Anatomy Of An EP: Mimesis (Part 2)
This is part 2 of a two-part guest post by Stephen Howe, the DJ/producer behind the newest release on Welt Discos, the Mimesis EP — you can read part 1 here.
In this second part, Stephen goes into the thinking and technical processes behind both A-side tracks, before a broader reflection on what it’s like to write an EP and release it on vinyl. For the studio heads out there, he also talks about his approach to acquiring gear.
This is my chance to thank Stephen not only for the wonderful music and trust in me and the label, but also for proposing and then delivering such a brilliant and acute breakdown of something so personal. I know how challenging it can be to put these things into words, but also how rewarding, and I feel Stephen’s generous effort is fully in the spirit of this newsletter.
So here’s Stephen with part 2!
A side
By February 2022 we had two tracks locked in, and I was excited to be releasing them on such a quality outlet as Welt Discos. I think it’s interesting that the knowledge of this forthcoming release might have influenced my writing in some way. Looking back, I think I was, to some extent, now writing some of my music with Welt Discos and Joe’s taste in mind.
The two tracks on the A-side of the EP were written in quick succession between March and April 2022, and again, they were both heavily influenced by the acquisition of new gear: ‘Top Music’ from the Novation Peak, ‘Midi Maze’ from the Sequentix Cirklon.
Top Music
In February 2022, after months of research, I finally got my hands on my first polyphonic hardware synthesiser – the Novation Peak. The Peak is a reasonably priced jack-of-all-trades 8-voice digital-analogue hybrid synth. It has a knob-heavy layout for tactile control during live performance (Eris Drew and Orbital use it for their live shows), while also boasting a deep modulation matrix for extensive sound design sessions.
I could write an entire blog post about the Peak’s lineage, its legendary designer Chris Huggett, or how its FPGA oscillators allow rich audio-rate modulation without being plagued by aliasing… but that can wait for another day, so suffice to say you can create a wide gamut of sounds with it and have great fun doing so. It was for this reason I chose it as my first polysynth.
‘Top Music’ is a relatively simple track consisting of only a few elements:
Elektron Analog Rytm 808s
3 Novation Peak patches
SH-01A acid
Michigan Synth Works’ SY0.5 drum module
An 80s Sky TV sample
The Peak is the backbone of the track, contributing the vocal “aiyeahhh” sound, the bassline and the gliding lead.
The bassline and vocal patches are straight-up presets, with only very light adjustment afterwards. The vocal sound is a stock Novation preset, which I’ll dive into shortly. The twangy bass sound (named ‘Digital BodyBass’) is from a patch pack commissioned by Novation, designed by legendary producer and sound designer Matia Simovich, the founder of INHALT.
I’ll take a little more sound-design credit for the gliding lead patch. I had already designed and saved a version of this patch, inspired by the lead in Volodymyr Gnatenko’s emotive ‘Kusahau’ (Volodymyr has since told me that he used U-he’s Zebra 2 to create this sound). For ‘Top Music’, I opened the filter up and added some more vibrato, but the core idea of the patch remained unchanged: stack up digital oscillators to get a bright top end, use the filter to dial back some harshness, and add plenty of portamento.
The vocal patch is particularly interesting to me. It sounds like a vocoder, and could probably be created with one, but it’s actually pure subtractive synthesis, employing filter frequency modulation (FM) to emulate the formants produced by the human oral cavity and vocal cords. Here’s a helpful diagram, showing the shape of the oral cavity and larynx on the left, and the resulting formants on the right:
By starting with a full-spectrum wave, like a low sawtooth, and carefully setting the filter’s cutoff, resonance, FM frequency and FM depth, one can get very close to the spectra shown above. Even though the Peak only has one filter, the FM sidebands create a complex spectrum with multiple peaks and troughs. By modulating these parameters over time, one can then emulate the movement of the vocal cords from one vowel to another. This modulation is how the “aiyeahh” sound is achieved in the Peak patch.
This wasn’t the first time I had encountered this effect, I had previously stumbled upon it during some modular explorations. However, this preset (creatively named ‘Talky Filter’) took it to a whole new level. I was blown away by the meticulous work that had gone into designing this patch on the Peak. Initially I tried to experiment with it in order to create some other vowel sounds, but I found the amount of modulation routing difficult to manage without the sound falling apart, so I decided to just nick it.
