Gary Numan On Meeting the Minimoog

Here's an excerpt from a very recent (July 2010) Rolling Stone interview with Gary Numan, in which he tells the story of how he met the Minimoog-- and how that changed everything. This is as funny as it wonderful.

Read the full Rolling Stone interview here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/17386/184692

Meeting the Minimoog Portion of interview:

"I remember it clearly. I had been sent to a studio by [my label] Beggars to record my first album. It was going to be a punk album and we were going to play the songs live. But as soon as I walked into the control room, there was a mini Moog. I had never seen one before. I just thought it was the coolest looking thing, just fantastic. Quite, quite small.

Apparently, a company was going to come pick it up but the man said I could try it out until they came to collect it but they never turned up! I had this thing for the whole day and it was the most amazing experience. Very luckily, it had been left on that sound which had become famous: a huge big bottom bass roar. It was just huge. I didn't know how to set it up. All I did was press a key and the room shook! And I just thought, "Fuck me! That's the most amazing thing I've ever heard! The power!" Imagine, if the sound had been something that went ping!, I would've thought, "This is rubbish" and none of this success would've ever happened to me. So much of this was luck."

DEAD WHEN I FOUND HER CENTRAL : THE HOME STUDIO

I figured some of you might be interested in seeing the current incarnation of the DWIFH Home Studio Setup. Additionally, I'll post a little guide below to help you understand what you're looking at, as a few things are obscured. It's funny to reflect on the progression and development of my home studio, because I used to be a very "software only" kind of guy. And actually, that's still *mostly* true, as much of what you see above are controllers rather than instruments. But, things change...

It's worth noting, however, that pretty much everything you hear in my songs has been, to date, software-based. The kurzweil has only been used (it's a crime, I know) as a midi controller for my softsynths; and the Virus and Ensoniq are both relatively recent acquisitions, both of which I've yet to explore extensively (let alone use within a DWIFH track). Even Maschine (though strictly a controller that powers the Maschine software) is a new purchase that hasn't shown up, to date, in any DWIFH material.

I point this out because, if you're thinking that the sound of "Harm's Way" requires an apparently hardware-heavy setup like the one seen above, be sure that it doesn't. "Harm's Way" was the product of extensively using Ableton Live and a selection of software instruments and FX. Most of what you see above are tools acting as controllers for software: only the Virus and the Ensoniq will be used as additional instrument sound sources on future recordings (and the Ensoniq, well, was really more of a goofy nostalgia purchase; both the K2000 and most of the software I'm using can run circles around the Ensoniq's relatively dated functionality; but, it will have it's place all the same).

That said, I keep eyeing DSI's MOPHO keyboard with hungry anticipation...After all, a setup like the one above could certainly use at least one truly analog synthesizer...vamos a ver!


Studio Hardware:

Apple iMac Intel Core2Duo
Mackie MR5 reference monitors
Native Intruments Audio Kontrol 1 audio interface
Akai LPK25 mini keyboard controller
Akai APC40 ableton live controller
Native Instruments Maschine drum sampler/groovebox
Shure57 microphone
Kurzweil K2000vx with sampler option (lower keyboard in photo)
Ensoniq ESQ-1 Synthesizer
Sennheiser HD 280pro Headphones
Access Virus B Synthesizer
Epiphone Les Paul "goth" electric guitar (not pictured; it's next to the keyboards)

Studio Software:
(listed by company; not a comprehensive list, but with a focus on the most essential and frequently used tools)

DAW:
Ableton: Live 8 (Suite Version)

SOFTWARE INSTRUMENTS:
Native Instruments: reaktor5, absynth5, kontakt3, fm8, guitar rig3, maschine
KORG: Legacy collection instruments, Analog + Digital
GForce: Minimonsta, impOSCar, Oddity
Arturia: ProphetV, ARP2600V
Rob Papen: Predator
Propellerhead: Reason4 (instruments rewired into Live host)
Cakewalk: Rapture, Dimension Pro

FX:
(note: mostly I use the Ableton on-board FX but there are a few exceptions, most notably the Voxengo plugs which I use extensively; for mastering I use nothing but 3rd party mastering FX plug-ins)

Sonnox: Limiter
U-He: Uhbik bundle
Sonalksis: StereoTools
Izotope: Ozone4 (mostly used just for the multi-band compression unit)
BBE: Sonic Suite (for the D4 aural exciter)
Voxengo: MaxPunch, VariSaturator, StereoTouch