Felt Mountain is one of the best albums of the 21st century, enjoys a slot in my top 10 of all time. Haunting and timeless, flawless from beginning to end.
Good to see someone actually talking about USING synth gear (even softsynth gear) to play music for an audience versus arguing about the relative merits of whatever gear sounds analog or not. And Sonicstate actually DOESN'T go down that rabbit hole too often, but damn, does the rest of the internet love too... Nice interview...thanks.
@@steve--smith Would have said "softsynths" had I meant only the software part of it. Was referring to “softsynth gear” which includes the hardware that enables the use of softsynths for performing or recording. So, yeah, softsynth gear (computers, MIDI controllers, audio interfaces, etc) can all break a toe (depending on the size of the gear) when you drop it on your foot... : )
I love how Hazel is briefly humouring Nick when he talks about how unreliable old disc/computer tech used to be :) An excellent video, informative and useful as usual!
That was really enjoyable, massive Goldfrapp fan and everyone go and see them ASAP. Nick, can you do a show about your work with them and songs you worked on etc...
I've been a huge Goldfrapp fan since the mid-2000s and while I was peripherally aware of Nick's work with Will and Alison, I always figured that was just a different chapter and that was why we never saw anything Goldfrapp-related on Sonic State... so this was an amazing surprise! I also didn't know Nick's collaboration has been as recent as Silver Eye. I'm sure Nick isn't looking to turn Sonic State into Goldfrapp State, but every once in a blue moon it would be awesome to get a little peek. Seeing Hazel play that Farfisa lead from Utopia (and the Strict Machine bassline, and Drew nylon arp, and Nick's fifth lead from Anymore...) on the MainStage rig while explaining the EXS24 workflow and split setups was just too cool!
Absolutely fascinating interview and walk through, and the recent show in Oxford was amazing! Have loved Goldfrapp since the early days and travelled around the UK to see them often. So great to hear, always
Great interview. And great work Hazel. Hard slog bridging these eras (as an early 2000s touring act with 1980s gear here, I shudder at the work it takes to recreate those tracks). Good luck on the tour and welcome back! PS: more like this please! Such a joy.
That was awesome Nick! Please do more of these! It’s so interesting and inspiring to see how the pros do it. Also I reckon you should get back into producing / engineering records. You’re obviously talented and I reckon bands/artists would love to work with you again 😎
I looked up Hazel after seeing the Florence & the Machine Tiny Desk concert and it's proving to be a great new musical journey. Got some catching up to do, thanks for all the hard work.
Interesting to see the modern solution to a multifaceted equation. Still probably a little challenging to remember the layout of the ever changing controller in front of you, but allows for everything to be recreated. Thanks for sharing. On another note - I'm pretty sure I saw Hazel in Will's Moog Ensemble and the setup was a touch less modern. 😉
Hey Alex, love your channel! I do loads of programming like this (mainly orchestral but synths and samples as well) and honestly you get used to it. What Hazel said about getting parts "under your fingers" is very true - I find the fingers handle the transition fairly easily but the eyes/ears disconnect is weirder. E.g. if you're used to a piano, seeing your left hand play a chord in the bass register and hearing maybe 3 different notes in 3 different instruments in 3 different registers... It's fun as it's partly a logic puzzle ("how do I play 23 studio overdubs with 10 fingers") and partly a really creative opportunity: "I now have different 23 instruments all immediately available under my fingers, this sounds incredible/RIP my speakers"
Cheers, Alex… yes it does require switching between two quite different ways of thinking, between and often during songs (i.e. treating the keys as piano/synth keys, and treating them as buttons/pads - particularly interesting when one hand can simultaneously occupy both angles!).
OMG! Thank you soooo much for this video!!!! And huge thanks to her for spending the time. I love that bit when she said she sampled Will's MS-20!!! I got giddy as I am going to buy the mini. I am drooling to get it. Along with the Doepfer Dark Time.❤️ Is there a video with you and Will going over the gear he's used for Alison???? I love your videos so much. Thank you.😎🎹🖥️⌨️
Love Goldfrapp, and I am amazed how music technology advancement have made integrated and complex stage setups for Keyboard players viable, while still using MIDI. I liked Hazel’s notes and tags on her main keyboard… I did that for years playing live. The last live show I did I used Reason’s software samplers for playback (samples and partial tracks) triggered from my master keyboard and sequencer.
