Michael Bell: I bought the Moog because I wanted more hands-on control and responsiveness. After Ben bought the Prophet 12 I could see how that was helping to direct our creativity and I wanted that for our bass sounds and sequences as well. The Moog Sub 37 is a two-note paraphonic analogue synth. Having those two separate oscillator voices has really helped us to create a wide range of sounds and taken us down some interesting creative avenues. For one of our songs Float, the chords on that are all Moog.
The arp/sequencer is a great way of creating and tweaking sounds. I latch the arp and slowly figure out the best envelope settings, for example. We’ve created some unique sounds and sequences with interesting velocity response.
Ben Woolner: Most of a good SAFIA mix is around the relationship between the bass and kick, and then the vocal balance. Spending that time jamming to perfectly sculpt the bass around the kick is always a good idea. Those are the songs which just jump out of the speakers.
It’s such a rich forward sound because of those two voices. Creating a sound with two harmonies moving together is something you could probably recreate with a Moog plug-in, but it’d take days getting it there.
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