Mixpak

Our next Mixpak release comes from Koyote, who drops his first solo EP Midsummer Tales this week. He kindly gave us this exclusive track to give away! It’s unmastered, raw and ready.

[audio: http://www.mixpakrecords.com/mp3/Koyote%20-%20Dragonfly%20Frenzy%20(demo)_320.mp3]
Koyote – Dragonfly Frenzy

Seeing as he has a crazy collection of hardware and crafted the EP from his plastic-packed studio, we thought we’d ask him some geeky questions about what he’s got and how he uses it. Watch out, here comes the science…

Tell us about your studio set-up, what’s in it and have you always had this collection?

My setup is really simple : basically, I sequenced synths and drum machines hardware in Ableton Live. Right now the core of my studio is a Juno 106, an Access Virus KB and a TR909. And I often borrow Goon’s TR808 and RZ1 drum machines. I haven’t always had these machines, when I started to produce about 10 years ago, I was using Propellerhead Rebirth, a software that emulates an 909, an 808 plus two 303’s. Then I moved to Sony Acid, sampling vinyls to create tracks. ‘The Dough’ for instance was made with Acid, and all the drum sounds, the hook and the chant come from vinyl samples.  Five years ago I switched to Ableton Live and wanted to use VST instruments but couldn’t get away with them so I bought my first piece of equipment, the Juno 106. Call me old school but I can’t use plugins (actually I use them to mixdown my tracks), I need keys, knobs and the psycho-acoustic effect to play an analogue synth. But I want to try different setups to make totally different tracks so I’m definitely gonna try harder to use VST instruments. Also, my girlfriend bought me an MPC 500 so I can make beats when we go camping. That’s another thing I want to do, record electronic music without using the computer. I got an old Alesis MMT-8 sequencer when I bought the Juno, I was always afraid to use it but that’s the next step.

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