Thinking out loud...

[wub]

MK shows you how he makes a remix


Egyptian Lover programming an 808 drum beat


Rockwell Boiler room set...awesome.

[JTMMusicuk]

Moog voyager

[wub]

Random Quotes From Different Folks - Pt 5

There are no particular sources as to where my samples come from. I basically buy a LOT of music, preferably on vinyl. As I'm fortunate to be traveling a lot from the DJ side of things, I make sure to check out local record shops abroad and UK in order to find the most obscure / interesting stuff and that applies to jazz, soul and every other genre. More importantly it's finding that one line in the record and "flipping it" that will determine where your track will go.

As for the processing, the quality of the original sample is just as important.
"You can't polish a turd" as they say, or if so only to a certain extent. Once again, with old music you may find that there are some interesting approaches to production such as the panning and recording of instruments. I find that utilizing and emphasizing on the ambience of the original is essential to maintain the warmth.

My best piece of advice to any up-coming producer is to keep persevering. It's a never ending learning curve so keep going and push yourself. Write music for yourself and enjoy it. Don't be so obsessed about mixdowns, vibes are much more important and mixdowns will naturally improve over time.

I generally work on my drum tracks in audio. When I moved over to an all computer environment I pretty much gave up on samplers, mostly because the version of Pro Tools I was running didn't support software instruments. I used very old fashioned techniques actually. I've never used reacyled or any automatic beat chopping software... I'm so used to Sound Forge and Pro Tools now that I just do it all with those two... I guess it's like old engineers getting hooked on cutting up tape with razors. It seems crazy with todays tools but hey, it works for me!

I tend to do very little in the way of severe processing when I'm starting out writing a track... although I do go to town with the compressors, and also editing and crossfading little bits of the beats etc... such as editing out background noise before an important hit eg a kick/snare so the compressor has a decent chance to get back to unity gain before the next smack. once I've got all the elements I think I'll need for the drum track I'll work out a series of patterns with alternating combinations of the elements, then bounce everything down to maybe 3 audio tracks max (partly cos Pro Tools only has 16 stereo audio tracks, partly to simplify stuff), so then when I'm editing the beats afterwards, which is all done by hand in audio, no randomisers or anything, just me, a mouse and the odd offline plugin.

I don;t really knwo much about breaks or synths. I generally make my own synths, although I do often use the built in ones in Reaktor... the simplest ones are the best for macaroni cheese sounds... occasionally you want a caviar sound and I';ll use something like Photone, then go to town on tweaking it out. A lot of my synth lines are actually done in audio in Pro Tools though... pitching stuff up and down with the offline processing... then you can really tweak each not out and animate it.

typically i use various breaks that i've collected over the years, and a lot of the time it will be the same ones, just processed in entirely different ways.. i usually start with 3 or 4, then put some percussive elements (hihats, rides, shakers, congas, etc) in to get some layers, then might add a few more breaks for various things.

as far as drum programming goes, i try to pay a lot of attention to dynamics (using lower velocity on certain notes, for instance) to make the drums sound a bit more live.

i usually start out with the beat when i'm writing my tunes, so a lot of the time i will work on the beat for a while, with very little else going on, until the beat sounds good on its own.

i don't really use a lot of reverb on drums, unless it really needs it.. as far as compression goes, i like the waves plugins... my advice is to use it sparingly, and not squash the drums TOO much.

Over the years we have built up a large selection of kits and loops that we are constantly adding to and re-proccesing. It definatly helps to have a good library of drums. Re-proccesing usually involves distortion and compression but it is also good to experiment with effects like pitch shifters, modulation effects like phasers or timestretching, there is no limit to how creative you wanna be especially when doing edits.

I don't like to compress so much for beats. I prefer to bus all parts of the beat together and add a slight limiter such as the Logic Ad-limiter along with some EQuing prior to the limiting. For EQuing I use Logic's channel EQ.

Feeling/content is the most important though... there's a lot of turd polishing in dnb I reckon. Some music lends itself to a loose production sound, some needs to be tight and honed... it depends what you're trying to achieve. Generally I think the poetry vs grammar thing illustrates it well enough. You can use anything as a tool, even bad grammar/bad production so long as it works. Check out some of the mashcore stuff... the production's all over the place but the music's ace. Then check some really deep loopy techno where it;s very sparse but the production's incredible... enough to carry the music in its own right.

Make sure you have a sound check and a jam to get to know the room you're playing in.

Make sure you remember all your leads... specially if you're playing abroad!

Don;t drink too much or your hands stop working

Do whatever the fuck you want to do

Don't get scared too quickly if people stop dancing, else you'll freak out and fuck up

Make loads of mistakes cos it's really funny

BE YOURSELF

BE SPONTANEOUS

Don't plan anything

Don't try to change your setup right before a gig. Shit will go wrong, even if you;re confident it won't.

Don't drop your laptop, check it in on flights or worse still hit it (I have paid the price for all 3 of these)

Don't be a demanding diva, be cool with people, firm but nice... Until 15 mins before you go on when you have carte blanche to be an arsehole until everything is how you want it and you're comfortable!!

If people ask you what software you use say you made it yourself... then they generally don't ask you any more questions

Drugs don't make you play better, they just make it sound better.

Don;t have any preconceptions about what you're going to do on stage. Just get up there and do it. Don;t rationalise it, don't wonder whether what you just did was good or not, just do it... move on!

I just do whatever feels right. It's the arrangement bit that has no rules for me really. I just start at the beginning and push on through. I try to create a strong narrativein my tracks... I don't like blocky arrangements, I like things that flow... that grow at various rates rather than going from one section to another to another... although sotimes harsh changes can work really well though.

The biggest mistake for a novice producer would be to give up. The easiest way to avoid this is not to give up. The second most important thing about being a novice producer is not to listen to anyone. Do it your own way, it'll pay off in the end. Artistic vision and tenacity always gets its just desserts

I can say that I am fond of mostly 70’s funk breaks also like to rip up old metal breaks Sabbath, Zeppelin and such. Most of the breaks I prefer to use are dirty sounding and I also tend to layer at least 5 breaks to get a desired sound. If I had to choose one fav. break it would be something that I sampled from a old Fania All-Stars concert which is a conga break that I use on almost all my songs.

I don’t compress my breaks to much but when I do I use the logic compressor at a minimal level. I rather beef up the breaks in Peak with Platinum waves Limiters and get my levels right from the get go.

I don’t use any synths for my subs. Maybe I have for some tunes but I always re-sample them. I use 808’s for 90% of my tunes. The trick for me is to play with the 808 while in peak adding or subtracting EQ and or Compression until I feel the bass is big enough. I really like my subs to sound like they are under water so that if you are playing in a proper system you get a hit, shake, wave..wave… wave…. effect… fuck that make no sense in writing but if you listen to my subs it might. After I get the sub were I want it in Peak I use more EQ/Compression in Logic + on the mackie board

I have been experimenting lots with delays on beats to get these dreamy dub atmospheres and also layering the same breaks at different pitches with delays to also get freaky patterns.

Sometimes I have exactly what I want in my head and sometimes it is all jus one big mistake that can create a good jam. Mostly, I go with the flow and the samples. I like to start out with beatz and then build from there but like I said before sometimes mistakes are the best things to happen in a studio.

I have always taken my time with tunes but I can’t work on a tune for more then 2-3 days. The reality is I am the kind a person that sits down only when I feel like making a tune and if I am in the mode I will usually get the tune done in a few days non-stop. I get obsessed after I have the initial vibe and that to me is the most important part of the tune. That initial vibe is everything to me. If I don’t get a good feeling from the beginning of the session it usually goes to shit and I will put the tune aside until a later date.

We are fans of Massive. We seldom use it live in a sequence though. Normally we write a simple riff and repeat it over a couple of minutes. We then automate lots of parameters that have a profound effect over the overall sound (sometimes at random). When we are satisfied that we have well and truly twisted the sound beyond recognition we render the result as an audio file. We then chop out snippets that have an interesting sonic quality and start piecing those sounds together. Sometimes we will place those sounds in Kontakt and see if we can write some riffs that way.

After we have an idea of what sounds we want to use we usually work them into a 16 bar loop. We create variations of the loop by adding layers that can be either introduced or dropped as we arrange. After we are happy with the loop (at this stage we call it a palette) we copy it across for the length of the track and start sculpting the arrangement.

When we started out we sampled lots of tecno records and sifted through lots of sample cds. Nowadays we usually create samples by messing around with plugins and recording the results. If you have a good sample that evokes some kind of vibe, it makes it easier to write other elements around it.

We do like to lift a sample or two from techno records, it can be a great starting point. The synth line in Dropout is from a Z3ta inside NI Kore that controls the decimator and wave shaping parameters simultaneously.

