The studio
American producer BD1982 has moved around a fair bit in recent years; having lived in Japan, Philadelphia and New York before recently returning to his native New Jersey.
It’s of little surprise then, that his music touches on a broad variety of influences - from UK dance strains like grime and garage, to Eastern percussion sounds and the fuzz analogue warmth of vintage synth soundtracks.
Here, with his latest EP Casings set to drop on his own Diskotopia imprint next week, the producer shows us around his compact, MPC-focused production setup.
BD1982: “I recently moved back to New Jersey from Japan shortly after completing the Casings EP. I set up this current studio set up in a cubicle kind of space.
“It's really comfortable and easy to manoeuvre which has really helped my workflow. Everything is routed to the MPC 2000XL through an Edirol UM-880 MIDI Patcher, which helps to consolidate layering up a new track.”
Akai MPC 2000XL
“The MPC 2000XL has been at the centre of all my productions for some time now.
“Everything is programmed and sequenced through the MPC then recorded into Logic where I do full mix downs. I love programming on the MPC and will definitely be using this machine for a long time to come.“
E-mu SP-1200
“I've been using the SP-1200 lately with the Roland Space Echo RE-201 for pads and vocal samples but the drums are definitely undeniable.
“It's fun having the SP slaved to the MPC as well, since a few of the original SP pads aren't as responsive as they used to be.”
Access Virus TI-Snow
“The overall sound of the Access Virus TI-Snow is a little too metallic and harsh for my tastes in general but once you get around how to smooth out and deepen your own patches it's pretty versatile.”
Korg microKorg
“Even though it's been rinsed for some time now there's still a decent amount of possibilities in the microKorg and it also functions as one of my main MIDI keyboard controllers.”
Roland Juno 106
“I picked up this Juno 106 off of Yahoo Auction which is like a better version of eBay for gear in Japan. Never get tired of Chorus 2.”
Soundcraft 200BVE mixer
“The newest addition to the cubicle is a Soundcraft 200BVE 16 Channel board. Just recently getting into it, but it's been great so far.”
Technics tape deck
“An older Technics tape deck also found on Yahoo Auction, which is great for resampling onto cassette before dumping to the MPC, and also just going back through old mixtapes.
“Shout out to Greg G for the custom Digikiller tape that's in there now.”
Kawai XD-5
“I love programming the Kawai XD-5 and it's got some amazing capabilities for weird percussion.”
Sound modules
“From top to bottom: An old Alesis NanoBass module that I recently found in a box; two Akai GM and Vintage sound modules; the Ediroal UM-880 MIDI patcher.”
MacBook
"MacBook Air running Logic with Apogee Duet interface at the controls."