Roland TB-303 And Roland TR-909 Remain Staples In Blake Baxter's Set
Nicknamed "The Prince of Techno", and solidified with that identity via his release of the same name on UR records, Blake Baxter has been pushing the sonic boundaries of electronic music since the mid-eighties.
Blake began DJing in Detroit in the early-mid eighties, and cut his first record with DJ International in Chicago. It was unusual that a Detroit artist cut his first record on a Chicago label, but he was soon doing recording for KMS and UR among others.
His most recent collaborator is Abe Duque, whom he performed with live at Movement 2007. In this performance, Ableton is used as a controller for the overall performance, while analog instruments are used generously.
Abe and Blake utilize a Roland Octopad, TB-303, TR-909, and a megaphone among other things. A sixteen channel mixer handles all of the inputs, and the results can be seen in the following video clips.
[BLAKE BAXTER PERFORMING]
BLAKE BAXTER: We're gonna use like Roland Octopads, we're gonna do Live stuff, we're going to use a megaphone, Korg, Korg stuff, all kind of nice kind of gear.
BILL HOLLAND: Is it all synced with MIDI or some of it analog.
BLAKE BAXTER: We use MIDI, analog, and we're also using Ableton Live, so it's a combination. We're trying not just one way, you know. We're using sequencing, MIDI, and computer, and you know, live vocals. I'm kind of percussionist/MC tonight. Me, I'm playing with Abe Duque. You know, he's great. He's a great producer and we produce together on project so and we're going to do the Live thing together too. We're go to Moscow after this next month.
BILL HOLLAND: I know in your studio you have like a Roland 303. You have some old equipment too. What do you normally use in the studio when you're both producing the music, writing the music, and when you're recording.
BLAKE BAXTER: Oh yeah. One more thing, and we're going to have a 303. We're going to let it run free. A real 303, we let it run free. That's a must, and sometimes we use real 909 but, you know, we were -- I came from Berlin and he was some place else so. But yeah in the studio, if I use software, I like to sample or at least do realtime analog stuff and maybe loop it or sometimes just run it with the mix to just get that classic feel because that's important to me. I will not -- You know, some people may even say, "Well, I've never heard this song before but it sounds kind of dated." That's a compliment to me because I like doing classic, and I love Classic House, you know, and I love Acid. You know, I love Detroit-style techno which is a little slower, a little heavier, kick with minimalism but that's what I'm all about and I think that still stands and it still works the crowd today no matter what new loop you can find or all these new producers. I'm not knocking them because I'm all for technology because this is what it's all about but you know it's just my way and you know I like to touch on all bases when I produce.
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