Synth historian Oli Freke will spend big on a good bicycle
Synth historian Oli Freke will spend big on a good bicycle
合成器历史学家 Oli Freke：我愿意为一辆好自行车一掷千金
He’s hard at work on the upcoming Beat Gems, a gorgeous coffee-table book about the history of drum machines. 他目前正忙于制作即将出版的《Beat Gems》，这是一本关于鼓机历史的精美咖啡桌读物。
Oli Freke is a musician and journalist whose works have appeared in Sound on Sound, The Quietus, and Mixmag. This has included using math to explore the melodic potential of the Western 12-tone scale and deep dives on effects plug-ins. He’s even written a book tracing the evolution of the synthesizer from 1963 through 1995, charting the change from analog to digital and back. Oli Freke 是一位音乐家兼记者，他的作品曾刊登在《Sound on Sound》、《The Quietus》和《Mixmag》等媒体上。他的研究内容包括利用数学探索西方十二平均律的旋律潜力，以及对效果器插件的深度剖析。他甚至还写过一本书，追溯了 1963 年至 1995 年间合成器的演变，记录了从模拟到数字再回归模拟的技术变迁。
His new project is Beat Gems, a coffee-table visual history of drum machines from publisher Bjooks. Like other Bjooks titles, Beat Gems is loaded with gorgeous photos, fascinating historical tidbits, and practical advice for making the most of your gear, whether it’s a vintage Roland TR-808 or a modern oddity like Erica Synths’ Pērkons. 他的新项目是《Beat Gems》，这是一本由 Bjooks 出版社推出的鼓机视觉历史咖啡桌书。与 Bjooks 的其他书籍一样，《Beat Gems》充满了精美的照片、引人入胜的历史趣闻，以及如何充分利用设备的实用建议——无论是复古的 Roland TR-808，还是像 Erica Synths 的 Pērkons 那样现代且独特的设备。
What is the first app you install on a new phone or computer? 你在新手机或电脑上安装的第一个应用程序是什么？
If I’m buying a new computer, it’ll almost certainly be my music computer, so I’ll be installing Ableton Live straight away. It’s a remarkable piece of music software, with a feature set that still feels staggering compared to when I started making electronic music with an Atari ST 520 that could just about manage MIDI, with no audio at all. 如果我买了一台新电脑，那它几乎肯定会是我的音乐电脑，所以我第一件事就是安装 Ableton Live。这是一款出色的音乐软件，其功能集令人惊叹，尤其是与我刚开始制作电子音乐时相比——那时我用的是 Atari ST 520，它勉强能处理 MIDI，根本无法处理音频。
Which social media platform do you use the most (if any)? 你最常使用哪个社交媒体平台（如果有的话）？
Probably YouTube, if we’re counting it as social media. It’s brilliant having experts in almost any subject area explain ideas, concepts, and methods. I watch a lot of science, maths, chess, and, inevitably, electronic music. I could do with fewer algorithmic clickbait temptations, which is one reason I’m not a heavy user of other social media platforms. 大概是 YouTube，如果把它算作社交媒体的话。能有几乎任何领域的专家来解释观点、概念和方法，这太棒了。我看了很多关于科学、数学、国际象棋的内容，当然还有电子音乐。如果能少一点算法推荐的点击诱饵就更好了，这也是我不怎么使用其他社交媒体平台的原因之一。
Which is the most disappointing gadget you’ve ever owned? 你拥有过最令人失望的小工具是什么？
Vegetable choppers and cubers seem like a great idea, but they never work properly and never actually save any time or effort. 蔬菜切碎机和切丁机听起来是个好主意，但它们从来没法正常工作，也从未真正节省过任何时间和精力。
What game do you have the fondest memories of? 你记忆中最美好的游戏是什么？
Elite on the Atari ST was incredible. It’s world-building on a (memory) shoestring when severe technical constraints existed, and the results were truly creative. Atari ST 上的《Elite》令人难以置信。在技术条件极其受限的情况下，它在极小的内存空间里构建了一个世界，其成果极具创造力。
What is one thing you wish you had created? 你希望自己创造的一样东西是什么？
