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 .It was a pleasure speaking to Red Bull Music about what makes us at Analog Cabin and other analogue enthusiasts and audiophiles tick.
Thanks for the support. If you can touch it and it makes a noise we are all about it. Read more about it here.
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A Nice little feature on the history of Analog Cabin in this months Audio Technology Magazine I know it's a bit hard to read so can download a pdf of the article here.. 
We are very excited to present the first release of many on our new Analog Cabin record label.
This release includes tracks from all of the team at the Analog Cabin Recording Studio - Mike Witcombe, Felix Warmuth, Illbot (Rob Erskine) and myself (Drox) Adrian Burns If you buy the new Analog Cabin t-shirt you also receive the release for free. 
 As part of the 2016 Electrofringe program Analog Cabin will be showcasing an afternoon of all original music and live electronic production on the rooftop of 107 Projects to celebrate the launch of the Analog Cabin Record label. Collectively we have been very busy releasing on a slew of labels in 2016 alone, along with recording and engineering other artists in the Analog Cabin studio.s  DJ sets from Adrian Burns (Drox), Mike Witcombe, Felix Warmuth & Rob Erskine (aka Illbot) All original productions and unreleased projects will be the sound track over the course of the afternoon. Later on in the evening see a rare improvised live set from all four of us utlising a mix of hardware and software which may include two laptops, Ableton link Allen & Heath Zed R16 mixer lots of XOX and a bunch of synths. Electrofringe’s annual flagship event EF16 features a one-day showcase of experimental work and performance, with a second day of workshops and demonstrations.  Entry is by donation, vibes will be high & excellent sound will be provided by Buzz Speaker Hire Sydney with a great location for a party. COme along and support the local Sydney experimental music scene.
Please do join us for a few drinks, a boogie and catch up. If you would like to donate towards the running costs of Electrofringe 16 you can do so via this link. We are very happy that the studio and a project we were very happy to be a part of is featured in in depth interview on the recording process at Analog Cabin for Trus'me's new album 'Planet 4' in SynMag - Das Synthesizer-Magazin. The release is out now on Prime Numbers and the magazine is available in Germany.   This is a great opportunity for producers based in Sydney that want to learn more about the Roland TR-8 or even check it out for the first time.. Each month we take a glimpse of one product (this month will be the ROLAND TR-8 Drum machine) with a 1hr intermediate class followed by a nice selection of talented Sydney producers where we will hear their live electronic instruments put to use. Each month focuses on new equipment and we will choose different upcoming artists. This night is about acknowledging the power that these instruments can have when combined with an amazing sound system and musicians. Support Analog Undergrounds growth and be there for the birth of a new community gathering of like minded creative people who appreciate music. 9-10PM TR-8 Masterclass with David Whitehead (ROLAND) 10-2AM Live performances with: Kid Fiction Simon Mann (Buxton/ETUI) Drox (Analog Cabin) Felix Warmuth (Analog Cabin)(DJ/LIVE HYBRID SET). $10 9-10PM - Master class (GO PRO setup with projection) $5 AFTER 10PM - Live performances Jam Gallery 195 Oxford Street, Bondi RSVP  Felix has been invited to play a set on the SPIRAL tomorrow night. Five turntables play samples on an endless loop, creating a sonic chaos that is simultaneously cut to vinyl. There might be some synth / drum machine action in there too. Come join the party!  The Spiral will transform Carriageworks into an experimental sound recording studio and performance space. Visitors can manipulate looping beats and electronic sounds to record tracks on a vinyl-cutting machine.
The person who cuts the record becomes the main attraction, while people can observe the entire process from the seats that form a ring-like area called “The Spiral.”
Around about this time last year we had the pleasure of recording Trus'me's forthcoming album, 'Planet 4' at the Analog Cabin Studio. Here's a little insight behind the inspiration for the album..
http://www.stampthewax.com/…/10-things-that-inspired-trusm…/ Analog Cabin, Sydney Here I could submerge myself in a new alien environment, with engineers I had not previously worked with. The array of new synths and a new methodologies, helped to create something progressive and exciting to work with. I feel that comes across in the LP by the energy in the arrangements and production. 
