Blending classic jungle, rave and soundsystem inspirations, self-confessed tech nerd Jack Gibbons shows us around the studio where he made his debut album for Tectonic.
My Studio – Ipman
This is my studio, currently set up at my parents’ house whilst I wait to move! It’s been expanding slowly for the last five or six years, scraping together gear from savings and generous donations! It’s a good mix of old and new, I feel, which is kind of like my music.
Moog Slim Phatty
I like to use a combination of digital and analogue synthesis for a lot of the music I make. The Moog Slim Phatty is tremendous for deep basses but can really take over a mix if you aren’t careful. I use it on pretty much every track I make as it’s pretty versatile for a small two-oscillator synth.
Yamaha DX7
This is a new addition, but a very welcome one. I luckily picked it up free when a friend of my dad found it in his attic! Classic FM synthesis that can get really crazy. Awesome for bell-like sounds and strange chords.
Modular
This is something I’ve gotten into over the last few years after working at a studio where they had a few cabinets of Eurorack. Definitely a fun way to improvise and come up with new music, and an endless source of inspiration and amusement. Can be a bit of a money sink though, so I’ve been careful to add new modules only when I feel I have gotten everything I can out of my current combination. Current favourite would probably be the Audio Damage ADM02 granular pitch effect. Sounds crazy!
Alesis HR-16
This is an Alesis HR-16 digital drum machine that I got off of eBay. I wasn’t too keen on the factory sounds so I also bought some new eprom chips and have replaced them so it now plays back crunchy 808 samples instead! The next step is soldering up a patch bay to the chips’ pins for some crazy glitching, but I’m still not confident in my electronics skills, plus I’m getting a lot of use out of the current sounds, making drum loops for my album.
Ganesh + Zoom Mic
Ganesh is my studio mascot. I’ve had him at every step of the way. He’s patron of the arts and sciences so I feel that encompasses most of what I get up to! Next to him is my Zoom H2, a handy little field recorder with 360-degree surround recording for grabbing foley and sounds on the go.
Desk
The main engine behind my music is Ableton, but I was recently lent an Arturia Beatstep, which is handy for little bits of sequencing. I used to use Logic, however Ableton has proven itself to excel at integrating my hardware, and I use it almost exclusively nowadays.
Ipman’s debut album, Depatterning, is out on October 16th on Tectonic Recordings. Find him on Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud.
12.01 AM
Thanks for inside view of his studio. Ipman is a great musician.
12.03 PM
Great artist!