Mikael Blak is a musician and a producer from the Faroe Islands. Working as a professional from his teenage years, mainly as a bassist, he has toured extensively all over the world and appears on over 150 albums. Artists that he has toured and recorded with include Eivør, Teitur, Yggdrasil, and Afenginn. He has produced albums for many artists, including Marius Ziska, 200, Guðrið Hansdóttir and Son of Fortune.
We chatted with Mikael about how he uses Sequential instruments:
What made you choose the OB-6?
“The Tetra was my first DSI synth. I got it because I was doing more synth stuff live, and wanted a polyphonic instrument. I quickly changed to the Mopho x4 once it was out, and it was a part of my set up for a long time. The moment I heard about the OB-6, I knew I had to have one. I tried it out for 5 minutes at the shop, and was instantly in love.”
How are you using it?
“I am using the OB-6 extensively in my live set up. Mostly, I perform in a trio, where I play bass and synths. In this set up, the OB-6 is used a lot for pads, but also as lead/melody, and the arpeggiator is great! Also, since I got it, it has been featured on every recording that needed synth.”
What’s one of your favorite things about it?
“6-voice analog synth with total hands-on tweaking in a tour-sized keyboard. And of course that filter!”
What does it give you that other synths might not?
“I firmly believe that ‘every sound matters’ in music. You have to make every note you play the absolute best you can, every sound distinct and memorable. In the studio, you can manipulate sound coming from almost any synth. Run it through expensive preamps, tape delays, reverbs and so on, to get to where you want. Even use vintage analog synths, that just sound perfect. The OB-6 has this straight away, and sounds amazing through a standard DI. This, and the modulation possibilities, enabling me to be on the same preset through a whole song, and still keep it interesting, make it the ultimate touring synth.”
Any interesting tricks or techniques you’d like to share?
“The incredibly full sound makes it perfect for vocoding. In my live set up, we split the synth signal, and the signal from the singer, and run them through a vocoder by the mixing engineer. The lines I play then both are clean and at times vocoded.”
LINKS
For more information, check out the OB-6 product page.
Find your local dealer for pricing here.
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