Panu M Savolainen – Mindfields

Genre: Techno, electronic
Year of release: 2003
Main gear:

Elektron Machinedrum
Elektron Sidstation
Jomox Airbase-99
Kawai K5000R
Novation Nova
Quasimidi Sirius
Roland JV-1080
Roland JD-990 + Vintage expansion
Roland XV-3080
Waldorf Pulse
Waldorf Microwave XT
Waldorf Micro Q
Yamaha AN1x
Yamaha FS1r

Behringer Eurorack MX 2642A mixer
Behringer Compressor / Noise gate for Sidstation
Digitech Studio Quad v2
Ensoniq DP-4 fx
Hifi 12/2 DIY speakers
Lexicon LXP-1 fx
Yamaha REV-100 fx

This album was made in several studio setups in Kokkola and Syri. At that time I had real problems with PC, soundcard and MIDI drivers.

Mad About is a bit hard to remember how I made it. Bass was coming from Yamaha FS1R which is a surprise since it sounds like acoustic bass. The lead was created with Novation Nova. LFO/filter fx was coming from Waldorf Pulse. Pads were from Yamaha AN1x and Roland JV-1080. Commodore 64 -type arpeggiosound is from Elektron Sidstation. Other sounds are from Roland JV-1080 including drums.

Acid Rain was built around sequence of Waldorf Pulse (cross mod sound). TB-type sound was coming from Yamaha AN1x. Bass was from Novation Nova. Pad was created with Waldorf Micro-Q.

Afterlife was more atmospheric stuff combined with beats. Drums were from Elektron Machinedrum, Quasimidi Sirius and Roland JV-1080. Repetitive synthline was from Waldorf Pulse. Solo with high resonated filter and a bit distortion was from Novation Nova and mellotron flute from Roland JD-990 Vintage expansion. Pads were from Roland JV-1080 and the bass is from Yamaha AN1x.

Eternal Sleep was one of the favourites. Drums were again from Quasimidi Sirius and Roland JV-1080. Pads were from Roland JV-1080 and Roland JD-990. LFO-filter-oscsync-sound at the beginning and bass was from Waldorf Pulse. The synth sequence background and the lead were from Novation Nova.

Confusion was quite repetitive dance track. The most important synth was Roland JD-990 which was doing the leadsynth-type in the first part and funky clavinet-type sound in the second part. Bass was from Waldorf Microwave XT. Pads were from Yamaha AN1x and Roland JV-1080.

Warped Ambience was longish track and it was quite experimental compared to the other songs. It’s probably the only released track where I used Roland Juno-106 and Roland Jupiter-6 together. These were quite hard to mix because I didn’t have good effects. Jupiter did the LFO-filter-sound and Juno did the lead-sound. I also used Yamaha AN1x, Yamaha FS1r and XV-3080 for several sounds.

By The Light had quite much going on in the background. MIDI was struggling and there was some MIDI-sync problems as heard from the track. Bass was from Waldorf Pulse, flute from Roland JD-990 Vintage expansion and many sounds from Novation Nova. Panned synthsequence was from Elektron Sidstation going thru FX of Nova. Drums were from Quasimidi Sirius and Roland XV-3080.

Cry Of Distress was created with Yamaha AN1x (squelch tb-type synth), Roland JV-1080 (synths, drums, pads), Waldorf Microwave XT(bass) and Roland Jupiter-6 (main lead).

Slow Down was mostly Roland XV-3080 with JV-expansions. Bass was from Novation Nova, synthsounds from Yamaha AN1x, waldorf Micro Q and Waldorf Microwave XT.

Mindfields was the longest track (11:06) with few different parts. Drums were from several synths: Roland JV-1080, Quasimidi Sirius and Jomox Airbase99. Many of the synthsounds were from Novation Nova and Waldorf Micro Q. Other synths were Waldorf Pulse, Waldorf Microwave XT and Yamaha AN1x.

Dead End was created with the favourite duo Yamaha AN1x and Waldorf Pulse. Can’t remember for sure if there was a bit Roland JV-1080 in the background but those were the main synths. Pulse was producing crossmod-monosynth and AN1x pads.

Mindfields cover

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