IN THE STUDIO
the humble beginnings
the black car sound system was created 10 years ago by plugging an amiga 1200 home computer
(with add-on sampler cartridge) into a guitar amp. after perpetrating some truly awful
tunes it was imprisoned in a lump of kryptonite where it lay for many years.
in 1996 however, with minds freshly blown by roni size's "newforms", my brother and i decided to
rebuild it, using a bigger amp. unfortunately, though it was louder and had more bass, it
still blew chunks.
taking it to another level
so i got my mitts on a sound blaster card for my elderly 486 PC. with this and a copy
of digital orchestrator, the system was ready to rock. in time a midi controller keyboard was built
from an old electronic church organ and a pile of logic chips, and cubase audio was installed
(because it actually worked)
i was now hopelessly obsessed and instead of spending my spare time and money on cars, chicks, beer and spliffs
i spent it on sound equipment and learning how to use it. 4 years of this later i bring you-
the mighty black car sound system
- pentium ][ pc with delta-66 sound board and winman 4x4 midi board
- cubase VST 3.7
- yamaha a3000 sampler with 64mb ram
- roland jv-1080 sound module
- roland jx-8p polyphonic analogue synth
- novation super bass station analogue synth
- behringer composer pro compressor/limiter
- digitech studio twin reverb unit
- studiomaster 16-4-2 mixer with custom mods
- gale 5 hi-fi speakers- er I mean nearfield monitors
- homebuilt 150 wpc monitor amp
(not shown)
- fretless electric bass
- vaguely gibson-looking guitar
- 50-watt tube amplifier
- marshall 2x12" cab
- audio technica large diaphragm condenser mike
a journey into sound
unfortunately, having lots of expensive boxes with flashing lights on them didn't bring me good tunes.
it takes years of experience, experimenting, critical listening, practising instruments,
and steeping yourself in the works of other
great musicians. (like 'go berserk' by the lords of hardcore- hur hur) for me that journey is just beginning. dum-dum-dummm
(C) 2000 Stephen J. Conner (26/10/00)