Patrick Kunz is the founder of Togu Audio Line, a company that started as a hobby but has since grown into a highly respected plug-in developer creating instruments and effects including TAL U-NO-LX, TAL-BassLine-101, TAL -J-8, TAL-Sampler, TAL-Drum, TAL-Dub-X, TAL-Chorus-LX, TAL-Filter and their latest instrument TAL-Pha. We go back a long way – actually since the beginning – and we found Patrick willing to answer a few questions. Have fun reading!
1. You’ve just started your 25th year of plugin creation; congratulations! How is it going so far?
Thank you! I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for so long. It’s still fun to create new plug-ins and I learn a lot with each new product. I never intended to do this for so long. But here we are now.
2. What is your background; ie what did you do before Togu Audio Line?
Ever since I started making music, I’ve been interested in DSP and the possibilities it offers. I studied computer science and started developing my first plug-ins and effects early on. It started as a hobby and later became a side job.
For a long time, my main job was developing business software. Later, TAL became my full-time job.
3. What does Togu Audio Line actually mean?
It doesn’t mean anything in particular. Togu was the name of a fun music project I had with a friend where we used a lot of synth percussion like bongos in the tracks. We also named other things after it and had a Togu website.
Then I started developing plugins for myself. I was very excited when my first plugin showed up in Cubase. I needed a nice user interface with a company logo on it. I thought it was a great idea to name the company “Togu Audio Line”. I never thought that other people would use the plugins in the future and wonder where the name came from.
After a few years, people started calling the plug-ins TAL. But the full company name is still the company name of the plug-in that appears in the DAWs. We’ve always kept it to stay backwards compatible.
4. Looking back for a moment, what do you think are the greatest achievements of TAL so far?
I think the greatest achievement is that the products help people to make music. From the hobby musician to the professional producer. It feels good to be a small piece of the puzzle for so many music productions. I’m also proud that we can offer some free plug-ins and having fair prices.
5. You seem to have a lot of love for old Japanese synths, particularly from Roland. Are there other brands that you respect in terms of sound?
I really liked my Akai S1000. But the sound of the analog Roland synthesizers from the 80s impressed me the most, here’s why:
Around 1996, a friend had a studio with many analog Roland synthesizers. He had a TB-303, MKS-30, TR-606 and also a Juno 106. I always liked the oscillator and filter sound. This was the first contact with the sound of the analog Roland Synthesizers.
At that time, analog synthesizers were not very popular. Roland no longer made them. So I started making music with digital synthesizers like the Alesis QSR, Access Virus A and others. Years later, someone in my town sold a Juno 60 synthesizer for a good price and I bought it. That was the first analog instrument I owned.
The Juno 60 is a dream synthesizer for me. I like the rich filter sound and the distortion it produces when running with a lot of resonance. I was also fascinated by the self-oscillation at full resonance. The filter always felt a bit unstable. Probably also because of the hardware sliders, which I also liked. It created that classic 80s sound. Not least because of the integrated chorus effect and the arpeggiator.
6. Why did you decide to model the Juno-60 at first and not a Minimoog Model D, for example?
I only had the Juno 60 and knew the Roland sound from before. I wasn’t interested in a Moog synthesizer back then. Probably also because they were still producing new devices. The Juno 60 was old and noisy and it is a polysynth that can make that beautiful 80s chords.
7. Your latest incarnation is an improved and new Roland MKS-50, also available as Alpha Juno-2 with MPE, effects and oscillator enhancements like sync as a bonus. Why did you decide to model this particular unit and what can we expect from it?
After a lot of maintenance tasks (on current line-up red.), I was motivated to do another project with an analog synthesizer. There were always people who requested the Alpha Juno. I was skeptical at first. Especially when I realized that the hardware of the Alpha Juno didn’t have a single slider. And then all those strange waveforms it has. Even worse was the synthesizer’s special envelope.
But in the end, it was still an analog synthesizer with an analog signal path. So I decided to give it a try and bought an MKS-50 for the project, hoping that it would work well enough to use it for plug-in development. Fortunately, this was the case and no additional service was required.
You can expect an authentic emulation of the Alpha Juno-2 / MKS-50 sound with additional features that make the synth even more interesting. One of the additions is the possibility to detune and modulate the pulse part of the DCO and hard-sync it. Another addition is the resonance boost button that increases the resonance range until self-oscillation.
The plug-in can read / send SYSEX data and can also be used to control
the hardware when supported by the DAW.
8. Do you have any plans for what you’re going to do next?
I don’t know what we will do next. We will see. At the moment the focus is on the TAL-Pha.
Will you for example ever update TAL-Tube?
It’s not possible to update that plugin without writing the whole plug-in new, except for the DSP code. This product is very old. Its UI says 2007, but probably it is even older. I would not do it the same way and I don’t want to update it 1:1. But never say no.
9. What will change from now in the next 25 years?
I am not sure. We are not a marketing-oriented company with a long-term business plan. I think the company will do the same as in the past. What’s important to me is that the products are easy to use, have a great, characterful sound, a long lifespan and a fair licensing model.
I also think, the source of creativity is limitation. The tools are designed to encourage users to use their own recorded samples or move a few sliders to create something new.
10. And if we are now on the subject of the future, do you think that AI will play a big part in the future in the audio field? Or in your company?
Yes, I’m sure AI will play a role. AI will be able to create whole songs or even film scores if it doesn’t already. But I don’t think I would really enjoy music that is based on AI, when I know it is AI. For me, it is important that a human spent a part of his lifetime to create a track.
No need to play a two handed piano or a violin and sing, but carefully arranging things, choosing notes and sounds. Making mistakes and mix things different. Having a vision. I think that AI has the potential to make music uninteresting, but at the same time it will also open up new possibilities for the future.
Many thanks to Patrick Kunz ^ TAL for letting us interview him.
If you want to know more about TAL, visit their website here.