Members (All)
Here we present some of our members' and their studios, with links to some of their sites.
If you're already a SynthSights member, why not let us add your photos!
Please read our guidelines for submission of pictures/gear lists for further information.
Cikira (Amanda Pehlke)
Cikira.com
Redmoon-music.com
Mushrooms Studio Gear List
An incorrigible gear junkie, Cikira is Evil Moderatrix of SynthSights (co-founded with Matthew Davidson and Tom Moravansky).
Her addiction to the Max programming language has produced RedMoon Music's offering to the emusic community: maxWerk, a loop-based MIDI composing program for Mac OS 9.
Jim Combs
Jim Combs is an Oklahoma-born, Texas-raised, and Atlanta-living keyboardist/composer, recording producer/engineer and multimedia artist who began his musical forays in the early O70s both playing piano and manipulating tape machines while recording feedback. Synthesizers entered his life in 1974 when he built a PAIA synthesizer kit and heard Rick Wakeman for the first time on a quadraphonic 8-track copy of The Six Wives Of Henry VIII. He has been making noise and music with synthesizers and recording gear ever since. Jim is currently one-half of the synthesizer duo TouchXtone.
Michael O'Conner
I've been bleeping my little heart out since 1998. An unsucessful attempt at buying live autechre bootlegs on ebay led to the founding of sluntrec with Rocco Biondo and Brendan Foley. Our little fertile crescent in Brooklyn has spawned four albums and two eps and a gaggle of gigs. While they perfect modern acid house I'm focusing on ambient techno (when I'm not doing splattersample), dedicating myself to bringing back 1994 by any means necessary. Connecting to the SynthSights hivemind has been great for bringing ideas from wildly different directions, backgrounds and approaches.
John Duval
The room is of decent size but the work area is small and compact, looks expansive due to the vaulted ceiling and two skylights above the mixing desk and two large garden windows looking out onto the wetlands area. I can reach all the tools from the desk chair just by turning one way or the other. I maintain a small working area by not adding anything unless something else leaves.Although is all looks complicated, it's a very basic setup that is easy to create music on.
Charles Graef
Vogelscheiss Unterseeboot
Gear List
Peter Grenader
Peter Grenader studied composition with an emphasis in electro-acoustic music at the California Institute of the Arts under the guidance of Barry Schrader and Mort Subotnick. In 2002, Grenader's Electrolux won the Perịdic Experimental Music Festival in Barcelona, Spain. Other performances include the 2003 SEAMUS National Conference, the University of North Texas, the California Institute of the Arts, Stony Brook University, University of Illinois, University of Texas, Florida Electro-Acoustic Music Festival, the Pulse Field at Georgia State University and the 2003 Electric Rainbow Coalition Festival at Dartmouth. His work as also been presented on radio on KCSN-FM, Los Angeles; CKCU-FM, Ottawa, Canada; WOBC 91.5 FM in Oberlin, Ohio and streaming on Resonance FM, London.
Past palmares include The Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, Holland and GMEB in Bourges, France and two wins at the Virginia Commonwealth University Music Festival.
Steve Hanlon
I live in the Baltimore, Maryland area and used to be a rave DJ. I didn't like the hours, and moved into gear whoring in the mid 90's. I sold the bulk of the gear in 2001-2002. Finally I found a setup that works for my style, dub ambient trance and warehouse techno. I'm also a trainspotter and an amateur radio operator. I am married and have a son. My most missed bit of kit is the MS-20.
Mike Kent
I play keyboard Synthesizers, EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument) and Trumpet.
I perform regularly, much more than I compose or record. I work for Roland,
I am Musical Director at my church, and I teach a little bit, too.
My first synthesizer was a Roland SH-1000 in 1977. I had studied trumpet seriously from age 7 to University. But I fell in love with synthesizers, partly because of the toy/gadget factor and partly because I love electronic
sounds: thick, screaming, blippy, warm, thin, annoying, fat, smooth, soothing, huge, sweet, cheesy, wide, etc. I think I have always excelled at melody and harmony but in recent years I'm also I'm gaining better aptitude with tempo and rhythm. I've been making music for 35 years and I'm still learning.
