It is not everyday that we come across a routine with a blend of analog and digital gear. Today, we want to share Zachary Hollback’s Pound for Pound routine that uses six different pieces of analog gear to create a grooving track live. When someone creates music with analog gear, it is comparable to a drummer drumming or a guitar player playing a riff. Analog gear comes with a sense of being and with the little quirks of live modulation, the sense of human touch can be heard which makes a track sound more textured and layered. Read more about the gear below and watch the routine:
The Gear Behind the Track
Roland AIRA TB-3: ($299 in the DJTT store) a modern bass synthesizer that also contains a 32 step sequencer. This piece of gear is great for getting unique bass sounds that can be modulated live using parameters such as filters and touch-sensitive modulation. The TB-3 also features the 303’s sawtooth and square wave oscillators, as well as the -18dB per octave ladder low-pass filter. Additionally, the TB-3 is packed with new sounds: Bubbling synth basses, hard distortion basses, trippy delay sounds, etc.
Korg Volca Beats: ($149 in the DJTT store) a small, yet powerful, 6 analog drum sequencer that can be used to create a variety of different beats in the old step sequence fashioned. Equipped with MIDI in and sync capabilities, the Volcas can also be routed to other gear, like in the video, to remain in sync. The unit contains an analog kick, snare, hi tom, lo tom, closed hi hat, and open hi hat.
Korg Volca Keys: ($149 in the DJTT store) Another pocket utility that is used as an analog synthesizer with a step sequencer. This little unit contains three oscillators along with 16 steps that an be used to create a variety of unique, analog sounds. The unit is an introductory synthesizer, with a simple – yet powerful – polyphonic analog sound engine and loop sequencer. It worked great in Zachary’s routine to provide another element layer.
Korg MonoTribe: part analog synth, part analog rhythm, and part step sequencer. The unit contains a bass drum, snare, and hi hat along with a VCO, LFO, and VCA that can be mixed into an oscillator signal. It also contains an eight step sequencer with the ability to sync with other devices.
Arturia BeatStep: an interesting piece of gear and a blend between digital and analog gear. The unit serves as a master step sequencer that can either be used with just MIDI capable software or serve as a step sequencer to a synthesizer which appears to be what Zachary has used his for in the routine.
MeeBlip: an open source piece of hardware that comes from our friends at CDM (createdigitalmusic.com) and Blipsonic engineer James Grahame. It is a part analog and part digital device that produces unique sounds with a simple to use interface. Through a MIDI port, Zachary uses his BeatStep to control the sounds coming out of the MeeBlip via a step sequencer.
Have a routine you want to share with us? Let us know about it!
