Oxygen 61, Absynth, Vegas And Leaf Drums: Soultech
Patrick Ogle
August 08, 2007
Soultech, based in Illinois, have been recording since 2004. The band consists of Brian Skins [sic] on drums, Bradley Spurgeon on synths and Adam "Mort" Morton on vocals, bass, and synths. The band started as a side project for Morton (whose other band is Cid). In 2006 the band took that fateful leap from recording to playing live.
When asked to describe their sound Morton does what many musicians seem to do. He is confounded. It is difficult to pigeon-hole yourself.
"It's really hard for me to describe, other than saying it's heavy on the bass and easy on the ears. A Drop In The Ocean was a very soft album. It has its upbeat moments, but for the most part, it's very relaxing," says Morton. "That's something that I feel is changing as we work on the new album. It's shaping up to be much rougher around the edges, with more of a live feel to it. A little grittier and a whole lot more upbeat."
Morton and Spurgeon took time to talk to Gearwire about what they use to create this alternately hard and soft sound.
Why do you use the Oxygen 61? I have talked to other folks about the Oxygen and they liked it for some reasons and didn't for others. What is your take?
(Brad) For its use, a live secondary 61 MIDI controller, it's perfect. Very programmable, ease of use. Seeing how the greater majority of my gear is intended for live use, it has to be easy to find in the shop. I have a bad tendency of breaking things.
Same for the Axiom--What are the goods, the bads and the uglies of it?
(Brad) Again, as a live keyboard it fits me perfectly. Oddly enough this is a piece of gear I've been seen dragging into a studio. I do have a few complaints with it. I wish it had more pads, and I've encountered some program loss issues. But having the ability to assign different knobs, sliders to their own MIDI channel, gives me a near infinite array of sounds. I usually keep my first couple of sliders for attack, sustain, master volume. Leaving everything else to control my delays, filters, EQ, distortions, etc... So i do like the controller and the fact it gives me freedom to explore the noise i make to its full potential. Oh, again, easy to replace in case of violence.
How is recording with Vegas? I think it is a pretty intuitive program? What do you like about it?
(Mort) I don't just like it. I love Vegas, and it'd be really tough to convince me to switch to another platform. Six years of "learning-by-doing" knowledge is hard to give up. I've finally gotten to the point now where I can do practically anything I want with it in a matter of seconds. At this point, it all comes down to one word: familiarity.
Are there any drawbacks or kinks you have had to deal with regarding Vegas?
(Mort) I can't say I found it that intuitive. I've been using Vegas since 2001 with Vegas Pro, and I still find new tricks every time I work with it. Now in Vegas 7, I think they've gotten most of the kinks worked out, but it's still not as straightforward as I think it could be. For instance, there's no function at all for "splicing" a track. However, if you have a track selected and hit record, then delete the recording that gets created, it splices the track. That's most definitely not intuitive, and that's most definitely not Vegas' only shortcoming.
How about Absynth? Why do you use it?
(Mort) That's an easy one. Two things: simplicity and ambiance. The factory presets, with very little tweaking, can sound so amazing. I was sold from the first time I used it. I recall saying to myself, "I could record an entire album with nothing but this!"
(Brad) Seeing how the album was written with this program. We made sure that each of us has the program up at all times. I started out saying it was way too basic for me. But I've became to like the simplicity and straight forwardness of the program.
On to something I know nothing about-- Leaf Drums-- tell me about why you use them?
(Mort) It's a drum sequencing program created by Samuel Marshall, who is apparently just a hobbyist. It's practically freeware. I like it for two reasons. One, it's easy. I feel like it lessens the gap between hearing the beat in your head and getting it to come out of your speakers. Two, it's a tiny little program. It's practically impossible to get lost in, it runs on a very small amount of computer resources, and it never bogs down, even when you have umpteen other programs running at the same time.
Soultech are working on a new CD.