We all like a varied selection of different music styles, minimal being one of those. We haven’t made any 125bpm tracks yet, but who knows…â€

i use that often, but also have various sample cd's with string/pad presets that i like to mess with, if i'm looking for a less classical feel. absynth is a really detailed synth that i use for that sometimes as well.

i'm definitely more sample-based. i guess the way i work a lot of the time is that i get comfortable with certain programs (like old versions of logic, for instance) that i can work with fluently, and continue to use those until i find a major reason not to. i like to put samples through the logic exs24 sampler, for instance, because i've used it so extensively that i've found that i can manipulate sounds using that, and a few other key plugins that i use constantly.

a lot of synths also take up more processor space than the exs24, which is an issue when i'm working unfortunately.. my computer is fast, but not enough that i can go synth crazy and not feel it. one of the most frustrating things you can deal with when producing is having a track that is sounding great, but won't even play through because you're stacked it too much. with synths, i try to resample stuff right away to avoid that.

essentially how i got into producing was through ansi art (if anyone knows what that is.. there must be a few on here). it was a primitive 16-colour dos-based artform that was used heavily for decorating dial-up bulletin board systems before the internet took over. i used to draw art for a well known group called iCE. anyways, around the same time, a lot of people were making music using mod trackers, like impulse tracker or fast tracker, that were very basic (comparatively) sequencers, and i got very into that. what i started making didn't sound so much like any electronic music as it did really basic video game music (think shinobi). eventually i got in touch with a few people over the internet who were making some interesting beats. in particular, i met both mayhem and resound way back when i was doing that stuff.

[wub]

Random Quotes From Different Folks - Pt 6

The general principle I use is to have most of the gnarly midrange bass harmonics occurring on a bus. The bassline itself will come from a midi instrument, more often than not a fairly saturated bass sample running in EXS24 sampler. This channel will then have an aux send going to a bus with processing on it. The order of this processing is preety much anything goes, the only thing that is essential is a HPF at the end of the channel strip to make sure there is no actual sub coming from the Bus.

A fairly typical signal flow on one of my bass buses would be (top to bottom)

RESONANT HPF @ 200-300HZ > Apple Au HPF / Sonalksis TBK etc
DISTORTION TOOL/FILTER > Camelphat / Guitar Rig / Guiter Amp / Bitcrusher
COMPRESSOR/LIMITER > Silver Compressor
NORMAL HPF @ 200HZ > Logic Fat EQ

generally I’ll never use a break in its original context, perhaps just borrow a snare or kick from one break, the hats from another etc etc … I look at breaks in terms of their frequency content, not really their groove.. the groove can be emulated through arrangement, but absent frequencies cant be.

I feel a potential for change, but at present the number of nights you can reliably show up to and feel assured you can play ‘off the map’ kinda stuff can be counted on both hands. There is certainly a slipstream that’s been created by people like Instra:mental and Breakage that allows others to utilise the inroads they’ve mde. I think dubstep has played a huge role In this also by setting a precedent for the acceptance of minimal production values on the dancefloor. Things could really change, but I think for the experimental end of dnb to succeed it needs to develop a certain level of irreverence to what works on the dancefloor, which is obviously a tricky thing to manage considering this genre for a long time has been a place where reputations are forged on the dancefloor, not the ipod, or the living room.

Environment is so crucial. For the last 10 months or so I've been living, working and sleeping int he same room which has drastically cut my work rate. I've written so few tunes recently compared to my usual rate of work. I'm hopefully gonna get a separate studio soon, which will really sort stuff out. I need it though as I've got more and more media/production work coming up & I'm relaunching my audio production company in a few months so I can;t afford wasted time and interruptions.

As far as environment outside the house goes, it's also pretty crucial. I think if you feel uncomfortable in your neighbourhood it can make you feel uncomfortable in your house. That said when I was living up in Leeds I lived in a dump of a neighbourhood but I still managed to have a really productive year though. The proximity to countryside is important though. I think I'm slightly agoraphobic... terms of people not places. I often feel quite uneasy in public places unless I'm the centre of attention!

I don;t think there are any shoulds in music. Do what you want with it... if you want to make generic genre tracks, do it; if you want to make groundbreaking electronic stuff that is so far removed than anythign that';s been before that no one will listen to it do it! I';m sometimes quite baffled when people get hailed as geniuses for taking elements from different genres and putting them together. It#'s not hard at all! If you want to do that then you might as well get loads of loops together in diffferent genres in the same tempo and key and make some patch for combining different loops at random. Not hard!

I generally try to finish a track in one sitting yes, but it;s not a hard and fast rule. Generally I find the tracks that I finish in one go are more coherent structurally, but then again there are some excpetions to that rule. Nowadays I'm a lot less strict and rigorous about the way I work... if something's not working I just tend to move on to something else. This might account for the ridiculous number of unfinished tracks I have kicking around at the mo!

i sort of felt the same way about my tracks until i started to use more breaks in my tune - they help fill up space, even if they're chopped up a bit. try adding "ghost" hits to your beats - extra kicks/snares/etc that are a lower velocity, so they help carry the beat.

as far as making other sounds fit together, i think it's best to come up with a main theme (usually a bassline) and then work from there.. resample it, cut it up, process the pieces in different ways, piece them together, etc. so the bassline will have a continuous feel but not sound monotonous.

If you want punch in a break you have to find a break that initially has punch because I have found its hard to bring it out if the sample is shit. Always begin with a good sample if thats the soundd you want. I find it useful to use several breaks.

the basics, example:

1st break.... dirty sounding, pitched up with low end filtered out
2nd break... cleaner sample and at full range EQ + compression
3rd break... HEAVY KICK + HEAVY SNARE

i will usually add delayed clean breaks at lower volume.

Also if u BUS your channels you can get beefed up sounding breaks from the natural compression of each channel you push.

One more thing… I have been bouncing all my main breaks and putting them on a separate channel pushing the compression to almost distortion levels and placing that channel on a lower volume to give the drums punch and beef [got this from a friend who engineers for metallica and metal bands

its basically bouncing all the drums into one. then placing that one bounce on its own channel and pushing that channel's compression to the max while keeping the volume low. what it does is very subtle but it def. beefs up the drums in the mix. it also makes the kick and snare stand out.

On the drums front we do spend a LOT of time on them, usually we start off with a break we have already built then layer, its all bout layering, we have been known to use anything up to 15 different breaks with different EQs applied to each one, Hi Pass, Low Pass, Mid range and everything In between. Then work from there, the we apply individual hits on top.

All of this is being sent to a drum group and we are EQ them all with an overall EQ pulling out the Kick Frequency’s Snare and so on, looking to get a flat even spectrum with the whole mix of the beats as it were.

we pretty much always plan how we are going to aproch a tune before we start, Doug (Parallel Forces) is really good at hunting out samples, we have a huge sample bank full off old funk, rear groove , disco, House, Metal reggae, dub and every thing in-between. When we feel like we have rinsed all the samples we tend to spend a few weeks just hunting for samples, we sat down and sampled hundreds upon hundreds of records about a month back so were all armed up for the new session.

I’m listening to a lot of DJ sets which is great because a lot of them have no tracklisting unlike most dnb mixes, hate most of what I hear but some of the really hypnotic stuff that’s quite syncopated and dead ambient has me hooked

In the bigger scheme of things though its Films and soundtracks that are my biggest influence. As much as I love old hiphop for me that’s gone back to being a listening thing, trying to transpose the production ethos of hiphop to our bpm is really hard and even with things like Solitary Native or Riverside, as glad as I was with the outcome of the track, there is a certain sense of lazy funk that is largely lost because of the pace of our genre

PLaying live is all about keeping your wits about you and presenting yourself on stage in the most honest way you can. If the laptop crashes it crashes, deal with it! I'd far rather stand on stage trying to entertain the crowd with a mic while my lapto reboots than just switch over to a CD. I don't see the point. What the crowd are hearing if you have backup is not actually what's happening on stage. Obviously I try to make my patches and setup as stable as possible but there are always gonna be glitches, crashes, reboots etc. Usually happens 1 in 6 gigs or so.

Sometimes I'll ask someone to play a record if it;s too much of a nigthmare situation, but often I'll just wing it... do some stupid stuff on the mic etc. I've successfully managed to break away from the perfectionist culture and I'm quite happy if things go wrong. I'm not into sloppiness at all.. it's just that I realise if you're trying to do super tech stuff on stage that no one's done before, really prototype stuff, then of course it's gonna go wrong! You just need to deal with it. Nowadays my setup seems to be a lot more stable though. It went through a nightmare period about 3 months back so I went back to the drawing board and reprogrammed a whole chunk of the patch from scratch, bypassing some of the features which were built into Reaktor and were messing up my patch, bought a new soundcard and swapped my laptop over... since then it's worked like a dream! Unless the power supply comes unplugged which seems to screw everything right up. But anyway, the key is to not get freaked out. If you get freaked out the crowd get freaked out simple as that. UIf it goes wrong and you say on the mic 'ang on you stnuc it's gone wrong' then people stay. If you look nervous and stutter everyone gets freaked out.