Dave Lovelace
Just call me Dave. I'm the guy the draws occasional "Packrat" toons over at MusicThing. I've made two ramshackle progressive electronic wankfest albums under the "Parallax" moniker, with a third in the works over at Redshift Digital Audio. I've been cartooning equally as long as I've been playing keyboards and keyboard-shaped things (first on Dad's Lowrey organ in '74, then I moved on to a Juno-106 in '84). I've lived mostly in Connecticut all my life, but wouldn't mind moving somewhere more interesting.
If I was half as motivated to buy a plane ticket as I am buying some clunky old synthy contraption I'd be a much happier guy. The Packrat and I have the same horrible sickness and this fun li'l forum will surely only make it worse! Still on my wishlist are an Elka Synthex and Yamaha CS-80. When I'm old and arthritic I swear to God I'll finally have these things to bang my useless stumps on. No,
it's not about the gear...it's about THAT gear.
Paul Maddox
My music, by year, not genre.
I live in England and like to design and build synths, I used to run my own small company (modulus-music) selling my own designs which I've had to close due to financial reasons. I've taken up playing bass and joined a rock band.
Recently I've begun playing guitar and taking lessons for that too.
I also write music with varying styles (see the list above), and now I'm begining to write my tunes with my bass and guitar. When I'm feeling a little braver, I'll put some on my site and here.
James Maier
(a.k.a. Carbon111)
I've been building, programming and playing synths for over twenty years and live happily with my wife, Laura, and my cat, Taliesen, in the mossy town of Mukilteo on Puget Sound. People with more curiosity are encouraged to visit my website.
Mike Metlay
Atomic City
Different Skies
Team Metlay
mindSpiral
I've been working in electronic music since the 1970s. My production company, Atomic City, exists primarily as a cute logo to put on my jewelcases.
I'm the Founder and Coordinator of the Different Skies experimental music festival series, which has prospered thanks to the hard work of many great musicians.
I find solo work quite lonely, so I like to rope my friends into all manner of
sonic mayhem. In the 1990s this madness was called Team Metlay; in its current incarnation I call it mindSpiral.
When I'm not playing with synths, I edit RECORDING Magazine and live in Colorado with my wife and daughters.
The photos show some of my hardware: the aebea, a 5-string baritone electric
instrument with a custom tuning; the Oberheim Xpander, Korg Prophecy, and
Roland U-50 synths; and the BarbieDAW, a sophisticated experimental music
workstation with graphic LCD, 79-note manuals with one custom 18-note octave
for microtonal play, onboard fader bank, and a tone some call 'plastic'.
Les Mizzell
I am a recovering commercial composer, though I have a few favourite clients that I still work for when I feel like it. At this point in my career, I'm concentrating only on those projects that interest me as an artist. Since completing a 12 step "commercial exorcism" program, I've scored three independently produced feature films, several full-length ballets, two PBS/Travel Channel Series and a number of modern dance commissions.
Currently I'm experimenting with abstract ambient styles and the release of my first CD, "C'est ici L'Empire de la Mort" is imminent!
Tom Moravansky
Softwave Studios
Gear List
A "recovering gear addict", here's what Tom has wired up so far. He promises updated photos as cleanup and wiring continues.
Moose
Pigpen Digital 8.5
Alaska Highway
Gear List
Paul Nagle
Bogus Focus
Joint Intelligence Committee
Binar
Joao Ricardo
Home Page
Alternate Home Page
Gear List
Joao Ricardo (aka ocp - operador de cabine polivalente) is a portuguese sound artist
Nick Rothwell
I'm a composer, performer, sound designer and media programmer, mainly working in contemporary dance and digital art installation. I've been working all over the place (London, Vienna, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Brussels, Amsterdam) with pieces used for dance as far away as Ankara and Tokyo, and have performed at Dance Umbrella (London), New Territories (Glasgow), the London Science Museum, and Different Skies at Arcosanti. I've also been doing live interactive 3D sound
diffusions, to scare people. At the moment I'm hanging out with some Ballett Frankfurt dancers and preparing something live for a festival in Helsinki.
Music: highly interactive, gesture-based sequencing systems built in Max/MSP and controlled by fader boxes and game controllers. Main hardware: Korg OasysPCI x 3
Alex Saba
AlexSaba.Com
Alquilante Digital Studios
Gear List
The baby in the picture is my little son Gustavo, Dancing during the rehearsal for a TV show we play on.
Sayer Seely
I'm fascinated by sounds.... They don't have to be analog, or digital, or anything in particular. That to me is too limiting. They just have to sound good.
