Hans Zimmer AMS: So Hans which modular system did you start off with? Hans Zimmer: The Roland System 700. It's pretty much on every movie that I ever did in England such as 'Thelma and Louise'. Part of it just got used as the greatest auto-panner in the world!! Because with film stuff, when you put things out of phase they go to the back, so I'd make these really elaborate patches up, and put half the mix through it and it would throw it to the back and round to the front and delay one side... all that sort of stuff. Like real kids stuff, great fun!!! AMS: Did you ever use any modular synths live and what sort of problems did they create? HZ: Well the system 700 and Moog went on tour. At the Old Vic in London they have a revolving stage which is on a slant, and if anybody hits the revolve switch by accident, everything starts falling towards you - which is pretty frightening. Also we played at the "Reading Festival". We had played warm up gigs at the Marquee using the Roland Micro-composer which would start everything off. Nobody would ever count the bars, rather just look over and say "oh bar 16 we are in on bar 17" - but at Reading, the sun was blazing down so nobody could see the display and we all realised it too late. We all came in like 2 bars late, the sequencer playing absolutely the right thing and all of us 2 bars late!! Of course we never caught up!!! I just looked over at Warren Caan (Ultravox drummer) and shrugged my shoulders and he went "switch the f**ker off!!!" AMS: So when you used these analogue devices, did you find they were stable enough to use live? HZ: Stable enough. I always knew that the Roland stuff would stay in tune and all the Moog would always be all over the place. So the Moog stuff would be used for all sorts of weird things, I did have frequency counter on it all the time, and I could just switch the outputs off, and just make a noise and see if we were even in the ball park. But you know we were a rock and roll band, so who cares about the tuning!!! You know I used to have a mellotron which actually caught fire during one gigƒ that was really spectacular!! AMS: Which Moog system did you have then? HZ: The old Tangerine Dream thing which was actually a very big system. Chris Frankes - 4 portable cabinets at the bottom, and then there was another thing on top, and later the whole system was put in a steel frame. Actually, it had a bit of an accident onceƒ It fell out of a jumbo jet!!! Admittedly, it was on the ground, but still a jumbo is still really high up. The hold flight case tipped out when they were unloading it. The power supply went through the whole instrument, so then these guys in Berlin fixed it up and put it into the steel frame. Actually the way they tested it, to see if it was stable etc. was to tie it to the back of a car (the case was on wheels) and drive it through the cobble streets in Berlin!!! They figured that if it tuned up after that, and still worked, then they knew they had done a good job!!! Of course they forgot that no roadie could ever lift it! AMS: Do you still own any of that system? HZ: Yes my Bode Frequency Shifter came from there. Chris Franke still has some. He actually has a very interesting system. AMS: So which other modulars do you use right now? HZ: I have the Roland 100m system - I think it has over 170 modules!!! AMS: Didn't you get a great deal from roland on them? HZ: Yeah...they were clearing out the warehouse at $25.00 a module - so how could I say no?!!! AMS: Somebody else in London did the same thing - he just paid by the weight!!! I'll have 7 pounds of 100m filters please!!! Unfortunately, it's all long gone now. If you have over 170 100m modules, what is the biggest patch you have ever done? HZ: I have no idea. When I run out of patch leads, I stop! I have been doing stupid things like plugging in 12 phasers, just to see how it sounds. Well it sounds like a lot of noise, because the signal to noise ratio gets so bad on that sort of stuff. What I really like is that I have lots of flexibility, so that each voice can be really interesting. AMS: What about your polyfusion - does it get used much? HZ: Well it's on most of the time and it hasn't needed a lot of 'Kevinising' (as in Kevin Lightner's attention). It's far less temperamental than the Moog, and a few things they (the designers) thought a lot harder about, which is very good. It's done a lot of boring stuff recently - typical bass stuff, it's either that or the Memory moog (which I had completely restored and stabilized). It's actually very usable. I use the samplers virtually exclusively now just for orchestral sounds, and I don't use any of the synths to fake up real instruments. I just use them as synths which is great as I don't have to make that compromise anymore. AMS: What else do you use? HZ: Well I have the Jupiters and all that sort of stuff - a Yamaha CS 80 with midi. I also like the Roland JD 800 and 990's but I'm afraid the D50 has been switched off for an awfully long time, and I don't think it is going to be switched on again in a great hurry!!! AMS: Hans - thank you for your time.