My Synthwave Setup

A lot of people have asked what i use to create music, so here is a little look at my setup;

My basic everyday (having a mess around) setup consists of:
-my beloved Lenovo Z580 i5 running Windows 8 (in dark red because im cool like that)
-FL Studios 11.2 (with a few customization's)
-Nexus VST with all the extra sound packages
-SQL8 VST

80% of my tracks are made with these 4 things all working nicely together.


Other additions to my arsenal are:
-my custom Vestax VCI100 SE-Arcade edition
-my iPad Air which i make all my band art with and sometimes use as a mobile synth.
-my Dell Inspiron 6400 backup laptop which i use as a server for my Vestax as well as running Traktor for slight time shifting and editing of tracks.
-my dredded Fatar Studio 900 master keyboard (which weighs 20kg and is no fun to move)


Here are a few random pictures of the assorted musical electronics listed above;

OCCAMS LASER (the blog) is BORN!

Occams Laser (the blog) is born!!!

I thought it was about time i started talking about and updating people on my recent electronic 80s inspired musical en-devour; OCCAMS LASER.

Back at the end of 2013 i quit my job, moved away from Brighton and basically had to start again from my home back on the Isle of Wight. Dwelling in self pity and completely scouring Youtube and the rest of the internet for entertainment led me back to a musical genre that to me had been sadly forgotten; Synthwave.

At the begining of March 2014 i started toying with a few VST's and synthesizers trying to find a few with the distinctive 80s retro feel. Two that i now use prolifically are 'Nexus' and 'SQL8. As always the base program i use for all my music is FL Studio (11.2) and i will faithfully stick with it as it has stuck by me!

My first track i released under 'Occams Laser' which was an 8-bit style version of 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams got me a surprising great deal of attention, it led to the band Straktobeam asking me if i would like to remix one of their tracks which they had just released, of course i jumped at the chance! Till this day both the 'Happy' remix and the remix for Straktobeam have been my most highly listened to tracks.

Around the same time as the remix for Straktobeam i contacted a great site called 'NeonVice.com' and they gave me some great advice for how to start growing my audience and keeping them interested. This is still the best advice i have been given and i make sure to stick by it. Also the fact that they helped me out for nothing in return really cemented the fact that the synthwave community is a friendly and passionate group.

After the first few tracks that i released i found a steady flow of new followers and this gave me more reason to try and create and publish a new track (or at least aim to) once a week.

Other moments which have stuck out so far would be;
-Remixing a track for 'HIFI Brown' (Ep to be released summer 2014)

-TheZombiUnicorn using one of my remixes in one of her uber-cool Youtube videos

-Neon Vice posting one of my remixes on their website.


In a few short months i am proud to have gained so many great fans and been able to join the very small niche group of synthwave/outrun producers. If i ever make it to the level of Mitch Murder or Com Truise i will be one happy synthesized bunny.

Stay tuned and i will try and keep this blog up to date with all the future news on Occams Laser.

Tom / Occams Laser