Geared Up: Raze.D Explores a Collection of Gear Responsible for 30 Years of Dancefloor Fillers

Raze.D a ka D.Ramirez, ventures into bold new musical realms on his accomplished artist album Angry Silhouette, out now on Dreamwave.

The Ivor Novello-nominated D. Ramirez has spent 30 years producing innovative club tracks across genres. His seminal tracks and remixes have topped charts, landed on the most influential labels, and rocked dance floors worldwide.

His new album as Raze.D, finds him digging deep to serve up his most personal work to date. Inspired by the 80’s Sheffield scene he grew up around, and bands like Human League, ABC and Cabaret Voltaire, while also harking back to his early days singing in bands, Angry Silhouette came about during the pandemic when D.Ramirez had time to reconnect with the more introspective side of his creativity.

In our latest Geared Up, V13 sat down with the man himself to talk about a collection of gear responsible for over 30 years of anthemic dance floor fillers…

First things first: what’s your current setup?

D.Ramirez: “Over the years, I’ve lived in various places and had various studios outside of my house and inside of my house. Currently, I’m using my second bedroom, which isn’t ideal as my studio. The sound isn’t great, so I have to rely heavily on a Trinnov D-Mon to correct the audio coming from my speakers.

My DAW of choice is currently Ableton, but I use Logic Pro to mix. Ableton Live, for me, is a production powerhouse, and I can get in and mess with my sound once it’s recorded. However, I still don’t believe it’s the best DAW for mixing, hence my reason for using logic pro. I’ve been collecting bits of musical equipment for the last 40 years, but I generally buy one big purchase per year, so I’ve amassed quite a collection of pieces over the years.”

D.Ramirez Geared Up Photo

What one piece of gear do you use to obtain your signature sound?

“My Roland SH101 was featured heavily on my album, Angry Silhouette and I used it for a number of duties. It’s still one of the rawest synthesisers that I own, and even though it’s super simple and anybody could make a sound from it, there’s just nothing else that sounds like it – it’s an absolute beast.

I like to reamp it once it’s been recorded through my Neve 1073 clone preamp, through a guitar amp with some distortion added. I like the MXR Bass Distortion pedal for this as it gives me a clean boost or a super dirty distortion if I want it.

My amp of choice is a tiny Orange Micro Terror amp which sounds amazing to me – not harsh at all. I like to put it in weird places in my house, like the bathroom, and set my mic pattern to figure of eight so it picks up the bathroom reverb. It also sounds great in my hallway, and I’ll have two mics – one on the amp itself, and the other at the end of the hallway to pick up the strange tunnel sound it makes in there.

Gareth Jones, from Depeche Mode, and Bob Clearmountain do something similar and mic up weird places in their studios for an unusual sound. It was from Gareth Jones that I first heard about synthesisers being re-amped through guitar amps in large rooms to give that big, cavernous, Depeche Mode signature synth sound that they got in the 80s. This is my poor man’s impersonation and I have some serious fun, thinking of where I can stick my tiny little amp. The next place is the shower.”

D.Ramirez Geared Up Photo

How did you come to possess this piece of equipment? Vintage shop, regular shop, borrowed money, gifted? Give us the details.

“I’ve had the Roland Sh101 since 1983 when I ‘borrowed’ it from my best friend; unfortunately for him, he never got it back, and I’ve still got it to this day. Even now, I’m reluctant to talk about it in case he sees one of the interviews and asks for it back. I’m not sure what I would do without it because it’s been with me so long and it’s such a part of my sound – and they’re so damn expensive now!

I know that Behringer has made their clone of it, and it’s super cheap like £100 or something crazy, but apparently, it’s not the same and when you are so familiar with the sound of a particular piece of gear; I just know it would be a poor impression, and I wouldn’t use it.

I’m thinking of sending it off to get it modded because you can do some crazy stuff with it, but I’m a little concerned it might come back and not sound the same so I’m a bit nervous about sending it. And what if something happens to it in transit?? Argh!!”

D.Ramirez Geared Up Photo

What about this piece of equipment makes it so important to you?

“As it was the first ever synthesiser that I played with, it has a real nostalgia for me and every time I turn it on and play it, it’s a bit like going home. It’s a bit like a particular smell; when I smell something like an old aftershave I used to wear, it reminds me of a particular time and place in my life. I’ve since learned that the part of the brain that registers smell is next to the part of the brain that stores memories, hence why they are intrinsically related. It must be like that for the sound of the SH-101, taking me back to my childhood, remembering simpler times, being blown away by the sounds that came out of it; no pressure in life, just being a kid, having fun, you know.”

Did you use this gear during the recording of your latest song or album? If so, please elaborate on how and for what parts.

