#DigMyRig Photos
Gear List
The MIDI Association Artist Interview
••Tell us about yourself briefly.
Studio owner
1987-1989 was part of the electronic band Athena with Andrew Hughes and Keith Larkworthy.
Recorded the album DREAM ODDISSY using 2 X korg poly 800’s , Elka soloist 505 Casio pt20 Casio ct102 , Casio Vl , Yamaha dd10 drum machine.
All down to a tascam porta one.
Second solo album THIS LAND recorded between March 1992 and March 1994 and the first to be released on the Sincity Records label.
The album was recorded in a new purpose built studio- Worlds End.
Equipment used for the album was..
Roland D20 ,Roland TR505 , Casio cz5000 , Yamaha DX21, Korg Wavestation , Emu Emulator 2 ,Emu Emax 2, mixed with a tascam mm1 sequenced with dr T running on a mega Atari ST. This was the first recording we did going straight to digital tape (Philips Dcc)
The vocals were recorded through an Shure sm58 direct to a digitech compressor and effects.S1998 saw the release of the album MASQUERADE 88-98
This album was a 10 year compilation of the last 3 albums plus previously unreleased material.
It included the track tiger lily which used over 500 samples of sounds captured out and about on location with a Sony minidisc.
The next album to be released on the Sincity records label was Dangerous LOVE
this album introduced other vocalists and we went on to form the Pop group The Final Demand.
The Final demand were KELLY WIGGINS KEITH LARKWORTHY AND PETER JAMES-STEPHEN.
In late 1998 the double a side single SOMEONE/OVERDRIVE was released this sold very well and had a considerable amount of AirPlay .
In 1999 the album FRESH FROM THE BOTTLE was released. This album was mainly written using the emulators and a korg wavestation and trinity.
By August 1999 the band had split and Worlds end studios relocated.
2000 -2005 Director of Athena Music Systems
Studio rack mount computer systems
ATHENA/EMU SYSTEMS VAMPIRE RACK
SEE MUSIC PRESS OF THE TIME
The Vampire Rack PC was the worlds first dedicated 2 unit 19 inch sampler PC. It could import and export any sample in any format and had a 6 tray raid hard disk system . It was the first dedicated rack mount sampler to use the Emu Systems Emulator X software and 1212 hardware.
In October 2004 edition of music tech magazine there was a centre page review of the vampire rack where it scored 7 stars…
Athena systems also manufactured liquid cooled systems for the construction industry
The Lighting system built using the shuttle bare bone shells
2005-Present
Owner of label and Polaris studios (previously known as WORLDS END STUDIOS
POLARIS STUDIOS is the current base for Peter James-Stephen’s music output
Currently working on the 7th and 8th studio albums
Titled OLYMPUS AND BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER.
Also working on film and music video to accompany new albums and will be touring towards the beginning of 2017.
•What was your first encounter with MIDI?
1985 was the first time I used midi with a CASIO cz5000 joined to a Sequential Prophet 600 with an Atari ST
Never looked back since!
•How do you use MIDI today?
The studio is split into 4 midi zones
Each midi zone has 2 Philip Reese v10 midi through ports allowing 20 instruments to be connected in each zone without chaining them.
Each zone is then fed in to my master keyboard which is a CME VX8 this has 4 midi outs.
The CME VX8 is them connected to a apple pro running logic via usb.
The beauty of this system is o only have to switch on the synth or sampler I want to use at the time
This reduces unwanted noise in to the system.
All of the instruments are always connected to my 3 behringer mx9000s which are joined together using the X pander ports to give 144 inputs at mixdown
•How has MIDI allowed you to do what you do?
Without Midi I wouldn’t have been able to record or tour with my rig!
•Anything else you’d like to add?
More information and Photo’s at my Linkedin Page