Robert Henke - Signal to Noise – Volume II Robert Henke

The drones on this album were created using a Yamaha SY77 FM synthesizer from 1989. I have a special relationship with this machine — it was the first “big” synth I ever bought, and it has contributed to almost everything I’ve recorded over the past 30 years.

The SY77 features six FM operators with multistage looping envelopes. I’ve always enjoyed crafting steady drones with it —sounds that slowly evolve into something new over time. The output of the SY77 is routed through a Dynacord DRP 20 reverb and recorded into a DAW. For each piece, I recorded four tracks: one with a very low note, one with a medium-low note, one with a high note, and one where I played freely, following my intuition. The results were then edited and lightly processed to reduce excessive noise in certain sections. I also occasionally added reverb and pitch shifting, using my own custom algorithms.

Signal To Noise Volume II picks up where my 2004 album Signal To Noise left off, revisiting the same techniques and instrument twenty-two years later.

Cover photo taken by Robert Henke on February 1, 2004, at Joshua Tree National Park, CA, USA.