Well there's getting gigs and booking gigs, and there are tricks to both. For the first, be good and tell people you;re good, the latter being more important. The second... make sure you;re clear with what you need and what you expect and stick to it. I've had a couple of nigthmare gigs when I wasn;t completely clear about what I needed t5echnically, just assumed it'd be there. Be aware that every promoter has their own circumstances. Some can and should afford to pay you a decent fee, others can't. Try to be canny and work out whether you're getting your fair share. Don;t try to push promoters beyond what they can manage financially, but likewise don't let people take the piss. Often promoters try to short you on the night... this is the trickiest situation to deal with. It's not cos their bad people, it's just that in this line of business the profits are... well... often there aren;t any. You don;t want to become known to be soft but then again you don;t want to be known as a tnuc. I lot of the time I get the feeling that promoters don;t realise that shorting artists really can make an impact on their ability to afford to live. Conversely if they lose money then it;s the same for them (although most of them have day jobs too). I have often felt that people have taken advantage of the fact that I'm a pretty affable guy face-to-face though which is a shame.

a good tip if you're trying to eq out unwanted frequencies in old breaks, or anything really, is to boost the eq with a high q-value and sweep it until you find the frequencies that sound the most out of place, and then take the eq down at those points. for whatever reason, this sometimes works better for me than just taking the eq down and sweeping it.

frequency analysis can be useful for this too... at least for finding out what frequency ranges need to be eq'd out. there's a good direct-x analyzer called brainspawn spectr that i've been using a lot lately.

i guess i don't really hate any particular sample, just the ones that people have used over and over and over for years, and never process them... i think it's cool to use classic sounds as long as you do something to them to make them sound different.

I usually quantise so everything is on beat. It really depends on the break, but I think it's best to have everything nailed on time, and then move things around if it needs it.

When it comes to doing DJ mixes, I've only really done a few and posted them online, so I don't do much. I just gain it until just before the loudest point in the mix is distorting. Maybe someone else can give me tips on the best way to process a studio mix

I have a template that I work from when starting a track, but it's nothing out of the ordinary.. just a few exs24 samplers loaded but bypassed, so they're already in there... i have my favourite reverbs and delays on buses, so they're easy to add in, and that's about it.

as far as filling out tunes... maybe some subtle percussion that is properly balanced with the rest of your drums is what you need... it can be different with every tune. it's also really easy to overdo it with sounds.. i have issues adding too much into my tunes sometimes, and have to force myself to take things out, and save them for other projects.

sometimes it will be inspired by a loop or sample i want to use, or just a bassline rhythm, pad sequence, whatever. with some tracks i will hunt for samples just for the sake of seeing how things will come out if i select the sounds first... typically i just have a groove in mind and try to get the drums down first, then everything else.

No matter how dope you can make drums and bass sound if you don’t have a general vibe or style then the tunes are fucked. I hear so much new complex music with superior engineering techniques coming out now days but the tunes sound dead. Like they were made in a sterile lab. All the funk and soul stripped out of the music.

Then there are the tunes that have all the vibe but the quality of the music is so shit and the mixdown is horrid. This will not do either. So I think an equal balance or at least something close to a balance.

[wub]

Random Quotes From Different Folks - Pt 7

If we had to generalise then I would say that we start off with a relatively simple drum kit or loop, find a sample that evokes some kind of vibe, work on some bass and from there just add elements that reinforce the idea.

we stopped using the ozone few years back, we were using it as a spectrum analyzer, but realized waves paz was better so we ditched it. We did try the mach EQ setting a few times to have a look at different producer’s mixdowns but it didn’t really have the desired effect. Its deff worth look at mixdowns of other peoples tunes (Frequency wise) we do it all the time still, just to see were people are hading, every year or so mixdowns gradually
change so it best to keep on top of things.

How it usually runs is we start with a sample, a vibe and work up from there, usually adding the beats first then layering sounds on top. Mala may add some guitar and we work to a 16 bar groove till were happy with it. Then the bass. We always produce and engineer the track as we go, getting the Sonics to sit rite. This saves time when u come to do the final mixdown.

Start with beats and build elements till there are 5-6 strong themes occurring, usually in a 8 or 16 bar loop. Arrange these out, and then go back
and elaborate on each section of the tune with appropriate automation, additional instruments or rearranging of Midi parts.

I use a stupid amount of automation. Lots of cutoff and volume automation, FX bypasses and basic midi control info also. Logic has an amazing automation embedding feature which is great for looping sections of automation.

My overall drum loop will consist of a variety of layers, most of which have been chosen to fill in gaps in frequency content. This all occurs in Midi within EXS24. this can be anything from 3 up to 10/15 channels ….. a layer of congas, one for a fast shaker, one with a High passed breakbeat maybe, a channel for the kick separate to the channel for the snare etc etc etc blah blah, just keep building but aim not to have too many channels doing the same job (like 3 layers of kicks or multiple layers of hats all with the same groove) . To force the breaks together they’re all routed to a bus
(Direct out not an aux send) on which their will be subtle compressor and finally a limiter.

being in an environment where you’re around other aspiring producers is always healthy and music technology colleges are the logical place to find other people who are on a similar level to yourself, people with tips to share. On a personal level, the course I did really helped me out, but when it come to useful tricks and genre specific techniques, its other producers who helped me out the most.

Label bosses on the whole listen out for the potential to regularly make music that is commercially viable, viewed through each labels own personal perspective of ‘viable’. People generally dont want to sign an artist that don’t feel they can build a working relationship with, and if you are musically, emotionally, or occupationaly unpredictable, it makes it harder for a label to see you as a good signing. So yeah ready to go is perhaps less
important then raw potential itself.

Drugs are fun until the aftermath starts to interfere with your daily reality. Music sounds better on drugs. You play music with less skill and dexterity on drugs. Drugs can help you let go of your mind. You improvise better when you've let go of your mind. It's easy to get carried away with drugs and forget what it's gonna be like the next day. You don;t need drugs to let go of your mind, although it makes it a lot easier. If you can let go of your mind without drugs you won't suffer any side effects and the experience will be far more vivid and memorable.

I have pretty much the same view about recreational psychoactive drugs as I do about prescribed psychoactive drugs. I have experiences of both. They're both utterly evil and have horrible side-effects. There are greatly preferable alternatives to both although they involve far more effort and involvement. And whatsmore the use of pschoactive drugs of both types are so essential to the economy that we're not really going to see the disappearance of either. Sadly

any time you engage with technology you have to engage with a particular interface. These are getting easier, quicker to use and more intuitive by the year, but let's not forget that this is enabled by the trial and error of those who are trying to push these boundaries. It's not possible to separate the development of music and technology. They march forward hand in hand, the one pulling the other in ways they couldn;t and wouldn;t go on their own. I think it;s fair to say that there are some works that are obvious showcases or explorations of technology, and others which are less so. I don't see any aesthetic problem with creating music that really explores new technical possibilities, and I don;t think that this as an end in itself precludes musicality, whatever that might be. Ultimately on what grounds do you judge whether this highly technologically virtuoso piece stands or falls? By the way it sounds. That's the only way you can judge it. If it sounds rubbish to you it falls, if it sounds awesome, it stands. This is a musical judgement.

Take some of the Chrysler or Paganini violin pieces. They were what we might call tech-heads these days... they were violinists, violion makers and composers, and some of the music they wrote was extremely techy... just as much as say autechre or squarepusher. Just that now we've society has absorbed these experiments into its cultural constitution we don;t see these things as adventurous.

Take the piano. When that was first invented it blew music as people knew it out of the water. The techniques for buiilding pianos and playing them were then honed over years and years and some amazingly varied playing styles came out of it... a lot of which must have sounded very jarring when they were first aired.

It pays to be aware of how we respond as humans to developments, to things that havenl;t yet come into our realm of comprehension. We need to adapt in order to find a place for these things in our system of understanding, and this is a painful and difficult thing to do. I really admire people who are willing to destroy they voice they know so well, go back a few steps and build a new one. I believe the further you go back, the deeper you go, the more you will discover.

As far as actually integrating this exploration into creating music goes, it';s tricky. You have to find a comfortable balance. This is why I have stuck with Reaktor. It gives me enough power to go down to the last bit if I wish, but at the same way I can and do integrate the programming into the creative process, as the interface, for me, is quick and intuitive enough.

The shift in society towards a need for celebrity for celebrity's sake has undermined the meritocracy of the past. But society did that, no one made it do it. It's the way it happened. If you want to be successful as a virtuoso nowadays you have to be willing to celebricise yourself a bit. But no doubt society will get used to this... or it'll shift back. It's very easy to say everything's wrong... it;s very human, people have been talking apocalyptically about their current society since the year dot. Obviously I wish that people would give me credit more for what I do than who I'm associated with but, hey, it's led me to associate myself with some pretty cool people!

It's all about entering into a dialogue with your tools. The more you get to know your tools inside out, the more you can preempt what they're going to do, and the more you can start to plan stuff out in your head with the knowledge of what they can do. But as long as they keep surprising you (which they always will) you won;t be able to make the sounds in your head exactly as you imagine them

I like to use whole breaks mostly. I have a set of kicks and snares that I always use for the purpose of beefing up thinner sounding breaks if needed. As for distortion I don’t distort anything that is going to be in the forefront of my breaks. If I do push certain breaks I do it with compression and that I usually do in Peak while I am in sampling session mode.

As for EQing breaks I find that if you have a break cleaned up before you put it into the sampler/audio track its usually enough. There are times that I do add EQ to my breaks but not often.

