From Alex Ball. Whilst the E-mu SP machines are most famous for their use in Hip-hop, they were used by numerous artists in different genres and in different ways. To that end, I thought it would be interesting look at why and how it was used on Joe Satriani’s 1987 album "Surfing with the alien".…

From Alex Ball. Roland MC-8 driving the 100m. TR-808 on drums.

From Alex Ball. A look at a wonderful vintage synth, the Korg Trident Mk I from 1980. 0:00 The Intro 1:45 The Synthesizer 3:29 The Brass 5:37 The Strings 8:27 The Flanger 9:16 The Trident 10:55 The Rear Panel Experiments 15:48 The Legacy 17:33 The Outro Jam Huge thanks to my Patrons for their support.…

From Alex Ball. A happy ending to the Juno kicking incident.

From Alex Ball. A lot of people have asked for a thorough studio tour and so I finally did one! There’s a LOT of info in this, so use the chapters to skip to the bits that are relevant to you. 0:00 Studio Tour Song 1:41 Computer / Cubase / Kontakt 6:03 Midi Inputs and…

From Alex Ball. I thought it would be interesting to work out a few Louis Cole chord progressions and learn a little about how he makes his awesome music. 0:00 Intro 0:56 F It Up 4:23 Thinking 7:40 Let it happen 11:30 I’m Tight 14:45 Outro Thank you to my Patrons who help me to…

From Alex Ball. Like most people, I’ve always wanted to own an original Roland TR-808 but it’s always been the wrong price or the wrong time or both. Earlier this year my time finally came. I wanted to make a video showing why it’s still a very relevant and useful instrument in a modern studio…

From Alex Ball. A look at some of the equipment used by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori to score Halo: Combat Evolved, released in 2001. Huge thank you to Neo Te Aika, Frostbyte, Booey, Noelle, Yewlyn, Python Blue, Jafet Meza, RenSFX, meowsandstuff, Fleetwire, AtlyxMusic, PunkGalFuryn and anyone else at Project Odyssey for their incredible work…

From Alex Ball. A look at the revolutionary Roland MC-8 from 1977 which was one of the earliest microprocessor-controlled digital sequencers. Around 200 of these units were made and they were extremely expensive. As I’ve covered the history of this unit several times, I thought it would be interesting to follow in the footsteps of…

From Alex Ball. A look at the Polymoog and how Gary Numan adopted one of the presets from one of the versions to help define his sound. 0:00 Intro 0:41 What is the Polymoog? 8:00 Vox Humana and Gary Numan 13:35 Cars Cover The sample Instrument https://bobmoogfoundation.myshopify.com/products/alex-balls-polymoog-soundbank-digital-download

From Alex Ball. How to do the Dalek voice with a ring modulator. Enjoy!

From Alex Ball. A look at how the Korg MS-20 and SQ-10 sequencer were an intergral part of the sound of a group of German musicians in the late 70s and early 80s. 0:00 Intro 1:09 Der Mussolini – DAF 5:02 Los Niños Del Parque – Liaisons Dangereuses 8:10 Minimal Tape 3/7.2 – Pyrolator 10:48…

From Alex Ball. Got some great videos in the works, but here’s a little music.

From Alex Ball. I turned the EML wobbler patch (as used by Liam Howlett) into a sample patch. It’s free to Patrons on tiers 1, 2 or 3 on my Patreon. patreon.com/alexballmusic YouTube won’t let me change the thumbnail btw, so you’re stuck with the mid-blink. Lovely. Anyway, Merry Christmas!

From Alex Ball. Oberheim OB-X Tom Sawyer sample patch available on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/AlexBallMusic

From Alex Ball. A look at the classic Oberheim OB-X synthesizer from 1979. Huge thanks to Steven R Sellick for the kind loan! Check out Steven’s track "Do Androids Dance to Electro Beat": https://unts-untsplinksandplonks.bandcamp.com/track/do-androids-dance-to-electro-beat 0:00 Intro 1:07 The Oberheim OB-X 1:30 Potted History 3:01 Demo 1 4:10 What’s on an OB-X? 6:50 Demo 2 7:44…

From Alex Ball. New album out now! Thank you. Bandcamp: https://alexball.bandcamp.com/album/sproing Or Pick your streaming service: https://share.amuse.io/sDS2Mv-NlbRF

From Alex Ball. A look at the last monosynth ARP made, the Solus from 1980. This is the least known of the trio (Odyssey, Axxe, Solus) because it was only made for a few months before ARP went out of business. 0:00 Intro Demo 1:04 The ARP Solus 1:46 Demo: Solus System 3:06 VCOs 5:49…

From Alex Ball. These things always deliver. Hardware jam, no processing. Reverb from an AKG BX15 captured as it ran, slowly blended in as the track develops.

From Alex Ball. A look at a specific drum setup used by Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller on their album, Speak and Spell, from 1981. 0:00 Intro 0:51 KR-55 Snare 1:55 Interfacing Setup 3:23 ARP 2600 Daniel Miller Kick 7:32 Roland MC-4 8:14 Test it out 8:43 Alternative Gear / Sample Pack 9:34 Outro Jam…