Back in the 2008, W. Andrew Raposo (pictured above left with collaborator David Mason) was touring in a band called Hercules and Love Affair, and was one of the first to take the Prophet ‘08 out on the road. For the last decade, Raposo has recorded and toured with bands Midnight Magic, Jessica 6, and Hess Is More, and engineered and produced and performed with Holy Ghost!, The Juan Maclean, Neon Indian, and Heidemann. Sequential synths are all over every album he makes and close at hand on stage.
We chatted with Andrew on how he’s using Sequential synths in his music:
What made you choose Sequential?
“Ten years ago, when my bandmate Morgan Wiley and I heard about Dave Smith’s resurrection of the Prophet in the form of the ’08’, we knew we had to get one. We spent days on end exploring the depths of that model and found a lot of inspiration in the process. Since then, Dave Smith/Sequential instruments have been my favorite of the latest generation of analog synths.”
How are you using them?
“I like using the Mopho for bass lines and rhythm tracks and the Prophet and OB-6 when adding lush harmonics and creating other-worldly soundscapes. Recently, I was working with David Mason of Listening Center and I ran several passes of him layering complimentary patches with the OB-6 in stereo and it was so beautiful sounding it changed the entire arrangement of the song.”
What do they give you that other synths might not?
“Flexibility! As someone who has spent hours (if not days) lost in the woods with temperamental vintage gear it is wonderful to work with instruments that have the stability and integration of contemporary digital with the analog freak out potential of their 70s and 80s progenitors.”
Any interesting tricks or techniques you’d like to share?
“I’ve stumbled on some amazing sounds and parts by recording the audio and MIDI of one patch and then layering it with a second pass of the original MIDI data through a different patch. Sometimes, that experimental second MIDI pass takes you in a totally different direction. Melodic sequences are serendipitously transformed into funky bass lines and now you’ve got the bones of something totally new.”
For more information, check out the OB-6 product page.
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