Usually pads are something we build around the main loop/chords. It could just be a sample that fits key wise but most often we'll copy the chords with another instrument could be a synth or even mala just playing the straight chords on guitar with a long sustain. Then we'll bounce them and put them through some kind of filtering. I like to do this in wavelab using the fusion filter its a very simple plug in which allows you to have up to three filters feeding into each other. Usually i'll use the first filter for some long sweeps and the second for some quicker subtle fluttering modulations to fit around the groove. What kind of filter i use eg lowpass highpass all depends on where the other sounds in the track are sitting frequency wise. Once i've got a nice loop i'll make a few variations on it by reversing the loop or adding some delay usually ohmboyz.

Our first release didn’t just happen over night, I had been producing for over 10 years before I hooked up with the lads. They had been producing for 8 (they had compiled an album for Aspect recordings). We both had numerous releases over this period but became disheartened with the music industry as a whole after a series of bad experiences. We all had some time off from music for a good while doing different things, then one night a drunken conversation with me and Doug parallel forces we decided to collaborate on a tune, and the tune was ‘Fizzy Piglets’.

We were getting a lot of good feed back from our friends about that track so I used some of my old contacts and send it off to people. And you know what I didn’t get lost of calls strait away, it wasn’t till a few peeps had been playing it that things started to happen and within a few weeks the phone was ringing off the hook. But we had a plan, we knew Valve were playing in Newcastle that week and Dillinja and Lemon D were heroes of ours, couple that with the fact that we knew they were looking to take on artist at VLV so we made it our mission to take fizzy down and get it spun. Lucky for us our good mate phobia runs the night and plays there, he spun the track last tune and low and beholden Dillinja asked wot it was strait way. But it didn’t end there. At then end of the night my mate slipped a copy of the CD in to the CDJ so when they got back to the office they found it and the rest is history as we say.

its all about EQ mate - and haveing a good Source sound to start off with, we spend a lot of time finding the rite sound and getting the bass sit rite in a tune, For example if we use an 808 kick bass we will probably Saturate / distort it, EQ the shit out of it and make sure it don’t clash with your kick drum (we always do the drums first). Then we will bounce it, bring it back in to a software sampler like kontact, filter it, EQ it some, see were it sitting in the mix and take it on from there….we never compress our bass and we never make stereo bass always mono, just for cutting and mastering reasons.

Weve been lucky in the sense that we have friends who work for sky tv and have recommended us for commisioned work. I guess the best thing to do if you dont know anyone involved in this industry would be to do some research into new tv channels on sky cable etc, you'll have more luck with these kind of channels as they might not have the budget to pay for expensive licenses and are always on the look out for cheaper alternatives for sourcing music. Get some contact info and send them a CD with a covering letter, keep the clips short and try to show a variety of different styles

We listen to alot of different music everything really and this is generally where we get our ideas from. Sometimes we'll decide we wanna do something in a certain style so we'll research different artists within that genre and reference their music while we work listening to how the tracks progress what instruments and production techniques are used etc.

Direction wise you never know, there are certain sub genres which have become established and work but these can allways be cross polinated to create sub sub genres! I think d'n'b has pretty much drawn from every known musical genre there is, i think the most exciting challenging progression to keep things moving is taking it to a live stage.

It varies but on average it probably takes 2-3 days bearing in mind we are constantly collecting samples and listening to new and old music for ideas. Equipment setup's been answered in another post.

Personally I find it easier working with others firstly because theres more ideas to bounce around and if one person runs out of steam theres others to step in. Secondly because I find I have a tendency to dwell on things that arent that important when trying to catch a vibe and this can be negative and make you lose direction. This is a personal thing though it all depends on your experience and how you work, but for us I definately think three heads are better than one.

In my experience remixes are done on spec and if the label aint happy then you wont get paid, regardless of how many hours you've spent on it! Generally you'll get all the main elements of a track sent but sometimes you get fuck all! I think all the best remixers dont rely to heavily on the samples from the original anyway, obviously you need some but people arent paying you to rearrange their tunes they want you to take the vibe and stamp your style on it.

Samples are initially very important to us but we'll tend to just use them as a starting point to build around. Once weve got a vibe going we'll either take them away completely or replay them with instruments (with the exception of short stabs and sampled breaks which we'll rearrange). Weve never really used enough of a sample that it would infringe on copyright

Rite here’s the low down on how we exactly we do our drums, we always get questioned about how many breaks – beats – Hits we use, and I see people on here not actually believing we used these techniques - but we do – we will normally start with a classic break ie – Think – Funky Mule – Tighten up. Will cut the break up in either recycle on manually in cubase on logic, making sure all transients are cut at 0 crossing point (its worth spending a bit of time on this, make sure its chopped nice and tight so you have total control over the break and make it your own, we have even went in to the point were we have cut a stool rock off the drummer so we can incorporate it in to the re-programmed Patten.

Once were happy with the cuts we reprogram our brake and get a nice Patten rolling until we are ready to add another one over the top, at this points we delve into our sample library were we keep out artillery of a few thousand beats – breaks (built up over 10 years of sampling). We will normally set the sequencer off playing the Patten and audition other beats until we find one that’s seems to sit well with the groove of the other and no phasing occurs , then repeat the process from above of cutting up the break. We normally do this 8 times jus layering till a full sound (frequency wise) is starting to take shape. by now we have sent all the individual breaks to a group channel and applied a spectrum analyzer on the end of the chain so we can start looking at the over all frequency of the break we are building, generally looking for a flat full spectrum of sound on the over all beat. All the beasts should be working with each other by this point and your drums should be getting a very percussive sound with all the brakes firing off there distinctive percussion hits that give your loop energy and vibe.

Now we get to Adding individual drum hits and percussion, once again we have a huge catalogue of hits ranging from session drummers we have got in to record to things we have picked up over the years (i.e. sample CDs). We spend a lot of time sorting the rite hits out that seem to work with the loop we have built and make sure it sits well in the mix and fills any gaps frequency wise. Once were happy with they way the hits are stetting (I am talking about kick and snare hits here) I bounce the lot (all them breaks and hits) in to 2 or 4 bar loop re -import it in to cubase and cut it up again, if I am happy with the sound and mix of the loop (which I am generally not) I will start adding more hits or breaks over the top, constantly EQing troublesome frequencies until were happy with final product. Now and only now we will import the loop in to a software sampler and set it off. Now we are ready to start adding individual percussion hits like tams and cow bells. Like I said in a previous post we add the bass after the beats are done, so we can see were the kick is sting frequency wise and build the bass sound accordingly.

Like you can see we do use a lot of beats to achieve our sound but this is not a hard and fast rule it’s just seems to work for us.

[wub]

Random Quotes From Different Folks - Pt 8

We dont really have many influenences outside of electronic music really,we have all been into electro,hip hop,acid house,techno,hardcore from the early 80's none of us are really into jazz ,reggae or things like that, i guess the 1 genre that isint electronic would be old funk for the breaks.

When we arent in the studio we just do everyday things like goto the pub,watch movies,play video games,mix,get high,go out to eat etc

If you are starting up a new label then I recommend you get your administration in order from the start. Make sure you are registered to generate your own ISRC codes and if you are releasing on Vinyl make sure you apply for your AP2 Licences for manufacturing. Its best to get these sorted out early on.

I think variation is needed within the scene and I always make sure that I keep it that way in my sets. I'm a fan of the direction guys like dB, Instra:mental, Gove and others are taking because they are respecting the roots of this music and elaborating on it under their own sound. I personally play a "LOT" of their music out, regardless of the reaction I may get. It can be disheartening when you realise that some people will only mostly react to LOUD and over compressed dancefloor music but pushing the deeper stuff can only have positive effect on the scene and open things up for us.

There are some good composers working in Sheffield, York and Birmingham. A lot of the stuff can be a bit dry but to be hyonest you can say that of any genre that has specific boundaries. It's weird, in a lot of ways the electroacoustic genre is just as formulaic as dnb... I have whole CDs of the stuff you should hear. Some of it's amazing in isolation but then you hear a whole range of stuff from around the world by different composers and it all soudns the same, much like dnb.

it really depends what inspired the track in the first place, but typically i will just start with some beats and bass and layer a few things in, and then once i have a few elements going, i will start to lay things out a bit, just to get a general feel for how the track would flow from one section to the next.

i get that sometimes with tracks, definitely.. i have a few that have been taking forever just because i can't seem to nail the mixdown, and after time it's hard to keep interested in that track... personally i like to try to finish things as fast as possible, so they're fresh to me and i will still really want to play them out once they're done. i usually have a few projects on the go at any given time, so that helps - i can just switch to something else and take a break from the tunes that i've been slaving away on for a while.

i think the best bet is to finish the arrangement, get it sounding decent, and move on... because if you just keep working on some little part in the same track over and over, you'll be missing out on some other key things that you can learn at the same time, like how to properly arrange things, progress a track, build it up, move fluently into the breakdown, etc... while doing that, you'll end up learning more about things like mixdowns. that's what works best for me anyways

i think in the last year i finally got a really good hold on how compression works, and that's been very valuable... when i started out, i was using very primitive software, which didn't even really have the capability to compress or even eq sounds... once i started using logic, i was able to learn how to program things in, filter sounds, etc, but i wasn't too familiar with dynamic processing. as far as learning that stuff quickly.. i think it's really just a matter of practice and teaching your ears what you need to listen for in order to compress things right.

a couple things in logic i learned was how to have multiple inserts open at the same time on the same screen - some things slip through the cracks when you're learning a program i guess. that's one of the things i like so much about logic though (and i'm sure this applies to other programs of that calibre) - you can be using it for years and still learn little things every day.

