Biosphere / Geir Jenssen... Gear Used?

[tjwett]

i'm a huge Biosphere fan and i've always wondered what gear the dude used. he's been around a while so it had to be hardware at some point, but anytime you see him live now it's just laptop and controller. even still, i'd love to know what software he's using just for pure curiosity's sake. he's probably the only artist i've not been able to find out about their gear. once in a while he'll have some used stuff for sale on his website but it's never telling; old camcorder, CD player, desktop scanner?!? i'm stumped.

 

here's a pic from a live set, a big high five goes to whoever can identify what's running on that little 12" PowerBook:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23five/2204293284/sizes/o/in/photostream/

[Unfed]

i'm quite sure that very early on he used an MC-202 extensively.

[tjwett]

wow, interesting. i can't think of anything on his old records that sounds distinctly 202-ish, maybe the mono pulsing synth part in Phantasm? cool to know anyway! did you see him play live with one or something?

[Cowzar]

[Unfed]

i think i had read years ago that his first album was done with the MC-202. could be wrong though, who knows. a quick Google search indicates that he may have used a Juno-106 though. didn't realize until now that he was in the band Bel Canto. i'll have to see if i can check out some of his older stuff. i borrowed an album of his maybe ten years ago and don't remember being too into it, can't recall which album though.

[soundwave106]

Amazingly enough, the only other information I've found (from this source and a couple of other AH posts) suggests that the C-64 was a large part of his early sound. (!)

 

The early Bel Canto stuff however is well more than C-64. I've heard some of it, it's pretty nice.

 

If I had to guess what the software on the laptop was (and this is just a wild stab guess), it would be Max/MSP.

[Obsidious]

Geir just uses foundsound alot as far as I can tell, so the main bit of gear for any Biosphere beyond the first album is basically a field recorder, that's why his music is so organic. Master of arctic sound design. Love his work, Substrata remains one of my favourite releases of all time. It would be interesting to know what was in his studio around that time though, wonder if he's a closet gearslut, surely got alot more than just a 202. I'm willing to bet he's got a ton of slutty outboard.

[tjwett]

C 64, SH-201 and a Juno?!?! geez. totally not what i was expecting to hear. perhaps it just is a confirmation of his talent as a sound designer because none of the gear mentioned is recognizable on any of his work, to me anyway.

 

i was really expecting Ensoniq samplers, something big, old, expensive and wavetabley. or at the very least something like Reaktor or Metasynth. i wouldn't be surprised if he's taken to making his own gear in Reaktor or Max for playing live, because his live sets are nothing more than knob tweaks. i think he just mixes and effects live while the tracks play.

 

but somewhere in the arctic this man has a studio and it's got some goddamn gear in it of some kind.

[Unfed]

found some online clips of the first two albums. i'm pretty sure the Juno was evident in some tracks at least. sounds like he used a TR-606 on the first album, so maybe he used the MC-202 along with that. definitely an older sampler of some sort as well.

[Don Solaris]

Substrata was made on:

 

-- AKAI S-3000 sampler

-- Yamaha FB01

 

 

 

Biosphere's kit list in 09/97 was as follows:

 

Roland A-33 master keyboard

Akai S-3000

Yamaha FB01

Sony DPS R7 reverb

Mackie 1202

Apple PowerMac 7600 with MOTU Performer and Unisyn

 

Gathering dust:

Novation BassStation

Roland Juno 106

Roland JX-3P

Roland TR-808

[soundwave106]

 

I was really expecting Ensoniq samplers, something big, old, expensive and wavetabley. or at the very least something like Reaktor or Metasynth. i wouldn't be surprised if he's taken to making his own gear in Reaktor or Max for playing live, because his live sets are nothing more than knob tweaks.

 

 

I wouldn't be surprised actually. FYI Max/MSP is very much in the realm of Reaktor or Metasynth. Through a fuzzy laptop shot it's hard to tell whether it's a music development environment (Reaktor, Max, Metasynth, etc.) or a powerful DAW (ala Logic, Ableton, etc.) or what. I'd lean towards something that can handle video -- I didn't think Reaktor was very good with video yet, where some DAWs (as well as Max and Metasynth) can.

 

Biosphere seems to like Akais, other posts seem to mention that. You can do a lot with a hardware sampler and a software WAV editor. More than most people think.

[NashSG]

I think many of those guys that were putting out electronic music CDs before the computers really took off got by with a whole lot less than you would figure.

 

Quite a few have everything and something else too, but there are some that used quite modest setups.

[tjwett]

 

Substrata was made on: -- AKAI S-3000 sampler -- Yamaha FB01 Biosphere's kit list in 09/97 was as follows: Roland A-33 master keyboard Akai S-3000 Yamaha FB01 Sony DPS R7 reverb Mackie 1202 Apple PowerMac 7600 with MOTU Performer and Unisyn Gathering dust: Novation BassStation Roland Juno 106 Roland JX-3P Roland TR-808

 

 

nice list! how'd you get this? just curious. ha i had an FB-01 for a minute. it made my brain hurt and i sold it off.

 

so it's 12 years later now, what do you reckon he's using these days, if you had to guess?

[Don Solaris]

 

nice list! how'd you get this? just curious

 

 

Future Music 09/97

[Obsidious]

Cool, thanks for that Don! That album is a masterpiece. Makes me rethink my gearlustage...sort of.

[tjwett]

 

Future Music 09/97

 

 

ha nice! this is from the era when Future Music had cover models, British kids dressed up to look like their from some kind of Anime future and doing like hardcore poses with synths. thanks Don.

[tjwett]

 

Cool, thanks for that Don! That album is a masterpiece. Makes me rethink my gearlustage...sort of.

 

 

the thing that surprises me most is the actual pieces listed, especially for Substrata. there is so much depth and texture in that record, the dude must just be badass with that S3000. but the FB-01?! i don't know anyone who was good with that thing.

 

i wonder what he used on the Dropsonde record. that's from pretty recent. not my personal fave either, lots of drums.

[poumtschak]

the thing that surprises me most is the actual pieces listed, especially for Substrata. there is so much depth and texture in that record, the dude must just be badass with that S3000. but the FB-01?!

If I'm not mistaken, ambient is more about effects and mixing than synths or samplers.

There's a (circa 1991) Sony DPS R7 reverb in the gearlist posted above.

 

Here's a quote from Gearslutz :

The R7 is a dedicated reverb machine. [...] I also have the DPSV77 which is like the "greatest hits" of the 7 series and it has the digital ins. [...] But you have to remember the others were dedicated and expensive machines when they were first released($1.5K-$2K).

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1996_articles/sep96/sonydpsv77.html

 

[soundwave106]

 

the thing that surprises me most is the actual pieces listed, especially for Substrata. there is so much depth and texture in that record, the dude must just be badass with that S3000.

 

 

Samplers are kick-ass for ambient. I have a dark ambient track somewhere which I did entirely on a Typhooned-out Yamaha TX16W. Someday I should try similar techniques using Kontakt...

[tjwett]

Ambient is pretty much all I do for the past few years. I'm a big ensoniq Asr fan and I recently got a lot of nice results from a yammy a4000. I think I was just expecting something more exotic in his gear list. anyone know if he's still using hardware in the studio? His live shows are laptop only.