 Going through some old music projects I recently came across some mutisamples for a couple of the analog synths I had at the time in Logic EXS format for the Sequential Circuits Pro One and Oberheim Matrix 1000. The samples include some of my own patches for the Pro One and whatever was in the Matrix 1000 at the time, I didn't have any way of editing it so really just used some of the sounds as is. I recall not loving the timbre of it and selling it off after a few months. Included in the pack are 22 multisampled patches which you can download here..  The Pro One on the other hand was the main mono synth used on almost every track and sketch I put together for at least 10 years. I loved the tone and the fact that it could be driven by the gate pulse from the TR808 and the basic inbuilt sequencer was great. Even running audio through the CV in would produce some crazy results. I ended selling it along with a bunch of other gear to fund a move from Australia to the UK. The build quailty was pretty terrible but so much character.  It must have been an interesting time at Sequential HQ with some quirky design decisions such as the Budda etched into the circuit board along with some mushrooms among other things. If you have one open it up and have a look.
Unfortunately we were all having so much fun using the synth that there are only a few multisamples which you can download here.
A gift from Screechy Dan and the Inner West Reggae Disco Crew for the city of Sydney.
End the lockouts. Put down your guns and your badge. Recorded at Analog Cabin! Big Up Inner West Reggae Disco Machine #casinomike 
I have a bit of an obsession with vocoders, sci-fi and machine inspired beats. Electro, funk and early hiphop that utilize the vocoder in interesting ways are high on my musical radar and I am always on the look out for something new / old or different that i haven't come across before. for production.
If you have any suggestions that I may have missed please feel free to share in the comments section. In the past I had owned a vintage Korg VC10 which I really liked and is used on some of my favorite Electro records but can be quite hard to understand clearly the vocal or voice elements. This model in particular sounded great but had limited functionality. To hear an example of it in action check out I-F - Space Invaders are Smoking Grass. When I decided recently that I would like to buy a new modern Vocoder for the Analog Cabin Recording Studio I jumped head first into some research which I thought may be useful to document here for other robot vocal freaks. Firstly I thought it might be helpful to provide a bit of background information about the Vocoder as the technology is much older than most studio equipment, let alone audio processors and has an interesting history as it was not developed for music applications at all. 
How to Wreck a Beach a book about the history of the Vocoder cites Homer Dudley as the inventor in 1928 which is surprising for such a futuristic sounding effect.
The Vocoder was initially developed as a phone scrambling system for military use.. You can find a technical explaination of how it works below. A vocoder is an audio processor that captures the characteristic elements of an an audio signal and then uses this characteristic signal to affect other audio signals. The technology behind the vocoder effect was initially used in attempts to synthesize speech. The effect called vocoding can be recognized on records as a "talking synthesizer", made popular by artists such as Stevie Wonder. The basic component extracted during the vocoder analysis is called the formant. The formant describes the fundamental frequency of a sound and its associated noise components. The vocoder works like this: The input signal (your voice saying "Hello, my name is Fred") is fed into the vocoder's input. This audio signal is sent through a series of parallel signal filters that create a signature of the input signal, based on the frequency content and level of the frequency components. The signal to be processed (a synthesized string sound, for example) is fed into another input on the vocoder. The filter signature created above during the analysis of your voice is used to filter the synthesized sound. The audio output of the vocoder contains the synthesized sound modulated by the filter created by your voice. You hear a synthesized sound that pulses to the tempo of your voice input with the tonal characteristics of your voice added to it. I highly recommend purchasing the book if it is of interest. You may still be able to pick up a deluxe version that includes a 7 inch with a reissue of some super rare vocoder related boogie, electro funk and early hip hop direct from the publishers website here. The above video goes into some more detail about the history, early developments and also presents some influential examples of our favorite vocal effect. One interesting point noted in this video is that one of the most recognizable modern day examples - Planet Rock by Africa Bambatta and the Soul Sonic Force which in fact is not a vocoder at all. Arthur Baker the engineer for the recording session of Planet Rock points out that (They only had a few things, and so we basically got all of our effects out of the Lexicon PCM41, including Bambaataa's electronic vocal vocoder sound. ) "It wasn't like they had walls of outboard gear and walls of keyboards," Baker remarks. "They only had a few things, and so we basically got all of our effects out of the Lexicon PCM41, including Bambaataa's electronic vocal vocoder sound. That came through a really, really tight delay, almost like a tight electronic phasing, and then there was the state-of-the-art Sony reverb. However, other than that, there weren't a whole load of effects on that record.
