Retro Gear Revisited For Funky Game Music and Performance Art Fun, Part One

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm a collector of old gear. I'm fascinated with the old stuff that still makes sound, and sound that you just can't get anymore, even with the hottest software and hybrid hardware. So I'm whipping through the piles of chassis, flight cases, wire clusters, patch chord racks; trying to remember what I had used to create the last soundtrack I had done for a sample based cartridge game. And of course, a project of that vintage could only have been composed with my old 12-bit hardware sampler.

The mighty Ensoniq EPS-M was the flagship of it's line, sporting 8 instrument banks, what was then a ton of RAM, and performance features that I had never learned. I had originally used it as a studio box, hooked up to a computer sequencer with every part meticulously edited. As a system for modeling sample-based game machines, it was as versatile as it was faithful to that low-resolution style.

So why bring it up now? The idea of playing with samples live was something I never really got the hang of either. Some colleagues prefer to just "dj" cds of custom loops and phrases and seem to have a good time of it. Others pre-program their racks of gear to be triggered with drum pads. Just whack it on the beat and even the nastiest waveform can sound musical.

For my current creative style, I've been insisting on doing everything in real time. Give me vintage gear with lots of knobs, and just roll hard drive and capture the whole signal flow. For game music, I just edit out the choice grooves into MP3s and re-sequence them into interactive arrangements. For performance, I've come upon a pleasant way of executing the samples live. I trigger loops and hits with my little Novation controller thenI record it all to a Line 6 delay modeler creating a master loop on the fly, that in turn can be overdubbed. This is not unlike the experience of jamming on the little Korg Kaossilator that so many of us have been writing about.

Because the old EPS-M did not have any onboard processing, I've added a modern touch with a performance flair. The almost-vintage Alesis Air FX not only adds DSP to the experience, but also a gesture-based control that can be as dramatic as it is surprising, thanks to it's XYZ infra-red sensor. Having it at the end of the signal chain allows me to "perform" the loops as they playback, before kicking it into half-speed, reverse, or both.

To complete the presence of this "sampler-zilla", I have it mounted in a six space rack with an old 80 meg hard drive; and a reversed rack shelf protruding from the front as a 19" keyboard shelf; perfect for the Novation. The whole thing is balanced on an old Invisible stand to give it a quirky minimal appearance. And it actually balances well enough to bang on the keyboard without a jiggle! I can't tell you just how happy I am to have this "new" instrument, assembled from old gear in my studio...