After a little over thirty years in the game, isn’t it time the Burden brothers take a break? With a new release on their own 430West Records released last October, Octave One show few signs of slowing down. We caught up with the group as they showed us around their studio.
Octave One
Hi Attack – welcome to our studio!
Minimoog Voyager RME
The machine used primarily for bass lines on most of our recent releases, including the “Afrotech” and “Detune” from our “Locus of Control” series. The filters are really great for conditioning soft synths too. The sound of the Moog Ladder filter is totally unique and when a decent sound is processed through the synth, it can bring that sound to life.
KiwiTechnics Patch Editor
Our studio consists of many rack-mount synths, including the Roland MKS-50, MKS-70, MKS-80, Oberheim Matrix 1000, and Studio Electronics ATC-X. This hardware editor edits all these synths plus dozens more. The setup changes based on what synth is selected but the basic controls (Filters, Resonance, ADSR) are usually in the same place for each synth, so once you learn the layout, your off and running editing.
Roland TR-909
Often imitated, emulated, and sampled yet still one of the best dance music drum machines ever created. Used on countless of our productions including “Black Water”, “Empower”, “Summers On Jupiter”, “Love By Machine”, “Off The Grid”, and many many more tracks and albums. Our go-to machine for the 4-on-the-floor. No other machine swings quite like “The 9”.
Studio Electronics ATCX
Equipped with a ‘Quad Filter System Cartridge System”, this classic synth was designed as an analogue emulator, which it doesn’t necessarily do that well, but does have it’s own sound based on filters from the Mini Moog, Oberheim SEM, Arp 2600, and Roland 303. You can only use one filter at a time but you can get some crazy sounds out of it. Not used very often, but great fun to compose with. Used on “Summers On Jupiter”.
Arturia BeatStep Pro and Arturia KeyStep
What’s a studio without control. Because our studio is based on rackmount synths, we need controllers to trigger them. These Arturia controllers are indispensible weapons in our arsenal. With the ability to trigger CVs, they are cool companions for many classic pieces. Used on “Endustry” and the “Locus of Control” series.
Midas Verona 48 Mixing Console
Designed initially as a live console, with slightly limited routing, the Verona is warm and opens up the sound, giving it its own space. We were first turned on to Verona after using Midas’ Venice, a smaller version of this mixer. This console is 8 bus and 48 tracks, and it’s the centre of our studio universe. It’s really good for conditioning soft sounds through as well.
Octave One’s “Locus Of Control Vol. 2” is out now. Find them on Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud.