Interview with Nils Frahm 

Source: 15 questions.

Of course, since a lot of my gear is analog and all elements correspond with each other, all of the effects I want to apply to the music can quickly be implemented manually. Every piece of equipment influences every other one in some form. And that’s something I could never get done with plug-ins. If I put a digital delay on a looped, four-bar beat, the delay will simply repeat itself. But when I send the same loop through a billowing tape-delay, it will sounds slightly different on each cycle.

So, in a way, this set-up is creating complexity without me having to force it. To me, this is just the way nature works: A wave on the beach, the symmetry of a tree, the symmetry of your face. The studio sounds different each day.