“Every track has to do this”: How A Place to Bury Strangers turned their LP into a DIY synthesizer – YouTube Watch On
Between noise-rock outfit A Place To Bury Strangers, dubbed “New York’s loudest band,” and his pedal company Death By Audio, Oliver Ackerman is no stranger to DIY noisemaking. But the band’s latest album, Synthesizer, takes things a step further.
Not only did Ackermann design and build his own DIY synth, which is featured on every track on the album, the instrument’s circuit design also provided the record’s LP cover art, allowing fans to recreate the synth at home. I did. Amount of DIY required.
“Originally, we thought the circuit board itself looks really cool, so a vinyl cover would be really cool,” Ackerman explains. “We’ve been making a ton of synthesizers and different things, so it was the perfect time to put it all together.”
When we spoke to Ackerman on the band’s recent UK tour, he explained how the various handmade effects and instruments he’s worked on in the past were incorporated into the development of the titular synthesizer. I did.
“We were developing things like turning guitars into oscillators and drum machines and things like that. We had so many crazy ideas that we were able to put them all into one thing and make it more than just a fancy cover. It’s no longer there. It will also function as a musical instrument.”
“When we came up with that concept, we were like, we have to record this on every track on the record,” he continues. “I mean, wouldn’t it be great if we could play songs on a synthesizer?”
(Image credit: Future)
The synth itself, which you can hear in action in the video above, features three oscillators alongside a noise generator, filter, LFO, and delay module, all triggered by a capacitive touch sensor . However, turning a vinyl cover into a working instrument is not for the faint of heart.
“Yeah, good luck,” Ackerman laughs. “Death By Audio sells parts kits, but you have to be able to solder everything, so it requires some technical skill. You don’t want this to be your first kit. It’s a bit complicated, but everything Even if it doesn’t work, a lot of things do. So you might end up building a broken synthesizer, or you might end up building your own version of it.”
In our interview, Ackerman, who recorded and produced the album, also talks about the challenges of translating the band’s notoriously intense live show to recording.
“What’s important is the energy you give off in this moment[while recording],” he explains. “When you feel excited, thrilled, scared, or in danger, that is captured and translated.”
“If you feel agitated or agitated or scared or in danger, that’s recorded (in your records).”
We also cover the basics of Death By Audio, makers of handmade stompboxes including disturbance modulators, germanium filter pedals, and more.
“I don’t usually listen to what other people want,” he says of the brand’s design origins. “(They come from) an interest in a particular technology or thing, like, ‘Oh, how does this work?'” or “What are the possibilities for this technology?” ?”
“It’s like, let’s make something unique and different and crazy and cool and something that interacts with the human body in a certain way.”
Watch the full interview and hear the synthesizer in action in the video above.
A Place To Bury Strangers’ “Synthesizer” has been released. For more information on Death By Audio pedals, visit the brand’s site.