As a musician, I wish I’d written a song that the whole world knew and loved, and that fans would demand I play at every opportunity — until I got so heartily sick of it that, in the end, I wished I’d never written it. Perhaps this has happened, and all these wishes have come true! 作为一名音乐家，我希望自己能写出一首全世界都耳熟能详且喜爱的歌，让粉丝们在任何场合都要求我演奏——直到我厌倦透顶，最后甚至希望自己从未写过它。也许这已经发生了，而这些愿望都已经成真了！
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? 你收到过最好的建议是什么？
From my father (I’m appropriately writing this on Father’s Day in the UK): “Say yes to any opportunity that comes your way — worry about whether you can do it or not later!” 来自我父亲（我写下这段话时恰逢英国的父亲节）： “对任何找上门来的机会都说‘好’——至于能不能做到，以后再担心！”
What is your current obsession? 你目前沉迷于什么？
Drum machines! Researching for the Beat Gems book has reminded me of the primacy of rhythm to the human musical experience; how drum machines have tapped into this need, and in doing so have transformed musical culture over the last sixty years. It’s utterly fascinating. 鼓机！为《Beat Gems》一书所做的研究让我意识到节奏对人类音乐体验的重要性；鼓机是如何挖掘这种需求的，并在此过程中改变了过去六十年的音乐文化。这实在太迷人了。
What do you do when you need to focus? 当你需要专注时会做什么？
I put on www.rinse.fm/kool, choose a set of banging drum’n’bass rollers, and then I’m very happy (and focused). 我会打开 www.rinse.fm/kool，选一套劲爆的鼓打贝斯（drum’n’bass）音乐，然后我就会感到非常快乐（并且专注）。
What do you do when you’re feeling stuck? 当你感到卡壳时会做什么？
Remind myself of the infinite number of combinations of ideas. I once wrote an article that demonstrated there were 82 quintillion (82^18) 10-note melodies that can be written with the eight notes of the octave. 提醒自己创意的组合是无限的。我曾经写过一篇文章，证明了用八度音阶中的八个音符，可以写出 82 兆亿（82^18）种 10 音符旋律。
What’s the last piece of physical media you bought? 你最近购买的实体媒介是什么？
The soundtrack on vinyl to a beautiful film called Resynator. It’s about an obscure synth from the early ’80s and a daughter’s quest to learn about her father, who invented it but sadly died while she was a baby. Can’t recommend it enough. 一部名为《Resynator》的精美电影的黑胶原声带。它讲述了一款 80 年代初鲜为人知的合成器，以及一位女儿试图了解她父亲的故事——她父亲发明了这款合成器，但不幸在她婴儿时期就去世了。强烈推荐。
What do you think is worth splurging on? 你认为什么东西值得一掷千金？
A high-quality road bicycle. Compared with cars, bikes are cheap, and you can buy machines not far off the quality professionals use for relatively reasonable sums. The difference between a good bike and a run-of-the-mill one is vast. Cycling in the countryside on a good bike brings me a great deal of joy. 一辆高质量的公路自行车。与汽车相比，自行车很便宜，你只需花相对合理的钱，就能买到与专业人士所用设备质量相差无几的机器。好自行车和普通自行车之间的差距是巨大的。骑着一辆好车在乡间骑行，能给我带来巨大的快乐。
What would the tagline for your biopic be? 如果拍一部关于你的传记片，标语会是什么？
Watch a man type words into a computer. For ages. Then watch him make music on a computer. Also for ages. Then watch him do some normal things involving a house, family, and car. Occasionally he is turned away from boarding a plane to Berlin to go to the launch of his Kickstarter because they changed the rules without him realizing it! Disappointingly, this doesn’t transform the biopic into a Falling Down-type scenario. 看一个男人在电脑上打字。打很久。然后看他在电脑上做音乐。也做很久。然后看他做一些涉及房子、家庭和汽车的普通事情。偶尔他会被拒绝登机前往柏林参加他的 Kickstarter 发布会，因为航空公司在他不知情的情况下更改了规则！令人失望的是，这并没能让这部传记片变成《城市英雄》（Falling Down）那样的剧情。