Paul Woolford

May 28, 2019, Resident Advisor:

RA: I read that you once used an E-Mu as a core part of your setup. Are we talking something from the Ultra series?

Woolford: Yeah man, rack mount E4XT Ultra.

Resident Advisor, May 28, 2019:

Mine [Emu E4XT] had a new lease of life when I did Soul Music because I used it with a Manley Massive Passive EQ, which is proper military grade equipment. Everything I put into the sampler went through the Manely first. This means I could sculpt sounds so that they're booming before they even get in the sampler.

Resident Advisor May 28, 2019:

Another piece I run almost everything through is the Maslec MLA-3, which is a multi-band compressor. Another game changer for me. It really enabled me to hear things differently, to pick out new frequencies in the sound. It has a certain effect, not a glue-type thing, but it's almost as though it gives you more headroom in a mad way. I felt it as soon as I got it.

Resident Advisor, May 28, 2019:

I was made redundant from a job I had at a DIY store around that time. I was getting something like £400 a month and they gave me three months pay as severance. I spent it all on an S2000. My parents were like, "What have you done!" And I'm like, "Yeah, I got this massive cream box that I don't know how to use." But I was so happy to have a real sampler because I was botching it for years.

May 28, 2019, Paul Woolford bares all for Resident Advisor:

The guy there was so patient with me. I'd go in and say, "Right, what can I get for £120?" Then he'd be like, "You can have this, that or that." One was a Yamaha CS-5, the other a BOSS DR-660 and the third bit would always be something a bit more expensive, which in this case was the Roland R-8. I ended up getting all three of those bits. And even to this day, I love them all. I didn't have the R-8 long, maybe two years, but I made loads of tunes on it. I had the CS-5 for 12 years. I put it in storage but it disappeared with a few other pieces a while back. I was gutted and I still think about that synth now. Need to get another.

May 28, 2019, Paul Woolford bares all for Resident Advisor:

The guy there was so patient with me. I'd go in and say, "Right, what can I get for £120?" Then he'd be like, "You can have this, that or that." One was a Yamaha CS-5, the other a BOSS DR-660 and the third bit would always be something a bit more expensive, which in this case was the Roland R-8. I ended up getting all three of those bits. And even to this day, I love them all. I didn't have the R-8 long, maybe two years, but I made loads of tunes on it. I had the CS-5 for 12 years. I put it in storage but it disappeared with a few other pieces a while back. I was gutted and I still think about that synth now. Need to get another.

May 28, 2019, Resident Advisor:

Around this time I was getting more inquisitive with the equipment itself. The CS-5 has an external input for running sounds through the filter and I remember just dicking around, didn't know what I was doing, and I ended up sticking a Roland 606 through it. I loved the 606 but I always wanted it to sound heavier. Then when I ran it through the CS-5, it sounded bonkers. I didn't know what a filter was, it was just a knob on this battered old synth. Then you could turn down the sound of the synth's oscillator so you could have just the drums running through the filter.