How we setup Stark and Sixth Circle at Underground Resistors
On the 4th April Stark (David Gooday and Simon Granger) & Sixth Circle (BrokenAtoms and Social Conduct) fired up the machines for a masterclass in improvised performance. Expertly programmed beats intertwined with spell binding rhythms that kept us amazed and entertained for the best part of 2 hours.
But the music was not the only spectacle on the night. As is often the case, the gear porn had the crowd amazed and intrigued in equal measure with plenty asking what we had, how it was setup and what we used it for.
So we asked the 4 artists and this is what they told us!
David Gooday
Live set up
Pioneer SP16
Pioneer RMX 1000
Pioneer DJS 1000
Pioneer RMX 500
SSL Six
I am a big fan of samplers to play live, the ease of use and the speed to create on the fly is a must for me. The stability of using samples compared to say running a eurorack system or trying to create live with a synth is my favourite way.
The SP16 is a great live rig, it has plenty of shortcomings, but I kinda like its simplicity and that I have to work at getting the most out of it. And paired with the pioneer fx units, which give a multitude of effects…. it’s a relatively small set up to create a very big sound .
I especially like the user mode on the RMX 1000 as it’s very quick and easy to change the parameters to anything you want .
The DJS 1000 really is just a sample player. I really wouldn’t want to try to write anything on it, but it’s great to use live. I pair the DJS with the RMX 500. Not as user friendly as the 1000 but again great for playing live and having a multitude of effects to run through.
And to finally top it off SSL Six. The master bus compressor is a must. A little bit fiddly to work out the routings but once you’ve got it, it rocks for its size.
One flight case, one DJS bag, two X stands and we’re off.
Simon Granger
My set-up was as minimal as it can get: An Arturia Mikrofreak hybrid synthesiser with an Eventide Time Factor Delay. The Mikrofreak patches were modified / created by me for STARK, and one is just a standard pre-set.The output for this is the synced by David’s clock in his Pioneer set-up. The Time Factor was using the Patch 12 Reggae preset as a basis, and I was using Band Delay with filters and some Filter Pong. All this was achieved with neglible musical input.
Social Conduct
Modular:
Make Noise STO
Doepfer A-120
Erica Synths Black VCO MK2
Xaoc Devices Belgrad
Make Noise DPO
Erica Synths Black Polivoks VCF v2
Divkid Ochd
Make Noise Erbe Verb
Winter Modular Eloquencer
Doepfer A-140
Intellijel ADSR
Make Noise LxD
ALM Busy Circuits Tangle Quartet
Make Noise X-Pan
Erica Synths Black Hole DSP2
Joranalogue Transmit 2
Elektron Octatrack
Eventide Space
Boss RE-20
For me, the number one focus for this setup was playability. With the modular I wanted to be able to quickly write patterns on the fly which is where the ‘Free Play’ and ‘Live Rec’ modes on the Eloquencer really hold their own. I also wanted a bunch of modulation options to stop the sounds feeling static. Picking modules with attenuators made a huge difference as it allowed me to dial in the amount of modulation I wanted, from none to wild! The modular was essentially a four voice groovebox (looking back now I probably should have ditched one of the voices to add more processing) with the Black Hole DSP2 at the end of the chain to add some reverb.
The output from the modular was routed into one of the channels of the Octatrack where I had additional filtering and delays. The rest of the channels of the Octatrack were used for samples. Beforehand I loaded in a collection of percussion, stabs, hits and ambience into it and then selected the samples and programmed the patterns as we went along.
David’s and Simon’s audio was mixed in the SSL Six and then fed into one channel of the Allen & Heath X:one 92. BrokenAtoms and Social Conduct each had their own channels on the X:one 92. The Eventide Space and Boss RE-20 sat on the fx sends of the mixer and had their own return channels. The four setups were sync’d via MIDI with the Pioneer SP16 providing the master clock. BrokenAtoms used his MIDI / CV converter to send a CV Clock to Social Conduct’s modular system.
BrokenAtoms
Modular stuff
Big Sky
Keystep Pro
I knew this was a jam session, so I forwent my usual glitchy percussion-focussed modular setup and decided for a dual voice bass/lead and atmosphere synth machine. (Alright I didn’t stray THAT far from my usual stuff!)
The bass voice’s main components are an ERM Polygogo, the Make Noise QPAS and a Gamechanger Plasma Drive. Not just because they make crazy noises, but also because they look cool – I’m a massive sucker for aesthetics and V I B E S.
The Polygogo has a really neat Lissajous-type display that I can just zone out to, moving the faders around to see what it’s gonna do next. I often start patches with no speakers, then after some time listen what the sound is doing. The Polygogo is perfect for this, with it’s weird little dancing octopus things.
The QPAS is great for gnarly bass sounds because there’s ton of motion in its 4 filters, and the 4 different states can be accessed at once, which means loads of movement and weirdness.
The Plasma Drive… well just look at it! I get to harness plasma and lightning in my silly little noise box. I mean, that’s pretty damn cool right? It also conveniently happens to be a badass distortion too. There was bits of noise and some FM coming from the Polygogo’s second output sent to various other places for extra grit. Mixing in some purple noise adds this cool texture to distortion, like an ultra compressed crackle to the top end of things.
I love glitch effects so this was all slammed into a WMD compressor for OTT-style overcomping and then Mimeophon with the delay zones fluctuating wildly. I’ve been relying too much on buffer fx for glitch, so using a delay that doesn’t pitch around when the time changes is perfect. Random modulation on the reverb is super cool too, especially when it cuts out suddenly.
Atmospheric stuff was some drones imported in the Morphagene through a BigSky. Nothing to see here… Just some field recordings and one note for extra dread. I like recordings of the city and FM/harmonic drones because of their dark, hollow character.
And a Keystep for some rudimentary sequencing and note pressing. Good for noodling around some leads. Oh and I was using Mutable Instrument’s Marbles for note and trigger sequencing too. Marbles is cool because the random stepped modulation quantised to musical notes, so it can be used for modulation or v/oct stuff.