Some synth bits (make sure to read the full article):
"'During the summer of 1980 I bought myself a Korg MS10. I messed around with that synthesiser all summer, and I'd got to the point where 1 was making up all sorts of drumbeats on it. 1 had two Kenwood cassette decks and a little Yamaha four-channel mixer, and I'd make up my drum beat and record it on one deck, then bounce it across onto the other and overdub another part at the same time. I became a real master at doing that; I knew how to EQ my drum sounds to start with so that by the time I'd finished four or five overdubs the music still sounded clean.'"
"Instruments in the Atkins arsenal include a Korg Poly 800, Yamaha DXlOO, Sequential Pro One, and Ensoniq Mirage and Akai S900 samplers. Like Saunderson, Atkins is not interested in sampling old records. He prefers to devote himself to the delights of synthesis - and in particular to one synth.
"The Pro One is my heart. I'll use that Pro One until it falls apart, and then I'll probably still use it if it makes any sounds. "These new synthesisers now, I think they're scaling them more to interface with the consumer. Synthesisers used to be synthesisers that a synthesist could play. Now manufacturers are going for presets and they make it really hard to get beyond those presets to program your own sounds. "
"Atkins has a similar preference for old drum machines.
"I still use the 808 and 909. I don't like Roland's latest drum machines, but the 808 and 909 are classics. The 808 has a real techno feel. Everything on that drum machine has an electronic feel, it's not like digitally-sampled real drums."
"'We unveiled our secret weapon, which was that we'd brought a Roland 808 to the party to play live rhythm tracks between the records.'
The crowd went wild and the Direct Drive crew got mad. But a new idea was born which was to have a profound impact not so much on Detroit as on Chicago."
