Retrosound
Instruments we love. Sounds we return to.
Retrosound begins with a musician’s attachment to machines that feel alive under the fingers.
The first instrument
Shortly before his fourteenth birthday, Philippe received a Roland SH-101 from his grandmother. Playing it through headphones opened a new world of synthesis. He has kept the original invoice, a personal trace of that beginning.
A particular kind of presence
Years of exploring and comparing instruments led Philippe back to E-mu, Ensoniq and the Korg DSS-1 in particular: their response, warmth, stereo movement and musical presence. These are personal listening impressions, not claims that other instruments or developers are inferior.
Understanding the instrument
The project grew towards studying native data and the mechanisms behind the sound. DANA is the current browser instrument; the wider research programme is about preserving how a bank becomes something to play, not just how its samples sound in isolation.
Six names, six histories
DANA refers to Emax I/II; JAKE to the Korg DSS-1; YANN to the Ensoniq Mirage; ERIK to the Roland S-50; DAVE to the Akai S950; and ROBB to the Ensoniq ASR-10. Their name stories are tributes, not endorsements or claims of affiliation.
The next chapters
JAKE, YANN, ERIK, DAVE and ROBB are projects in development, with no release date or downloadable application announced. Their pages distinguish historical hardware features from the future software’s unverified capabilities.