Atlanta based electronic musician, producer and sound designer Richard Devine is recognized for producing a layered and heavily processed sound with complex rhythms. He combines influences from glitch music to old and modern electronic music and became known in the IDM scene for his Remix of Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy". Currently he is employed by Google creating sound designs for applications.
Tell us about your live rig, what are you currently running during your shows?
Currently, I am using a custom 12U modular case for my live shows, that consists of a wide variety of digital and analog Eurorack modules. I also have a small 104hp skiff that I carry and use as my main sequencer to this setup. My main effects processing pedal is the Eventide H9 Max. Sometimes I also use the Clavia Nord Drum 2 for extra synthetic percussion sounds. Lately, I have been doing more with CV controlled samplers like the 1010 BitBox and Orthogonal Devices ER-301 voltage-controllable canvas for digital signal processing algorithms.
You have a vast collection of synths, what’s the one synth you always find yourself going back to?
For me, it would be the Clavia Nord G2 modular synth. It was originally released in 2004. I was hired by Clavia to work on the initial factory patches back in 2003. I feel like you could still do everything with this synth. It's the best of both worlds in that its concept is based on a stand-alone hardware keyboard with freely configurable sound synthesis architecture and a software user interface (Editor). The sound engine in the G2 synthesizer runs on a group of digital signal processors (DSP), together with high-resolution AD and DA converters. You start out with a blank canvas and start patching with virtual modules and cables. You can drag and drop modules and cables right on the computer screen to create your own G2 patches/sounds. You also have 4 pages of assignments and endless variations that you can create and store /recall at any instant. There is still nothing like it today.
You’ve done presets for pretty much all of the Unfiltered Audio plugins and you recently started playing with their new synthesizer called LION, can you tell us a little bit about it?
Yes, I have known Michael Hetrick from Unfiltered Audio for many years now. He is a close friend of mine; I have worked creating presets for almost all of their releases. I am a big fan of their plugins. I love the open modular approach to patching and automating their plugins which opens up a lot of interesting possibilities for creating new sounds. LION is the latest creation from them which takes their open modular approach to synthesis and is very exciting for me. It has over 20 unique oscillator modes, per voice modulation, and 8 unique mixing algorithms for cross modulating/meshing together two oscillators. Also, they have included a complete BYOME row for unlimited, modular effect processing. This has opened the door for creating completely new sounds I have never heard before. So far, the possibilities seem endless, I have already gotten so many great sounds just from the first initial rounds of patch building. I know this will be a permanent tool in my audio arsenal.
Saw’s or Square's?
I say both, but don’t leave out sine waves, I can make you anything with sine waves.
What’s next for Richard Devine?
I am currently finishing up the sound design for Google’s new Stadia Streaming Platform, I’m doing all of the user interaction sounds for both the desktop and mobile apps. I will also be creating my first set of haptic sounds for their new controllers to be released later this year, while concurrently being in the middle of mixing and mastering my 8th album to be released in 2020. Stay tuned
For more on Richard Devine visit: https://www.facebook.com/RichardDevineMusic/