MEET LESTER BARNES
… the man with a simply incredible Eurorack setup
While we’re very enthusiastic about Eurorack at Computer Music, we thought we’d speak to someone who threw themselves into Eurorack some years back and now owns one of the largest Eurorack systems in the world, with over 125 VCOS and 80 filters!
Lester Barnes is a successful awardwinning media composer, with a huge passion for modular, and Eurorack in particular. We asked him for some pointers, by first taking him back to his early days of Eurorack exploration.
: What was the first Eurorack module or system you purchased?
LB:
My first system was a Doepfer system in a 6U case, which was just an early vocoder system. It didn’t even have any VCOs, but I bought it for an advert I was doing at the time, where they wanted robot voices, so it was the perfect excuse! The system was the Kraftwerkmodelled Vocoder and it did exactly what it needed to do. And it was all just for the benefit of one advert!
: How quickly did further modules follow, and what sort of modules were they?
LB:
I was planning to get a bigger Doepfer system, but then Analogue Systems started making things. I was sent some photos in the post of some of their wooden cabinets, with all this gear in it, and it looked like an ARP 2500 or something similar. It just looked completely gorgeous! I called them straightaway, worked out what it was going to cost me to get one and ordered it. It still has pride of place in my studio to this day.
: What’s your favourite module or combination of modules?
LB:
I’ve got to say that in Eurorack, I love everything by AJH Synth. It’s sonically beautiful and reliable, and it just makes me smile every time I plug those oscillators into their filters. If I had to buy a system from just one manufacturer, it would be them. I just adore everything that they do. Other than that, I love the Cwejman stuff, and the endorphin.es modules, which are both very different from the AJH modules.
: How do you approach making a patch from scratch?
LB:
That depends on whether I’m using the computer alongside my system, but generally I’m quite old school, so I’ll use CVs and Gates, going to oscillators and filters, envelope generators, etc. Mostly subtractive synthesis