ESSENTIAL GEAR

Ensoniq ESQ1

“One of the first romplers to feature 12-bit samples, but it’s far from today’s more ‘natural-sounding’ samplers. The saxophone sounds really corny and cartoonish but the kalimbas, bells and pads sound great.”

Korg Lambda

“It’s a so-called ‘string machine’ but more like an old electronic home organ with strings, choir, organ and piano sounds that you can blend together. You can also tune left and right to get a nice chorus-type effect.”

Yamaha CP-30

“Another gritty-sounding beast, which weighs about 50kg. It has harpsichord, clavinet and piano sounds that don’t sound at all like these but it always finds its ways onto our records.”

Roland D-50

“A classic from the ’80s. One of the early romplers, but totally digital with built-in effects. It uses very short samples that you blend with digital oscillators to make very digital, cold and shimmery sounds.”

Yamaha TG77

“Really good DA converters and blends sampled sounds with an updated FM synth engine. It’s highly recommended if you’re into FM synths.”

Black Corporation Kijimi

“We were thinking about how we could make our live setup sound better and the Kijimi looked flexible enough to be able to get the right sounds for our songs.”