I don’t think it’s a must to be proficient with the keyboard in order to make good D&B/Electronic music. However, it is a huge advantage to be musically trained but that’s no secret. I had never really played with a keyboard until I started messing with D&B. I think there are lots of people that are not musically trained that jus have a good ear for music and many of the times that enough of a link between making good tunes and not being able to get out of jus the technical stuff.

I audition a lot of samples through Kontakt. I get a folder of sounds i like together and browse through them in the mapping editor (the little arrows pointing left and right next to the sample name). This way i can quickly hear how the samples sound when i play them on the keyboard, its a shame you can’t assign a controller to scroll through to the next sample as this would make things extra quick and you wouldn’t need to use the mouse at all.

I try to learn and remember as much as i can from each session as a means to build up my skills, I hope in time my experience will help me find a solution to any given situation in the studio.

For me importance shifts from one thing to the other, i think you may have asked me at a time when i was experimenting with reverbs. Nowadays, i think you should be careful not to wash out your mixes with reverb.

when writing sub/bassline rhythms, i think it's important to make sure your root note is hitting in the right sub frequency, and then work from there.. as far as writing actual melodies, sometimes they come quick for me, and sometimes i have to change them multiple times, but the bassline is essentially the most important part of the tune.. you want to make sure that it's really hittin.

sometimes if i'm stuck for bassline ideas, i will write out a generic riff, just something really simple, and then manipulate it, make some changes in the notes and how they relate to the beats, etc.

only a couple occasions have i been able to accurately recreate a sound in my head, but it's something i've definitely improved over the years. i almost went to school for audio engineering, but decided to save the money and ended up getting into learning it on my own.. so a lot of it was trial and error, but from having many friends involved in production, i've been able to pick up a lot.. and hopefully give some back

Once I have the mix complete I do check everything out with the “Waves PAZ Analyzer” to make sure it looks good, but the best way of knowing your mix is on and tight is by playing it out and testing it. I think once you become accustomed to your setup then the mixdown becomes second nature, however it is always good to compare. Another good way off checking your mix is by comparing to something that you like or know.

I really like to widen rides excessively especially if they are playing quite straight eighth notes. I find widening the stereo field gives them more presence in the mix without the need to push them to high in the mix. The “mono to stereo” plug-in within Cubase does quite a good job, alternatively you can turn up the Side level in any M-S type plug-in (I use Fab Filter Pro C for this as it also gives me the option to side-chain just the Side of the rides against the kick drum for example).

I don’t often use old funk breaks but when I do I sometimes overdrive the sample at its original tempo (I often use 1 band of Predatohm to do this, although the results end up in mono it has a kind of distressed tonal quality, not too much distortion just a slight overdrive). After chopping up the processed break I place it in a project at a new tempo. I like to retain as much of the original hat grooves or ghost snares so I just concentrate on layering up the kicks and snares. A slight amount of compression can help glue it all together (again I am a big fan of Fab Filter Pro C) but that is not always necessary.

Software is more practical than hardware. When making music I prefer a more “hands on” approach opposed to just using a mouse so I use a Novation Remote 37SL to control Cubase and my plug-ins, (the automap feature is really useful) and Kore with its hardware controller. I still like to use my old hardware synths, they are full of 10 years of C4C patches (Midi Quest 10 is worth looking into if you have old hardware lying around)

There was a time early on when we thought having some kind of filter movement on every main element of the track was important. We don’t believe that anymore.

We use a lot of pre-processed sounds when constructing the pallet. Generally, the majority of these sounds do not need a radical amount of work for them to fit together in the mix (unless for creative effect).

You can get samples from anywhere but between us we have a large collection of old and unusual records that give us a great and varied supply. TV and Films are also a great source for samples. We would most likely use a combination of Kontakt 3, Battery 3 and Kore 2.

We have a collection of favourite kicks and snares that we usually combine with a loop, it might be a percussive loop or a drum loop we like the groove of. Any loops we use usually need some kind of work with the kick and snare (even if the loop has been processed beforehand). We usually add extra pecussion from Battery 3 if it needs it.

If I'm working on a sample based track, If I haven't layed a vibe down within 30 mins I sharply move on to another sample / sound. There's no point forcing things into place as it will sound unnatural and you will start to saturate.

Days where I'm not creative, I may spend sampling breaks, samples and record sounds from the virus to build up a library which i can then audition while writing.

I try to write everyday but as you can guess I don't always feel inspired. I have found myself square eyed at 9 in the morning still working away many a times but I try to regulate my sessions now. As Gove said, 8 hours is the threshold really. A good tip is to take short breaks and come back with fresh ears regularly.

In terms of labels, I believe that they look for a certain standard in terms of mixdown and the production side of things but I guarantee you that anything remotely innovative or stand out will be the first to peak interest in those listening.

Reverse sounds are always good, perhaps introduce a 1 bar drum edit, perhaps open up the filter envelope on any Lowpass sounds and then slam it shut really quick on beat 1 of the next 16. Transition effects are key for getting sections to gel with each other and transform, this can be a sweep, a slow attack string that’s decay flows into the beginning of the next section, a delayed vox, something whose presence is in both sections you wish to gel together and is harmonically appropriate to both.

All the robot samples are individual 2 -3 sec records of hydraulics in the Vauxhall motors plant in Luton. We comped them into loops and sections of foley to give the impression of a robot / mechwarrior thing being switched on and powering up, starting to walk and eventually malfnctioning and shutting down (which happens in the breakdown)

I have separate folders for each type of samples [breaks, subs, dub fx, acapellas]. I have a back-up hard drive will tons and tons of sounds that I have collected.

To me there's something weird in this feeling of possession people have over something so ephemeral and nebulous: a genre of music. I can understand the feeling of belonging which sharing the enjoyment of a certain kind of music amongst like-minded people gives, and I appreciate that this leads people to want to safeguard this pleasure, but [insert THAT Zappa quote] I really don't think that talking about where it's going to be in 4 years time is particularly useful. At best I can say what I intend to do, or what I imagine myself doing in 4 years' time, but even that's most likely to turn out to be a lie given how fickle I am. I have even less of a clue how it's going to relate to other people.

You're never going to get the same sound quality live as you do in the studio though I'm afraid. It's just one of the facts of playing live. And it's one of the reasons dnb is so anti-live right now: the production standards are prohibitively high. I guess I'm trying to chip away at these and at least make it acceptable to play live stuff and for it not to be perfectly mixed. I for one am bored of this squeeky clean production malarkly. I see it as draftsmanship, the kind of skill that allowed the Rennaisance artists to paint so accurately and that Picasso mastered before going on to paint some of the most infuential canvasses of the early 20th Century. I think being able to produce to a high standard is a very important skill but it doesn;t make you a good musician.

To be honest the best way to get noticed is to be mates with people. Most the TV work I've got has been through contacts, mates of mates etc. Cold calling/mailing is pretty much totally ignored in the industry... you might as well buy some stamps & CDs, throw them in the bin and have a day off.

the samples themselves don;t stop the track being good, it;s just one of my pet hates. To my ears it sounds cheap. But of course if it's followed by a wicked bass lick and some crazy beats then it doesn't stop the beats & bass being enjoyable in their own right. Some of the dopest tracks may have film samples in them for sure, but personally I think the film samples detract from them.

general advice would be to use it just a little bit, and to generally get a good understanding behind the technical aspects.. read up on it. after that, it's just a matter of practice i think.

as for resampling, i do it when i'm faced with cpu limitations, but usually only on fx, some percussive things, etc.. i try not to do that with the main breaks and bassline of the tune.

for bass samples, i have a collection of sounds i've used in many tunes, and just manipulated in different ways. i've also resampled the basslines from my tracks, so i can use those to start with, and manipulate them.. i try not to keep using the same kind of bassline in all of my tunes though.

general advice would be to use it just a little bit, and to generally get a good understanding behind the technical aspects.. read up on it. after that, it's just a matter of practice i think.

as for resampling, i do it when i'm faced with cpu limitations, but usually only on fx, some percussive things, etc.. i try not to do that with the main breaks and bassline of the tune.

for bass samples, i have a collection of sounds i've used in many tunes, and just manipulated in different ways. i've also resampled the basslines from my tracks, so i can use those to start with, and manipulate them.. i try not to keep using the same kind of bassline in all of my tunes though.

Some of my very first experiments with music were with Fruity loops, I actually think it’s a great bit of kit… Brilliant for introducing some of the basic principles, terminology and practises of working on more complex ‘midi-style’ sequencers

if you aint surrounded by peeps willing to school you about the techy stuff then I think a course (or better still some private tuition) into how to use your setup to its full potential is needed for sure. Online tutorials can be good, I’ev been doing some for VDMX lately and have been surprised how good they are…. And I get to do each module at my own pace.

