This time, musician, programmer and synthesist Hinako Omori joins Will and Chris on the show. Hinako has played keys for the likes of James Bay, KT Tunstall and Kate Tempest, and DJs with British synth-pop success, Georgia. With feet firmly in both composition and tech, she has a different outlook. But what gear will she choose for her Forever Studio?
Chris Barker: Hi, I'm Chris Barker.
Will Betts: And I'm Will Betts, and this is the MusicTech My Forever Studio podcast.
Chris Barker: In this podcast, we talk to producers, studio engineers, artists and fellow gear-heads about their dream studio.
Will Betts: They'll choose their dream location, describe their ideal studio vibe, and crucially, the six pieces of gear they'll have in that studio forever.
Chris Barker: Yep, that's right. Those are the rules. They get a computer, a DAW, an audio interface, that's all included. And then they will choose six pieces of gear and one non-gear related luxury item.
Will Betts: In this episode, we're talking to pianist, synthesist, and programmer, Hinako Omori.
Chris Barker: As we record this episode, Hinako has just got back to London after playing keyboards on tour with James Bay on the Ed Sheeran tour, and she's also played a piece for KT Tunstall, Kate Tempest, and with Georgia, who she also DJs with.
Will Betts: Hinako is also a composer and recording artist in her own right, and like so many other musicians, she also does a lot more that's not just direct playing and recording of music. She's a label manager at Tape Club Records. She's been on the curation team for In The Woods Festival, and has even worked in artist relations at Focusrite.
Chris Barker: Let's get this started then. This is the MusicTech magazine, My Forever Studio with Hinako Omori. Welcome.
Hinako Omori: Hello, thanks for having me.
Chris Barker: No worries. Thank you.
Will Betts: Thanks for coming on.
Chris Barker: Thanks for coming. You know the premise, you've heard the rules.
Hinako Omori: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Will Betts: Well. Okay, so let's talk about your ideal studio then. In your dream studio, your forever studio, where you spend the rest of your days, where would you want it to be in the world?
Hinako Omori: I was thinking, so this year, in January, I went to an island called Okinawa, which is the very South of Japan. It's an island just off the bottom of Japan, and even in December, it's 25 degrees. It's the most glorious temperature. It's really beautiful, sandy beaches, and mountains. In terms of nature, it's just beyond. It's so beautiful. And yeah, I just felt really, really peaceful there. When I was there, I spent about a week there with my mom, just went on a little holiday. And I think I just chose to retire there. I knew that I wanted to end up old and living there, so I think that's where I'd have it. So somewhere, in the mountains, maybe a little wooden hut or something, but overlooking the sea. And also, the pace of life there is just really slow. Everyone talks slow, walks slow... And the food is amazing because you get so much seafood and... Yeah, I could talk about Okinawa for days.
Chris Barker: So before you visited there, would it have still been somewhere similar in terms of aesthetics, or somewhere like that for a studio, or before you went there, would it have been a city, or would it always be somewhere remote? Is that the vibe, generally, you're going for?
Hinako Omori: I think so. I think, I've always grown up in cities, and I think it'd be nice to just have a sanctuary somewhere that's... As much as I love, and I love living in London, and there's so much going on, and I think we're incredibly lucky that you can go out any night of the week and there's so much stuff to choose from, culturally. But I think it is also important to sort of connect with nature and have a bit of peace and quiet sometimes. Yeah, I think that's where I'd have it.
Chris Barker: And the general vibe, you already said a wooden hurt, so we're talking quite an organics vibe in there, furniture wise.
Hinako Omori: Yeah, I think so. Obviously in terms of sound insulation and stuff like that, I'm not sure if a wooden hut is the best idea, but in an idealistic situation-
Will Betts: They don't have any woodlands though, so-
Hinako Omori: That's true.
Chris Barker: We'll take that as a given.
Hinako Omori: Yeah.
Chris Barker: We were just more thinking about... Because studios come in lots of different forms in quite clinical soft spaces. So tell us about your vibe. What do you like? What makes you ready to make music, or ready to work on a project?
Hinako Omori: Oh. I think somewhere quiet with no distractions and a lot of nature. I think, initially, when we were chatting about what we talked about in the podcast, and I was thinking, an ideal location, we found this Airbnb in Okinawa, where my mom and I stayed, and it was exactly how I'd imagine my studio to be. It's a pain in the ass to get to, to be honest. You go up these really rickety stairs, and once it gets dark, it's tough. You need a torch and a head torch and all sorts, but it's really secluded. It was wooden. There was an open main room. [inaudible 00:04:20] all in one space, their kitchen, bathroom, everything, but you open the windows and the see is just there. So you're kind of elevated, you're quite high up. But yeah, it's just-
Chris Barker: Yeah. It sounds pretty blissful.
Hinako Omori: ... somewhere very peaceful. And yeah, I think that's where I'd like it to be.
Will Betts: And is there any connection for you, culturally, back to being there?
Hinako Omori: Sadly, not with Okinawa directly, although one of my close friends is from there, my friend Claire who you met the other day, she has the most peaceful nature I've known of anyone, very kind, and I feel like that's the Okinawa spirit, I think. And actually, I think, I might be wrong, but their life expectancy over there is in the hundreds, I think.
Will Betts: That's right, yeah.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. I think it's just the way of living. Everyone is just very peaceful. And I think I've used the word peaceful a lot of times, but that's just a-
Will Betts: But it's not a stressful place, that's just the thing.
Hinako Omori: No. God, no. Yeah.
Will Betts: There's no cortisol in anybody's bodies.
Hinako Omori: Oh, hell no. No. And even the cars drive at 10 miles per hour, which can be frustrating if you're from the city, as we found out when we hired a car that, but the general-
Chris Barker: So if you rock up there and start making 134 BPM techno...
Will Betts: I'll just go gabber all the way.
Chris Barker: Life expectancy goes down on the entire island. You're there forever in your huge studio.
Hinako Omori: In an experiment.
Will Betts: In life expectancy, yeah. Excellent. So one of the other things you get here is a computer. It doesn't count towards your six. You don't need a computer, but if you want one, you can have one. What would it be, and what DAW would you run on it?
Hinako Omori: What would it be? So I currently use a MacBook Pro. I think I'd stick with a lap... Oh, I don't know. Would I stick with a laptop? I think I would in terms of being able to take it around with me if I needed to to go somewhere. I don't know.
Chris Barker: Around the island.
Hinako Omori: I might go island hopping, who knows? So maybe it's nice to have something that's a bit more portable.
Chris Barker: So some specced-out Mac laptop, basically.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. If that was possible, yeah.
Will Betts: It's your dream studio, so it's whatever you want. It is possible. You can have it.
Hinako Omori: And DAW, I think I would choose Ableton. I find it so fluid and fun and immediate to use, and I've really enjoyed... Yeah, I think most of my writing starts in Ableton, for sure. Also, the-
Chris Barker: Well you said you studied on Tonmeister, right?
Hinako Omori: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.
Chris Barker: So did you [crosstalk 00:06:51] quite Pro Tools here, and that kind of edge when you were doing that [crosstalk 00:06:53]?
Hinako Omori: Right. We didn't use Ableton at all. Well, I didn't personally. I think we used Pro Tools and Logic mainly. Oh, God, wait, hang on, let me think about this. What was it called? Pyramix! For classical recording, we used it. That was quite old school. And on my computer now, I use mainly Logic and Ableton just because I guess I just had it there and it's been really fluid to use for me. But I think I'm using Ableton more and more when we're doing live shows. It's spot on. And it's just so flexible, what you can do with it, and the the ability to really mess around and warp audio and just have fun with it, I think. Yeah, I really love it.
Will Betts: And does that play into your compositional style then, at working with loops rather than doing it through composition?
Hinako Omori: I guess so, yeah. Although, as well as that, I kind of used Ableton more in arrangement view, to be honest, not so much in session view. So I guess it's similar to Logic. I just find the editing tools a lot quicker for me.
Will Betts: Oh, okay.
Hinako Omori: So I guess, in that sense, I don't use the session view to be looping stuff as much, but I've really enjoyed using a loop pedal since and just recording and building stuff that way. I think I'm going to choose a loop pedal as one of my six things in the [crosstalk 00:08:14].
Will Betts: Whoa, whoa whoa. Okay. Okay.
Chris Barker: [crosstalk 00:08:14].
Hinako Omori: Yeah. I know. I know. Sorry.
Will Betts: We're paying for that. Okay. Let's do it. So can you tell us a little bit more about your background then? We had a bit of an intro at the top, but tell us a bit about you as a musician and where you've come from.
Hinako Omori: Okay.
Chris Barker: So you started as a musician rather than as a producer or a...
Hinako Omori: Right, yeah.
Chris Barker: The tech came later?
Hinako Omori: Yeah. So I started playing classical piano and then I carried that on until, I guess, uni, but when I got to GCSE stage, I really wanted to try music-tech. And at the time, the school that I was at, the music-tech class wasn't... Well, it was great, but it didn't have a huge amount of gear for us to play with, and there was only three of us that actually wanted to do the course. So I looked around and there was a course at [inaudible 00:09:04] College that I really wanted to do, and I'd heard so much about from friends. So I went to do that course and I learnt with an incredible teacher called [Lloyd 00:00:09:12]. He was so enthusiastic. He was in a band himself, they were gigging at the time, and I learned a lot from him in terms of how the music industry works. He was just quite an amazing teacher, an influence to a lot of us.
Hinako Omori: There's a few of us in our group that... Actually, let's cut that out. How do I say it? So Lloyd actually suggested that we do the Tonmeister course, and he said, "If you are going to carry on doing this at uni, then you should try and do this." So I was missing a physics A level, but I just tried my best and went anyway and somehow managed to wangle my way onto the course. So yeah. So I studied there for four years and then ended up doing a placement in a music supervision company called HotHouse, which really inspired me to look into more areas for music and music supervision. And we looked after a roster of film composers as well, so I got to see that world and see how they realised their beautiful scores in the studios.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. So that was a real eye-opening time for me.
Will Betts: Well how do you end up being on tour with James Bay? Because that's a bit of a leap we've [inaudible 00:10:28] the present.
Hinako Omori: Right. So, after I left uni, in 2011, I was in an originals band with a friend and, I think, at one of our shows, a mutual friend had come along and basically sent me an email saying, "We're actually looking for a session player." And at the time I didn't really know what a session player was or what that meant, and he asked me to send an audition clip in of me playing some of the artist's songs, and I sent it off, and somehow it went really well and I ended up going on the road with them for maybe a month or two. So that was my first sort of [inaudible 00:11:05] session playing, and at the time, I was a 21 year old, fresh out of uni, still figuring out stuff. I didn't really know much gear then, still, and I was still using MIDI controllers.
Hinako Omori: So that was a really insightful time, and since then, I've actually had more full time jobs more in the background of the music's... How would you say it? So my first job after leaving uni was working at a music distributor called Believe, so I was working in their in-house label and doing more behind-the-scenes kind of stuff, but always session playing on the side because I was still sort of figuring out what that meant and still meeting people and, slowly, I guess, making contacts. But through that, I still had my full time job until three years ago, and then, at that period of time, I was playing a lot with my friend, Georgia.
Will Betts: This is the synth-pop Georgia that we know about, UK artist?
Hinako Omori: Yes. Yeah. She's been a-
Chris Barker: Recently featured in MusicTech?
Will Betts: Correct? Yeah.
Hinako Omori: Oh, great. Oh, amazing.
Chris Barker: [crosstalk 00:00:12:09], one on the back of the magazine?
Will Betts: Yeah.
Hinako Omori: Oh, brilliant. Yeah, she's like a sister to me and I admire her very much. And she really inspired me to look more into the live side of music, and she trusted me to help her programme the set, programme the sounds. We worked on different parts for everyone, and at the time, there were four of us in the band, but it went to two members. It was just Georgia and I. And then from then, I guess it was quite full-on until the live side, and we had loads of shows coming up and a tour that we had booked, and I just thought, "I'd love to try and do this properly, and not try and fit it in around a full time job," because I felt I couldn't commit much to her work, and I adored playing with her, and I just wanted to fully throw myself into it, so I quit my job.
Hinako Omori: And it was a very scary few months while I figured stuff out, but I knew that I had this tour, with Georgia opening for The Kills, and then from them, we went to open for The Flaming Lips in both of those tours. We opened for Hot Chip as well, and all three of the support tours that we did really inspired me, just to see how artists that we loved went on the road, how they did their thing, how they perform their music in such a beautifully energetic way. And with Hot Chip, as well. God, their stage of synths when they tour live, it's incredible. I still have this picture saved on my phone of their beautiful foray of synths and their big stage setup and then our gear in front. But trying to fit everything in, we literally had to crawl on the stage. There was no space to walk around.
Hinako Omori: There was one show that we did, I think, two of us had to be off the stage, I think, because there was just so much gear because they're such synth-heads. It was really fascinating to see what they used, and how they make their sounds, and how they portrayed that live. So yeah, that was, as well, education for me, for sure.
Chris Barker: So we've got the vibey island studio in the mountains in the wooden hut, and then we've got-
Will Betts: With a laptop running Ableton.
Chris Barker: ... a laptop running Ableton.
Will Betts: Suite, presumably.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Hinako Omori: Yes.
Will Betts: Okay.
Chris Barker: And what's the audio interface? And this is a free one. It's not off your six, so this is part of the standard.
Hinako Omori: Ooh, I was thinking of something portable initially because I thought maybe it might be nice to take some stuff around, do some field recordings or whatever. But I have been really interested in the Prism Sound interfaces. I haven't actually used any of them yet, but I've heard so much about them and how incredible they are. So I guess, if this is a dream situation, it would be-
Will Betts: It is.
Chris Barker: You've got to go fancy.
Hinako Omori: Yeah.
Will Betts: Go big or go home.
Hinako Omori: The Atlas looks incredible.
Chris Barker: Go for the Prism?
Hinako Omori: Yeah.
Will Betts: Wow.
Chris Barker: So that's the base setup, and you've got your furniture and your leads. You don't worry about any of that. So now, it's the six.
Hinako Omori: Okay.
Chris Barker: Obviously, you can have any audio you want on this six, but it's obviously worth knowing that you haven't got any monitoring or headphones or anything else.
Hinako Omori: Yes.
Chris Barker: You're going to need something to hear this back.
Will Betts: You could monitor off the laptop.
Chris Barker: Oh yeah, I suppose you could. Yeah.
Will Betts: You'd have to be mad or... I don't know.
Chris Barker: Yeah. Or if you're that good at seeing the wave forms and the...
Hinako Omori: Just imagine what it sounds like.
Will Betts: Just read the metres, man.
Chris Barker: Can you not see how good this sounds?
Hinako Omori: Okay, so the first one, I think it would have to be a Memorymoog, I was thinking, because I'd love to have a polyphonic synth there.
Chris Barker: And you're going old, not the new big Moog?
Will Betts: Not the Moog One?
Hinako Omori: I don't know. There's something about the Memorymoog that just feels really right. I don't know.
Chris Barker: When was the last time you used a Memorymoog?
Hinako Omori: I've never used one before, so it feels a bit of a step in the dark, but just the history of it and... I'd go with the Plus because I think it has built-in MIDI and a sequencer, over the Memorymoog Memorymoog. But it's such an iconic piece of kit. Yeah, it would be a dream to have one of them.
Chris Barker: Yeah. That is a monster synth.
Will Betts: Yeah. That's dream-synth territory.
Chris Barker: I'm a bit worried about the other items now because it feels like that should have been the last item.
Hinako Omori: Oh, God, I see your point. I think I just went with the first thing that came to mind within the list, but-
Chris Barker: The dream. Yeah. Oh, well. We'll keep going. So, yeah, the Memorymoog Plus. So what's that second thing? Let's move on and let's combine these synths.
Hinako Omori: So I was thinking I'd love to take a pedal-board with me, but I guess a pedal-board doesn't count as one thing, so it needs one thing off that pedal ward, right? Or am I allowed-
Chris Barker: It's a bit of a hack. We're fine with these hacks.
Will Betts: Yeah. Everybody's trying to break the system.
Chris Barker: Every single guest breaks the system.
Hinako Omori: Right. I'll tell you what, I'm just going to choose one peddle for now, and it's one that I've been using recently for live, and I've loved it, and it's the Pigtronix Infinity Looper.
Will Betts: Oh, nice. Okay.
Hinako Omori: I've been really enjoying using it. I kind of needed something that responded to MIDI and tempo and it was the first thing that I found, and actually it's been more than that, more creative than I could have hoped for, so it's been really fun to use.
Chris Barker: It's not a standard looper as well. I'm not a looper guy, but it's not one I've seen before. A lot of people use the use the Boss loopers and [crosstalk 00:17:25].
Hinako Omori: Right, which are great. Yeah.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Hinako Omori: God, yeah. They're amazing. I think-
Chris Barker: So what makes this one a bit more exciting or unique for you?
Hinako Omori: I think I needed something particularly for the live show that I'd been working on, of just my own music recently. I needed something that would respond to MIDI from... so tempo from Ableton. And I think it was wow, just from reading reviews it was... Because I hadn't actually tried one before I bought it, but it's the one that seems to be cropping up again and again and again. There was more things, like various speed, you can... There's so many things you can change with it on the fly.
Will Betts: Right.
Hinako Omori: You can put an expression pedal in it and just map things to... Yeah, I feel like it was-
Chris Barker: So it receives MIDI clock?
Hinako Omori: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Barker: Oh, already you know it.
Hinako Omori: It receives MIDI clock, yeah.
Chris Barker: Yeah. Okay.
Will Betts: Okay.
Hinako Omori: And at the time, I had something built for the live show ready, and I needed something to fit in, and that was exactly what I needed, and it slides in perfectly and worked exactly how I needed it to, and more. So I actually ended up varying how I did things because of this looper, and I just thought it was great.
Chris Barker: It's cool when a piece of gear changes your whole workflow or your aesthetic because it's like...
Hinako Omori: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Barker: I estimate the gear has the ability to do that. Nobody really ever mentions is it can change an entire sound. It can create an entire genre-
Hinako Omori: Totally. Yeah.
Chris Barker: ... just from a piece of equipment.
Will Betts: Okay, so that's two down.
Hinako Omori: Okay.
Will Betts: You're layering, you're looping with the Pigtronix Infinity Looper and your Memorymoog Plus. You're going to have to actually hear something at some point, aren't you?
Hinako Omori: Yes, I know. Yup.
Will Betts: How are you going to do that?
Hinako Omori: I might just refer to the Beats because I use them at home, just because I'm really used to them. So I think-
Chris Barker: Otherwise, you've got an interface you've never used before [crosstalk 00:19:08].
Hinako Omori: Yeah. I don't want too many variables. Yeah.
Chris Barker: [crosstalk 00:19:08] before.
Hinako Omori: Oh, we were talking about dreams. I thought, "You know what? Rather then take stuff I've already got."
Chris Barker: Yeah. And you have forever to learn it, I guess, so it's okay.
Hinako Omori: Exactly.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Hinako Omori: Literally solitude in the mountains, I've got all the time in the world.
Chris Barker: Exactly.
Will Betts: If you're into music production, you should also check out MusicTech magazine. In this month's issue, we share 100 tips from the pros on songwriting, production, mixing, recording, and loads more. We also give you our verdict on the Moog Matriarch, two mics from newcomers, Austrian Audio, and we also try out the Behringer VC340 Vocoder. In our interviews, we talk to up-and-coming house producer, Cody Currie, about process and ping pong; we find out about London producer, O'Flynn's, sampling approach; and we have a stack of tutorials for Logic, Cubase, Live, Reason, and Studio One. You'll find all that and more in this month's issue. Subscribe now at musictech.net.
Hinako Omori: SO I think I'll go for the Adam A7Xs just because-
Chris Barker: Okay. But kind of like a home studio, affordable for everybody?
Hinako Omori: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Barker: That's kind of a friendly choice for a dream studio.
Hinako Omori: I know it's not very adventurous, but that's why he's at home and I'm really used to them and I love them, so I think it would be... Yeah. There's two items out of the six now, that are things that I already use and I'm comfortable with. I think they would be my choice for now.
Will Betts: Just bearing in mind that it is your fantasy studio, you wouldn't like to go up to the enormous, soffit-mounted Adams, the giant ones? Same family sound.
Hinako Omori: You're right. Maybe I could do that.
Will Betts: That's a long way up, but you could... Or the S series, which is-
Chris Barker: We have such nice people on the show because everybody's... We have to upsell them.
Will Betts: On everything.
Chris Barker: We have to upsell people's dreams. I would've never thought I would have to upsell people's dreams.
Hinako Omori: I think it's also the comfort thing. I know obviously it's not at all adventurous, but I don't know. I just can't-
Chris Barker: Nope.
Will Betts: No, great.
Chris Barker: It's a good reason though. I can understand, because you can get straight to work then, can't you? If you can trust what you're hearing and you're used to that sound and you used to using them.
Will Betts: It makes perfect sense.
Chris Barker: And monitoring, that's very important.
Hinako Omori: Well, let's say something in the Adam's family. Adam's family.
Chris Barker: The Adam's Family, why haven't we used that in [inaudible 00:21:27]?
Will Betts: Oh, my. [crosstalk 00:21:28].
Chris Barker: If anybody at Adams is listening, we definitely want an Adams Family please at Halloween.
Hinako Omori: The Halloween special.
Chris Barker: Yeah, yeah.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. So something of that series, perhaps. But yeah.
Will Betts: Okay. Well, with three down... Four down? Three down.
Hinako Omori: Three down.
Will Betts: Three down.
Hinako Omori: God, don't take away my-
Chris Barker: Don't take away any now.
Will Betts: Sorry.
Chris Barker: They're so important now.
Will Betts: Sorry.
Chris Barker: Item number four, let's hear it.
Hinako Omori: Okay. I'm thinking, because I didn't think about the speakers thing before, so now I feel I've got to minimise my list. I would go for a Yamaha piano if there's space.
Will Betts: Upright or grand?
Hinako Omori: Is there a space in there.
Chris Barker: You've got space. You've got all the space in the world.
Will Betts: Yeah.
Chris Barker: So a space as big as the island.
Hinako Omori: I would love to have the grand piano.
Will Betts: Yamaha grand?
Hinako Omori: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I just love the feel of Yamaha pianos. I guess a lot of people prefer Steinways or whatever, but for me, I just love Yamaha pianos.
Chris Barker: Don't Yamaha own Bosendorfer as well? Do they?
Hinako Omori: Oh, do they?
Chris Barker: I don't know. I'm not so sure, but I'm just saying, most people go for those kinds of classic brands, and as a classical pianist, I would have assumed that, obviously wrongly. So tell us why the Yamaha. What makes it different? As somebody that's obviously played a lot of great pianos, surely.
Hinako Omori: I think I just always grew up with Yamaha pianos in the house. We had a Yamaha upright to begin with. And I don't know, I just loved the feel of the keys. It's kind of clinical and clinical sounding, but for some reason, I've just gotten really used to that sound, and it just feels really precise to play. I don't know. But I guess because of having a Yamaha upright and then we eventually... I spent a lot of time with a Yamaha grand and I just loved it. So yeah, I think that's what I'd love to have. And I was thinking grand, and this is a bad thing to say, but I would like a grand so we could prepare some of the strings to have some fun with it-
Will Betts: Oh. Yeah.
Hinako Omori: ... because obviously, in an upright, I'm sure you can do it, but it's a lot trickier.
Will Betts: Yeah. You've got to have a long arm to get in there.
Chris Barker: To take the back off. Yeah.
Hinako Omori: Fishing rod or something to get in the back. But I recently, with my friends, Abi and Joel, Abi Wade and Joel Wells, they're wonderful composers and producers. And they had a project called Gestalt where they did lots of different collaborations with different artists and musicians, and they very kindly asked me to come down to their lovely space and do a prepared piano piece. And Abi, very kindly, let us basically go to town on her parents' grand piano, which is a lot of trust to put on someone, but we didn't damage it at all, but I think it was-
Will Betts: What did you do with it?
Hinako Omori: We collected loads of items from around the house and from various places and we just experimented really, because neither of us had done that before. And we had a setup of an Elektron sampler going and just looping loads of things that we were doing and it was very live and quick and fast, and it was a really interesting process. And Abi recorded all of it and it ended up being put in this installation in Brixton windmill, not the venue, but the actual windmill. They did layers of our loops up and up the middle on different floors, so it became an installation piece in the end. But creating those samples and the sounds was so much fun, and I just kept thinking how fun it would be to do more of it in a recording environment and making pieces out of it. I guess a huge inspiration also is Kelly Moran on warp, who does a lot of prepared piano pieces, and yeah, I'm a big fan of her work, so it would be fun to venture more into that field, I guess.
Will Betts: In terms of the techniques you're using there then, what exactly would you be doing for each of these preparations? Can you give some examples of what you were doing?
Hinako Omori: I didn't really know what to prepare, so I bought very varied metals and cogs and screws and rubber bands and, God, I've got a picture of the weirdest stuff we put in there, like blown up rubber gloves and anything that we thought might alter the sound. And we were really truly experimenting. Neither of us really had, I don't think, a particular goal in mind. We just wanted to see what sounds would come out. And so we'd play around, move things around, move things wild, song was playing, and it was a bit of both. Like I'd be sat down and Abi would be playing some things in the keys, and it'd be the other way around where she would be plucking the strings, as a cello player, she'd be playing it like a cello while I was playing, and then we'd been moving stuff around. So it was kind of, I guess, very fluid, very movement based.
Hinako Omori: But I think, being in Okinawa, there would be a lot of very natural organic things I could find on my travels and maybe play something. I don't know. I think it'd be quite interesting. It'd be more nature-based perhaps than with-
Chris Barker: Peaceful preparation.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. Very peaceful. Very peaceful.
Will Betts: Very nice.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. Which ties me onto my next thing, which would be, I guess, mics. If I was to prepare and I would need to record it somehow.
Will Betts: Probably.
Chris Barker: Otherwise everybody would just have to come to you.
Hinako Omori: Which is fine.
Chris Barker: Yeah?
Will Betts: It's a destination [crosstalk 00:27:01].
Chris Barker: A nice place. Yeah. A destination [inaudible 00:27:03].
Hinako Omori: And I'm guessing that a pair of mics is not one item?
Will Betts: No, you're not allowed two.
Hinako Omori: Okay.
Chris Barker: Stereo mic is okay.
Hinako Omori: Okay.
Will Betts: Five and six and we're done. Yeah.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Hinako Omori: Oh.
Will Betts: What were you going to do?
Hinako Omori: I'd written down U 87 because I thought it would be a nice vocal mic, and I could use it to record piano as well if there were two, but what stereo mics would you recommend?
Chris Barker: We're upselling dreams again, Will.
Will Betts: Upselling dreams.
Chris Barker: But I would say go for the [crosstalk 00:27:35].
Will Betts: I think just go for the one, yeah.
Chris Barker: The one you want.
Will Betts: Because you've got forever to figure out the best place to put it.
Hinako Omori: Yeah, that's true.
Will Betts: And you've got forever to play it twice and try to match the performance. You record the lower strings, you record the left hand first and then you record the right hand separately.
Hinako Omori: I've got all the time to make myself a robot and-
Will Betts: And you've got a looping pedal-
Hinako Omori: That is true.
Will Betts: ... so you can you play left-hand first, then move the mic, right hand.
Hinako Omori: That is very true.
Will Betts: It's not the most effective. Maybe not the most efficient workflow.
Chris Barker: Well you could just get another mic and then we're done.
Hinako Omori: I know. Maybe I just [crosstalk 00:28:09].
Chris Barker: But then what would you be eliminating if we went with two mics here? What's the struggle?
Hinako Omori: Well, there were two options, but now that I've gone with the speakers. But speakers are two things.
Will Betts: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Hinako Omori: So could you not-
Chris Barker: No, that's fine.
Hinako Omori: Is it fine?
Chris Barker: Of course it is. It's stereo speaker.
Will Betts: Yeah. Speakers are fine. We wouldn't make you have one speaker. It seems a little bit churlish, doesn't it?
Hinako Omori: Oh, okay.
Chris Barker: Yeah it does. And another thing, I'd be fine if a guest wanted a 5.1 system as well-
Will Betts: Would you?
Chris Barker: Because if a guest [crosstalk 00:28:37]- Yeah. You know you're fine with it.
Hinako Omori: [crosstalk 00:28:39].
Will Betts: This podcast is over. Forget it, mate. Yeah.
Chris Barker: Just swipe everything off the desk and walk out. No.
Will Betts: You're dead to me.
Chris Barker: I think that's sensible though because that might be for-
Will Betts: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
Hinako Omori: Right. I hear you. I hear you. Okay. Well let's just say, for argument's sake, I went with the one mic.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Hinako Omori: This is a tough choice, but it was between, I would say with the [crosstalk 00:28:59].
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Will Betts: Yeah. Of course.
Hinako Omori: So, a Space Echo, just because I've been obsessing over my friend, Pete's-
Chris Barker: Roland RE-201 is it?