The drums, once again, are slightly edited presets. They are close analogue replications (analogue analogues?) of classic 808 sounds, meticulously recreated by Justin Valer using only the Analog Rytm’s synth engines, no samples. He generously shared the kit for free on Elektronauts, the Elektron forum.
The only non-Rytm drum sound is the noisy analogue snare heard in the ‘beatdown’ section at 1:50. This is from the Michigan Synth Works SY0.5 drum module, a faithful recreation of the legendary Pearl Syncussion drum synthesiser first released in 1979. This vintage machine has been used by Skinny Puppy, Aphex Twin, Steffi, Lauer and Luke Vibert. You can hear me playing with the filter and decay throughout the take.
I think ‘Top Music’ serves as a great intro to the EP, and I genuinely love the sounds in it. However, it’s perhaps the track that I least identify with on the release. This could be because of the amount of sounds in it that were simply presets. While I have absolutely no problem with producers using presets (after all, it’s practically dance music tradition), maybe I still harbour some reserved pride for tracks of mine that incorporate more unique sounds, either created from scratch or painstakingly recreated from other artists by ear.
Midi Maze
The Sequentix Cirklon is often hailed as the best hardware sequencer ever made. It’s incredibly deep, and can be programmed to intricately control an entire studio’s worth of gear simultaneously. You can read the list of artists that use one on the Sequentix site, a (sadly not-very-diverse) who’s who of respected electronic music producers and composers with decades in the game.
By far the most famous user of this machine is Aphex Twin, who has consulted on its development since its inception. RDJ has referenced the Cirklon in track titles since at least 2016, with pictures of it featuring in much of his album artwork and music videos. It is generally agreed that he programmed the entirety of Syro on it with minimal, if any, post-tracking edits.
Oh and its all programmed, I think I've almost got to the point now when i can think music and then program it pretty much in one go, not quite but almost, it was never an ambition actually, it just happened that way.
Most people I know who heard it think its played, which is a really nice complement, coz every little timing imperfection in that is purposefully programmed in...i find it very mediative doing such tiny little things
(Source)
By March 2022, I had been on the waiting list for the Cirklon for around two years. I knew the list was at least four years long at that point, so I had resigned myself to Cirklon-less production for the foreseeable future, choosing instead to invest time creating Ableton devices to mimic some of its features. However, on March 23rd my friend posted in our group chat, saying that he had just received an email from Sequentix notifying him that his name had reached the top of the list, having entirely forgotten that he had signed up way back in 2018. He didn’t feel the need for it but was open to me buying it through him, with the understanding that he could have my spot if he wanted one two years down the line.
It was a big financial hit, especially having just bought my first polysynth (the Peak), but he generously agreed to a short payment plan and, a couple of weeks later, the Cirklon arrived. During those two weeks, I had spent days watching tutorials, mainly Splitradix’s incredibly thorough walkthrough series, so I had at least a fundamental grasp of how the machine worked.
My original plan was to explore the Cirklon for a couple of weeks and then pack it back in its box for a few months while I finished working on my current batch of tunes. This sounds like an odd decision: why would I not want to use this magical music-making tool to immediately level up my tracks? Well, I had only just integrated the Peak into my setup and was still getting to grips with that, and I knew that the Cirklon would be a much bigger overhaul, given that it’s a sequencer, the central brain of the studio. I was afraid this would seriously slow down my productivity when it came to finishing tracks, a danger that I didn’t want to risk while working on this EP.
Still, I had a wiggle on it. I connected up my synths and had a minimal house jam, enjoying the swing settings and the probability-based aux events. Nothing very exciting came out though, until my second jam. This was a Rephlex-inspired, analogue-style electro loop which focused on an acid bass patch from the SH-01A. I had sequenced an interesting melody, but it was a single scene essentially consisting of a 16-beat loop. It needed development. I had been discussing melodic progression with Joe, so I made another scene and extended the sequence to 4 bars, transposing it up by a few notes in-scale with each bar. The switch from the initial static melody to this rising progression gave the track an emotional lift, which can be heard at 1:30 in the final version.
