Chris Meyer’s career as a composer, performer, educator and engineer in the world of synthesis began in the mid 1980s, and saw him in engineering roles at companies including Sequential Circuits and Roland. Also a former Technical Chairman at the Midi Manufacturer’s Association, Meyer established LearningModular.com co-authored the book Patch & Tweak on Eurorack and modular synthesis.

Having taught modular synthesis to musicians around the world, Meyer is an authority on optimising production workflow in an electronic music studio, and recently invested in a Solid State Logic BiG SiX desktop mixer and a UC1 plug-in controller.

‘Since I am both an engineer and an educator, I have never been satisfied with ‘well, this is what I have’ or ‘I guess that is everyone is using’, he says. ‘I’ve always been trying to optimise; what is the most quality I can squeeze out of my system, asking myself what is the best way to do something rather than compromising.’

His latest project, Eastern Front, explores key historical points of the region. Musically, the project harkens Berlin School as well as the earlier works of German-based electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream. With a complex set-up of polyphonic synths and dozens of Eurorack modules, a streamlined workflow is important.

‘Many modular folks are focused on live performance, so we try to patch an entire song on the modular rig at one time,’ he explains. ‘In my case, I have about 22 stems I can pull out of my modular, so I record everything at once. Then I will begin editing, refining and overdubbing.’

While recording overdubs, Meyer says he typically records his percussion using one of the four SuperAnalogue mic preamplifiers. ‘I love the sound of these preamps and I am really happy with how clear they sound,’ he says.

Meyer also uses BiG SiX to process individual tracks that are already in his computer, before using it as a final summing mixer. ‘This mixer has been laid out so intelligently as an audio interface, that I can treat a channel strip in the BiG SiX as a plug-in effect in my DAW,’ he says. ‘Quite often, I will take my individual tracks that have already been recorded in Ableton and then send it out via USB to a track on the BiG SiX for further treatment.’

‘Modular synths have a very big dynamic range and taming that can be a real challenge, therefore the one knob compressor on each channel is very useful, particularly on things like bass lines and plucked string sounds. I will use the one knob compression to add definition and make certain elements more present.’

Meyer particularly appreciates the high bandwidth of BiG SiX: ‘I am someone who records everything in 96kHz – not because I think humans can hear that high, but because I think it is important to capture attack transients, which contain infinite harmonics,’ he explains. ‘The pure analogue design of BiG SiX is really important to me.’

During tracking, Meyer has his SSL UC1 control surface adjacent to his modular system. ‘This way I have my channel strips right at hand, and I’m able to page through each channel coming out of the modular, so I can compress and EQ each element as needed.’ Meyer uses the UC1 to control anywhere between 20 and 40 channels in a single session, recording into Ableton Live running on an Apple Mac Book Pro.

The knob-per-function layout of UC1 gives him real-time, hands-on control of his audio. ‘I love the immediacy of it, and that you don’t have to worry about paging through menus. Also, the automatic gain compensation on the Channel Strip 2 software is a real time saver when making adjustments to compression.’

He also depends on Channel Strip 2’s high and low pass filters to tame incoming signals: ‘Modulars have a very high bandwidth, and this can create problems such as intermodulation distortion and premature clipping. For me engaging the low- and high-pass filters on the Channel Strip 2 is essential.’

With tools such as the BiG SiX, UC1, SSL plug-ins, modular synths, Meyer thinks it is a fantastic time to be making music. ‘I feel that, back in the1980s and ’90s, things were getting a little bit homogenised but today we have this explosion in modular with hundreds of manufacturers around the world, including a host of boutique companies that are coming out with very interesting new instruments. We’ve never had this wide a selection of tools in history.’

Meyer has recently been composing and performing ambient/space music under the moniker Alias Zone. His Water Stories, a collection of tracks focusing on mysteries of the submerged, was released last November and now he is set to release Eastern Front in the coming months.

More: www.solidstatelogic.com