Steve Levine

"It was a Roland CR78 drum machine, and Mikey [Craig] played bass and Roy [Hay] played my little Korg Delta 770 onto one track, because we knew we wouldn't have a lot of tracks to play with, then the first overdub was guitar, just DI'd into the desk, and then there was a lead guitar, with a Roland RE201 Space Echo, and then the lead vocal. On the actual master version of that track, I'd built a noise gate myself which didn't work very well. It chopped the front off everything, and on the master we had the guitar that went 'wha wha wha', which was actually Roy playing through that noise gate."

"I've just got hold of an SCI Six-Trak which I think is very good value for money, and I'm also beginning to get used to the DX7. I find it's one of the few synths that's really useful above 10kHz, though it can still sound pretty awful if you push it to the limit."

Interview with Steve Levine in which he discusses the E-mu Emulator I.

Around 3:03, Steve Levine talks about using an Oberheim Xpander.

"I’ve got the up-to-the-minute stuff and vintage things. I’ve still got my D-550 module in the rack. Sometimes when you just want a bit of texture, it just gives you that."

In his studio, record producer Steve Levine has built up a complete digital recording system along with sequencing, synchronisation and MIDI equipment and instruments - though the range of equipment does encompass the odd 'classic' analogue synth such as a Minimoog.

"But I've worked with sequencers since the day they first came out, so all these things are nothing compared with the problems I used to have. Years ago, even just a simple thing like a synthesizer going out of tune was a major headache in the studio. I've worked with every conceivable computer programmed sequencer - from the Roland CSQ-100, to the Prophet switch type, to the ARP ones that had the sixteen click thing that you'd line the notes up with. I've worked with an ARP 2600 synth also - in fact, I've just bought an ARP 1600 which I'm very pleased to have as part of my set-up here. But people just make such a big deal out of MIDI and sequencing."

The first and second photo show Steve Levine with a Fairlight CMI.

"The track 'Colour By Numbers' must be the very first use of a Yamaha DX7 on record," recalls Steve Levine. "The importer brought one down to the studio to show it to us. It was a Friday, and he said 'You can have it here for the weekend but I must have it back on Monday.' The first moment you heard a DX7 it was the Holy Grail, particularly for the famous Fender Rhodes sound. Most of the Culture Clubs tracks had Fender Rhodes on them, but we were always struggling to get the brightness in the sound, and then when this thing came, the fact that the MIDI didn't really work didn't matter — it was the best piano sound I'd ever heard at that time."

"I've got the complete Oberheim system (DMX, DSX and OB8), a Prophet T8, and I still use Prophet 5 now and again. I have got a problem at the moment though because it seems almost everything is going over to MIDI. I've actually got the very first MIDI OB8 - I had it converted. I'm pretty sure it's the first one because Chase Musicians - where I buy most of my synths - had only this one in stock: I got it for the studio and they wanted to keep it in the shop! (An Oberheim-sanctioned OB8 MIDI retro-fit has been available since January.) It's proved very useful for running the DSX sequencer with other synths."

"I've got the complete Oberheim system (DMX, DSX and OB8), a Prophet T8, and I still use Prophet 5 now and again. I have got a problem at the moment though because it seems almost everything is going over to MIDI. I've actually got the very first MIDI OB8 - I had it converted. I'm pretty sure it's the first one because Chase Musicians - where I buy most of my synths - had only this one in stock: I got it for the studio and they wanted to keep it in the shop! (An Oberheim-sanctioned OB8 MIDI retro-fit has been available since January.) It's proved very useful for running the DSX sequencer with other synths."

"I've got the complete Oberheim system (DMX, DSX and OB8), a Prophet T8, and I still use Prophet 5 now and again. I have got a problem at the moment though because it seems almost everything is going over to MIDI. I've actually got the very first MIDI OB8 - I had it converted. I'm pretty sure it's the first one because Chase Musicians - where I buy most of my synths - had only this one in stock: I got it for the studio and they wanted to keep it in the shop! (An Oberheim-sanctioned OB8 MIDI retro-fit has been available since January.) It's proved very useful for running the DSX sequencer with other synths."

"The great advantage of Roland Cloud, especially in the rough demo or sketch stage, was to have all the classic synths at your disposal. The ability to initially have multiple instances of the same synthesizer running together (something that would be difficult, and very expensive) is one of the wonderful features of the cloud. ‍ Once a track was created and approved, I could easily start printing or rendering the audio and in some cases double the sounds with my vintage hardware. ‍ This was especially true of the D-50 as I have the Roland Cloud version, the new Boutique 05, and my original D-550. The latter has some of my own sounds I created many years ago, but instantly evoke the sound of the ’80s. This was very important to the overall tone and vibe of Hyperbrawl.

I also loved mixing, say, the JUNO sounds with the JUPITER sounds. I also used the JUPITER arpeggiator on many of the parts as this added an extra melody or rhythm and is very different from the often more-complicated DAW versions."

