Intro
Techno twosome Shadow Dancer have been churning out golden tracks for more than 10 years. Struggles with technology and trends resulted in a brief hiatus from music, but the simplicity of FL Studio brought brothers Paul and Al Farrier back with a boomingkick, just as MySpace was at its most effective.
And it was MySpace that led the pair to their first EP release on Boysnoize Records in 2007, followed by their Future MusicAlbum of the Month gem Golden Traxe in 2009. Having remixed the likes of Chromeo, Chilly Gonzales, Zombie Nation and Fischerspooner, and with their latest EP Second City setting clubs alight, we decided it was time to tour their studio.
Roland Alpha Juno 2
“This was dirt cheap. The Chord Memory function makes it an ‘instant Detroit Techno’ synth, which is reason enough to hunt one down.”
DSI Mopho
“Bought to replace our SH-101. It does a good 101/Pro One impression, only with added stability. We haven’t even got into the deep modulation capabilities, we just use it for bass.”
Roland Juno-106
“The sound of so many records that influenced us – especially early B12 and Autechre. Limited, and slightly broken, but there’s no VSTi that authentically replicates it – yet.”
Novation Zero SL MKII
“This comes with a factory preset mapped to the Alpha Juno’s controls, which is all we use it for.We did use the dedicated PG300 controller, but this is actually better. And cheaper.”
Nord Rack 2X
“Possibly our favourite synth, and certainly the best-sounding VA I’ve heard. We use it for pads, bass and bleeps on everything.”
Akai S900
“We bought this in 1997, when it was already considered archaic, but it ‘unlocked’ making Electronic music for us. The filter is gorgeous. The drums on Perfect Sense are S900 – in fact the new album is pretty much all S900.”
Akai MPC2000XL
“A replacement for all our drum machines – Tempest, Machinedrum UW, 909, 707. It’s simpler for our workflow to have everything in one box. We’ve used the MPC1000 and 3000 and, despite what everyone else says, this is our favourite.”
Casio CZ-1000
“Mostly rubbish, and very noisy. Again, this is a source for sounds we heard on Electronica and Techno back in the ’90s. Apparently, it wasonalotof Erasure tracks, too.”
Yamaha DX-21
“Cheap, awful to program, only 4-Op... but it does those Derrick May, Juan Atkins bass sounds so well. Feed it through tons of reverb and you get some great Selected Ambient Works and Angelo Badalamenti-style strings and pads!”
Ableton Live 8
“By far the quickest way for us to get ideas up and running. We never use Session View, treating it much more like a linear DAW. There’s been some stability issues with version 8 but it seems they’ve ironed all that out this year.”
