Karl Bartos

In this interview, Karl says he had a Yamaha TX816.

studio vocalist is visible in the rack.

In this interview, Karl says he had a Yamaha DX21.

"The rack is basically my vocal station, so I have everything wired in from my live room through a Tube-Tech PB-1B EQ. I have three Tube-Techs so we sometimes have three different bass synths going through them and a BSS DPR-402 compressor just to warm everything up."

Kraftwerk's Korg PS-3300 is now owned by Karl Bartos.

karl can be seen playing a stylophone in this picture

"So if I have a melody line, I have two Minimoogs I'll address MIDI to then record simultaneously on stereo files. The Minimoogs sound wonderful. They're just the kind of 'out of tune' you want them to be. My trick is to then make a sample instrument from the stereo files. I usually record about 60 notes from the Minimoog and use the original Minimoog at the same time as the sampled one, which opens up a richness of sound. The melodic line on the track Nachtfahrt [taken from Off The Record] is four Minimoogs playing. They're MIDI'd and also the first oscillator is tuned."

"I used to use the ARP sequencer but now there's apage in Logic's ES2 where I can pre-program algorithms to change a sequence. You can randomise the amount of tonal pitch changes, then alter it and compose over what it gives you."

"I'm using vocoder but speech synthesis at the same time. They meld well together and sometimes I sing phonemes along with it to give them more definition. You don't hear it but it's in there to support certain phonemes. I bought the VirSyn Matrix and it's perfect. I use all the other vocoders, like the Roland VP-330 and some others, but the Matrix is just so simple and easy to get a good sound that you can't beat it."

In this interview, Karl talks about using the Roland MC-202.

A MOTU 2408 MKIII interface can be seen in Karl's studio (sixth photo, right side of rack, fifth from bottom).

A Mackie D8B mixer can be seen in Karl's studio (first photo).

A MOTU 2408 MKII can be seen in Karl's studio (sixth photo, right side of rack, sixth from bottom).

"I've always used the Neumann U87 for vocals."

"Sometimes I'll record feedback in an anlalogue delay, for example, and I'll use a Sennheiser 421."

In this interview, Karl says that he uses GForce M-Tron Pro.

A Korg PS-3100 was used live by Karl Bartos when he was with Kraftwerk.

In this interview, Karl talks about using Voyetra Sequencer Plus.

"I used to use the ARP sequencer but now there's apage in Logic's ES2 where I can pre-program algorithms to change a sequence. You can randomise the amount of tonal pitch changes, then alter it and compose over what it gives you."

In this interview, Karl talks about using the ARP Odyssey. An ARP Odyssey Mk III can be seen in photos of his studio.

"I'm happy if I can tell little stories with a Moog melody line. So the Minimoog, ARP Odyssey and the Polymoog became my signature. The ARP still works fine. It's great if I need to create a strange electronic sound."

"I'm using vocoder but speech synthesis at the same time. They meld well together and sometimes I sing phonemes along with it to give them more definition. You don't hear it but it's in there to support certain phonemes. I bought the VirSyn Matrix and it's perfect. I use all the other vocoders, like the Roland VP-330 and some others, but the Matrix is just so simple and easy to get a good sound that you can't beat it."

"It's a small rack but I still have the DAT and cassette machines rack-mounted because of this record. They're not usually there but I had to get in touch with my past! Normally there's a Sony F1 digital recorder sitting in the space where they are."

"I like watching the timeline in Logic to see the rests and how the movement of the bass compliments the drums and vice versa. I can watch how well the rhythm of the vocals is merging with the rhythm of the music."

In this interview, Karl talks about using the Roland SH-101.

As the show drew to its close, ‘Pocket Calculator’ not only featured a reset rhythmical template but also footage of Herr Bartos showing off his synth inventory. The eagle eyed would have spotted with a Stylophone, Korg MS20, Minimoog rack mount, Farfisa Professional piano , ARP Odyssey and that iconic elektronisches schlagzeug unit.

"I use Logic, but only as a recorder, not for running soft synths. All my sounds are in Akai S3000 sample format, and sometimes I sample another instruments like the Minimoog. With the Akai samplers I have learned the system, so now I don't have to think about it - when you are working long hours in the studio, that's important. And they are very cheap now, so I would prefer to have a whole bank of Akai samplers than to try to make my computer play samples and soft synths. You would really need four or five computers to achieve the same capacity and to avoid any playback delays, so I just don't think computers have reached that stage yet."

A pair of Lexicon PCM 70s can be seen in Karl's studio (sixth photo, right side of rack, third and fourth from bottom).

The Odyssey can be seen at 1:10

Two EQP-1As are visible in the right rack.