http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVM18iJTMZs
People do strange things in their spare time. One thing a person could do would be to make records out of chocolate. Apparently this German fellow did just that.
“Meet a man who makes sweet sweet music…” – diagonaluk
Hungry now?
This entry was written by , posted on January 16, 2010 at 8:49 am, filed under Uncategorized and tagged candy, chocolate, food, Germany, records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Klaus Suessmuth of Acidlab. He is the man behind some killer Roland hardware clones. Not only does he replicate the sounds of the originals to the extreme detail he also takes the time to extend the feature sets of these ancient machines. To top it off Acidlab hardware looks great!
I think the Roland TR-808 is the king of all drum machines sound wise. How close does the Acidlab Miami sound to a vintage TR-808?
Closer than any other 808 clone. Without a direct comparison not possible. The differences of the sounds are just in the pitch and in the range of the variation of the original. The Bassdrums decay is increased.
Does the Miami have a fully analog signal path?
The Miami has the same analog sound-circuits of the TR-808. The components are replaced with new components. In some sound-circuits, the original parts were used to achieve the same sound.
What features does the Miami have that a vintage TR-808 does not?
Let’s talk about how you make your wonderful toys. Do you manufacture all the Acidlab products by hand in Germany or do you outsource some of the labor to a small factory?
The electronic is assembled from a factory, I do the calibration and the rest of the assembling.
How long does it take to make a Miami?
Too long! Have to do a lot improvements on the production workflow.
Have you ever been to Miami Florida?
Yes, once in the airport on the way to costa-rica, with no money left (all was gone for the fly-ticket) …..
You have created some very nice clone machines. Have you thought about making an all original design? For example, I love my Vermona DRM1 MKIII…
The Bombass is an all original design! I have done a lot of  special moduls for my modular systems as prototyps…
Do you also keep another day job? Exotic dancer? Software developer? Sherpa?
Of course – Design and research as electronic developer in a big German firm. Main topics are powerelectronics and low noise sensor systems with highest resolution.
If you caught someone in your home stealing all your music equipment would you: A) Kill them. Â B) Forgive them and give them 20 Euros for food. C) Tie them up and make them watch DJ Scooter videos for 24 hours.
They will get crazy from using my equipment !
Tell us some links where to find your products, websites, videos and anything else!
In the US, contact: analoguehaven.com
MySpace:
myspace.com/acidlab_bassline
myspace.com/acidlab_bombass
myspace.com/acidlab_miami
This entry was written by , posted on September 8, 2009 at 5:51 am, filed under hardware, interviews, synthesizer and tagged acidlab, Germany, Klaus Suessmuth, Miami, Roland TR-808, tr-808. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Today I fly to Germany to perform two live shows this weekend. Friday night I play at Triebwerk in Dresden. Dresden is probably the only German city I have not been to. I land early Friday morning so I’m looking forward to checking out the city. During World War II it was mostly destroyed and later the city was re-built to look almost like it was never bombed. I’m playing with a friend of mine Swedish techno producer Johan Afterglow. I met Johan in New York City in the late 90s and one night he saved my life (long story!). It’s true that if someone does save your life you never forget it. Last year when I was living in Berlin I put some vocals on a few of his songs. My favorite of the bunch was one we did called Incinerate (iTunes).
There is one nightclub I performed at more than any other. It’s called Club Prag and I must have dropped a bucked of sweat there about twenty times over the past decade. This Stuttgart club fit my music persona perfectly. The walls are red, the ceiling is low with speakers shooting at you right above ear level. It’s the right size, when you stand on stage you can see and scream at everyone in the place.
This weekend they close the doors forever. Club Prag will open on Friday night and stay open until Sunday evening. My set time is 11:00 AM Sunday. There’s no doubt it’s going to be a lunatic asylum and I’m more than happy to provide the soundtrack. I’ve met some of my best friends in that small place. The owner Alex and the different promoters who booked me year after year have always been generous with my fee, great hotels and unlimited booze. Club Prag is already a legendary place and I am so pleased to have been part of it.
This entry was written by , posted on March 26, 2009 at 6:03 am, filed under live performance and tagged Dresden, Germany, live performance, Stuttgart, The Horrorist. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The Horrorist Live – Halle, Germany 2008 from thingstocome on Vimeo.
Often a promoter from an event I am booked to play will ask me to do an anthem. Sometimes they want to post the song on their website before of after the gig. Other times they are doing a CD for the event and want a song with the event’s name in it to kick it off.
A few weeks ago I played in East Germany at the Alte Lampenfabrik for an event called Ton Aus Strom. It was there 10 Year anniversary party. As part of the plan they recorded my set direct from the mixing console. I started my show with an anthem for them. I did some screaming, pitchshifting and beat shuffling. Some of the vocals… “Ton Aus Strom” “Take Over!” “East Germany!” “Deutschland!”
Ton Aus Strom Anthem by The Horrorist is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
This entry was written by , posted on November 17, 2008 at 2:07 am, filed under music, promotion and tagged Animoto, anthem, Germany, promotion, SoundCloud, The Horrorist, Ton Aus Strom. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Berlin is the undisputed center of electronic music. A few times a month friends and blog readers come to visit. I’ve decided to make a Google Map with the locations of many of the great record stores, labels, synthesizer manufacturers, audio software companies and nightclubs you can check out upon arrival.