Will Betts: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Hinako Omori: Yeah.
Chris Barker: RE-201, yeah?
Hinako Omori: It's such a beautiful, beautiful thing. And yeah, I think every studio needs to have one. Yeah. I think we've had a lot of fun just really mangling vocals through it. And yeah, I think that would be one of the dream things to have, but also.
Will Betts: What sort of... Dub textures or what? What are you doing with it for vocals?
Hinako Omori: So my friend, Pete, he's an amazing producer called [inaudible 00:29:34], was helping me just mix down five checks I'm putting out in November. And we did some additional production together and he sort of put all of my vocals through the Space Echo and we just played around with the beat repeat, the delays, just made it really mangled. And it was more of a texture thing, I guess, than-
Will Betts: Right.
Hinako Omori: Yeah, it was fun. It just really transformed how I thought the checks would sound.
Chris Barker: That with the Memorymoog as well.
Hinako Omori: Wouldn't that be dreamy?
Chris Barker: That would be nice. I'm excited about that.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. Okay. Maybe I should-
Will Betts: I didn't even see eyebrows go quite that high before.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Will Betts: Extraordinary.
Chris Barker: Yeah. I love the Tape Echo.
Hinako Omori: It's beautiful.
Chris Barker: I really want one as well. Yeah.
Hinako Omori: So maybe I should just go... Yeah, maybe I'll stick with that.
Will Betts: But what are you eliminating?
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Hinako Omori: As eliminating, so I was thinking something that made some sort of drum machine, I was thinking.
Chris Barker: Oh yeah.
Hinako Omori: I was thinking, the Elektron Analogue RYTM as the potential last thing.
Chris Barker: So a modern drum machine, which is, yeah.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. I guess I've never owned a piece of Elektron gear before, but I've always been so inspired to see. All their creations are just so... I don't know. They were all a bit left field, and they were all quite interesting, and you need to really get in this announcer then to-
Will Betts: Very deep.
Hinako Omori: Right.
Chris Barker: I think the way that you interface with them has a bit of a love-hate thing. I think a lot of some people completely connect with how you interface with the Elektron aesthetic in terms of how all the machines work, and some people, like me, don't really get on with the interface, but they always sound amazing.
Hinako Omori: They sound incredible.
Chris Barker: It's the workflow aspect of it that's-
Hinako Omori: Yeah.
Will Betts: I find them a little tricky to be honest.
Chris Barker: Yeah?
Will Betts: Yeah.
Chris Barker: But the people that love it really love it, and they buy all of it because they role that same workflow out of them throughout all of the gear, so if you've connected or seen somebody else connect with it and you're inspired by it, I think that's... Yeah.
Will Betts: Apart from the model samples actually, which was much more simple to use. That was actually-
Chris Barker: I think that was that answer to that wasn't it?
Will Betts: Yeah.
Chris Barker: Because it was-
Hinako Omori: Right. I think that could also be a lot of happy accidents with it in a way. I don't know. But also, I've got all the time in the world to get to know it.
Chris Barker: Read that manual. Yeah.
Will Betts: But you've got to pick one.
Hinako Omori: Okay. I'd probably go with the Space Echo, I think.
Will Betts: All right.
Chris Barker: Synthesise those drums on the Memorymoog.
Hinako Omori: Right.
Will Betts: Yeah. Or in Ableton. You've got all the instruments in Ableton, of course.
Hinako Omori: Or-
Chris Barker: On the prepared piano.
Hinako Omori: ... build percussion. Yeah. On the prepared piano. Fine.
Will Betts: Oh. Yeah.
Hinako Omori: With the one mic.
Chris Barker: Or beatboxing.
Will Betts: Yeah. Yeah.
Hinako Omori: I don't think I can put that on anyone. Me beatboxing is not a very good idea.
Chris Barker: Well, on the island, anything can happen.
Hinako Omori: Right. Well-
Will Betts: You've got time to practise your beatboxing, of course.
Hinako Omori: Right. Okay. I'll try my hardest.
Will Betts: You also have one last non-musical additional item that you're allowed-
Chris Barker: Luxury item.
Will Betts: ... to come with you.
Chris Barker: Is there anything that you-
Hinako Omori: Luxury item.
Chris Barker: ... always take with you from studio to studio or something that you-
Hinako Omori: But not gear related?
Chris Barker: Not gear related. What would you love in your studio that was-
Hinako Omori: I'd love a dog.
Chris Barker: That's nice.
Will Betts: That's nice.
Hinako Omori: I think it would be nice to have a companion, seeing as it's going to be so remote, and dogs are so loving and beautiful and kind and therapeutic. I think there's a... What's the word? I can't do English today. Hang on a sec. There's a research paper somewhere. I think it's a Japanese thing that basically, this Japanese company that have proved that if you look at pictures of cute animals, your productivity increases, even for five minutes or something. So it actually is a really productive thing to have an animal-
Chris Barker: There's loads of papers that are about people's life expectancy goes up if they've got a dog.