“I used it on most of the album! Notable parts are the bass line for “Keep This Dream Alive” and the synth drums on the same song. All of the squeaky modular stuff on the track called “Overloaded” – The bassline on “Angry Silhouette” was is an SH-101, but with a lot of interesting processing, including the re-amping I spoke of earlier.

The bass on “Into The Fire” was augmented with an SH-101 for some grit and dirt. The weird little synth line in “Pigeon Superstition” was the SH-101 through the Orange Terror amp again. The arp in “Photoelectric Effect” was an SH101 through a Meris Hedra guitar pedal and the acid line in “Do You Feel The Same” was the SH-101 sequenced from an Intellijel Metropolis Modular Sequencer.”

Raze.D ‘Angry Silhouette’ Album Artwork

We know you love this piece of gear, but are there any major cons? (Okay, you can also list the pros.)

“As it’s like 42 years old now, it has its quirks, and it needs some serious attention. The major problem with these cheap old synthesisers – because they were super cheap back in the day and made as the synth for the people – is the power supply which is super noisy. It’s also heavily out of tune, which I sort of like because it gives a weird wonkiness to its sound. And now the LFO has got stuck at a really fast rate which needs some attention.

One of its major cons is also one of its major pros and its lack of a second oscillator, meaning you have to get creative with the sound, and it’s not generally as fat as something like a Moog which has that creamy ladder filter sound.

Also, having one envelope is a bit of a restriction, but again, it’s also a pro because it means it’s just so simple and you’re not bogged down with so many choices and options that it’s the most immediate synthesiser you could ever play with! I think the problem with Gear these days is that it’s got to a point where they can incorporate so many features that you get “choice paralysis” as soon as you switch it on – that’s not the case with the SH-101.

It’s lack of a high pass filter is a bit of a con, but I get around that by running it through modular gear and some of the funky filters that I have. And it’s not MIDI, so I have to get creative with CV, which of course also means it works really well with my modular set up.

It also sounds very much like an SH-101, which is a blessing and a curse as I can always spot the sound of one, especially now it’s been cloned. However, I get around this by doing some heavy and interesting processing on the sound.

And finally, it’s only monophonic, which again I find restricting, and liberating at the same time. I have plenty of poly synths for polyphonic duties, so I use it for funky sequences and raw baseline tones, and great analog drums.”

D.Ramirez Geared Up PhotoWhat was your first-ever instrument?

“My first ever instrument was a synthesiser called a Transcendent 2000 which my father bought as a kit at the beginning of the 80’s because it was super cheap. However, it had to be assembled yourself, and I remember him absolutely cursing me because he had to get into the world of soldering and following along with schematic circuit diagrams. He did it though, and I’ll be forever grateful to the man for going through absolute hell, just so I could make noise. I hold you responsible for the rest of my life, Brian Marriott!”

What’s your favourite piece of equipment you’ve ever owned?

“My favourite piece of gear that I’ve ever owned is a distortion/saturation box called a Thermionic, Culture Vulture. Why do I love it so much? I guess it’s because it’s one of those pieces of gear that can be used on any sound source and always makes things sound bigger, bolder, wider, fatter, more intense, more in-your-face, more forward in the mix, more distorted … just better in every way.

There have been a few plug-in versions made by Universal Audio, and then most recently the Arturia version, but they just don’t sound the same and I’ve done extensive testing in the studio against the original. It’s what made me realise that they haven’t quite nailed the nonlinearities of distortion yet when it comes to plug-ins, and although they are incredibly convenient to use with recall etc., they still don’t sound like the real deal, and don’t be fooled by anybody that tells you otherwise!”

What setup did you spend the most time idolizing as a kid growing up?

“I grew up in the 70s and 80s when I first remember seeing Depeche Mode on top of the Pops playing with a Roland Jupiter 8. I lusted after that synthesiser for my entire teenage years, only forgetting about it when I got old enough to get into the world of booze, cigarettes and girls, then to come back to the lusting once I’ve gotten bored of all of that. I still lust after one to this day, but at the crazy prices they’re fetching, I don’t think I’ll ever get one (unless somebody reads this and decides to take pity on me!)”

Time for some fun. Give us your best “gear goes wrong” story.

“Back in the 90s, I used to do what was known as live PAs, where I would take a couple of synthesisers and play along to my backing tracks in some of the big clubs in the north of England. I was making house music back then and I became quite popular with the DJs, so I’d often get asked to do these PAs.

I remember being on stage in front of thousands of people playing my Roland Juno-106 on a rickety old keyboard stand, which collapsed underneath me, and the keyboard went flying into the crowd as I was banging on it so hard (it was the rave days!). The problem was of course, the music carried on in the background (without the part I was playing live), so I just stood there, looking like an absolute lemon with the music still going in the background, so I just danced to the rest of the track until some kind person passed me back my keyboard.”

For more information, or to pick up your copy of Angry Silhouette, head over to Dean’s Official Website.