Thom’s New ‘Make Noise’ Modular Synthesizer
In photos from Thom’s recent session at Maida Vale Studios, he can be seen using a stock Make Noise Black & Gold Shared System Plus. The system offers a combination of sound sources, modulation, sequencers, processors, effects, and a tactile controller. The photos show that, at the session, Thom used the system as a sound processor, not as a sound source. Thom seems to have run his voice through the Echophon and Erbe-Verb, which are being modulated by the Maths and Wogglebug.
The patch is similar to that which Thom used to process his vocals on the May-June 2018 Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes tour. That patch also used an Echophon, Erbe-Verb, and Wogglebug, so the main difference is that Thom is using Maths instead of a Make Noise Tempi and WMD Arpitecht. The reason for this is certainly that, for DJ shows, Thom wants his Echophon delay to be rhythmically synchronized with Nigel’s backing tracks, but for a solo performance the delay can be modulated more freely (probably by a pseudo-LFO from Maths).
Given the background ambience of the tracks released so far such as Volk and Open Again, plus Thom’s words in a recent interview, it’s almost certain that Thom used the Shared System as a sound source too for the Suspiria soundtrack, and perhaps also to process external sounds other than his vocals. Thom very likely used his Sequential Prophet-6for the main synthesizer part on Volk, but there’s enough additional synth layers that the Shared System could easily be present too.