It makes you wonder how old school players and their rigs (eg. Rick Wakeman/early 70s) used to manage switching patches/volume during a gig etc etc... I used to switch all my patches manually between numbers when gigging in the 80s ... just painful .... we did a one-off reunion gig a few years ago and changed patches using bank/patch midi messages sent from my laptop.... incredible.
Sad to have missed out on tickets to the tour. Have actually been listening to the first few albums for inspiration, and it's insane how densely layered everything is. Sometimes good "bangers" are the hardest things to write.
Nice to see Nick. Funny thing I have those three albums on a playlist, Tales of Us, Seventh Tree and Felt Mountain. They certainly have a sweet relationship. Unfortunately too late now but would have been nice to see a Nick Batt interview with Alan Wilder going through his work with transferring the albums to live sessions.
The RD-300 NX is by far the best feeling keybed I’ve played. The escapement feature it has is just the best. The surface on the keys has a true ivory feel. I love mine and will never sell it.
I did marketing in the US for both the Supernature and Seventh Tree records when I worked for EMI/Capitol. However, I have been a fan since Felt Mountain and always wanted to see them live. I thought for sure there would have been an extensive US tour hitting most of the major markets for the Supernature record considering how much marketing we did around that record, but that was not the case. I still have never seen them live. Maybe they will decide to do a Supernature 20th anniversary tour. Should that happen I will be on the first plane to England. Thanks for sharing some info about their live setups. Interesting how technology has changed the way shows are performed.
I was wondering if you’d do a video about this! I was there and noticed Nick hanging out with Will behind the mixing desk. I thought about saying hi but figured you had a lot going on. What an amazing, magical evening that was! I will never forget the sound of Alison’s voice that night. She was utterly breathtaking.
Ah cool! You should have said hi, I wasn't actually doing anything. Yes it was a great gig. Good the band too as it was the first one of the tour which wasn't exclusively seated
I recall the time me and a friend were kindly invited to play at a festival and the first thing my friend did was rest his pint of beer on one of the record platters... I was like 'what are you doing -- flippin' move that before anyone sees"!!!!!
Extremely talented and heavily trained Hazel is pretty much the sound behind Goldfrapp (ie the bass lines are solid but easy). There is another female keyboardist (synth) who played in some of the UA-cam vlogs but Hazel says here that keyboard has been sucked into the computer (which must make the other keyboard player a bit upset). I'd like to have a drink with Hazel because she's so mega-talented and trained - same as Alison Goldfrapp - but they need some goodness in them to loosen up given they seem so tightly wound. Which of course you have to be writing and playing such music (although the bass and guitar lines are relatively simple). Note Hazel's faves are Drew and Anymore, whereas for me it's the dance tracks White Horse, Ooh La la, Train and Fly me Away (Anymore is arguably a dance track too). I reckon Hazel would be good fun when she's pissed. She should grow her hair long to her waist and wear the latest glitter makeup. I've often wondered why mega-talented people don't go out on their own? They play this stuff so they can certainly write it ... and a whole lot more. BTW, as a guitar player when I make mistakes or things go awry I can fix it relatively quickly by modifying it - the faster you are going the easier it is to fix (mistakes blur into not being noticeable). But what happens here when the computers and keyboards go haywire? What happens if the wrong button is pushed or the muso just forgets what-is-what? At a gig in the dark? What if the computers do their motherboards? What if the power to the keys/computers goes off? Sure there is a redundancy, but what if you lose both? Surely it must happen from time-to-time?
Very interesting! Can you explain how you manage Midi signal through rig A and B? Are MIDI signals sent to both computers or to A only and then gets sent to computer B if need be? Thanks :)
Signal is split and goes to both at the same time so everything is loaded on both machines. Then if one machine goes down the tone stops which triggers the B audio inputs to be active. Same principle as the iConnect system
Wow, been enjoying your coverage of synths for long time now, really has helped me feel fine about not being able to afford to buy every new synth released, and ALL the old ones, and it's wonderful to know you worked on early Goldfrapp performances, thanks for going behind the scenes on this tour. Nice looking paired digital mixers in the opening shot, loved the color coding, does anybody know what brand these are? (And have been a Goldfrapp fan from when I was blown away seeing Alison performing Felt Mountain on an early bootleg video recording of her performing it live on UA-cam before it was so corporate and successful, just after the album was first released.)
Answered my own question about the mixer. I was right about it looking nice, but not about it being a pair of mixers, it's actually a single DiGiCo SD12 96 Digital Mixing Console, which goes for $50,000.
Thnks for v. interesting video. I don’t understand the redundancy systems though, wouldn’t it be more logical to have ALL the B systems on separate power(& cases even ) than the A systems ? - a power problem or physical accident to the keyboard or playback cases as shown would still knock out both systems & cancel the gig .
Power comes from the venue. Power back-up is either relying on ILCs and backup, or noisy generators. The weakest point though is the OS on a laptop. This will crash more often than power, hence the doubling up.
I'm always a bit disappointed when I see laptops and MIDI controllers on stage. I know it's unreasonable though. Touring with analogue gear is a nightmare. But I like the sense of danger that is generated. 😆
Felt Mountain is one of the best albums of the 21st century, enjoys a slot in my top 10 of all time. Haunting and timeless, flawless from beginning to end.
So yeah. Much yes.
Good to see someone actually talking about USING synth gear (even softsynth gear) to play music for an audience versus arguing about the relative merits of whatever gear sounds analog or not. And Sonicstate actually DOESN'T go down that rabbit hole too often, but damn, does the rest of the internet love too...
Nice interview...thanks.
Softsynths aren't gear. They are software. Gear breaks toes when you drop it on your foot. Microsoft breaks software during updates. BIG difference.
@@steve--smith Would have said "softsynths" had I meant only the software part of it. Was referring to “softsynth gear” which includes the hardware that enables the use of softsynths for performing or recording. So, yeah, softsynth gear (computers, MIDI controllers, audio interfaces, etc) can all break a toe (depending on the size of the gear) when you drop it on your foot... : )
@@steve--smith tools is tools.
I love how Hazel is briefly humouring Nick when he talks about how unreliable old disc/computer tech used to be :) An excellent video, informative and useful as usual!
😝
Well that was just so awesome 👌. Massive thank you to you Nick and thanks Hazel and Alf for your time to do this.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed 👍🏻
My favourite video of this year by a mile.
☺️
WOW! How awesome to see that setup and her her play that close up!
Thanks for sharing 👍👍👍
Hazel is the master of live keys; phenomenal talent.
Thank you for this! I’m a HUGE Goldfrapp fan, and Hazel is very lovely and talented
Thanks for the interview Nick, Hazel is an amazing keyboard player.
That was really enjoyable, massive Goldfrapp fan and everyone go and see them ASAP. Nick, can you do a show about your work with them and songs you worked on etc...
I've been a huge Goldfrapp fan since the mid-2000s and while I was peripherally aware of Nick's work with Will and Alison, I always figured that was just a different chapter and that was why we never saw anything Goldfrapp-related on Sonic State... so this was an amazing surprise! I also didn't know Nick's collaboration has been as recent as Silver Eye.
I'm sure Nick isn't looking to turn Sonic State into Goldfrapp State, but every once in a blue moon it would be awesome to get a little peek. Seeing Hazel play that Farfisa lead from Utopia (and the Strict Machine bassline, and Drew nylon arp, and Nick's fifth lead from Anymore...) on the MainStage rig while explaining the EXS24 workflow and split setups was just too cool!
Seen Goldfrapp many times, they have been great every time.
I really enjoyed that, thanks!
Loved this. Experienced professionals discussing how great work is achieved, not just about the tools for their own sake.
