DSF Q&A 21: Objekt

[Disco Nutter]

I think I didn't see this one pop up, skip it if it has been asked.

How do you deal with creative blocks? Do you work through them or do you wait them out? Any tips?

Thanks!

[eldoogle]

Ha I'd love to be able to group groups. Anyways, do you tune your drums? If so, only the kick? Or everything?

[Skrew]

Do you know of any books similar to "Becoming a Synthesizer Wizard: From Presets to Power User" or "How to Make Noise" that use NI software in the book. Not like manual on how to use the synths, but how to make sounds with them. Massive was the first synth I ever learned then Razor, but I still don't understand how to make a certain sound, what waveforms to use, differences in filters, etc. Not really just a how to make a wobble thing, but just sounds in general.

[jyro]

Hey Objekt. Much support for the great things you do...

In a response to someones question relating to panning, you mentioned that certain panning do not translate well to vinyl. Do you have any mixing do's/don't you could share with us with regards to preparing for vinyl pressing?

[nowaysj]

No questions, just respect.

[dj phrantic]

Thanks for doing the Q&A.

As far as Ableton goes, i'll be pretty damn dissapointed if they don't include dual monitor support and the ability to group groups in 9 (whenever that may be).

I know this will be something that you'll just do if you feel like doing or have an idea of some sorts and want to put it into practice, but do you feel like you'll be producing any dubstep in the future?

And I'd be interested to see a screenshot of one of your tracks if that's at all possible? That would be awesome to see.

Thanks.

[6000]

i'm curious to know: what's your approximate ratio of finished to unfinished projects? i probably end up ditching around five tunes for every one that i complete. i always wonder how the pros get on in that respect.

[mekinis]

Hello Objekt ! Thanks for this Q&A, a very interesting read. I noticed that you have maschine. The upcoming 1.8 version tape and tube saturation effect also has your hands on it ? Did you tried to use both maschine and ableton together (for me still hard to tame both together)? Whats your opinion about maschine and their effects ? Also do you think that harmony and general music theory is important to you or you just play till its sounds good : ) ? Thank you !

[5415]

Cannot wait to get stuck into reading this Q&A. Cheers Objekt for doing this!

[helix]

I'M IN THE ROOM WITH HIM RIGHT NOW, EVERYTHING HE'S SAID WAS A LIE



HE JUST HAS A BIG METAL BOX WITH A RED BUTTON LABELED "OBJEKT"




IT'S CRAZY








100% REAL TALK

[helix]

I TOOK A PHOTO FOR YOU GUYS

[Phigure]

where can i buy one of those though

[AxeD]

Helix, enlighten us with you vast knowledge of boxes with red buttons.

[helix]

I THINK NI IS PLANNING ON SELLING THEM NEXT YEAR?



THEY WON'T B OBJEKT BOXES THOUGH, THEY'RE FOCUSING MORE ON MAKING THE ULTIMATE ,,UK BASS,, PRODUCTION DEVICE




U'LL SOUND JUST LIKE DISCLOSURE

[Phigure]

WOW DISCLOSURE I LUV DEEP HOUSE




back to the questions though, obviously your work at NI influences your production quite a bit - what about your DJing?

[skimpi]

I THINK NI IS PLANNING ON SELLING THEM NEXT YEAR?



THEY WON'T B OBJEKT BOXES THOUGH, THEY'RE FOCUSING MORE ON MAKING THE ULTIMATE ,,UK BASS,, PRODUCTION DEVICE




U'LL SOUND JUST LIKE DISCLOSURE

So, Helix box?

[staticcast]

You mention it takes you several weeks to complete a tune, do you usually focus in one at a time or do you have several different projects on the go concurrently?

i used to only ever do one at a time. more recently i've had a few things on the go

Also quite a broad question but how do you approach your DJ sets?

play tunes wot i like in an order wot makes sense

I think I didn't see this one pop up, skip it if it has been asked.

How do you deal with creative blocks? Do you work through them or do you wait them out? Any tips?

usually i'll oscillate (over a few months) between writing and discovering new music, so often the blocks tend to come at the end of writing periods and going out and listening to loads of new stuff helps. and not just dance music.

also, see my answer above - in the end i found that working on one track at a time is generally very bad for creative blocks

Ha I'd love to be able to group groups. Anyways, do you tune your drums? If so, only the kick? Or everything?

depends! sometimes. i almost never set out to program my drums in key or anything like that, but often i'll hear a drum with a discernible pitch and think "this isn't right" and change it. i have perfect pitch though ("perfect pitch" always sounds like i'm bragging... my perfect pitch is actually pretty rusty) so i usually do these things by ear and don't think about them much.

