NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
Aug 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Ken Micallef
The Chemical Brothers talk with Remix about their vintage-synth collection and recording their album We Are the Night.
Watch the Remix video interview with the Chemical Brothers here.
SAME-OLD SOFT SYNTHS
What with all this ancient synth gear and tube-driven distortion, you might think the Chemical Brothers are against the soft-synth revolution. You'd be 90-percent correct. “There is a total turnaround happening with soft synths,” Rowlands believes. “Everyone who uses them, their records all sound the same. Dance records really do all sound the same.”
“We're getting old, so they all sound the same,” Simons adds. “But they actually do all sound the same!”
“First, you had all those minimal German records,” Rowlands states. “All those sounds loaded up in Reaktor make a drum beat that sounds a bit like those German records. In some ways that is good — it's a very quick means of making music. It shouldn't matter how it was made. But we only hear records that all sound just like each other now. It's a bit boring. But there is no reason you can't take those things and make something different. It's about your ideas. That is the bad thing about synthesizers — it makes people that haven't got them think that they need them. We didn't have them when we started. You could just buy two records and put one on top of the other, and that was good enough. That is the trouble in talking about these really expensive and rare synths. [People think] ‘I won't be able to do that until I get that’ — but that is not how it works.
The Chemical Brothers' return to the simpler club sounds of their youth — of a time when Rowlands and Simons lived for New Order and Blaxploitation soundtracks, Kraftwerk and Eric B. & Rakim — signals their full-circle maturation. Adults with separate lives and children (well, three for Rowlands), the Chemical Brothers' We Are the Night shows the duo operating as savvy businessmen after all — intent on selling records, establishing their legacy and ultimately, communicating and connecting.
“We want it to connect to people,” Rowlands says. “When you are DJing, you have to be aware of how the music works in real life. If you do live in a rarified atmosphere, and you remove yourself from everything, you will make a very different record. But we are still concerned with making music that has a form and that people immediately get. We still want that basic response to music — to have something that connects. Maybe through DJing is why we are still concerned with that, and maybe that is what gives you relevance; you are still aware that this music has got to have a function. We want people to go mad. That is a high aim for the music.”
WE ARE THE GEAR
Computer, DAW
Apple Logic Pro 7 software, Mac G5 computer
Console
SSL AWS 900+ console
Samplers, drum machines
Akai MPC3000, S3000 (2), S3000XL (2), S6000, X7000 samplers
Casio RZ-1 drum machine
E-mu E4 Ultra (4), E64, SP-1200 samplers
LinnDrum drum machine
Sonor Mini-Movement drum system
Synths, software, plug-ins, instruments
Alesis Andromeda A6 synth
ARP 1603 sequencer, 2600 synth
Clavia Nord Modular synth
Doepfer MAQ 16/3 MIDI analog sequencers (2)
Electro-Harmonix Mini-Synthesizer
Elektron Machinedrum, Monomachine
Elka Synthex synth
EMS Synthi AKS, VCS3 synths
Fender Deluxe Reverb amp, Jazzmaster guitar, Precision bass, Telecaster guitar
Korg Mono/Poly, MS-10, MS-50, MS-2000 synths
Moog Memorymoog, Minimoog synths
Native Instruments FM7 soft synth, Kontakt soft sampler
Oberheim Xpander synths (2)
Octave Cat, Kitten synths
Parker MIDIFly guitar
Roland Juno-106, Jupiter-6, Jupiter-8, SH-101, System 700 synths
Synton Fenix, Syrinx synths
Vox Phantom XII 12-string guitar
Wiard 300 and 1200 Series Modular synths
Mic preamps, EQs, compressors, effects
Chandler Limited TG1 compressor, Germanium preamp
Electro-Harmonix Graphic Fuzz effects unit
Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor
EMS Synthi Hi-Fli analog effects unit
Eventide DSP4000, H3000 Ultra-Harmonizers
Ibanez Analog Delay
TC Electronic FireworX, M5000 multi-effects processors
Thermionic Culture Culture Vulture
Monitors
Dynaudio ABES subwoofer, M2 speakers
Genelec 1031As
Yamaha NS10s
Mixdown
Miloco Studios: the Neve Room
http://www.miloco.co.uk
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