The Synths Used in Hologram's Skyrunner

Follow-up to this post where you'll find the track. Via Hologram:

"The overall inspiration for the 'Skyrunner' single and the upcoming LP were to bring back a sense of melody and the human element that I feel has been lost in a lot of modern electronic music today. A lot of it has become so focused on the technical prowess of the technology itself that the human elements of writing and composing music have become somewhat lost in the fray. It wasn't just about the sound and technical abilities of a certain instrument, it was also about how they were played, and the context in which they were used in an arrangement. I felt that it was a combination of both the sonic quality of those vintage instruments and the human compositional elements that truly allowed the instruments of those days to shine as they did on many of the old recordings of yesterday. This combination is what I set out to portray in the new Hologram material. While there was certainly lots of time put into sound-design and the engineering behind the single and the LP, the primary focus was on writing music and creating a "journey" through the melodies and composition first, with the technology being used as a "tool" to materialize that vision, not the other way around."

Most of 2011 was spent selectively collecting certain analogue and digital synthesizers for the studio that represented the sound and characteristics that have become well known throughout the history of electronic music. Starting with the Roland Jupiter-6, it formed the basis of many of the original ideas that formed into the tracks on this release and the upcoming LP. The leads and various arpeggio sounds were created on the Jupiter-6. The Jupiter-6 while not as quite as coveted as it's larger brother the Jupiter-8, has a rich sonic character of it's own and has a wider palette of colors with it's multi-mode filter section. The Moog Voyager RME, while being a modern-day analogue synth and not an original Minimoog D, I felt captured the sonic quality of the "Moog" sound, but with it's own unique character as well, with the multi-mode filters and pole selection, which can make it sound very "Arp" or even "Oberheim" like when using 1 or 2 pole modes. It's fantastic and has a richness all it's own. It's ability to also wire up feedback through the external input to give it more bite and grit make it another favorite of mine in the studio. It was used for the synth bass lines, as well as layered arpeggios and seq attack type sounds in both tracks on the single and was the main arpeggio line in "Prometheus Rising".

The Ensoniq ESQ also played a major role in "Prometheus Rising" being used for the "wooshing" noise modulated sound and the resonant synth drops towards the end. The ESQ has a wonderful filter that is a favorite of mine based on the CEM3379 4-pole analog resonant filter that is very musical and has lots of character. Even though that filter was used in several other synths during the 80's, the way it was implemented in the ESQ along with slight bit of overdrive in the VCA is what gives that instrument it's unique character. Heavily processed with an Eventide H949 reverse delays and manual feedback, it created a wonderful space and movement to the track and we'll be heard much more throughout the LP.

The Roland System-100m is....a beast and a piece of history in itself. While it was a later addition to the studio after the two initial tracks were for the most part completed, it was used for layered white noise effects on both tracks, and was used to create the "shimmering synth" effect sound in the breakdown in "Skyrunner". This was created using one of the LFO's fed into a Doepfer A-156 Dual quantizer module, which was then routed to modulate the pitch of both VCO's on the System-100m, while staying in key with the bassline. It was then processed heavily through the FOH Sounds of Shadow delay module for the feedback wash. The SY77 and Oberheim Xpander were used for choir and pads on "Prometheus Rising". The Xpander was a recent addition to the studio and expect to hear it much more throughout the LP as it is truly one of the great classics and has a sound that I have always coveted.

The Korg Univox 700s and the Waldorf Microwave XT were not used on this project, but expect to definitely hear the 700s throughout the LP as this is another classic piece I have always admired it's sound used throughout many of the mid-to-late 70's British synth records. It's such a simple instrument, but such a rich sound to it that it's just phenomenal. It's a quirky little synth too, with it's limited front-panel controls and absolutely no MIDI or even CV/Gate! So it's literally a "play live and track it" type instrument, but that's what I love about it most. No over-thinking, no over-producing, just feel it, play it, and move on.

As for software synthesizers, a few were used on this release, as I've always been a fan of software synthesis as well. The current material obviously has a focus towards the old analogue instruments, primarily because of the real-time nature and interaction that they create during the writing process, but software plays a major role in the studio as well, with a few virtual synths being used as well as the entire single and LP being mixed entirely "in the box" making heavy use of UAD analog EQ's, compressors, and tape emulations. A couple of notable virtual synths that were used are the GForce VSM and the OPX-Pro, with the OPX-Pro forming several parts in "Skyrunner" and the GForce VSM used to create the strings at the intro of "Prometheus Rising" processed heavily through the UAD Roland RE-201 Space Echo plugin.

The LP is still in the works and is slated to be completed later this year. Keep an eye out for updates on the official website.

http://holografique.tumblr.com and http://schematic.net"