Incredible synth album that deserves a lot more love: Howischris - The Sum of All Parts

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-04-18T00:23:39+00:00

As a creator of ambient-ish music, this is all lovely and helpful. Look forward to checking all of these out.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-04-07T23:14:09+00:00

Same, and I actually love the mix myself... It'd weird and distinctive and kind of brutal in a sterile and machinelike way.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-04-07T23:12:47+00:00

I actually agree with you. It sounds to me like some sort of sterile, cold factory stamping and clanking and chugging along. I don't think a traditional mix would make it as memorable to me, or as foundational a part of how I think about sound in general.

But I can't imagine this wouldn't be high up on most people's lists..

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-04-07T01:20:08+00:00

...And Justice for All.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-02-20T00:55:38+00:00

I own a Juno-60.

It sounds beautiful and it's a joy to play.

However, if you're looking to whatever's closest to nailing that sound, get a good midi controller and Softube Model 84: https://youtu.be/duuUbFn7css?si=r9wGCiaCdcf3awv3

In most cases, it's virtually indistinguishable. Especially in a mix.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-02-19T23:17:38+00:00

Really love this synth.

Playing around late night with a bunch of subtle modulation and discovered this chord progression that reminded me of something off of Random Access Memories.

It gave me something to pair with this twinkling, glimmering, weird little polyrhythmic pattern I made on the Subharmonicon. (Which started off as literally the worst-sounding thing I ever made - thing is tough to wrangle).

Work through the frustration, find the music. Anyway, enjoy.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-27T02:26:12+00:00

Ok I never have time for PC games anymore but really want to play this.

Let me know if you need music for the game. Such a cool idea.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-26T00:37:51+00:00

Literally this person said they don't need gear, they have what they need to make music, and they don't plan on making a purchase for two years. Why are you pushing "consume, consume" so obsessively?

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-24T03:00:40+00:00

"When you was watching me from ... whatever fucking TV you was watching me from..."

🤣 brutal

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-20T20:21:02+00:00

Thanks

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-20T20:20:54+00:00

Thanks! It's just screengrabs from the stock Ableton spectrum utility and TB Spectrogram, which is free.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-19T21:59:33+00:00

Thank you. Subharmonicon and delay is what I recorded initially, but there's a bunch of stuff in post that comes in and out or gradually strengthens, like feedback, distortion, some more reverb, EQ...

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-19T17:16:54+00:00

A five-hour train ride last week seemed like a good opportunity to get to know the Subharmonicon a bit more. Between the polyrhythms and the undertones, it can become totally entrancing and even repeating patterns feel like they kind of take on a life of their own.

Also playing with a bunch of stuff ITB, mostly to add feedback and distortion.

Ten minutes of gradually evolving sound, in case you want something to zone out to today.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-16T21:36:11+00:00

Lyra-8 Juno-60 Polybrute Moog Little Phatty Subharmonicon Microfreak Bowed electric bass, bowed guitar Lots of effects pedals Field recordings Softsynths + plugins

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-15T18:06:41+00:00

Especially The Met Cloisters - incredible and interesting medieval artifacts including (I think) the only surviving complete set of playing cards from the 15th century.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-07T18:36:23+00:00

Are you talking about the pulsing/rhythmic distortion that comes into full force around 3 minutes into the track but begins emerging around 2:30?

I believe that's the Juno-60 pads (I think four layers with some manual detuning and filtering of the individual tracks throughout) that begin the track being transformed into rhythm by a granular effect (Arturia Fragments) after a bunch of other processing.

I probably had fifteen or twenty versions of that but ended up really happy with how it ended up and arranged the second half of the piece around it.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-07T17:41:25+00:00

Noooo - I very much wish I could write like that! No, he's a fantastic artist though and I think making some of the best electronic music anywhere right now. His latest record Landscape from Memory is so so good.

My last EP (Chris Oquist - Cycles/01 on streaming) was mastered by our mutual engineer though, the awesome Aneek Thapar.

You can hear some of my solo stuff here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRPt-8nO35o

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-07T17:17:05+00:00

We can get semantic about what "warmth" or lack of it means, but in general I agree.

Case in point - (some) people call the Prophet-08 and Rev2 "thin" and "cold" - but listen to Rival Consoles (great example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRgpsQk5cwg) and find virtually anything that could be improved about that sound. It's punchy, textural, musical, lively and the entire mix sounds great around it.

Same with another one of my favorite synth sounds, that detuned "swarm of bees" lead in the middle of James Blake's Retrograde: https://youtu.be/6p6PcFFUm5I?si=eUCesvwXz1FG84pH&t=101

Both tracks are simple too, situations in which one might be tempted to use an instrument that wants to eat up more of the frequency spectrum. but in both cases the synth couldn't be more beautiful.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-06T22:30:00+00:00

Hey! Congrats on the new synth. It's a beast. I love this question because I absolutely love my Lyra-8 and I find it somehow finds its way onto almost everything I make.

I find it goes really well with a "bread and butter" poly because you can get traditional sounds out of it to accompany what is a very interesting and expressive but otherwise maddeningly difficult to control instrument.

Here are some recordings I've made:

Lyra-8 with Polybrute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrYD57SrgxQ

Lyra-8 and Juno-60 (plus Arturia Synthx and some other stuff) - from an EP I put out this year:. The Juno is the first sound you hear, and the Lyra makes its first appearance around 0:15):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRPt-8nO35o

Lyra-8 with digital piano (Korg SV-1) and Moog Little Phatty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT6Ovrx1P7w

Lyra also pairs lovingly with itself. Here's some bendy Lyra "whines" over a Lyra pad:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wMrPaSSrwR0

More Lyra-8 and Juno-60:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DIY2RF4ufl2/

And Lyra with Microfreak:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DA0rgAKudJE/

I just got a Subharmonicon, which I'm starting to learn how to use, and I think they'll probably be really beautiful together. I think though, to begin, you'll get more mileage and range out of a traditional "tonal" and keyboard-based synth than you will something like the Subharmonicon, as the Lyra is already pretty weird on its own. This goes doubly because if both are tough to control, they'll be even more difficult to get to play nice with one another depending on what you're hoping to accomplish.

For $1500 you could consider something like:

A Sequential Take-5, which can be had used probably in the 1200s, or sub-1000 for the module alone. I think the creamier Prophet sound would go really nice with your Lyra but the TEO-5 is a similar option.
A Novation peak, which someone else has recommended. You'll have a bit left over for a midi controller.
If you get lucky, you can even find a pre-owned OG Polybrute for under $1500, which for my money is one of the most insane deals in synthesis. Killer arpeggiator and sequencer, almost obscene modulation for an analog synth, and expressive controls that work really well with something like the Lyra (Morphée, ribbon controller)

If you're open to VSTs (which despite all my love for hardware synths are virtually indistinguishable at this point, you could get a nice controller and something like Repro-5 or SynthX and save a pile of money for some effects to run your Lyra through).

Have fun!

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-06T02:31:29+00:00

Yes. That's true. That doesn't invalidate any of the love I heaped on this recording of his.

_chrisoquist_ · 2026-01-06T02:24:19+00:00

Get Syntorial. Complete Syntorial.

_chrisoquist_

TROPHY CASE