Never get worried, synth nerds and gearheads. Tycho has a perilous lust for vintage and extravagant new music tools, as well. But the esteemed electronica producer, actual title Scott Hansen, is being daring: he’s listing above 100 pieces of his studio treasures on Reverb.com from currently (20 Sept). Why? Is he retiring from tunes-producing just after 25 many years in the game? Not even close. He just wants to give these coveted artefacts a better dwelling.
“I commenced to get this weird perception of guilt,” Hansen suggests from his California studio. “Like, I’m sitting down here on this astounding matter that any individual could put to use and do some thing wonderful with. Alternatively, it is sitting in a closet, decaying away.”
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Unfortunately, he’s not supplying them absent for free. The collection of alluring components – from synths these kinds of as the Korg Trident, Sequential Prophet 5, and Moog Voyager to outboard like his beloved Ursa Important Stargate 626 reverb and Roland RE-201 House Echo – totals a lot more than $160,000. That also contains the $30,000 Oberheim FVS-1 and $15,000 Neve 84 mixer. These were all used on his seminal albums: 2011’s Dive, 2014’s Awake, and 2017’s Grammy-nominated Epoch. And, at the time of writing, he’s previously marketed above 30 pieces of gear.
It is not like he will not miss out on these musical companions. But in building his upcoming album, which he tells us is established for release in Spring 2024, Hansen realised that his sonic palette is now “limitless” just after diving even further into plugins and software package.
“There’s just so lots of selections,” he states. “And I’m definitely a plugin junkie my gear lust has switched from components to computer software. I’ve utilized a great deal of software package in the past it is not like I just begun working with software program devices. But I power myself to…if there’s a software equivalent of a device or an instrument, I’m likely to use that rather of the components, no make any difference what.”
Despite Hansen’s favourite instrument getting his Minimoog, for example, he’s identified himself working with Universal Audio’s model far more than the genuine matter. “That’s the unhappy factor – Universal Audio came out with its Minimoog emulation and, it is sacrilege to say it but, I like it much more. It finished up serving me nicely on this file.”
Really don’t be fooled, though – there is no way he’s giving up his Minimoog. “No, definitely not,” he suggests with a chuckle. “I never care if I under no circumstances use it yet again. It’s also sentimental.”
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With so a great deal hardware and software program he’s racked up, we surprise how the producer decides what equipment to invest in subsequent. “I’m often just looking for the Holy Grail of audio or a thing,” he laughs. “[The gear] is possibly a shortcut to the audio that I want or it can make a seem that I’ve by no means heard anyplace else.
“I was never ever a musician,” Hansen proceeds. “I arrived to music via musical gear. I could likely be really fulfilled just messing all around with equipment and never ever finishing a music. If I did not have to for my position, you know?”
Thankfully, Hansen is obviously capable of ending tracks and albums. With the cult success of his at any time-replayable albums, admirers are confident to be stoked for new songs in 2024. Following his 2020 album Simulcast, Tycho moved studio and his workflow altered with so significantly of his gear heading into storage.
“I preferred this album to be adaptable in the blend phases. I was always minimal by the choices I created in the instant with components tools,” clarifies Hansen.
“I’ve last but not least bought close to to learning ReaLearn, which is an increase-on script in Reaper, for tremendous-deep integration with plugins and controllers. And so it offers you this skill to have a Minimoog [plugin] and really really feel the tactile experience of taking part in when it’s truly software program and a controller.”
Hansen suggests he obtained a “ton of new plugins” because Simulcast, after being a small “out of the loop” on which types had been well worth copping.
“It felt like a thing major occurred amongst, like, 2015 and 2020, exactly where plugins at last made it to the level where it is like…Man, if you can hear the big difference concerning a software package emulation and the hardware, good for you,” Hansen suggests. “But this isn’t about the audio anymore. They did it. The argument of seem is around, it’s just additional about workflow. So that was when I was like, ‘Well, I really do not care simply because I love performing with computer systems. And I’m not aged-faculty where I need to be turning all these knobs.’
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“So it was just about using as several plugins as I could and figuring out which builders I preferred,” he proceeds. “Now, when I appear at plugins, the only issue I’m searching for is a novel method or a seem that I just can’t get any place else. Ujam’s things is attention-grabbing mainly because their plugins sound like absolutely nothing I’ve at any time listened to and which is powerful to me. But do we require an additional Roland Juno emulation? Like, Softube’s Design 84 – which is it! I do not require a different a person.”
Alongside new gear and procedures comes new collaborators, too. The album’s direct solitary, Time To Operate, comes with an unpredicted new collab husband or wife. “The impetus for that music was this drum component by [producer, multi-instrumentalist and streamer] Kaelin Ellis. I just got genuinely into his drumming, so I worked with him on the drums for [Time To Run]. And he has this like, looser type I’m made use of to rigid rhythmic structures I’ve been doing in the earlier, and far more like indie-rock-form drums. So it’s amazing to function with a various kind of sample.”
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As it comes about, Reverb.com also lent a hand in introducing Ellis to Tycho. Hansen and Reverb had been discussing the gear sale for almost 3 yrs, developing a very near partnership. Independently, the marketplace was planning to generate a video to encourage the sale of a Minimoog reissue and located Hansen and Ellis as the best candidates.
“Reverb wished to carry any individual who was making use of a Minimoog clone into my studio, where I experienced a genuine Minimoog, and just like, clearly show them all around the true thing and have them participate in it. And that was Kaelin. I didn’t even know him!
“So they experienced him appear out and we just related that working day. And I was like, ‘Man, I’m doing the job on this album. Why never you come back again out to my studio?’ And he did. So yeah, that was seriously great.”
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In accordance to Hansen, although he keeps the album’s facts near to his chest, the content can be categorised into sets of 3. “I’d say there’s a set of three tracks that type of stay in the identical room as Time To Operate. There are three music that stay in darker [space], like if we kept executing stuff like Epoch, and then there’s some pretty Tycho primary, kind of like Dive and Earlier Is Prologue period stuff. It feels like it’s a nice stability of stuff from diverse eras. But it all feels advanced.”
Right until then, we ponder how he’s likely to experience when his cherished studio equipment goes into new studios for other artists to develop with. “You know, I definitely recognize my time with it. And I’ll generally keep in mind it. But I consider it’s time – you acquired to preserve points refreshing, you know?”
Look at out the official Tycho Reverb shop.