2019-07-01_Computer_Music

July 2019 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 81

jon hopkins / interview <

wayI couldafforda two-and-a-half-grandsynth,
butI hadoneboughtforme.
“TherewasalsoanAkaiS3000sampler,soI
waslearninghowtofireinsamples,too.Of
course,allofthisexperiencewasfeedingback
intomyownmusic.I wasallowedtotakethe
Trinityhomeinbetweentours,sothatfoundits
wayintomysetup.Finally,I hadthebasicsofa
homestudio.”

: YoumentionedCubase.Thatwasyour
platformatthetime?
JH:“Haha!Let’sgobackevenfurther.WhenI
wasmaybe 12 or13,I hadanAmstradCPC,but
youcouldonlymakeonesquarewavewiththat.
Notwhatyou’dcalla musicallycreative
computer!SoI switchedovertotheAmiga,with
a programthatI’msurea lotofreaderswill
remember...OctaMED.Betweenfourto 16
columnsofnumbers,with8-bitsamplefacility
onthefirstfourchannels.Sampling!Addingbits
ofmyfavouritetracksfromrecordandtape.
Choppingupsound.
“Allwithnoinstructions!I’mnottellingyou
thatbecauseI’mtryingtoprovehowgreatI
was;I guessthatwhatI’mtryingtosayisthat
everythingwasdonebyfeelandinstinct.There
werenoinstructionmanuals.Thebottomline

was,‘Doesit work?’I hadnoideaif whatI was

doingwastechnicallycorrect.I justwantedto

makemusicthatgotmeexcited.

“OctaMEDhadMIDI,too,whichmeantI could

lookoutsidethecomputer.I wasprobably 15

whena mateofmineaskedmeif I wantedto

buyhisRolandD-20.Oh,yes!Thatwasit...I was

sequencingmyownmusic.It wassuchan

excitingtime.

“Unfortunately,aftera fewweeks,I foundout

thatmymatewasn’tactuallyauthorisedtosell

theRoland,soI hadtotakeit backandhandit

overtohisdad.”

: Ouch!

JH:“I know!I can’ttellyouhowdisappointedI

was.I thinkthatwasoneofthemomentswhenI

realisedhowimportantmusichadbecomein

mylife.I washeartbrokenoverthelossofa

RolandD-20.

“Ittooka longtimetosaveupformynext

synth:a YamahaSY77.Yes,it allowedmetodig

deepintoFMsynthesis,buttheeffectsunitwas

crap.I wasalreadyintotheideaofhugereverbs

anddelays,butthe 77 hada somewhat

underwhelming300msofdelay.

“That’sthethingI stillstruggle

headaroundthesedays...thediffe

betweenthenandnow.Backthen

onlyhad300msofdelay,thatwas

whatI neededtomakethemusic

wasinmyhead,butI literallycoul

affordit.I couldnotaffordtheLex

I wanted.Today,theideathatyou

afforda reverbora delay...it’shila

: Presumably,yousawthemo

asa hugeleapforward,then?I m

weren’treallycheapintheearly

“I knew what I needed to

make the music that was

in my head, but I literally

couldn’t afford it”

Kit list

HARDWARE

Apple MacBook Pro

(2.2Ghz Core i7, 16GB

RAM)

Moog Sub Phatty

Korg Trinity and MS-20

Yamaha SY77

Korg Kaoss Pads for live

Upright grand piano

Focal Twin 6 BE monitors

Focusrite Clarett 8 Pre

SOFTWARE

Ableton Live

Soundtoys Decapitator

and EchoBoy

NI Kontakt/Nils Frahm

Una Corda

Goodhertz Vulf

compressor

SoundHack

+Bubbler Delay

WavesRenaissanceEQ/

Reverb/SuperTapDelay

Jon in his East London-based studio

ewhat

togetmy

erence

n, if yoursynth

sit.I knew

that

ldn’t

xicon

can’t

arious!”

ove‘onboard’

mean,plugins

ydays, but

AudioEaseAltiverb

Jon’s Moog Sub Phatty helped achieve

Luminous Beings’ warm bass sounds