My Forever Studio: Erol Alkan’s secret for making sounds that connect

Erol Alkan made his name in electronic/indie crossovers of the noughties with huge remixes for Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers and Justice. And his production work for Mystery Jets, Late Of The Pier and even Duran Duran cemented him as a go-to for guitar bands looking to break onto dancefloors. This episode, we talk about programming Nokias, accidentally digging through Soulwax’s record collection, and how he can make any sound unique. Chapters 00:00 A background in programming 06:22 Indie vs electronic 11:19 Favourite London studios 17:28 Finding creativity in constraint leads to interesting results. 24:29 A handy hack for studio computers 35:38 36:41 Summing stories 41:51 Embracing vintage gear with a mix 51:14 Turning weird old electronics into studio gear 54:04 An unexpected choice 59:44 01:05:36 The run-down 01:09:07 An aesthetic but functional luxury item STUFF WE TALK ABOUT (SPOILERS AHEAD) https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/424/Sinclair-ZX-Spectrum-48k/ https://soundcloud.com/thechemicalbrothers/music-response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_500 https://milocostudios.com/studios/battery-studio-1/ https://www.konkstudios.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Dl3VQ2K2U https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini/apple-m2-chip-with-8-core-cpu-and-10-core-gpu-256gb https://www.macworld.com/article/1677460/mac-mini-upgrade-hub-storage-ethernet-sd-card-ports.html https://www.strongroom.com/studio/strongroom-1/ https://www.genelec.com/previous-models/1031a https://www.genelec.com/1032c https://audiogold.co.uk/product/rogers-jr-149/ https://www.pomaudiodesign.com/ https://chandlerlimited.com/mini-rack-mixer/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_Chroma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_String_Melody https://soundcloud.com/beyond-the-wizards-sleeve https://thermionicculture.com/index.php/products/the-culture-vulture-1-17-192012-03-20-11-02-02-detail https://reverb.com/uk/item/2910172-trident-fleximix-console-mixer-wood-silver-finish https://reverb.com/uk/p/stc-4033a-dual-element-microphone https://www.audio-technica.com/en-gb/at4040 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185994760664 https://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/juno-6