Ableton, Tresor, Hard Wax, Native Intruments, Schneider’s Buero, Neumann, MFB, Gigolo Records, Berghain, JoMoX, Sugar Bytes, BPitch Control, SoundCloud… what more do you want?
If you do come to visit don’t forget you will be in a gorgeous city full of historic places and green parks. Don’t spend all your time dancing. See it all!
Remember Google Maps is feature rich. You can get point to point directions, zoom way in, see satellite views and create your own map of places in Berlin you want to see (click a pin and select “save to my map”).
To view the map full screen and also see the complete list of great places: click here
This entry was written by , posted on October 11, 2008 at 8:47 am, filed under business and tagged ableton, Berghain, Berlin, BPitch Control, Germany, Gigolo Records, Google, Hard Wax, Jomox, map, MFB, Native Intruments, Neumann, Schneiders Buero, SoundCloud, Sugar Bytes, Tresor. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
An Interview with Ionic Vision. from thingstocome on Vimeo.
One of the best ways to promote a band on your record label is to create a video interview with them. It really doesn’t take much skill, time or money. In fact, the video above was shot using the video mode on a single point and shoot cheapo camera. I used iMovie08 which uses Core Video so any image adjustments, transitions and titles all happen in real time, no rendering! This makes the entire process actually a lot of fun. Sure the video would be better if I was using a better camera, external mic and some lights but you 
know what? If I had to lug all that stuff to the club I probably would not have bothered. Showing up and creating something is the most important thing. I actually own quite a lot of video equipment including Final Cut Pro but workflow always wins in my book so I went for the fastest way to the finish line. I mentioned before on this blog I love Creative Commons and here’s why: See the images I cut during the interview? They are all CC licensed so I’m not stealing anyone’s art to create my own.
The style was characterized by hard and often sparse danceable electronic beats, clear undistorted vocals, shouts or growls with reverberation and echo effects, and repetitive sequencer lines. At this time important synthesizers were Korg MS-20, Emulator II, Oberheim Matrix or the Yamaha DX7. Typical EBM rhythms are based on 4/4 beats, mainly with some minor syncopation to suggest a rock music rhythm structure. – wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_body_music
Sven Lauwers and Andy de Decker are great live which is extremely important for an EBM band. Be sure to check out Ionic Vision’s release on Things to Come Records: Beatport, Junodownload, Things to Come Records
For more info about the event they played:
www.myspace.com/crossingtheparallel
This entry was written by , posted on July 28, 2008 at 3:10 am, filed under interviews, live performance, video and tagged Alfa Matrix, Andy de Decker, Berlin, Club Isolation, Club Maria, Crossing the Parallel, EBM, electronic body music, electronic music, Front 242, Germany, Ionic Vision, Maria am Ostbahnhof, My Cell, Nitzer Ebb, Oberheim, Orange Sector, Propellerheads Reason, Scapa Flow, Sven Lauwers, Terrence Fixmer, The Hacker, The Horrorist, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I’m performing tonight in Frankfurt at the u60311. It’s a wicked club built inside a U-Bahn station. I played there in 2001 with Chris Liebing and it was quiet an experience. It was so packed that as soon as we starting playing the crowd pushed forward right onto the stage. We had to stop and wait for security to force everyone back then start again.
I have a general rule that if it takes four and a half hours or less to get to a gig by train (or car) thats a better choice than flying. In Germany the Die Bahn system is excellent. If you order your tickets a few weeks in advance you can get a “Spar Preise” aka savings price. In fact, the Spar Preise is usually much cheaper than airline tickets or car rental. I always go first class on the train. It’s not much of a cost difference (the promoters pay it anyway). You can request things like a small private cubby, non-smoking car and to be in the quiet zone. I say yes to all that because I like my sanity. You get leather seats, a power outlet, a table, waiter service a bathroom in every car (no waiting like on an airplane) and a view of Germany crusing by at over 200KPH.
photo credit: Fatty Tuna
Update: The show was great… photos are online: click here
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This entry was written by , posted on June 27, 2008 at 4:55 am, filed under live performance and tagged Die Bahn, Germany, gig, live performance, The Horrorist, train. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Musikinstrumente & Design is a small vintage music instrument shop in Berlin. In fact, it’s directly three doors down from where I live. This means everyday I walk by and have to force myself not to buy anything! It’s a typical Berlin “Geschäft” meaning it opens “whenever” and there is usually three or four people just hanging around drinking and smoking cigarettes.
Please click here to view a small photo set from inside Musikinstrumente & Design. I’ve never seen some of these pieces so please feel free to comment or tag the photos in flickr. Please note I put a Creative Commons license on these images so feel free to use them as long as you link back to this article.
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This entry was written by , posted on February 1, 2008 at 1:42 pm, filed under hardware, synthesizer and tagged Berlin, drum machine, Germany, hardware, photos. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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