DJ Kero (digitized) in his Windsor Studio overlooking the skyline of Detroit.
Brought up on the underground sounds of Detroit and inspired by complex sequencing and unusual soundscapes,
Kero's tastes tend to the experimental. Also known for his sensor-activated media installations and print design, Kero has performed live all over Germany and Canada as well as being a regular fixture of the Detroit/Windsor underground. Here he's
controlling Kyma with his Lemur.
Photo courtesy of Melissa Rae
Composer Tobias Enhus in his Santa Monica studio with his 3-Pacarana Kyma system visible at upper right.
Electronic Musician magazine once called Kyma "the most powerful sound design system on the planet" and now Santa Monica California-based composer Tobias Enhus can lay claim to having the most powerful Kyma system on the planet.
Enhus has been using his three-Pacarana rack of sound computation computers with custom-expanded memory for his signature approach to multi-sampling, tight integration with analog modular synthesizers and a fully tricked out vintage Synclavier, and live performance with alternative controllers like the Max Mathews Radio Baton. His credits include composing and synth programming on
X Games 3D,
Narc,
Traffic,
Paragraph 78,
Fear Itself,
SpiderMan III and other game titles, and he frequently collaborates with musicians The Crystal Method, Junkie XL, Monolake, Andrew Phillpott, and others on remixes, music for video games, and collaborative film scores.
Melodic Dreams Studio. Oscar Caraballo describes his studio as "a system in which each one of the synths – hardware or software - could be a component: just like Kyma! This complex platform has more sound creative possibilities than stars in the universe! Kyma allows me to freely create entire new instruments with unique functions and sound characteristics. I particularly love the Morphing capabilities – unique to Kyma. I always tell my friends: I must confess it: I am addicted to Morphing! -)."
Coming from a background in physics and computer science as well as classical music, Caraballo develops new instruments with unique functions and sound characteristics as well as creating new contexts and structures of control and expression. He's been involved with synthesizers for 20 years, initially composing electronic music without having any instruments of his own due to lack of resources. He's grateful that now he has the tools to capture and develop any idea immediately - "a treasure for any sound designer and composer."
Sven Miracolo's Q-Room: a recording, editing, mastering, and post-production studio in
Bolzano. Giant windows illuminate the rooms and afford a spectacular view of the
Dolomites.
John Paul Jones live-looping, guitar pedal dancing, and multi-channel processing his custom-made
Andy Manson triple-neck mandolin at the
Mandolines de Lunel festival in October 2005.
Sound designer Tobias Enhus poses with his Capybara, Radio Baton, iBook, Laser harps, MOTM, various and sundry keyboards (and a radio-controlled camera on a blimp?).
Hamilton Sterling surrounded by 5.1, the infamous lyre, Capybara, computers, guitars, Continuum fingerboard, and lots of books. When he's editing a film, Sterling moves the entire setup to an editing room.
Edmund Eagan, award-winning music composer/sound designer for film and video, is pictured here in his studio at the Twelfth Root audio production facility. He's offering a free Twelfth Root T-shirt to to the person who can identify the most equipment visible in these pictures! (see also below). Send your entries to Edmund via email (see the Twelfth Root web site for contact information and creative inspiration.) The person sending him the most comprehensive listing will be the winner!
- Here's another angle with a close-up of the laptop screen:
Franz Danksagmüller's studio is in the organ loft of St. Pölten cathedral in Austria and there's a actually a very good reason for that: Danksagmüller is the official Cathedral Organist at St. Pölten's where he seamlessly blends the sounds of the pipe organ with digitally-generated sounds from Kyma in ethereal improvisations bridging centuries of tradition and future of music.
Franz controls his Kyma system with a full-sized Continuum fingerboard, providing an interesting visual contrast between this 21st century controller, the medieval wood inlays (foreground) and the Baroque ornamentation (background).
Photos by Lippold Haken.
Composer
Bruno Liberda explores "metaphonics" in a performance of
JETZT at
Galerie ton ART in Vienna. In
JETZT the
process of composing is the focus of interest and the score is just a trace left behind by that process (like the skin of a snake after the process of molting). In this performance, the audience listens and watches screen projections of Liberda in the process of composing a new piece of music. What is left at the end is "documentation": a score, an audio recording, some photographs. In addition to this performance in Vienna, Liberda has documented proof of performances of
JETZT in Pompei, Kadath, Cygnus-X1, Moesko Island.
Matteo Milani using Kyma and a Wacom tablet to improvise the sound track for a
silent film at the Aosta International Cinema Road Festival.
Milani's
Graphicalsound studio: Kyma X, Capybara 320 (basic configuration),
Wacom Intuos3 4x5 USB Tablet, Asus Laptop, Digidesign Pro Tools LE (Mbox
hardware), Emagic MT4 midi interface, Roland PC-200 MKII Midi Keyboard Controller.
Alien Head Studio where Nik Green and Penny Little take on solo projects, singer songwriters, commercials, as well as full-on film scores and sound design.