I actually think it’s indicative of a job well done when you can happily endure a loop for ages. The trick at that stage is to not squander the potential of what you have made by trying to expand on it with more instruments, the next stage has to be doing an arrangement. Loop every instrument out for 4mins ,5 mins whatever, go back and do some crude deletion to create a sections of intro, breakdown, 2nd etc. Then go and tackle the track 16 bars by 16 bars. Try to get the most of the instruments that are already on the page by using automation, or sequencing in edits or alternative melodies….. Once you’ve exhausted that possibility then go and start adding more new sounds if needed. The temptation is when creating new layers while looping is to create more loops, and quite often that isn’t what a track may need. What is often needed is occasional / incidental sounds, noises and phrases, whose creation is much easier once the barebones of an arrangement have begun.

Sometimes I'll run a vintage emulation (1176) over the master outs and really pump everything hard. Sometimes I'll side-chain stuff through a neutral, clinical compressor (eg the Digirack one) so the kick rides the bass (mostly for techno stuff, but I've also done this with dnb). Or just using it on a per-channel basis to shape the amp envelope of various sounds, make them snap, squash them a bit etc. Getting my tracks to breathe is a bit more of a complex question... that comes a lot of the time with various different offline processing & loads of really intensive volume automation.

it really helps when trying to build chords, and just knowing when things are in key, etc. it's done a lot to speed up the process of getting the right notes when building riffs.

just try to learn as much as you can and be patient.

I raided my dub collection the main sources for inspiration and samples for the EP are prince jammy, king tubby, augustus pablo, jacob miller, horace andy, aggressors and joe gibbs. for thunder I used a very well known riff for the trumpets called "Satta Massagna" a riddem used by virtually everyone in the 70's dub scene.

It can be a good thing, it can also cause you to get caught up in nerdyness and over-emphasis on complexity… I like to call it ‘pandering to the guest list’ . That can sometimes be really unhealthy

The lessons I learnt in my first mastering session back in 2001 changed my entire outlook on production, sadly I’m no so able to do sit-in mastering sessions anymore, they’re not always convenient to attend but they’re always a real pleasure, after all how often does one get to listen to your tracks on speakers worth 15k ?

Speaking for myself, I’ve always been into tech, for instance I own more renegade hardware stuff than any other label, its just that a few years ago (2001 I’d say) the whole tech thing got a bit too loud and ‘shock-factor’ driven, but most importantly for me the beats lost their funk and natural sense of pace in favour of monster snares, so I got into another area of DnB that did have very funky beats, ie liquid. Ironically I think its actually come full circle in the last few years, so many big liquid tracks these days are quite rigid with blocky beats, and some of the new tech stuff is exceptionally funky.. so basically my current preference can be categorised by which ever area of dnb is making those really quick funky beats…. I feel that Noisia and Break have a large part to play in that conversion back to funkier grooves.

leaving all the obvious shit behind me, dont wanna go into it because it was just basic stuff that being honest I was little embarressed not to be getting correct (stereo width on bass, too much dynamic range on plosives, not enough low mids in my beats, distortion and artefacts that weren't audible on my crap speakers) ... then again this was a long time ago, Id only been producing with professional kit for a year or two at that stage

When I am done with my beats and I feel like they are complete is when I bounce all into one. No matter if there is compression on some of the individual breaks or not. It is as if you had the tune done and ready to go but before u go into a final mix you bounce all the drums into one channel and then do the process.

The solution is usually a lot of clubbing, and a lot of listening out for new music outside of DnB, just creating situations that reaffirm what it is you're trying to achieve, inspire loops in your mind and a hunger to be creative.... fuck it I'd say going to see films, the theatre etc can encourage the same thing

There's always a certain amount of attrition when you change equipment, of both possibilities and past work. Generally I take the attitude that once I've finished something that's it. I don;t like going back on past stuff and chaning it. Obviously sometimes it's inevitable, but generally if I hear mistakes I won;t go back and chnage them once I've signed something off (which is an involuntary process... it just sounds finished). With unfinished stuff yes it gets assigned to the dustbin, but I've learned not to feel shy about dicarding things. If they're not finished now and I don't feel like they could flourish into something of worth when finished then the chances are they never will be. I'm used to throwing stuff away anyway... the number of jams that have disappeared into the ether is ridiculous. It keeps you living in the moment. As far as the divorce process it obviously involved a small amount of will power, but it was kind of like splitting up with a girl you'd already fallen out of love with. I knew it was the right thing to do as I'd become so much more interested in what computers could do.

I have found it difficult to layer subs… I don’t think it’s wise to layer subs due to frequency cancellation that may occur. As for how I create bass & mainly sub basses I have a technique that I use in peak. I mainly use 808’s and will add and subtract EQ until I get a perfect rub a dub bass. From there I will also use my outboard desk. I have also gone as far as to sample a bass from vinyl with clicks and all, then I will resample over and over again adding and subtracting EQ/Compression until I have the perfect sub.

By a process I don;t even remotely understand these share some common features which allow us to exchange ideas when we say the term 'music' to each other, or see it written. Sometimes I wonder if it's a purely ostensive definition but that's circular.

If I had to sum it up I'd say music is what you think it is. This is useless and untestable as no one can question you. But then again questioning whether something is or isn;t music is also useless. Music itself is useless, the term means nothing, but the activity it denotes, however it is denoted, is very important.

I am currently overwhelmed by the immense task in front of me. That's why I haven't really written much music of late. I've spent the time programming & gigging instead. Hopefully when the album's blown over a bit I'll feel a little more isolated so I can wander around my own garden naked and piss in the flower bed without worrying that people are looking at me. Metaphorically. Then I'll start writing more music again. I sometimes get lazy for a day or so, but that's usually when I've had a busy couple of weeks.

the highest low frequency depends on what the sound is really.. but if i'm completely separating lows and mids from a bassline sound then the lows will be around 80 and lower, but then again it's nice to have a bit of low-mid growl in there with some sounds.. again, it really depends

I have little to no musical background when it comes to reading music. I do everything by ear and I am sure some of you music headz can tell that some of my tunes are not always on key.... I will get the bass as I want it and then play it out and tune it by ear to the break and music[samples] that I have going. caveman stylee I know but it works for me.....

There are no real short cuts when it comes to breaks. Its labor and work if you want them to sound good. The only thing that I have done with my breaks which makes it somewhat faster to work is converting all solid breaks [one that I know I will use and that have been cleaned up] into rex files and placing them all in a folder. I think this is standard though. As for edits and fills…. All I can say is that it takes working them breaks or else u going to get a crap sounding tune... I have been experimenting with loads of fx and breaks. I actually enjoy making beats so I don’t mind spending loads of time on them.

My general principle is to go for rides that don’t need to much processing, also do you ever use the analyser setting in the logic Channel EQ ? its great for identifying hidden or overbearing frequencies and taking them out with a High-Q paramentric.

I don’t bus channels together very often. I do bus my sub channel via my Mackie board if I feel that it needs to be pushed harder then the mix or if the sub needs some natural compression. You can achieve dope compression by pushing the channels then busing them. On the whole though I tend to jus do my mixing within logic and then run it out to my Mackie board. Often I just bounce the mix within logic and then go through it in peak with Platinum Waves. There, I pick it apart and master it.

A good mix is a good mix regardless of what it is going to be put on. I know that there are issues with cutting plates when you hit certain frequencies and or with phasing. I am guessing that there are people that take this into consideration before sending tunes out. I do 2 final mixes for tunes. Mix one is what I send out to DJ’s [mastered to the max]. Mix two is straight off the board and this is the one that I send off to get cut for the labels. Everyone has different approaches to mixing and what they send off to people and this is just my way.

I only use reverb and/or delays on my drums to create sound FX or Atmospheres with the breaks. Everyone has a way of doing drums and some stuff is jus common sense. I have never used pre delays or reverb on my drums to have them crack more. On individual hits I tend to jus make sure the original “hits” are clean and powerful so that when I jus have them louder in the mix they are strong with out the need of too compression and to much EQing.

I don’t really focus on where my kicks or snares [sometime I do push the snares a little] hit. What is important to me is that the overall mix is solid and separated. I have to be able to pick out every single sound in my mix. I do all of it by ear now and will test mixes while playing out. I do push my subs @ 60-80hz. Snares sometimes I give them a little @ around 800-1000hz. I don’t have too many issues with my kicks so I have never really had to push them in the Eqing process. I dunno if you have read the whole thread but I have suggestions on making breaks cut better through the mix.. it is earlier in here somewhere.

The most important things to get right in the mix = Drums and the Bass! If you can get these two right then you are well on the way. Atmospheres, strings, pads, vocals and other FX can ride beneath, above, or even on the side of the main drums and bass mix. But yes it is easier said then done depending on the amount of stuff you have going in the tune. I do use compression and EQ where needed but if you use clean solid samples most the time there is not need to push. It takes work and time to get a mix right. My tip is to always get the drums and bass kicking and from there add whatever for the vibe.

You can pan certain fx, pads, atmospheres slightly and this give the mix a live band feeling. It also helps with the separation of sounds if its not overdone. Don’t pan bass [at least I think its not really wise]. However, you can pan breaks and drums for the live drummer vibe… hope this helps

what i do is bounce all drums into one.. then that one channel i process to fuck. if u start getting muddy drums then back off the compression. or u can still keep the crunched drums BUT add real good single heavy kick and snare that is above the main drums mix.... make sure that the kick and snare are the big boss in the mix of the drums..

