There’s some magic and alchemy in coaxing evocative music out of stuff with knobs, and Florian Meindl’s Riemann Kollektion keeps showing up how.
Here’s just a beautiful but elegant approach featuring our own MeeBlip geode synthesizer – some added extra flavor beyond just what you get with a stock 303 sound. And there’s what I view as the perfect delay – the Zen Delay produced by Erica Synths in collaboration with Ninja Tune.
So the full cast of characters – and it’s a lot from a little:
303 – the Din Sync RE-303 reproduction (“replica“) to be exact, which remains a go-to for 303 lovers wanting an authentic sound and hackability, not just disposability.
The Erica Zen Delay, used here as a coloristic and with a short, hand-synced tempo effect
Old Blood Noise Endeavors makes this wonderful Procession Reverb – check that excellent filter mode and the “speed” control
And of course our own MeeBlip geode, available now from our US/international store or direct from Europe
The genius of Florian is really using economical means to create little “moments” musically. It’s simple, but that’s why it’s so effective. I also love the ability to balance the geode with 303. (I’ve also used the Roland Boutique recreation, which has the advantage of internal effects, and done exactly this.)
A trademark MeeBlip effect has been to use gnarly, dissonant detuning, and it finds that right away, too.
Plus he also uses the LFO for rhythmic effects and creating fast modulation of the geode. It’s a good demonstration of how techno is about interconnected timbre and rhythm and not always simple melody.
It’s just one bar of material, but there’s tons of variation and change. That’s absolutely techno, but could easily apply to some experimental approaches, too.
In case you missed it last time, he also did a nice tip in December:
MeeBlip was backordered due to high demand, but we’re shipping again. In Europe, we have a discounted price, as well. (You no longer have to worry about dealing with imports in Europe; order from meeblip.eu and we ship from Berlin, inside the EU. We also ship from Germany to the UK with proper Brexit-ready import paperwork attached.)
MeeBlip geode (USA/international) with free shipping
MeeBlip geode (Europe) with affordable Europe-wide shipping
And subscribe to Riemann Kollektion on YouTube for more of these great tips (I know I watch them religiously), plus check out some exquisitely made techno sound packs and master classes and whatnot on their site:
https://riemannkollektion.com/