My music draws influence from the classic "Berlin School" era but also incorporates modern elements. A good way to sum it up is rhythmic, based on evolving sequences with a strong melody component. Although, it does stray from this formula at times.
Gilberto Strapazon
I think music is an expression of magic and mystery in life. I work on instrumental rock and progressive, also I am a writer and composer for TV scores.
One of my new projects is recording a CD about the Amazonia with Alex Saba.
For more on that:
- Music cronicles (portuguese text)
- Scores for TV documentaries.
And I have a site for the JD800
Charles R. Terhune
Brittney Sparse is Charles R. Terhune, aka Cathode Ray Tube, aka Super Barrio Mothers, aka C-fom label head, aka Founder of "It's Yoga, Bitches!" International. He began making music at 14, but made noise long before using tape recorders, vacuum cleaners and whatever else he could lay his hands on. In 1999 he founded C-fom records in Boston.
C-fom then released the seminal "Boston not London" compilation in 2000. In 2001, he released "Subzero Sensei" to critical acclaim. Following a thwarted attempt at world domination, he turned to the world of power vinyasa yoga. But there was no beat, so he went out to find it. Brittney Sparse is the result, a paring of simple melodies, concise beats, and sonic architecture all glued together into one beautiful package. Brittney Sparse's 2004 release "The Mountain Sisters" will be available for consumption in Summer 2004.
Jessica Tomlinson
At this point, I'm really not sure what I am, other than an all-out audio enthusiast. I'm currently a student at Full Sail Real World Education, an entertainment technology college here in Winter Park, FL. I'm studying for a degree in recording arts with sights set on being some kind of engineer in a recording studio or post house. I graduate in October of 2005. Additionally, I'm beginning to compose songs and am trying to get my keyboard chops up to par. . I only have a little knowledge of music theory knowledge,but I will gain more as time goes on. Who knows, I might even become an arranger or something! Sound and music have always been a passion of mine, but I've recently been intrigued by the art of synthesis and wished to investigate it further and explore how it might factor into the creative me.
I'm originally from St. Petersburg, FL, only a few hours from here. I look like a little kid, but I really am 20 years old and out of high school! I've been visually challenged all of my life, so I may have a rather strange outlook sometimes. (I see about half of that of the normal person). I've also had chickens for pets all of my life, except for when I moved here! I'm not really into sports, but I do like to swim and hike occasionally. Other interests include drawing, writing stories, baking and decorating cookies. I just generally try to be a creative person. I feel I've got a lot less musical and audio experience than a lot of us here, but I'm sure I'll catch up. I don't really have a website containing a gear list, so I'll list it below. Sorry, no snazzy gear pics yet!
Gert Van Santen
I am a Dutch musician and translator. I have been making music since I was about 5 years old. Started with the recorder, then acoustic guitar, piano, electric guitar (my parents hated it!). Since the nineties I'm into composing on the computer. It's what I always wanted. I'm also kind of a gear junkie, but I guess I'm slowly learning (yeah, right!).
In 1996 I started a musical project called Wave World with 2 friends. It's actually a multi-media act with 3-D computer graphics on a huge screen behind us. We did 6 albums, and a VHS. Two new albums and a DVD are in the making. We have done concerts in the Netherlands, Great Britain, USA and Poland. Next year we'll be going to Russia and the USA.
Stefan Wolfrum
I'm playing around with my synths and gear just for fun, as a hobby, not for a living. So I don't have a real "Studio" or band.
I do a bit of sound design here and composing there but all just
for me, not for the public. (And I'm still a learner, there are nofinished tracks, just beginnings.)
However, I did win the Alesis patch contest 2004 with a patch for the Ion and won an Andromeda, my first analog synth ever. WOW!
I have a classical background, learned to play Cello, Organ and other instruments. Played in a symphony orchestra and once we
toured even to Rio & Sao Paulo, Brazil! :-)
My first synth was a Yamaha SY99 and I still love this great piece of gear!
I work with Cubase SX 3.0 (as of December 2004).
Besides music I love dogs and other interests include playing Go, astronomy, photography, basketball, inline skating, Aikido and more. ;-)
The kind of music I like (and try to make) is trance, groove beats,ambient, trip hop, grooving house beats, funk, sometimes twostep, garage.
Doug Wyatt
