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Tiesto hates glow sticks
Global trance titan Tiesto, who was recently voted as Australia’s favourite... [more]
German techno pioneers Hardfloor declared their undying love for the Roland 303 synthesizer this week on the press release accompanying their new compilation (Tales Of The Unexpected Volume 3) with a classic grumble. “When I listen to records from back in the day, they can’t compare to today’s music,” Oliver Bondzio complained. “That raw feeling can’t be heard in our current environment where everything seems to over rely on digital production. There’s something missing from those computerised packages that you just can’t get without a 303.”
His views contrasted with those of Chris Lowe from the Pet Shop Boys who told Skrufff two years ago that the duo had returned to making more electronic music as technology improved dramatically. “You can get all these virtual analogue keyboards that we used to use in the 80s,” said Chris. “You can now get them as plug-ins so that’s also given us a whole new impetus, we’ve been able to access all these great old sounds that we used to use and do more with them in the computer.”
Chatting to Skrufff at the same period, Berlin producer DJ Naughty was more ambiguous, admitting he’d sold all his synthesisers for computer plug ins only to then decide to buy them all again (at greatly inflated prices). “When Logic came out I started to work only with software and for a while it was good. But that day when I sold all my equipment, something happened and it was negative. I lost a little freedom,” he said. “I used to have a big synthesizer, a Jupiter 8, but I couldn’t play chords so of course, I ended up getting bored by it,” he added. “Now I wish I had it again because the sound of the machine is something else, you can’t replicate it from a plug in. I really believe that.”
