Willem Twee studios is a complex of studios located in the Netherlands. It consists of four different studios that house everything from 50s test and measurement equipment to classic analog 80s synths and more. In this interview, Rikkert Brok from Willem Twee talks about the origins of the studio, how they managed to amass so much vintage equipment and what it's like operating such a studio in a modern music environment.
My first question was actually about the name “Willem Twee”, does it mean anything?
Rikkert Brok: Well, that’s a bit of a peculiar story (laughs). We started out with our studios in 2015, but really small at first. At that time we had just one studio with the test and measurement equipment. At that time I was organizing electronic concerts and was the main sound engineer at a venue called the Toonzaal. And I met my colleague Hans Kulk there, and we had this plan to start the studios. Eventually, in 2017, this organization fused with two other organizations, an exhibition space and a venue in Den Bosch, situated in a former cigar factory. And that cigar brand was called “Willem Twee”, which is the name of the second king of the Netherlands [William II of the Netherlands]. So the name stuck because of that location, which also encompasses concert and exhibition spaces. So the whole organization is now called Willem Twee. Some people think it is called Willem Twee because my colleague Hans is called Willem, but that’s not the case (laughs)!
Can you go into the history of the studio and how it came to be?
Like I said, I was organizing concerts already at the Toonzaal. In 2014 or 2015, I ran into Hans Kulk. We had a conversation and eventually, Hans asked me, "do you want to see my studio?" And I said, yes, of course I want to see the studio (laughs). So we went up to the first floor [of his house] and in the bedroom was Hanse’s private collection of test and measurement equipment. He told me he used to teach music technology in Utrecht, and he often got requests from people that wanted to work with his private collection. But he didn’t have the room, we were standing there literally cramped up, no space at all!
And so we were thinking, maybe we can find another space for this equipment and start a studio. And at the Toonzaal there was an extra storage space that wasn’t very much. So we went to the director to put Hanses equipment in that space, and he said yes. Two months later, we moved everything from Hanses’ home to here. We then started doing courses and invited musicians for small residencies. That’s how it took off initially.
We then also got in touch with our other colleague Armeno Alberts, who was the director of another organization, CEM, that also focuses on electronic music. It started in Bilthoven in 1958 and traveled through the Netherlands, and eventually that collection ended up in Rotterdam. But the contract was running out, and Armeno was thinking about starting something new. We got in touch, and we said, "why don’t we do something together?" — because we had the test equipment from the 50s and 60s, and he had equipment from the late 60s to the late 80s. He thought it was a good idea, so we applied for funding and had the rooms refurbished, and in 2018 we had the official opening of Willem Twee.
How did Hans acquire that test equipment collection? Was it through eBay, or just asking around at old studios and universities?
Hans has been collecting that equipment for over 35 years. He started out as a musician in jazz and improvised music, and eventually got a synthesizer. He fell in love with analog synthesizers in the 80s, when everyone was dumping their old analogue because of the rise of digital synths like the Yamaha DX7. So he started collecting synthesizers, but eventually he got an old Hewlett-Packard noise generator. He fell in love with the build quality and the sound of it and he started to exchange his synthesizers for more test and measurement equipment. At that time there was no eBay, so it was mainly emailing and writing letters to universities, who still had that stuff hanging around at that time. And when eBay came around, he also started collecting on eBay. But yeah, it mainly started through universities and schools and various companies that still had that old test and measurement equipment laying around.
How is Willem Twee funded?
It is publicly funded by the city and the province. We need that funding to keep everything in good shape and to develop what we do. We need a bit of help to keep this studio alive. It is an open studio, we have an education program that collaborates with a lot of schools and universities, and we have a public role as an “institute”. And for example, we organize courses with the Institute of Sonology [check out our Stromkult interview with Kees Tazelaar, the director of Sonology here]. So we are a sort of stepping stone to university institutions. We can also provide a studio to students that have graduated, but would like to keep working with that analog equipment afterwards.