For accompaniment, I enlisted the Peak and my Roland JV-1010. The Peak took the lead role, playing a sequence of vibrato’d power chords, while the JV contributed a pad to fill out the track. I laid down some quick analogue drums on the Rytm, mostly 808-style but with a 909-style kick (daring! We’re really pushing boundaries here). Again, some nice tom and clap fills that I’m very happy with. I recorded a few takes of me solo-ing with the SH-01A’s filter and oscillator footage and arranged a quick demo in Ableton.
Here’s a video demonstrating the modulation of the SH-01A patch, although it doesn’t quite capture my favourite moment in the released version, the filter bark at 1:55.
Usually, I wait a few days between writing and sending a track to someone. This allows the track to reenter the realm of my objectivity, so that I can address obvious problems that I might have missed while making it. However, I was unusually happy with this track, so I sent it to Joe the next day along with ‘Top Music’, and to my surprise he was very positive about it. The release was now locked in, and I had somehow managed to write a track worthy of release on only my second use of the Cirklon. As you can imagine, I never packed it away and it has been the brain of my setup ever since. Another happy ending: I now share a studio with my generous friend, so he gets to benefit from using the Cirklon too.
Summary
So there you have it, my account of the writing process behind the Mimesis EP. The tracks all saw some minor improvements and polishing as we approached the pressing date. This was a long time coming, as Joe has written about several times before. I didn’t mind the delay, since I had a few individual tracks released digitally in the meantime. Plus, I’m not in a huge rush to release my music anyway. I’ve spent the time writing more tracks and improving my production skills, the fruits of which will hopefully be audible soon.
This release process also chronicled a shift in my music production habits. In 2021, I predominantly used Ableton for drums, as well as to sequence a few hardware synths. Since my acquisition of the Analog Rytm and Cirklon, I now handle 90% of my sound design and sequencing is done out of the box, which is very fun.
Having said that, I’m still a firm believer in hybrid music production. After all, the initial tracking session only gets you about 20% of the way towards a finished track. I continue to rely on Ableton for sampling and sample playback, arrangement, audio editing, effects and the mixdown process. If I find myself halfway through an arrangement before realising I need some accompaniment, I’m just as likely to knock this up in Ableton’s Analogue or Operator synths as I am to turn to my hardware. Productive, hybrid music production FTW! It is really the best of both worlds.
You might also be relieved to hear that my gear acquisition has slowed significantly since finishing these tracks. Aside from a couple of eurorack modules and a Sherman Filterbank, my studio setup has remained largely unchanged since I finished Midi Maze. I am happy with my choices of drum machines and synths and have endless fun crafting sounds on them. Here’s some advice on gear acquisition from an amateur gear acquirer:
Don’t buy brand new stuff: it’s untested and all too often buggy, so wait for the court of public opinion to decide on it.
Hygiene features are surprisingly important: I don’t really buy gear without a decent Midi CC implementation nowadays, and I would happily replace my SH-01A with a more expensive 101 replica if it had a Midi Local Off mode.
Buy second hand if possible, so you can resell it without a loss if it doesn’t work out.
Watch every single YouTube video about it before you buy it.
Read numerous Gearspace threads about it before you buy it.
I’m really proud of the EP. I like how it has several cohesive sonic themes running through it: acid, analogue drum machines, toms, interesting but effective synth sounds, while also showcasing a range of genres and influences: 80s-style electro, Rephlex, Plink Plonk-style tech house, Metamatics and UKG. All the tracks pass my definition of “good”, making their way into my DJ sets this year, and those of DJs I respect.
Thanks
The entire process behind releasing my first EP has been incredibly rewarding and I have several people to thank for that. Joe, obviously, is number one for believing in and playing the tunes, and actually orchestrating the whole release process. Thanks a million Joe!
More big thanks go to Jorge Caido, Carpet’s mastering engineer, who not only did an excellent job mastering the tracks, but gave me some valuable advice on sending premasters, which I’ll carry forward to future releases.
And finally, a special thanks to Márton, whose gorgeous artwork is a thrill to see on the record label and sleeve. I’m truly honoured. I love the font selection and the mix of some of my favourite colours, which he thoughtfully consulted me on.
Where to get it
The Mimesis EP is available on vinyl and digital on the Welt Discos Bandcamp, and the vinyl is appearing in shops now. Again, I’m honoured to sit amongst such a strong back catalogue of quality, unique music.