"Next, we overdubbed the bass. That was interesting, as everybody fiddled around with it! I had some initial discussions with the bassist I use, Francis Hylton, and we decided to go for a bass line with a dub feel. We tried electric bass, but it just didn't fit sonically. So Francis played a dub bass line into the sequencer from my Novation BassStation, using a custom patch. There's quite a lot of real‑time performance on that; bends and sliding notes."

With the bass line in place, the backing track was completed with the addition of a filtered synth wash from Steve's Korg Wavestation, and an acoustic guitar track.

Levine thus now generally works on projects with smaller budgets, and his small but top‑quality home studio is the ideal tool. Perhaps it's time to examine the gear that's packed into Levine's tiny room. Levine: "I've built this selection of equipment up over many years. I've refined it to exactly what I want. My synth collection had grown to enormous proportions at one stage and has now shrunk back to the things I decided I really need. Technology moving on helps: I used to have three Akai S‑series samplers, and now just one Emu EIV with 128Mb of RAM and a 1Gig Jaz drive does the same job. The Emu is a brilliant machine with great filters. Many people don't program or process their sounds any more these days, through inexperience or laziness. It does take some patience, but I think it's very satisfying when you make a great, new, fresh, sound. The other day I created a pad sound that sounded vaguely like an evolving Wavestation patch, a looped and filtered 15‑second sample of a river and a nondescript breathy flute‑like sound from an old CD‑ROM. It was a fantastic surreal pad sound. So it does pay to experiment." Levine is known for having a large sample library, and he's even made some sample CDs.

The master keyboard in use in Levine's studio is a Yamaha KX88, and other sound sources include Roland U220 and D550 synth mdoules, Roland R8M drum module, Ensoniq ESQ1M synth module, Korg Wavestation AD and Yamaha TX802 synths. Right next to them is an Atari Mega 4 with hard drive. Levine: "In all honesty, I can do everything on the Atari that my Mac with Notator Logic software upstairs can do. I have the Atari in my studio because the majority of people I'm working with use an Atari, and it's absolutely fine for sequencing and synth editing. Unless you want to do hard disk recording there's no point in getting rid of your Atari. My hard disk recorder and editor is still the Akai DD1000, because of the instantly‑removable cartridges. I record all my audio onto my ADATs and then use the DD1000 for editing real drums or guitars and cleaning up things, or making vocal comps."

The master keyboard in use in Levine's studio is a Yamaha KX88, and other sound sources include Roland U220 and D550 synth mdoules, Roland R8M drum module, Ensoniq ESQ1M synth module, Korg Wavestation AD and Yamaha TX802 synths. Right next to them is an Atari Mega 4 with hard drive. Levine: "In all honesty, I can do everything on the Atari that my Mac with Notator Logic software upstairs can do. I have the Atari in my studio because the majority of people I'm working with use an Atari, and it's absolutely fine for sequencing and synth editing. Unless you want to do hard disk recording there's no point in getting rid of your Atari. My hard disk recorder and editor is still the Akai DD1000, because of the instantly‑removable cartridges. I record all my audio onto my ADATs and then use the DD1000 for editing real drums or guitars and cleaning up things, or making vocal comps."

The master keyboard in use in Levine's studio is a Yamaha KX88, and other sound sources include Roland U220 and D550 synth mdoules, Roland R8M drum module, Ensoniq ESQ1M synth module, Korg Wavestation AD and Yamaha TX802 synths. Right next to them is an Atari Mega 4 with hard drive. Levine: "In all honesty, I can do everything on the Atari that my Mac with Notator Logic software upstairs can do. I have the Atari in my studio because the majority of people I'm working with use an Atari, and it's absolutely fine for sequencing and synth editing. Unless you want to do hard disk recording there's no point in getting rid of your Atari. My hard disk recorder and editor is still the Akai DD1000, because of the instantly‑removable cartridges. I record all my audio onto my ADATs and then use the DD1000 for editing real drums or guitars and cleaning up things, or making vocal comps."

The master keyboard in use in Levine's studio is a Yamaha KX88, and other sound sources include Roland U220 and D550 synth mdoules, Roland R8M drum module, Ensoniq ESQ1M synth module, Korg Wavestation AD and Yamaha TX802 synths. Right next to them is an Atari Mega 4 with hard drive. Levine: "In all honesty, I can do everything on the Atari that my Mac with Notator Logic software upstairs can do. I have the Atari in my studio because the majority of people I'm working with use an Atari, and it's absolutely fine for sequencing and synth editing. Unless you want to do hard disk recording there's no point in getting rid of your Atari. My hard disk recorder and editor is still the Akai DD1000, because of the instantly‑removable cartridges. I record all my audio onto my ADATs and then use the DD1000 for editing real drums or guitars and cleaning up things, or making vocal comps."