Dave Fridmann

It's exactly this kind of freewheeling invention that has led to Fridmann's idiosyncratic production sound. Choice new toys used in the making of Embryonic included the Korg Kaoss Pad Mini ("Fantastic”), the Suzuki Omnichord and, most indelibly, the rather rare Roland AG5 Funny Cat Harmonic Mover and Soft Distortion Sustainer, first produced by the company in 1973.

For this, Fridmann favours his EMT 240 'gold' plate, his AKG BX20 spring reverb, the Lexicon 200 and even the Alesis Midiverb II. "There's a couple of presets on there that I love,” he says of the latter. "They crunch up in this really nice way.”

It's exactly this kind of freewheeling invention that has led to Fridmann's idiosyncratic production sound. Choice new toys used in the making of Embryonic included the Korg Kaoss Pad Mini ("Fantastic”), the Suzuki Omnichord and, most indelibly, the rather rare Roland AG5 Funny Cat Harmonic Mover and Soft Distortion Sustainer, first produced by the company in 1973.

Among the synths used on the album are an ARP 2600, a Yamaha CS60 and — delivered to Tarbox Road only weeks before the record's completion — the new Korg Microsampler. Needless to say, perhaps, all were treated and manipulated in various ways. "Of course,” Fridmann laughs. "You hear a sound and you're like, 'That's a great sound — can we get it a little better? Yeah, guess we're gonna have to do something weird to it…'

For this, Fridmann favours his EMT 240 'gold' plate, his AKG BX20 spring reverb, the Lexicon 200 and even the Alesis Midiverb II. "There's a couple of presets on there that I love,” he says of the latter. "They crunch up in this really nice way.”

Fridmann says he will use Logic only under duress ("The problem is Logic and Pro Tools hardware hate each other”) and as such has now become something of a Pro Tools devotee. "I'm on [version] 8 now. I like it a lot. I know they made a couple of changes under the hood and I like the fact that they've implemented some more basic plug‑ins. But fundamentally it doesn't seem dramatically different. The new multiple take feature is quite nice.”

In this article about the recording of Interpol’s 6th LP, Marauder, Fridmann states that he used this microphone to record Sam Fogarino’s bass drum.

Among the synths used on the album are an ARP 2600, a Yamaha CS60 and — delivered to Tarbox Road only weeks before the record's completion — the new Korg Microsampler. Needless to say, perhaps, all were treated and manipulated in various ways. "Of course,” Fridmann laughs. "You hear a sound and you're like, 'That's a great sound — can we get it a little better? Yeah, guess we're gonna have to do something weird to it…'

Among the synths used on the album are an ARP 2600, a Yamaha CS60 and — delivered to Tarbox Road only weeks before the record's completion — the new Korg Microsampler. Needless to say, perhaps, all were treated and manipulated in various ways. "Of course,” Fridmann laughs. "You hear a sound and you're like, 'That's a great sound — can we get it a little better? Yeah, guess we're gonna have to do something weird to it…'

For this, Fridmann favours his EMT 240 'gold' plate, his AKG BX20 spring reverb, the Lexicon 200 and even the Alesis Midiverb II. "There's a couple of presets on there that I love,” he says of the latter. "They crunch up in this really nice way.”

For this, Fridmann favours his EMT 240 'gold' plate, his AKG BX20 spring reverb, the Lexicon 200 and even the Alesis Midiverb II. "There's a couple of presets on there that I love,” he says of the latter. "They crunch up in this really nice way.”