Hiss was the main sound signature of this monster.
Turn it on and you got hisssss
Open a fader then twice as much hisssss
open 16 faders and you had an atlantic ocean soundscape going.
But this was the only thing within the budget so that's what I had to use, a crappy PA mixing desk.
Yet I had all the inserts and EQ that other brands did not offer, so this was the right tool for the job at the time.
As I now had some gear (A drum machine, few synths and other tools) there slowly began the exploration into making music. But the main focus remained on remixing, radio jingles. Making edits to extend instrumental backing tunes. Playing with all kinds of sounds. Recording a zipper on a real to real tape in the radio studio, paying it back at half speed and recording it on a cassette (sounds more dramatic) then make a show-call around it. Add all kinds of sounds as effects Whatever I could come up with to make something more interesting then the others did.
Then for my own satisfaction I made loops that I used to make 'remixes', by chopping up acapella's on the cassette decks
In other towns nearby then also started local radio stations as in the region where I lived there where several pirate radiostations already, and law changes opened the doors for legal local radio stations. So there was a growing demand for this stuff.
Eventhough I didn't have the best sales pitch I was making a lot of tiny productions, mostly for fun, as I didn't have the need to monetise on it. Money came from the boss, audio was hobby and this was a great way to not being driven by money, and having the space to experiment with everything under the sun, where others who also where active on the Radio station appeared to be more money driven.
Result, my stuff was not 'commercial enough' others called it 'odd' 'strange' 'experimenta' I was into House and Garage, where others listener to Breakdance, Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock etc. Yeah, me always on the less popular path.
And now I had a MIXING DESK with EQ, Inserts and huge amount of channels even more then at the radio studio!
Compared to the little DJ mixer that I owned this desk had 16 mono channels so it looked very impressive compared to the DJ mixer, but 16 mono channels wasn't really that much. It just looks like a lot.
4 for the drum machine, 2 for the JUNO-106 and then there where only 10 channels to fill up.
That still looked like a long way to go.
And it was time to make some decent cables.
An additional investment in decent Neutrik jacks and proper shielded cable was an additional cost that all in all spread over time turned out to be just as high as the price of the mixing desk. Yet the cables where a long term investment.
In this period I also started to create jingles and station calls.
So it was time for more gear.
That's for the next articles to come... If you enjoyed this then keep watching this space. I collected quiets a bit of gear.
Previous articles in this series:
My First Drum Machine [Alesis HR-16:B]
MIDI that 5 pin mystery
Editing on a cassettedeck
When belt wow and tape flutter where just part of the music
Turntables
What was so special about the Atari 1024ST? MIDI on board!
My first Synth: the Roland JUNO-106
When the DJ mixer ran out of channels, then I needed a new noise generator: Samick SM-162P