Equipment

Korg M1

The M1 became the top-selling digital synthesizer of its time for many reasons. Certainly the 90's business of house music had something to do with that. The percussive piano patch, for my money, is still better than anything on the market for a live gig. It's hard to mistake it's sound when you hear it on classic records. Too, the organ patch which is iconic with all those classics of house, and is replicated today, but never bettered. Although, one of it's major down sides is that it's harmonics mean that the whole scale rarely works in a tune. Never-the-less, my favourite synth.

Made from 1988–1995 and originally sold for over $2,000.
16 voices, 8 part Timbr, Osc 16 bit 2MWord PCM waveform ROM.
100 multisounds + 44 drum sounds Digital sample-based subtractive synthesis
Variable Digital Filter, low-pass velocity sensitive (non-resonant), Attenuator 3 independent AADBSSRR envelope generators.
Effects Reverb, delay, phaser, tremolo, exciter, ensemble, overdrive, EQ, chorus, flanger, rotary speaker.

Ableton Live

What Ableton Live has done for musicians in electronic music is unreal. In the past, you would need to hook up lots of midi devices and machine codes, and manage your network with limited loops, and try and limit and manage all those devices live via control surfaces and the nobs and buttons on the devices themselves. In some cases, that means running around to all your devices to change their pathes in the middle of a gig.

Now, we can manage it all in one application, and that application connects all the devices, both inputs and outputs. It's versatile for a jam in the studio, and robust to gig with. A must for any performing electronic musician.

Roland RD-300

This is a beautiful stage piano, with proper weighted keys and beautiful full sounds. Strings, Piano and Organ pathes are quality. It has many more, but I don't find them that usable. For example, the synth sounds are too rigid and need some modulation to be fun, the funk organ sounds are fine, but the weighted keys is less ideal for sliding up and down the keyboard (like on a Nord).

Why this over other synths? When you start to compose a tune, there's a lot of dynamics to put in to really feel the tune and the swing. This is where you can really feel a tune with the RD-300 and compose not just the notes, but the feeling for the track that forms in your mind, which is what you need to complete the rest of the track.