So anyone that is interested can apply and visit the studio, right?
Yeah! We ask for as little as possible, just a little bit of rent to work here. And anybody can work here. Last year we had secondary school kids here, introducing them to synthesizers and test and measurement equipment. We try to keep it as open as possible and we don’t require any specific musical or educational backgrounds.
What kind of people usually visit the studio, is it very international?
At the moment, 70-80% of people visiting are from abroad, it’s quite international. When we started, we were mostly expecting people with an electronic music background. But at the moment there is a very large variety of musical backgrounds, for example people with a background in jazz and improvised music. We recently had a saxophone player, a classical composer interested in incorporating electronic music, but also people from a pop or dance music background. We also have people doing foley sounds and scores for movies. We really get a lot of different people that want to experiment with the equipment.
I guess that’s one of the big attractions of a studio like this, right? That a lot of this equipment isn’t something you can just go out and buy from a store. It’s something most people will have never worked with before.
Yeah, and especially our Studio 1 with the test and measurement equipment can be quite intimidating at first. But we have developed ways to get people introduced into working with this equipment. For example, we have a lot of sine wave oscillators that are fixed on a mixing desk, so you can do basic additive synthesis, and you can easily route them through different processing. We help people with what kind of sounds or processing they are looking for, and we set up a basic patch and then we let them work with it themselves and expand. We help people get acquainted with the equipment, because we have a lot of knowledge that helps people get started with the instruments and equipment.
How do you integrate this equipment into modern workflows?
We have an audio interface and a computer running Reaper, so people can easily record the sounds digitally and take them home on a hard drive. It’s also possible for people to bring their own laptop and interface. It took us quite a bit of time to figure out the routing and sub-routing [through the mixing desk], so that there’s a maximum of flexibility and functionality, but it’s still easy to figure out for anyone. And we’re still constantly fine-tuning things, changing and upgrading things. It’s an ongoing process and that’s also part of the fun of running a studio like this.
Does this equipment require a lot of repairs and maintenance?
Not really — it’s all stuff from the 50s/60s Cold War era, so it was built to last! Of course sometimes things break, but it actually doesn’t happen too much and it’s usually nothing essential that breaks. But we do have a large collection, so usually there is something to work on.
Can you say something about the different studios you have at Willem Twee?
So Studio 1 is the studio with all the test and measurement equipment and tape recorders. Studio 2 is the synth studio with instruments from the late 60s up until the Yamaha DX7. It also has a big ARP 2500 system and some custom-built stuff as well, like a great custom vocoder inspired by the old Sennheiser and EMS vocoders.
At Studio 1, I especially like the passive Rohde & Schwarz filters which we have connected to different auxes in series. And I also like the Serge Modular system we have a lot, because it has a nice workflow with the banana plugs and you can easily set up a nice sounding patch. But you can also go wild with it, you do have quite a loose and very flexible way of patching.
Is there a piece of equipment that people visiting usually gravitate to?
A lot of people want to work with the ARP 2500, since it is such a rare occasion to find one you can actually work with. And of course, the test and measurement equipment, people really like working with that. And we have a keyboard corner with a Minimoog, a Roland Juno, a Sequential Prophet 5 and so on, which is more accessible to people without too much knowledge. Like, the Juno is such an accessible instrument that people can easily start working with. But of course, it also depends on the interests of the people visiting.
But those are the two studios — I have some great news here actually, the rumor already spread around a bit! We are expanding with two extra floors, we have just received the key. So there are two more floors and on the second floor we are going to realize another studio with individual workstations, for example one station is going to have a Korg MS synth, one station is going to be a more accessible version of studio one, so mainly test & measurement equipment. So we’re going to make six different setups, with also the option to house larger groups for workshops. So it will look more like a classroom that other organizations can also organize a workshop in. And on the third floor, we’re going to realize guest accommodations so that guests can stay overnight without leaving the studio.