Excellent!
Really interesting look at the practicalities of making the live thing work.
Stop interrupting her Nick. She is amazing.
You had me at Goldfrapp. You made me a fan forever knowing you helped craft their early sound. Bless you for that gift.
Thhanks you are very kind. Hearing the album again live after so long made me realise how good it was! I had little to do with that though. :-)
Anymore is my favourite Goldfrapp track...great video thanks.
Absolutely fascinating interview and walk through, and the recent show in Oxford was amazing! Have loved Goldfrapp since the early days and travelled around the UK to see them often. So great to hear, always
Great interview. And great work Hazel. Hard slog bridging these eras (as an early 2000s touring act with 1980s gear here, I shudder at the work it takes to recreate those tracks). Good luck on the tour and welcome back!
PS: more like this please! Such a joy.
Thank you! 🙂
Wow, such a fascinating personality.
Superstar Hazel, so inspiring.
That was awesome Nick! Please do more of these! It’s so interesting and inspiring to see how the pros do it. Also I reckon you should get back into producing / engineering records. You’re obviously talented and I reckon bands/artists would love to work with you again 😎
Nice interview catch. Such a lovely person. She could also use midi strata. :-) I shall try and find an email to send them a beta. Anyhow. How cool!
Superb interview - thank you.👍👍👍
Saw you in Edinburgh last Thursday Hazel and you and the band were fabulous!
Great interview, Nick. It would be nice to see an interview with Goldfrapp's synth repair tech Dan Wilson of Hideaway Studio.
I looked up Hazel after seeing the Florence & the Machine Tiny Desk concert and it's proving to be a great new musical journey. Got some catching up to do, thanks for all the hard work.
Interesting! Love live Goldfrapps music
Interesting to see the modern solution to a multifaceted equation. Still probably a little challenging to remember the layout of the ever changing controller in front of you, but allows for everything to be recreated. Thanks for sharing.
On another note - I'm pretty sure I saw Hazel in Will's Moog Ensemble and the setup was a touch less modern. 😉
You are indeed correct Mr Ball - also in Moog Ensemble (from time to time)
Hey Alex, love your channel! I do loads of programming like this (mainly orchestral but synths and samples as well) and honestly you get used to it. What Hazel said about getting parts "under your fingers" is very true - I find the fingers handle the transition fairly easily but the eyes/ears disconnect is weirder. E.g. if you're used to a piano, seeing your left hand play a chord in the bass register and hearing maybe 3 different notes in 3 different instruments in 3 different registers... It's fun as it's partly a logic puzzle ("how do I play 23 studio overdubs with 10 fingers") and partly a really creative opportunity: "I now have different 23 instruments all immediately available under my fingers, this sounds incredible/RIP my speakers"
Cheers, Alex… yes it does require switching between two quite different ways of thinking, between and often during songs (i.e. treating the keys as piano/synth keys, and treating them as buttons/pads - particularly interesting when one hand can simultaneously occupy both angles!).
@@hazelmillsmusic I think my brain would fall out. I doth my cap!
OMG! Thank you soooo much for this video!!!! And huge thanks to her for spending the time. I love that bit when she said she sampled Will's MS-20!!! I got giddy as I am going to buy the mini. I am drooling to get it. Along with the Doepfer Dark Time.❤️ Is there a video with you and Will going over the gear he's used for Alison???? I love your videos so much. Thank you.😎🎹🖥️⌨️
SO FASCINATING!!! I'm so intrigued! I wanna have a beer and chat music lol.
Really enjoyable video. Cheers.
Love Goldfrapp, and I am amazed how music technology advancement have made integrated and complex stage setups for Keyboard players viable, while still using MIDI. I liked Hazel’s notes and tags on her main keyboard… I did that for years playing live. The last live show I did I used Reason’s software samplers for playback (samples and partial tracks) triggered from my master keyboard and sequencer.
It makes you wonder how old school players and their rigs (eg. Rick Wakeman/early 70s) used to manage switching patches/volume during a gig etc etc... I used to switch all my patches manually between numbers when gigging in the 80s ... just painful .... we did a one-off reunion gig a few years ago and changed patches using bank/patch midi messages sent from my laptop.... incredible.
Thanks for sharing! Really interesting to see one of my favorite bands backstage 🙏🏼
Mainstage is the best piece of software for live work ever created. Use it daily.
Thanks for thar nick!!
Awesome! Would love to see them live... sadly never had the opportunity. Cheers
Nice one doing this Nick B.
Hazel is a true musician, not just a 'press-play-on-laptop' stage body.
Scrumptious
Sad to have missed out on tickets to the tour. Have actually been listening to the first few albums for inspiration, and it's insane how densely layered everything is. Sometimes good "bangers" are the hardest things to write.
Nice to see Nick.
Funny thing I have those three albums on a playlist, Tales of Us, Seventh Tree and Felt Mountain. They certainly have a sweet relationship.
Unfortunately too late now but would have been nice to see a Nick Batt interview with Alan Wilder going through his work with transferring the albums to live sessions.
superb. (so that’s how it’s done!)
Cool stuff, Great Goldfrapp fan and geeky muzo insight to onstage tech used. Strict Machine is awesome 😎👌
The RD-300 NX is by far the best feeling keybed I’ve played. The escapement feature it has is just the best. The surface on the keys has a true ivory feel. I love mine and will never sell it.
I did marketing in the US for both the Supernature and Seventh Tree records when I worked for EMI/Capitol. However, I have been a fan since Felt Mountain and always wanted to see them live. I thought for sure there would have been an extensive US tour hitting most of the major markets for the Supernature record considering how much marketing we did around that record, but that was not the case. I still have never seen them live. Maybe they will decide to do a Supernature 20th anniversary tour. Should that happen I will be on the first plane to England. Thanks for sharing some info about their live setups. Interesting how technology has changed the way shows are performed.
Watche a few sonic states and never knew Nick was involved with Goldfrapp.
I have been to a few Goldfrapp gigs.
I was wondering if you’d do a video about this! I was there and noticed Nick hanging out with Will behind the mixing desk. I thought about saying hi but figured you had a lot going on. What an amazing, magical evening that was! I will never forget the sound of Alison’s voice that night. She was utterly breathtaking.
Ah cool! You should have said hi, I wasn't actually doing anything. Yes it was a great gig. Good the band too as it was the first one of the tour which wasn't exclusively seated
Good stuff thank you
Hazel!! Please do a masterclass!!!
Very cool
Had no idea you worked with Goldfrapp, I saw them put on a good show recently opening for Duran Duran
Nick, can you please give a little more detailed overview how the original live rig was compared to the current one?
From memory, we used to use an 8 track minidisc plus Akai S5000 for triggering keys and drum hits
@@sonicstate Including when Goldfrapp supported Tarwater at The Spitz in London. A very early gig!
this was great
Super interesting 😍
Goldfrapp ❤️
Superb.
Amazing woman!
17:56 - that bottle of water next to the laptops fille me with dread!
Fortunately, it's in a bottle 😉
@@silentshadowdnb You sure that lids on tight? 😉
Apologies! 😄 Yes - lid’s on squeaky tight and never opened near equipment.
I recall the time me and a friend were kindly invited to play at a festival and the first thing my friend did was rest his pint of beer on one of the record platters... I was like 'what are you doing -- flippin' move that before anyone sees"!!!!!
Extremely talented and heavily trained Hazel is pretty much the sound behind Goldfrapp (ie the bass lines are solid but easy). There is another female keyboardist (synth) who played in some of the UA-cam vlogs but Hazel says here that keyboard has been sucked into the computer (which must make the other keyboard player a bit upset).
I'd like to have a drink with Hazel because she's so mega-talented and trained - same as Alison Goldfrapp - but they need some goodness in them to loosen up given they seem so tightly wound. Which of course you have to be writing and playing such music (although the bass and guitar lines are relatively simple). Note Hazel's faves are Drew and Anymore, whereas for me it's the dance tracks White Horse, Ooh La la, Train and Fly me Away (Anymore is arguably a dance track too).
I reckon Hazel would be good fun when she's pissed. She should grow her hair long to her waist and wear the latest glitter makeup. I've often wondered why mega-talented people don't go out on their own? They play this stuff so they can certainly write it ... and a whole lot more.
BTW, as a guitar player when I make mistakes or things go awry I can fix it relatively quickly by modifying it - the faster you are going the easier it is to fix (mistakes blur into not being noticeable). But what happens here when the computers and keyboards go haywire? What happens if the wrong button is pushed or the muso just forgets what-is-what? At a gig in the dark? What if the computers do their motherboards? What if the power to the keys/computers goes off? Sure there is a redundancy, but what if you lose both? Surely it must happen from time-to-time?
Goldfrapp❤
There music is crazy, they been around a long time now.
SUPERB
Beautiful young lady.❤
This proves to me that live DAWfull (as opposed to DAWless) is very valid.
Very interesting! Can you explain how you manage Midi signal through rig A and B? Are MIDI signals sent to both computers or to A only and then gets sent to computer B if need be? Thanks :)
Signal is split and goes to both at the same time so everything is loaded on both machines. Then if one machine goes down the tone stops which triggers the B audio inputs to be active. Same principle as the iConnect system
I miss the big keyboard rigs of the 80’s , but amazing how things have changed and what you can do with a laptop 😁
Wow, been enjoying your coverage of synths for long time now, really has helped me feel fine about not being able to afford to buy every new synth released, and ALL the old ones, and it's wonderful to know you worked on early Goldfrapp performances, thanks for going behind the scenes on this tour. Nice looking paired digital mixers in the opening shot, loved the color coding, does anybody know what brand these are?
(And have been a Goldfrapp fan from when I was blown away seeing Alison performing Felt Mountain on an early bootleg video recording of her performing it live on UA-cam before it was so corporate and successful, just after the album was first released.)
Answered my own question about the mixer. I was right about it looking nice, but not about it being a pair of mixers, it's actually a single DiGiCo SD12 96 Digital Mixing Console, which goes for $50,000.
Ooo will you chatting with goldfrapp herself?
Thnks for v. interesting video. I don’t understand the redundancy systems though, wouldn’t it be more logical to have ALL the B systems on separate power(& cases even ) than the A systems ? - a power problem or physical accident to the keyboard or playback cases as shown would still knock out both systems & cancel the gig .
Power comes from the venue. Power back-up is either relying on ILCs and backup, or noisy generators. The weakest point though is the OS on a laptop. This will crash more often than power, hence the doubling up.
Great interview!! Curios to know the name of the software used to change all MIDI presets at once. Thank you so much 🙌
Saw Felt Mountain performed years ago when Alison & band were supporting The Doves. Not so technologically inclined back in those days, I suspect.
A modern approach to what my old MOTU Timepiece does ;) (Admittedly the setup of the timepiece is a bit of a PITA)
😍👍
Where have you really been Clive?
Um... did she KNOW who she was talkin to???
A laptop rig. Awesome.
Holy Hell! Golfrapp is still around?!?!?
Is Will touring with Goldfrapp or is he just producing in the studio?
He doesnt tour with them, he was at the gig at the mixing desk with the sound engineer
@@sonicstate Cheers. 😎👍
@@jeshkam He also sometimes shows up on televised performances. He must love being on camera;
her talent and intelligence make her extremely hot
and the accent, of course
I'm always a bit disappointed when I see laptops and MIDI controllers on stage. I know it's unreasonable though. Touring with analogue gear is a nightmare. But I like the sense of danger that is generated. 😆
Why are you so shaky Nick? getting dizzy watching this hehe
Sorry first time with mobile camera setup.
@@sonicstate No problem mate! I enjoyed it as usual, thanks for this
Might be worth investing in a stabiliser
Blair Witch quality filming
I wish he didn’t talk over Hazel all the time....
Why does that man have a mask on?
When I see a laptop on stage I just vomit
Remind me never to go to a gig with you :-)
SUPERB