Hinako Omori: Right.
Chris Barker: They heal faster in hospitals, like when they take dogs down-
Hinako Omori: Yeah, therapy dogs.
Will Betts: Really?
Chris Barker: Yeah. Therapy dogs, yeah. People heal faster.
Hinako Omori: It'd have to be a dog for me.
Chris Barker: Any particular type?
Will Betts: Purely for the efficiency, of course. Just to have it there, look at it, become more efficient, make more music.
Hinako Omori: Right, but also to make me exercise because I'm an absolute slug in life.
Chris Barker: So what are you thinking? What's your dream dog then?
Hinako Omori: I don't know. I'm not particular.
Chris Barker: A rescue, maybe then?
Hinako Omori: Yeah, I think a rescue. A dog that needs love, and we can look after each other, I guess, because we had a really lovely rescue dog growing up, and yeah, he really stole my heart. He was a big Dalmatian Alsatian cross, or maybe Doberman cross. We never had found out, because no one had all of his documents or whatever. But my stepdad got him from Battersea Dog's Home and he was the most loving, massive soppy creature going, so yeah, rescue dog, I think. That would be the one.
Chris Barker: Awesome. And a dog with a sample ready bark in case you get-
Will Betts: Of course.
Hinako Omori: Or to make the Battersea Dog's Home theme tune out of it.
Chris Barker: Yeah, exactly. Or any of those percussion sounds that you'll now require.
Hinako Omori: That's true.
Chris Barker: Yeah?
Will Betts: Paws.
Hinako Omori: Or maybe he can help me hunt down the shells I'd use or something. I don't know.
Chris Barker: Yeah, exactly.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. We can go on walks and he or she can-
Chris Barker: Musical adventures together.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. Right.
Will Betts: There'll be [hi-jynx 00:34:49] too, I'd imagine.
Hinako Omori: What's that?
Will Betts: Hi-jynx.
Hinako Omori: What's that?
Will Betts: What's hi-jynx? Yeah, just japes.
Hinako Omori: Oh, right. Sorry.
Chris Barker: Dog based bands.
Will Betts: Dog based bands. Right. Okay. Well.
Chris Barker: So run us down the studio, Will.
Will Betts: The studio?
Hinako Omori: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Will Betts: It's in Okinawa in the mountains up a rickety path, a rickety stair-
Hinako Omori: I made it sound so desirable.
Chris Barker: It's going to be hard to get a Memorymoog up there and-
Hinako Omori: I know. Well-
Chris Barker: Although that's not your responsibility.
Hinako Omori: ... we didn't factor in the moving cost did we?
Will Betts: No, no. We just airlift it all in.
Hinako Omori: All right. Great. Thanks guys.
Chris Barker: You're welcome.
Will Betts: It's fine.
Chris Barker: It's all part of the service.
Will Betts: We don't pick up the bills. With a specced-out Mac laptop running Ableton Live. Your interface would be a Prism Atlas. For synths, you've got a Memorymoog Plus, looping provided by Pigtronix Infinity Looper, monitors, the Adams, although, let's say A7Xs then.
Hinako Omori: Right.
Will Betts: Okay. You happy with that final choice?
Hinako Omori: Yeah. I think so.
Will Betts: Excellent. A Yamaha-
Hinako Omori: We don't want to make too much noise in the mountains because you've got to respect the animals, so-
Will Betts: That's true.
Hinako Omori: Yeah. I don't want to have anything that's going to be too boomy.
Will Betts: Of course, you could have acoustic treatment in your studio.
Hinako Omori: But is that an extra cost? Is that an [crosstalk 00:36:08]?
Will Betts: That can go in. That's part of your studio vibe.
Hinako Omori: Oh, okay.
Chris Barker: It will be fine.
Hinako Omori: Maybe I'll go for the bigger Adams then.
Will Betts: [crosstalk 00:36:15].
Hinako Omori: But something from their family.
Will Betts: Yeah.
Hinako Omori: Yes.
Will Betts: Excellent. A Yamaha grand piano, a Norman U 87, and a Roland Space Echo, and a dog.
Hinako Omori: Yes.
Chris Barker: As your luxury item.
Hinako Omori: Thanks guys.
Chris Barker: That sounds nice.
Will Betts: That was great.
Hinako Omori: Thanks for making dream a reality.
Will Betts: It's still a dream.
Chris Barker: Yeah. Yeah. We up-sold it, we got you some bigger monitors in there. Yeah, I think it's good.
Hinako Omori: Brilliant.
Will Betts: Decent.
Chris Barker: Right, well thank you very much for coming on the podcast. We really, really appreciate it.
Hinako Omori: Oh, thank yous so much for having me.
Will Betts: It's been a great pleasure. If you're enjoying the podcast, make sure you subscribe using your favourite podcasting app, and also think about rating and reviewing MusicTech's My Forever Studio. Don't forget to check back every Thursday for new episodes. Thanks for listening.