WSM: Given your fondness for piano, electric pianos and keyboards in general, would you consider the TB303 and the drum machines more essential in the kind of music you like to write? Or, in the kind of music you like to hear? Mike Janney: I used to be into house music, and acid house was part of it. I still think its a good driving sound but its become more of a statement than a sound these days. But I rarely use them in my own music, because I'm more into the keyboards now. WSM: The SemiModular is my personal favorite of your products. Did that come to you in a dream? Was it one of those "what if" moments? Will there be an update and a new GUI to bring it current with ABL2 and ADM? Also, when you went about designing it, how hard was it to find the balance of designing a completely new instrument based on the ABL2, but with all the new features, and yet keep it true to the "spirit", so to speak, of the original design and the sound? Even with the enhancements and additional waveforms.
only supposed to be an enhanced 303. But I soon discovered you cannot extend a 303 very much without completely altering its character. ABLPro is more like an ARP 2600 or Moog in sound, though the filter was mainly based off the MC-202. The biggest challenge regarding the waveforms is that they are using roughly the same model as ABL, however they are greatly extended in range. Getting those sounding clean
and aliasing free was quite tricky. These are high quality OSCs, but they consume a fair amount of CPU as you might know.
Mike Janney: I think it makes sense to roll all drum machines into one product, as they have all have a similar way of programming them. It also made sense to develop a drum machine to go with the other products. There was always plans to do a drum machine from the start, but ABLPro came in between because there were many requests to do a more general type of synth from the users. As far as I know there were no other drum machine plug-ins on the market that tried to emulate the 808 on the market. It turns out there was some competition and they managed to release before me, so I simply tried to cover the ground that they missed out on after that. As to who makes the best emulation, I think its quite subjective. WSM: ABL2 always gets name checked the most when answering that "what's the best 303" question. Do you ever get involved in those discussions, or take a "fly on the wall" approach to those discussions? Or do you simply ignore and avoid them?
WSM: With ADM, you wrapped three drum machines into one and added Mike Janney: I used to browse the sample import. You also added some manipulation enhancements to round web for discussions about our it out. Why make one product with all products, as its good to get honest Mike Janney: Actually I saw a mock- the generators under the hood instead feedback -- which tends to be biased when you deal directly with people. So of three separate products? Also, did up of a modded 303 way back on I mostly take the fly on the wall some mailing list, and the image stuck you feel your Base Line and Semiapproach. Only a handful of times did in my head. I always thought it was a Modular products were incomplete I ever get involved in a discussion, without that AudioRealism sound good idea and started developing it but usually to give some hints about being the driving force of the beats? after ABL1.0 was done. I tried to get how to use ABL2 better. Was there something in the initial hold of the guy that did the original tests that convinced you that you mock up but couldn't get in touch WSM: Considering that your with him to get it properly redesigned. would end up once again besting products have on-board Roland, and other developers as well, It was never meant to be a new sequencers, rather than being instrument. From the beginning it was with emulating those drum sounds? December 2009
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