Not just less is more. More from less.
Call it the sub-$200 studio.
Our friend Tomash Ghz has made a track with sounds produced using only the Teenage Engineering PO-12 and the MeeBlip anode.
Listen:
And, very cool, have a go at the project files via Splice:
https://splice.com/ghz_tomash/tomash-ghz—teslacoil
For the record, that’s US$59 for the Teenage drum machine, and US$139.95 list for the MeeBlip. (In fact, MeeBlip is on sale now for a very limited time for US$119.95 with free US/Canadian shipping or discounted international shipping.)
But I really can’t stop listening to what he’s made. It’s definitely inspiring me to make do with less, with smaller. And while this wasn’t recorded live, some ingenuity with this and some sort of input can definitely make a tiny live rig. I really believe in this stuff. It’s something to do with feeling less intimidated by gear, something to do with restrictions and the compositional discipline they can impose, something about the fun of the gear, something about the ability to toss it into a tiny bag and literally, physically feel less burdened.
Regardless, it’s a great track. And as it isn’t always easy making gear inexpensive, I’m likewise inspired by what Teenage Engineering have done in terms of clever, sometimes whimsical design that’s also musical. See Ashley Elsdon’s lovely collage below (via Instagram):
And of course, have a look at these two devices, among the other small-but-fun-but-big-sounding instruments now available.
http://meeblip.com (which CDM co-creates, on sale through June 7)
https://www.teenageengineering.com/products/po
… plus Tomash’s latest EP out now:
Pulses
Updated: Wait, there’s more – of less! Reader ST. BEETHOVEN has made this terrifically-catchy electro tune with anode. Percussion again comes from elsewhere, but all the synth parts and even the vocoder (carrier) uses anode. And then it all gets rather nicely evil: