My first flatmate, Alan Newman, who also happened to be a work colleague and drinking buddy, was a guitarist and together with his bassist friend Wayne Parley and a female singer, Jo McCafferty, we formed my first 'proper' band Charlotte Says. We were a kind of 'Faith No More meets Skunk Anansie' rock/electronic affair which proved quite popular among audiences normally treated to Radiohead-impersonating local bands...
We went through an assortment of drummers, eventually deciding they were all too unreliable. By the end of our time all the backline was provided by me and my Atari ST.
My studio gear expanded quite a bit during this period. First of all, I needed some better amplification than the little Hitachi stereo I'd been using previously, so I purchased a pair of Alesis Monitor Ones, and a matching Alesis RA100 amp, which are my monitors of choice to this day.
Next, the limitations of a 61-key keyboard were beginning to show as I constructed more elaborate 'multi' patches with many split zones for playing on stage. I purchased a 76-key Alesis QS7 (which I still use on stage), partly on the strength of its piano sounds and partly for the semi-weighted larger keyboard. I still love the touch of this keyboard - not too heavy for synthy-type sounds, yet enough responsiveness to create the kind of tonal variations you need when playing a piano sound.
The sounds of my SY22, U20 and TG55 were beginning to wear thin, especially since I was still a preset junkie, so my last two purchases were sound modules to expand my palette. First, I purchased a Korg 01R/W (an 01/W workstation in a box) off a guy I worked with (I think his name was Charles, and I think he was from Fife. Either way, I do remember that he was a demon harmonica player who used to whip out his harp on nights out and wow drunken audiences...). The Korg had a built-in sequencer, so I used that in rehearsals for a while to provide beats while we wrote songs.
Next, my most important purchase, and one that would be the core of my choices of sounds for many years to come: a Roland Super JV-1080. This box is amazing - huge polyphony, 16 part multis, a massive (and outstanding) range of sounds (especially for its time) and expandable. I added the Bass and Drums expansion card, and (much later) the Orchestra II and Pianos cards. Nearly every pro studio I've been in during my time has had a JV1080 or 2080 sat in the corner somewhere. It is a proper daddy amongst sound modules...
The other important thing about Aberdeen was that I made my first unnecessary purchase - a keyboard I'd hankered after since I saw it in the showroom when I purchased my first keyboard: a second-hand Yamaha SY85. To this day, I've never used it to its potential. There are a few key sounds I've used in tracks, and I did some experiments with dumping samples from my Akai to it via a MIDI cable, but mostly its sat gathering dust in the studio. Having said that, it was a sturdy beast of a box, so I used it as my second keyboard on stage.
At this time I was still running my Atari, and still running Steinberg Pro Twenty-Four. Even on stage. In fact, pretty much my whole studio came with us when we played.
The Aberdeen Years Studio kit list in full:
Keys:
Yamaha SY22
Yamaha SY85
Roland U20
Alesis QS7
Sound Modules/Samplers:
Korg 01R/W
Roland JV-1080
Akai S01
Other:
Alesis RA100
Alesis Monitor Ones
Studiomaster Diamond Club 16:2 Mixing Desk
The world's biggest 3-tier Quiklok stand...
In my next post, I'll move back home, form a band called Eat More Cake and start making some proper music!
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