Intro
Respected as a producer in his own right, Kobayashi also makes up half of Nagano Kitchen with Jerome Syndenham and has been producing for over 15 years. With a brand new solo album, Underground Business just released, he kindly offered to show us around the studio where it was created. Prepare yourself for some lovely analogue goodies!
The studio
"This studio was set up in the summer of 2006, just after I returned from San Francisco. It's located in the mountains in Nagano in the central part of Japan. It's pretty quiet here so I have no concerns for making too much noise. I also love the fresh air and clean electricity that is in the mountains here.
"We didn't use any of the outboard gear on the new album but I've owned most of the keyboards and modules since the 80's and 90's, originally. But, I still use them when I've got some time to do remixes because I want fresh ideas and the unique vibrations for them."
Licence to chill
"This is a shot from the DJ booth to main work desk. The chillout space is beyond the keyboard tower."
DJ booth
"This is the DJ booth. The new Native Instruments F1 control is a great piece of gear to expand my ideas for dJing."
The tower
"Here's the the keyboard tower; my Nord rack2, Roland Juno-106, Yamaha DX-7 and Yamaha P-90 digital piano.
"The first track I made was a cover of Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1986 using the Yamaha DX-7, Roland Juno-106 and Roland TR-505. The DX didn't sound like Prophet but I've learned a lot from making sounds with it and still use those patches."
Pro One
"Here's my Sequencial Circuits Pro-One with MIDI and my Roland JD-800. The Pro-One can be difficult to keep in tune."
Roland TR's
"Roland Classic TR brothers. The Roland TR-505 was the first drum machine I bought."
Korg MS-20
"Me fiddling with the Korg MS-20 which is great noise and synth type percussion sounds."
Classic digital
"Here are some of my classic digital modules. I think the Yamaha TX8iZ still sounds fresh."
Kurzweil MIDIBoard
"This is my main working desk and my 20 year old Kurzweil MIDIBoard's still the best keyboard for me."