HOMESHAKE, aka Peter Sagar, is a solo musician from Montreal known for RnB influenced indie-pop with a lo-fi, home-recorded aesthetic. Formerly Mac DeMarco’s live guitarist, Sagar uses cheap synthesizers and drum machines to accompany his guitar playing and soft vocal delivery; his newest album, 2017’s Fresh Air, expands upon his sound by incorporating adult-orientated rock into his palette. I’ll dive into his sound, analysing the equipment Sagar uses to craft his sound and the way that Sagar likes to choose and program his tracks.

Hello Welcome

Sonically, there’s a lot more of an electronic influence on the record – what about this genre made you want to dive into it on the album?

One thing was that I was becoming disenchanted with the guitar a little bit as a writing tool, and I found the more instrumentation you allow yourself, the more texture and feeling you can convey through your music. I just needed something else to work with… And I found a good synthesizer for a good price on craigslist, so that helped. –Peter Sagar

Sagar’s go-to pieces of equipment are a Korg Poly 61 and a Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 08. The Poly 61 was the successor to the Korg Polysix, and like the much more popular Roland Juno series, it used DCO’s for a sharp, bright sound. The Prophet 08 is a versatile modern polysynth capable of lush basses, mellow leads and super deep basses, it is commonly used by a variety of artists (Thom Yorke, James Blake, Sufjan Stevens) who appreciate it for it’s versatility.

I’ll use the software synth TAL U-NO-LX to emulate the Korg Poly 61 patches, as it’s an emulation of the similar Roland Juno. The Poly 61 didn’t have an onboard chorus effect, so none of the HOMESHAKE patches will use the chorus effects section. A great software version of the Prophet synth is Arturia Prophet V, which is an emulation of an older Prophet synth, the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, a legendary 1978 synth that the Prophet 08 is somewhat based upon.