Signal 003
Fin Cormack Built Through Instinct
Hardware, improvisation and the productive value of losing control.
Signal 003
Fin Cormack's approach to techno is rooted in live performance, hardware experimentation and the kind of unexpected moments that cannot always be planned inside a DAW.
Having first explored hardware in the late 1990s, he still considers himself an instrumentalist at heart. Although recent work has kept him more confined to the computer, his current focus is returning to a live and hybrid workflow, where machines, improvisation and multitrack recording can interact more freely.
- Workflow
- Live / hybrid
- Core idea
- Groove before structure
- Recording
- Multitracked hardware jams
- Tools
- Tascam Model 12 / Ableton / Granulator
01
Away from the screen.
What first pulled you away from the screen and into analogue hardware?
I first experimented with hardware in the late 1990s and have always been more drawn to live jamming. I am primarily an instrumentalist. More recently, I have been somewhat confined to the DAW, but my focus now is to return to live and hybrid workflows.
02
It begins with a strong groove.
When you start a track, do you usually begin with a machine, a rhythm or simply a mistake that sounds right?
I usually start by playing around with an eight-bar loop. The main sounds often come from hardware jams that I record as separate multitracks. Sometimes I will simply experiment with synths in Ableton or use Granulator, but it normally begins with a strong groove that I can then build the rest of the track around.
03
Keep the accident.
Analogue gear can be unpredictable. How much of that unpredictability do you actually want in your music?
I love happy accidents. The more unpredictability, the better.
The more unpredictability, the better.
ProcessStart with a groove. Record the movement. Keep the accident if it carries energy.
04
Exploring without forcing a result.
Do you record long hardware jams and edit them later, or build tracks more deliberately from the start?
I go through different phases. Sometimes I work from long-form jams, while at other times I begin with a specific idea and try to recreate it. However, I usually find that the best material emerges when I am simply exploring ideas without forcing a particular result.
The best material emerges when I am simply exploring ideas.
05
One machine that changed the process.
What is one piece of gear that has genuinely changed the way you make techno?
The Tascam Model 12 has really opened up my creativity because it allows me to multitrack entire jams. Previously, I would record long performances from individual pieces of equipment. Now I can record everything together while still sending each instrument to its own stem. I have also recently bought the Behringer Edge and Spice. I think those two machines will soon become central to my productions.
Workflow
From jam to arrangement
- 01 Hardware jam Edge / Spice
- 02 Multitrack Tascam Model 12
- 03 Edit / Shape Ableton / Granulator
- 04 Arrangement Groove-led structure
Central principleIterate / Discover
Signal 003
Conditions for the unexpected.
For Fin Cormack, the studio is less about executing a fixed plan and more about creating the conditions for something unexpected to happen. His return to a live and hybrid setup is not a rejection of the DAW, but an attempt to recover the immediacy, movement and unpredictability that first drew him to hardware.