If you are serious about music making and you want to achieve some type of flow then you have to treat the studio like a job. Even the days you wake up feeling shit and not in the mood to make music you have to give the studio a chance. You can be productive in the studio even on those days you don’t feel inspired. A good way to keep things flowing is by doing sampling sessions the days you don’t feel inspired. Even if you just work 30 minutes chopping breaks or fucking around with a synth, you might actually motivated….

There are ups and downs for both choices, especially if you are a new artist looking for a home. If you start a label prematurely then most likely no one will know who the hells you are and with the current saturation of shiat labels you will likely get lost in the dust if you choose to start something brand new without the push of an OG established label. So I suggest shopping your tunes to the labels your sound fits to the most in the beginning of your career. Once an artist gets established then there is more opportunity to begin something of their own without so many issues. Thing is that its very difficult at times to sign you tunes away and not really know what might become of them. Many times in the beginning of ones career there is the possibility of never actually seeing your tunes come out on time [or at all], or even ever seeing money from them.

if your mixdown is not good from the get go then compression / maximizers [L1 or L2] will not necessarily make is sound better. I have given some tips earlier in the thread about trouble shooting with mixdowns. You have to take into consideration that what you are comparing your music to is probably something that has been mastered to vinyl which has gone through a whole other mixing process. Also sometimes the overuse or misuse of compression / mastering tools can give you a muddy mix instead of the intended loudness you are trying to achieve.

Concentrate on getting your bass and drums as loud as you can and then adding the rest of your vibe on… most important thing is that the bass and drums rip through the mix.

[/quote]

[wub]

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Thread full of gold.

[Huts]

Wub you have made my decision to skip class well worth it

[travis_baker]

thanks wub

[wub]

http://www.xlr8r.com/gear/2012/10/studio-andy-stott

In the Studio: Andy Stott

Listening to Andy Stott's distinctive brand of dark and sludgey dub-techno, one might imagine that the Manchester producer crafts his work in a lightless bunker or some dank, cobweb-strewn studio full of esoteric keyboards with giant dials, basically, a place with a proper mad-scientist vibe. As it turns out, the truth is far less ominous. Until recently, Stott could be found piecing together his dense tracks in the dining room of his apartment, but just a few weeks ago, he set up shop in the corner of a friend's photography studio. Considering the sounds found on the Manchester producer's breathtaking pair of 2011 EPs, We Stay Together and Passed Me By, and now the ambitous Luxury Problems full-length, we were understandably curious to find out more about Stott's process and jumped at the chance to take a look around his new space.



XLR8R: Where exactly is your studio located?
Andy Stott: My mate Mat is a photographer and I rent a little section of his studio space, which is really handy.

And that's in Manchester?
Yeah, right bang in the middle.



And how long have you been in that particular space?
Not long at all, just over a month. Before that, I was just writing tunes in the dining room at home.

With less gear?
No. [laughs] Even with records as well. I'd get a new piece of gear and I'd say to my partner, "I'm just going to step out," and she'd ask what was going on, and then I'd come back with a new unit and she'd be like "Where's that going to go?!" [laughs] It got beyond a joke, and we have a three-month-old boy now, so it just wasn't practical [to keep my studio there].



Do you like that better, having a specific place to go to work on music?
I think so. It puts you in a different mindset. You have no interruptions, and you're not distracting anyone—which was always in the back of my mind when I was working at home—and nobody is distracting you. I think it's really important to have somewhere specific to go, especially when you're paying for it, it makes you use it. [laughs] Joking aside, it's been really good to have a space specifically for the purpose of making music.

How long have you had the Machinedrum and what do you usually use it for?
I haven't even had that 12 months, actually. I use it like you would use any other drum machine, but you just get so much more control with every sound on it. It's really good for bottom end. It's really punchy. It is pretty much the master, everything runs through that.



How long have been putting the rest of the pieces together? You have some vintage units—would you consider yourself a collector?
Not at all. I've got some bits scattered about here and there and other ones that people have borrowed. Miles from Demdike Stare, he's got my SH-101, which I've been asking for back—I think he's had it for nearly two years now. All of sudden, I've felt like I wanted to use it, so I've been trying to get it back [from him]. But the SH-09 is his actually, so we're trading off. And the SH-09 has started doing some funny things since I've had it, so I don't think he'll be too pleased about that. [laughs]

It looks like the only monitors you have are those small Genelecs?
That's it.



Your productions are so bass-heavy though, how can gauge the low end on speakers of that size?
[laughs] The way they're set up, I just have them right. Before I moved into this studio, and I was using them in the dining room at my home, I'd have to stand in a certain place to hear the bass. But now, I just have to roll back a little bit in the chair and I can hear exactly what's going on. I've got my eye on a sub, but I don't know if that'd be good, especially when Mat [who I share the studio with] has clients over. But I love those monitors, they make such a difference.

Do you do a lot of field recording?
I wouldn't say I do a lot, but I've done some and I'm definitely going to do more. A lot of the stuff that was done on We Stand Together and Passed Me By—and even Luxury Problems—was done on my iPhone. But now, I've got a Zoom field recorder and I'm going to go out and hopefully get some nice crunchy stuff. With the phone, it's so easy, because your phone is always with you. Especially when I was in London and on the underground, there was some really good stuff down there.



How do you usually process those sounds? In the Machinedrum?
No, those just go into the computer and I mess with them in Ableton.

Are you usually just using the stock Ableton tools or do you have any third-party plug-ins that you like?
I just have one [third-party] plug-in, the Slate Digital VTM. It's a reel-to-reel tape emulator. But before that, I'd build little things with the FX in Ableton. That's nice, because I can just save them and go back to those settings at the drop of a hat to adjust them [if I needed]. That's what I love about Ableton, you have a fair bit of freedom to build your own [signal chain].



Was that the same approach you took with the vocals on Luxury Problems?
Yeah, that was all in Ableton.

And the vocalist [Alison Skidmore] recorded those on her own, without any music to go by, and then sent them to you?
Yeah. There's a little thing in the background—I don't know if you can hear it on the album—but on the pure, dry recordings that I got sent, you can hear a little metronome in the background. I told Alison to just do what she was going to do and not think about it, and she sent me some beautiful things that were already really layered before I even did any tricks or anything.



How long does that process take for you, to make patterns out of those raw tracks?
Some of them, you get [the tracks] and there's not a lot to do. I'll just take the section I want and have a little mess around with it, and then I'll sit and let it loop for a while and see if anything [about it] annoys me. It's a lot of taking little sections and butting them up to other sections. Sometimes, I'll get a feeling that something is missing, and then I'll scroll through the file with a fine-tooth comb and try to find something in there that would fit. [Once you have the patterns], then you've got to treat everything and make it sound cohesive.

Is there any kind of equipment you think is currently missing from your studio, or are there any improvements you'd like to make?
A Minimoog would be nice; a Voyager would be really nice. I've got a Vermona reverb unit on the way, and I've been looking at the Roger Linn and Dave Smith Tempest, but I can't make my mind up. So, at the minute, I'm keeping my eye out for an original LinnDrum and that's about it. It's just that financially, I have to be realistic. [laughs]



So you're looking to add more analog equipment than anything digital?
Well, I started off using Reason, which I still use actually. And through listening to other material and stuff that I was trying to do early on, what I was doing just didn't sound like what was on those records [that I wanted to sound like]. There is definitely a difference between digital and analog, and I think I'm getting to the point where I just want that sound. I don't want to mess about trying to emulate it with software.

And do you like the physical aspect of analog too—the knob turning and all that?
There's just something about that feeling, of really being hands-on. [For me,] it's just the best way to work.

[wub]

http://www.dummymag.com/mixes/2012/08/1 ... s-station/

Tune into grime's first and only numbers station Covert Cold War transmissions meet Rinse, Deja et al in this fascinating field project.

Grime music and dodgy radio stations have a rich history and there’s a lot of fun to be had plumming through hours of low quality but utterly distinct recordings from the genre’s early days. This short mix clips and loops radio mobile phone call-outs to create a run of digits that resemble number stations, shortwave transmissions consisting of streams of numbers, tunes and Morse code that were cropped up after the Second World War and are widely assumed to be a way of communicating secret messages to spies – claims that are obviously unacknowledged by official government agencies.

The project is the the brainchild of Resonance FM contributor Autodespair and is described as the audio track to an upcoming video. It’s definitely strange stuff but there’s also a weird syncopated rhythm that holds the whole thing together, listen below.

Soundcloud

[Sexual_Chocolate]

http://www.dummymag.com/mixes/2012/08/1 ... s-station/

Tune into grime's first and only numbers station Covert Cold War transmissions meet Rinse, Deja et al in this fascinating field project.

Grime music and dodgy radio stations have a rich history and there’s a lot of fun to be had plumming through hours of low quality but utterly distinct recordings from the genre’s early days. This short mix clips and loops radio mobile phone call-outs to create a run of digits that resemble number stations, shortwave transmissions consisting of streams of numbers, tunes and Morse code that were cropped up after the Second World War and are widely assumed to be a way of communicating secret messages to spies – claims that are obviously unacknowledged by official government agencies.

