautiful cello playing by @petergregson on the track I’ve featured here)
#jessiebuckley #thewomaninwhite #bbcdrama #perioddrama #oscars
5 Great Jazz Moments in Cinema
I was asked to write an article for @everythingjazzstore on jazz in cinema. Really enjoyed writing this. The brief involved covering tracks that are available on physical media on the site (I’m always pleased to support physical media) so this isn’t a list of the “most famous” uses of jazz in film (e.g. Round Midnight, Lift to the Scaffold), but I mentioned several of those in the intro.
I’m pleased with my selection:
The Talented Mr Ripley
Casino
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Killer of Sheep
Bad Timing
(I also snuck LA Confidential and The Italian Job in as bonuses)
There’s a link to the article in my Stories
#jazz #jazzinfilm #cinema #film #lists