You can also read the Full Interview with Arthur Baker about the making of Planet Rock in Sound on Sound's Classic Tracks Feature.
There are many Obscure and not so Obscure vintage options available on the second hand market which can fetch big money these days. While I'm not going to suggest for or against going for the vintage models be aware they are getting on in age they will require more care than some of the more modern options.
Here is a video playlist of demonstrations of many of the vintage vocoders that may be available on the second hand market including an early interview with Giorgio Moroder on how he uses his. which i believe looks like an early Moog or Bode unit. The video is a bit blurry so it's hard to make out exactly which version unit it is.
Here is a collection of some of my favorite classic Vocoder tracks to check out. In Part 2 I will review some of the vocoders I have had a chance to use and also include a guide of which modern vocoders are currently available.
I put together an EP of unreleased material and released via Bandcamp.
released 03 September 2014 Tracks produced between 2007-2012 in various home studios in Melbourne, London and Sydney. Editing and mix down completed between 2013-2014 @ Analog Cabin www.analogcabin.net I’d like to thank Roland, Ensoniq, Sequential Circuits, Korg, Akai, Elektron and all the music freaks as passionate about electronic music as I am. released 3rd September 2014 Photo: Chris Frape Written and produced by Adrian Burns Mastering : Brendan @ Breakneck Mastering Drox on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/drox Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/droxindustries  These days I don't get as excited at new releases of gear at the annual trade shows so much but really like when someone reverse engineers a product to compliment or sometimes even improve an existing device. The time and effort required tom do this is massive and requires patience and some creative solutions at times. A good example of this is the work of Kiwi Technics for dragging several vintage synthesizers into the 21st century with their various user installed upgrades for the Roland Juno 106 and JX-3P along with the Korg Polysix. Although these have been around for a while bar the Juno update which is fairly recent.  Another upcoming user installed update I'm looking forward to is for the very popular Volca of portable analog device from Korg. The modification kit is the Amazing Machines Volcano interface which adds midi out to the device. so you can use it as a sequencer for other gear.
This is great but nothing new as not long after the initial release some clever people at Koma Electronics worked out what you can hack on the Volca Beats. The impressive part of this 3rd party midi kit is that it will also enable you to record Parameter Automation directly from your KORG Volca to your External MIDI Sequencer or DAW! This is big news indeed and the developer has indicated that the kit will be released next Monday March 10. Find out more via the Amazing Machines Facebook Page..  Digging in London 2010. Hello World....... My name is Adrian and I am a DJ and producer from Sydney, Australia. who is constantly fascinated and in awe of this crazy world and all the good music out there from the past and also present.
Often I find myself sharing content that I personally find of interest with friends via email, social media and in person over dinner or at the pub so I thought it might be an idea to document this info online to include more people that can get involved in the conversation. The time feels right once again to share with you my musical interests and discoveries as a DJ and avid music enthusiast as well as info related to music production, engineering and anything else that feels right at the time. I presented a monthly podcast titled 'Radio waves from Space' which ran from 2007 till late in 2012. and managed to only repeat one track in that whole time and really enjoyed the process of sharing this with the world at large.. At it's peak there were over 2000 subscribers via the iTunes podcast subscription tool. It is no longer online but I may share some of the mixes here at some point. The project came to an end as at the time I was DJing several times a week and just did not have the time or energy to put in to continue it. I believe the creativity that evolved from the podcast influenced my Djing and the wildly varied styes of music I was and I suppose still am playing regularly. I enjoy older styles such as funk, reggae along with early punk and modern electronic styles. Recently I have become more focused on music production and have set up with some close friends a recording and production facility in the heart of the Sydney CBD named Analog Cabin which does as the name implies have the look and feel of a Cabin and contains quite a few interesting Analog production tools. I plan on sharing some of our experiences setting up the space, creating music and the trials and tribulations of running a recording studio in 2014 after the facilities recent 1st birthday. The plan for the site itself is to include mixes from myself and other DJ's and electronic acts that I respect and enjoy their take on things. along with video blog posts from the studio, production techniques and general gear nerdery. As with everything new the virtual space may expand and morph into something else entirely at some time in the future. Welcome ~ Adrian |
A mainstay of Sydney's techno and electro scene for more than twenty years, Drox has earned the respect and love of fans and has carved out an imposing yet super humble etching on the local scene. Categories
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