Do you know of any books similar to "Becoming a Synthesizer Wizard: From Presets to Power User" or "How to Make Noise" that use NI software in the book. Not like manual on how to use the synths, but how to make sounds with them. Massive was the first synth I ever learned then Razor, but I still don't understand how to make a certain sound, what waveforms to use, differences in filters, etc. Not really just a how to make a wobble thing, but just sounds in general.

no, sorry. FM8 is a pretty standard FM synthesiser, and massive can be used as a pretty standard subtractive synth. i don't know of any books that cover wavetable synthesis or the more obscure stuff (modal bank like prism, and whatever the fuck razor uses), sorry, but i never studied audio engineering so i don't really know many books on the subject full stop.

synthesising "acoustic" instruments is as much to do with analysis as it is to do with synthesis; for example, in order to synthesise a trumpet you need to examine what kind of waveform a trumpet makes and how certain parameters (e.g. listening angle, valve positions, etc) affect the sound. making a phat bassline doesn't really have that analytical component; it's more about deciding what kind of sound you want, according to certain achievable parameters, and working out how your current tool set can approximate it. that, and happy accidents.

check out the SOS "synth secrets" series... lots of great tutorials in there.

Hey Objekt. Much support for the great things you do...

In a response to someones question relating to panning, you mentioned that certain panning do not translate well to vinyl. Do you have any mixing do's/don't you could share with us with regards to preparing for vinyl pressing?

good mixdown practice is good mixdown practice. the only specific vinyl no-no i can think of is heavy "side" content in the bass, since vinyl is cut in such a way that the mono content makes the needle oscillate laterally (left-right) and the stereo content makes the needle oscillate vertically, so lots of stereo content in the low end can make the needle jump out of the groove or the cutting stylus "bottom out" into the aluminium base of the master lacquer. but this is actually not bad advice for digital mixdowns either, since club soundsystems are often limited by the power of their subs, and making sure your low end is mono-only can maximise the amount of low end power you get out of a crappy system (think about it like this - if you pan something hard left then you have to boost it by 6dB to get the same volume out of it, and that might trigger the limiter earlier than if it were in mono). same applies to a heavily limited radio mix (if your track is destined for the radio).

vinyl can sometimes be sensitive to unnatural artifacts from stuff like MP3 compression and aural exciters... but none of you are doing that to your premasters right?

in most cases, any special treatment required for vinyl will be taken care of by a good vinyl mastering engineer. i strongly recommend having your track mastered by someone who will cut the master lacquer in house, since good mastering is a feedback process in which the engineer is constantly doing test cuts to see what the actual vinyl will sound like (often quite different), and compensating accordingly in his/her mastering job. not all mastering houses actually do this, and this is of course not an option if you master a track at studio A and cut it at pressing plant B.

oh, and don't squash things - vinyl has no 0dBFS. just cut the damn thing louder if you want it louder.

[eldoogle]

Thanks for answering my question.

[staticcast]

No questions, just respect.

Thanks for doing the Q&A.

As far as Ableton goes, i'll be pretty damn dissapointed if they don't include dual monitor support and the ability to group groups in 9 (whenever that may be).

I know this will be something that you'll just do if you feel like doing or have an idea of some sorts and want to put it into practice, but do you feel like you'll be producing any dubstep in the future?

you answered your own question mate

And I'd be interested to see a screenshot of one of your tracks if that's at all possible? That would be awesome to see.

Thanks.

sure, lemme get back to you on that

i'm curious to know: what's your approximate ratio of finished to unfinished projects? i probably end up ditching around five tunes for every one that i complete. i always wonder how the pros get on in that respect.

uff.... similar. maybe more like 1:10.

Hello Objekt ! Thanks for this Q&A, a very interesting read. I noticed that you have maschine. The upcoming 1.8 version tape and tube saturation effect also has your hands on it ? Did you tried to use both maschine and ableton together (for me still hard to tame both together)? Whats your opinion about maschine and their effects ? Also do you think that harmony and general music theory is important to you or you just play till its sounds good : ) ? Thank you !

the tape saturation yes, this is the same as the one in kontakt/battery. tube no.

i tried using ableton + maschine together once and didn't really get along with the workflow... there were also some issues with keystrokes being captured by ableton instead of being passed to maschine, but i think that might have been resolved since then.

maschine on its own is really fun but simply not capable enough for my needs at the moment. it's a very fast prototyping tool - whenever i do play around with it i'm amazed at how quickly i can come up with new loops and ideas etc - but i do far too much sidechaining, microscoping editing and intricate sound design for it to really work for me as a DAW in its current state.

i think the maschine effects are really good actually, though it could use some more basic and transparent stuff (i guess i'm coming from live, where every effect sounds thin as fuck on its own and you really need to know how to chain them together if you don't want to make something that just screams ABLETON). sometimes i use them in live actually - i've got the reaktor ensembles from which they were prototyped.

harmony and theory are important to me insofar as it bugs me HARD if something doesn't sound right harmonically, but in the end i do everything by ear. (sidenote: when i was younger, i.e. before i got into dance music, it always used to annoy the fuck out of me that house music acapellas were always out of tune)

obviously your work at NI influences your production quite a bit - what about your DJing?

not in the slightest... guys like this are the face of traktor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aINKALs3Vso

i do use traktor for the digi stuff i play out though (like 10-20% of my set).

once i tried to start up a comedy beef with the serato twitter account but they didn't bite

[dublerium]

And I'd be interested to see a screenshot of one of your tracks if that's at all possible? That would be awesome to see.

Thanks.

sure, lemme get back to you on that

Sweet would like to see these too, am trying to nail down my own workflow with ableton having quite recently moved over too it and it'll be helpful to see how someone experienced with it uses it.

Cheers for doing this Q&A