Ekoplekz – recording to tape
The Planet-Mu artist eschews DAWs in favour of bouncing his tracks via a Yamaha MT3X. FM caught up with him and found out how it works…
It’s all well and good building a setup that allows you to create sounds without relying on a DAW, but if you want others to hear your music away from live performances, at some point you’re going to need to record it. One option for getting those tracks down without turning to a digital workspace – and capturing that authentic old-school saturation at the same time – is to bounce tracks directly to tape with multi-track recorder.
Bristol-based producer and Planet Mu mainstay Nick Edwards, aka Ekoplekz, uses exactly this approach to create his signature raw electronic sound. When FM caught up with him in his studio last year, he filled us in on the details of his hands-on approach to production.
“I’ve had the same Yamaha MT3X for years. I bought it secondhand in 2001 to replace the previous one that had gone tits-up. Track four has now completely failed, and a couple of the inputs don’t work so I’m having to pan things across from other channels to get them to record. I love it but it’s on its last legs, really! Every now and then I’ll think maybe it’s time to move on and try mastering some tracks to digital, but it’s just not my sound. If I’m going to continue with the sound I’m known for, I’ll probably have to invest in a replacement at some point.
“Everything I’ve ever put out officially has gone through some sort of taping process along the way. It’s kind of like the sonic glue that holds my stuff together. I’d like to think that even if I go down a different stylistic route, people can still think, ‘Ah that sounds like Ekoplekz,’ and that’s because of the tape. Even though, as I said earlier, I sell gear on and update synths, I always retain the same basic recording process with the four-track. That one time I tried to upgrade things and go digital to go for the clarity, when I played the stuff back I thought, ‘That could be anybody’. I’m not big-headed enough to think I’m anything special… we’re all a bunch of electronic musicians and we all sound a bit similar, but the recording process is something that does make [my music] sound more distinctive. “I used to be a religious reader of
Future Music all through the ’90s. The first four-track I ever bought, a Fostex, was directly off the back of an FM review in one of the earliest issues. I bought the Fostex along with a Zoom 9001, which got a great review in the same issue… so it was you guys who got me started!”
Edwards does bring a computer into the equation right at the end of the production process, albeit only for a relatively minimal role.
“When I’m recording and mastering the digital file, I just use freeware like Audacity to do it. Audacity is good enough for the little edits, nips and tucks that I need to do to be completely happy with the tape-recording. Sometimes I’ll maybe lop out a few bars if I’ve messed up, or do a smooth fade-out on the track or some work on the levels. Generally speaking, I don’t get too fussed with it, as you have to know when it’s time to leave it and delegate to the good engineer at the other end who’s going to harmonise the whole thing.”
The recording process is something that makes my music sound distinctive’