Germany (October 10, 2023)—When it comes to synthesis, Chris Meyer has credibility for days, from working as an engineer at Sequential Circuits and Roland, to time spent as technical chairman for the MIDI Manufacturer’s Association, to writing the popular Eurorack/modular synthesis book, Patch & Tweak. Just as importantly, however, he is a composer and performer working under the name Alias Zone, and his latest album, Eastern Front, is due out any day now.
Meyer’s electronic music-based studio is centered around an Apple Mac Book Pro running Ableton Live, as well as a Solid State Logic Big Six desktop mixer and a UC1 to control SSL’s Bus Compressor 2, 4K B, and Channel Strip 2 plug-ins, and Focal studio monitors. Dominating the space, however, is a complex set-up of polyphonic synths and dozens of Eurorack synths, resulting in a very real need for a streamlined workflow: “Many modular folks are focused on live performance, so we try to patch an entire song on the modular rig at one time,” he explains. “In my case, I have about 22 stems I can pull out of my modular, so I record everything at once. Then I will begin editing, refining and overdubbing.”
Meyer uses the mixer to process his individual tracks that are already in the computer, before using it as a final summing mixer. “I can treat a channel strip in the Big Six as a plug-in effect in my DAW,” he explains, “so quite often, I will take my individual tracks that have already been recorded in Ableton and then send it out via USB to a track on the Big Six for further treatment.”
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“Modular synths have a very big dynamic range, and taming that can be a real challenge—therefore, the one knob compressor on each channel is very useful, particularly on things like bass lines and plucked string sounds. I will use the one knob compression to add definition and make certain elements more present.”
During tracking, Meyer keeps an SSL UC1 control surface handy: “This way, I have my channel strips right at hand and I’m able to page through each channel coming out of the modular, so I can compress and EQ each element as needed.” Meyer uses the UC1 to control anywhere between 20 and 40 channels in a single session, recording into Ableton Live.
With so many recording options available to musicians today, Meyer thinks it is a fantastic time to be making music. “I feel that back in the ’80s and ’90s, things were getting a little bit homogenized,” he says, “but today, we have this explosion in modular with hundreds of manufacturers around the world, including a host of boutique companies that are coming out with very interesting new instruments. We’ve never had this wide a selection of tools to choose from in history.”