How do your artist residencies work?
We don’t really do open calls because we have limited space and budgets, but we do a lot of collaborations, and together we host these residencies. We collaborate a lot with the November Festival, FAQ Festival, and Sonic Acts in Amsterdam. And of course, next to the studio is also a concert hall with a presentation space, where every month we host a concert. And sometimes we invite artists to spend some time in the studio and to then also give a concert and presentation.
I saw you have quite a big presence on Instagram. Is it a way for you to share the studio experience with people that cannot visit?
The three of us just have a part time job here at the studio and the initial idea with the Instagram was to just have a sort of archive of ideas — like, it can just be a patch or demonstration of a technique or a sound example. It is also for ourselves, to have a sort of data bank of ideas. So we try to post a small clip or video every week. But we also try to keep it simple and to respect people’s privacy and not take pictures all the time, so people can focus on working in the studio. But they’re welcome to post themselves of course, and we support that as best as possible.
Can you say something about the workshops you are doing?
The way it works at the moment is that people can send us an email with what workshop they are interested in, and if we have enough interested participants we plan a workshop. And of course people can also have private workshops. We also often do tape/musique concrete workshops, which are quite popular, getting people acquainted with tape and montage techniques. If people have specific requests regarding a machine or technique, we are also willing to help out and set up a custom workshop for them.
You also work together with visual arts institutions, right?
The connection with the museum in The Hague is funny, because we knew they had a large collection of electronic instruments. And they were just stuck in their archive depot for 25 years or so. We thought it was a shame that it ended there, doing nothing — which also isn’t good for the instruments! So in collaboration with the Institute of Sonology, we got a part of the collection as a long-term, permanent loan. It was also an extension of our Serge system, since they had three extra Serge panels and also a lot of keyboard synths.
You’ve been open for a few years now, how has the studio evolved over time?
We started in September 2018 and we were just starting to get everything running. Stefan Hainbach visited us. But then suddenly, we were closed for almost two years during the pandemic — and we were just starting to take off! So during the pandemic it was quite hard, although we were still open for artists from the Netherlands. Financially that was also quite tricky, but we’ve made it through and now, since about one and a half years we’re really back on track like we were before the pandemic. So now it’s going really well and the next months are going to be busy with all sorts of projects.
Regarding the development of the studio, we don’t want to focus too much on just being a "large collection of keyboards". Sometimes we get offered these additional instruments — but we don’t want to have everything, we want to keep a thematic focus and have the studios work together as a whole. We try to think of it as one big modular system, because we can actually connect the different studios together with audio and CV lines. And in between them there’s also the concert hall, which is a former Synagogue with nice acoustics and a church organ and a Steinway piano. A while ago, we had a pianist there and we processed his playing through the equipment in studio 1 and then sent it back in real time.
We also sometimes get requests of doing more DAW-focused workshops. But there are already other organizations who work with that. I think it’s important to have a focus, and our knowledge and passion is in the equipment we have here. It’s already quite a job to keep what we have running. You can’t do everything! For example, I’d love to run a label with music done in the studio. But our time is limited, and running a label is another job altogether. So we really want to use our time to help producers, musicians, composers and artists realize their music in the studios.
You can't do everything!
Has anyone surprised you with what they’ve done in your studios?
Definitely, especially with studio one. Sometimes it’s like “never thought about that, let’s try and see what happens”! Also, because of the different backgrounds of musicians we get all sorts of different ideas and requests. Even though by now we know the equipment quite well, sometimes nice surprises happen.
Is there anything else you would like to say?
If people have questions or ideas, please feel free to contact us! We try to help as much as possible, even with our limited time. We want to be an open studio for everybody, no matter what genre or style you do — so feel free to contact us and we can see if we can help!
You can find out more about Willem Twee studios over at their website, where you can contact them and also book studio time. You can also find videos and more over at their Instagram.