Dit Dit Baw, Tish Tish Poot

Feeling pretty tired this week thanks to the mad scramble to finish the latest Future Music commission on time. Being the shallow gear heads that we are, to cheer our selves up (and a vain attempt to get moving on the next project) we indulged our love for vintage drum machines with another couple for the collection.

The Korg KR55 (the big one) is a preset rhythm machine (complete with foxtrot and 3 bossa patterns!), with that classic analogue sound. It is possible to midi-refit these machines so that the sounds can then be triggered from a sequencer- the KR55 as it stands can’t be programmed. We’re going to look into it and will let you know how we get on.

The smaller machine is a Boss DR110. We’ve wanted one of these for a while and it’s the last true analogue drum machine that Roland/Boss produced. Programmable but with no midi, it’s a great machine with a fantastic clap sound. When we can get our heads round our FTP program we’ll try and get some samples uploaded.

Back for a bit of boom tish

We’re back in the blog biz after a couple of weeks away (one week r&r and one week locked in the studio). Few bits and bobs to update you all on - Firstly Mr Hoodee span some tasty funk on our good friend PH5’s Sunday show The Soul Explosion on ICR FM. All of us here at GCHQ wish ICR all the best as it’s now hitting the legal FM airwaves as well as the net. A true sign of these internet-savvy times as Hoodee’s mum emailed in for a shout out!

On the gear front the Groove Criminals audio armoury has been swelling over the last few weeks. We’ve picked up another couple of truly fantastic Moogerfooger pedals (the mURF and the phaser) and a Watkins Copycat tape delay that is presently being serviced – we’ll post some nice pics when we get it back.

Finally we’ve been busy on a house –based set of samples for FM and got our mitts on a Quasimidi Rave-o-lution 309.









It’s an analogue emulating drum and synth groovebox that sounds great and has plenty of knobs for fiddling with the sounds. Ours has been expanded with the extra ins/outs and the drum/synth expansions as well. It’s a really cool bit of kit and there’s always something about step/grid programming that we really enjoy. Unfortunately Quasimidi have sunk as a company and finding a download of the manual was a bit of a pain – if anyone ever needs a copy (or arrives at this page via Google looking for one) drop us an email and we’ll sort you out with the PDF. Likewise if anyone knows where we can get hold of the rackmount kit, let us know.

More Stevie

Another couple of Stevie bombs.

Here and here

Right back to work !-)

Get back to work!

Okay, okay we should be working (UK grime and tings for Computer Music), but stumbled across this

Future-retro-groovalious baby!

Couple of youtube gems

Okay it's been a lazy Sunday (helped along with a few pints and a pub lunch) so we plop in front of the computer and for the first time in ages have a peek at youtube (as you do) and found these couple of gems;

First up is Stevie Wonder rippin' it up on the kit - bloody fantastic.

Second is a really well put together little piece on the Amen break - this has done the rounds a bit (and not much to look at!) but worth sitting through if you've not seen it.

Goodbye…..Hello

We’ve had a bit of a clear out here at GCHQ. We’re real gear hoarders so sometimes we have to be firm with ourselves and let some stuff go we don’t really use or want any more. As well as a stack of guitar pedals (we just luv ‘em) we also said goodbye to our Powertrain T2000 analogue mono synth.

Originally supplied in kit form this synth was a bit of an impulse buy and never really worked (found out since 2 of the chips had gone) – we used it as a synth FX generator for a while but never really got much use out of it. Anyway it’s gone to a good home and is well on the way to being restored back into full working order.

Of course us being us, when something goes another bit of gear is sure to replace it ……so hello our V1 Sherman Filterbank!

Haven’t had time to get into it yet as we’ve been pretty busy poppin’ and lockin’ (see last post), but we’ll post a report when we give it a good run out. Apparently it’s a bit of a beast – sounds good to us!

Desperately seeking Linn

Apologies for the lull in posting but we’ve been at full tilt finishing the latest commission for next months FM. The theme is 80’s b-boy electro (think “Planet Rock”, “King of the beats” etc), and we wanted to hire a Linn LM1 or Linndrum to get some totally authentic samples from this groundbreaking drum machine that really helped shape the sound of early 80’s dance and pop music.

Anyway could we find one? Three of the big hire companies either had sold their advertised unit (try updating your websites/stock sheets whydon’tya!) or it wasn’t working after being left under a blanket of dust for years! Anyway after a chance meeting with a great bloke called James, it transpires he had an LM-1 we could borrow. Not only was it in really good nick it was also one of the 30 or so that the great Rodger Linn made himself in his garage before the units were produced in a factory. A really rare bit of drum machine history that still sounds great! Huge thanks to James for lending it to us.