The project is the the brainchild of Resonance FM contributor Autodespair and is described as the audio track to an upcoming video. It’s definitely strange stuff but there’s also a weird syncopated rhythm that holds the whole thing together, listen below.

Soundcloud

that recording is WELL creepy *shudders*

[wub]

http://www.dummymag.com/features/2012/0 ... w-dubstep/

Pinch interview: "A heavy element of escapism." Dubstep’s philosopher on dance music patience and pressure.

Complete darkness. A haunting sub bass makes my body. Even my viscera vibrate intensely. When I began to visit the FWD >> club night at Plastic People on a regular basis in 2011, I was immediately intrigued by the fact how little the traditional dubstep sound has lost its fascination. This music still provides a space, where the visual is secondary and the immersion in sound gets a new relevance. In this context, dubstep is also a rejection of the sensory overload of everyday life.

Although the sombre half step sound from the likes of Youngsta is still an unique listening experience, there is little musical innovation. The other extreme is the mainstream -step of people like Skrillex, in which reticent silence is replaced by the loudness of war and relaxed vibes are confused with gorilla posturing. An interesting remedy is coming from artists for whom dubstep is rather a philosophy than a style. One of those producers, who have never given up the constant pursuit of creative progress, is Rob Ellis aka Pinch.

His label Tectonic is a refuge for some of the most innovative bass music releases, which the recent albums of Author, Pursuit Groove or the recent Distal shows. When Pinch released his full album with Shackleton last year, it not only felt really exceptional because it was released very suddenly, without any immediate notice. It was also one of the musical surprises of 2011 where Pinch´s soundtrack-like atmospheres and Shackleton‘s otherworldly percussion orgies amalgamated into a beautiful work of art. Since the mid-2000s, their sound has always pursued new musical crossings, which would never have been possible without the main artery: dubstep. But what is dubstep nowadays anyway? Sometimes it is worth to look briefly in the past.

His Fabric mix is able to transport visceral sub-basses and the meditative feeling of dread in the present, where the attention span, especially for music, has become a rare good. I met Rob in a café in London’s Farringdon, in which he indulged in one of these English breakfast plates, which make lunch and even dinner obsolete. When the Bristol-based artist had played his set on the previous night at his release party at Fabric, he proved once again that the quality of his music lies mainly in his eclectic approach on dance music and the intensity of sound that permeates the body. While pursuing musical innovation by making excursions in techno and house, Pinch has remained faithful to the original values ​​of dubstep, such as the love of dubplate culture. “Because of the better sound,” as he explained, he did press some acetates especially for his gig.

How did you actually come to dubstep?

Pinch: : When I went to FWD for the first time, around late 2003, I knew I want to bring it to Bristol. I immediately felt that it was something that could work in Bristol. Dubstep was something different, it was exciting. At the time I was mixing bits of garage and grime with techno and random electronica – having got bored with Drum & Bass scene. Kode 9 at FWD was enough for me to turn my attention completely to dubstep. I started a night called Context in January 2004 and began bringing up London DJs and producers to Bristol – people like Loefah, Vex’d, Distance, Cyrus.

Especially the classic UK dubstep has this interesting tempo mode. There is a deceptive slowness, behind which an enormous energy is concealed. I always wondered what was actually happening on the dance floor at the first nights. Did the people just stand around?

Pinch: [laughs] Well, standing around nodding to the tunes was a big part of those early nights! But yeah, I´ve got some specific memories of playing abroad – the first few times when sometimes people didn´t know how to react to the music and how to dance to it. You had these situations when people were kind of looking around at each other, a little confused. Often around half way through the set people would just suddenly get it and then it was like: “alright, yeah, it doesn´t matter how you dance to it.”. For me, I really liked this of challenge of “activating” the dancefloor. I always thought I was doing a good job and when you got people dancing from a standstill – it was really great. It was like: “Yeah, I´ve kind of changed the way the people think about this music.”

Did you use certain tracks to attract a lame crowd?

Pinch: Yeah, sometimes it was tunes like Loefah´s “I” remix or “System”, or early Skream stuff like ’808 Dub’. But it wasn´t necessarily a particular tune, it was more about building a certain momentum. Sometimes it was the tune after a big one that would create the switch point – it just meant people had started connecting with the music and letting go of being self-conscious.

Speaking of switchpoints… What do you think of the current development of dubstep?

Pinch: Musically I don´t generally like the majority of what falls under the term dubstep these days. At first I was kind of resistant to the more aggressive stuff and it annoyed me that it became representative of the genre to most people because for me, this midrange sound wasn´t really what this music was initially about – it was rooted in something more cinematic. But I´ve come to accept that it´s impossible to hold on to something like that period of time forever. What happened in 2004 and 2005 was a very special time and you can´t hold on to these times because the circumstances changed. It´s never going to sound fresh forever. There was a certain time when you had this kind of energy flash, there was a lot of genuine excitement. At the time no one was being driven by financial motivation because there wasn’t any money in it. Everyone was cutting dubplates to DJ with and paid for it from their own pockets. A few years ago it bothered me how the dubstep scene was changing and shaping up but I’ve long stopped worrying about all that – what´s more important is making the effort to keep things interesting in things that are relevant to me.

I think your Fabric mix is a good sign for this development. It´s like a succeeded continuation of dubstep. It´s like looking forward while staying faithful to a certain sound of the old days. It contains a lot of dissonant and spatial sounds that even appear in some 4 on the floor tracks.

Pinch: I wanted to include a selection of tunes I have been making and feeling recently, not just a straight dubstep selection even if most people might only know me for my dubstep productions. You’ve got to follow your heart and trust your instincts. I´ve always believed at the end of the day the first person that you have to impress, especially when it comes to making tunes in the studio – is yourself. If you genuinely like it – chances are someone else will too!

“This darkness would give me space to let my head drift off. It´s like a meditation or whatever you want to call it.” – Pinch

It´s interesting that you are sticking to these deep and dark atmospheres…

Pinch: Well, I found this darkness would give me space to let my head drift off. It´s like a meditation or whatever you want to call it. There´s a genuinely sort of meditative quality about that early sort of dubstep. I used to find that it was dark music but it would make me feel so happy listening to it, very genuinely so. But I think what is often forgotten are the people in the dance themselves. They are absolutely essential for the atmosphere conducive to a good experience. Around 2004-5, dubstep was such a small underground scene and it wasn´t even considered like a cool thing as such. But the people who were there, were there because they were bored with other music scenes and they were looking for something different – they had open minds. Having like-minded people gather like that brings a certain, special energy to the dance.

What exactly triggers this meditative effect? Whenever I read the expression “eyes down” I think it would describe the atmosphere quite well. It is actually a very different feeling compared to house or techno nights.

Pinch: Completely, yeah. Well, not completely. You can get into some very interesting head spaces with good techno as well. But I guess the difference is the level of the energy that comes from the drums and I think with early dubstep it was much easier to dance on the half-step. It was like 70bpm rather than 140bpm. Because 140 really gets your heart going, it´s like high energy techno. What´s important here is that as a raver you can switch between the half-step 70bpm and the full 140bpm pace. Half-step beats can have the energy of 140bpm if, for example, the bass line suggests the faster pace over slower beats. The result is that you can switch between this lazy skank-y kind of thing and a full speed, heart racing tempo.

When DMZ has started, it was the first full night rave until 6 in the morning. That was when dubstep became something a bit different. FWD was on a Thursday night and people would go to work on a friday. I realised that dubstep was in many ways the perfect kind of music for someone who didn´t necessarily want to take a bag of pills to go raving or whatever. You could just dance to it all night without exhausting yourself like you would do with drum&bass and it was just a real nice tempo to get a kind of long stamina momentum. FWD was more of an urban geeks music appreciation society than a rave as such – DMZ changed that.

Do you have these specific situations in mind, when you are producing?

Pinch: It depends on the mood I´m in really. More often than not I just sit down and play around with sounds until something comes out that I like but sometimes I do have this sort of idea of what I want to do. Like I decide I want to make a house tune, but a house tune that has a ’95 Metalheadz vibe to it. I kind of like to have the atmosphere of the early dubstep days and move it into some new environment. That’s how ‘Croydon House’ started actually!

“There is a heavy element of escapism that has driven the development of dance music.” – Pinch

What do you think about the progress in dance music in general?

Pinch: There is a heavy element of escapism that has driven the development of dance music. If you´re looking for escapist music then you can´t really escape from the familiar. When a new genre of dance music emerges, as dubstep did, the opportunity to hear it is very restricted at first – in the early days you could only really hear dubstep at FWD and a little on Rinse FM – so it felt very special and out of the ordinary. And as soon as something is becoming the familiar it´s getting boring. Once you get to a point where it´s being played on the radio all the time, TV adverts and so on – it becomes part of the everyday life and then it loses the power to provide such an escapist context.

Bass in general does have an escapist force. How would you describe your relationship with bass?

Pinch: I enjoy the physical sensation of good dance music. It´s supposed to arouse your very primal instincts as a human being. I mean, pretty much the only time in nature to experience extreme subbass otherwise is in extreme situations, like earthquakes, thunders, these kind of dramatic events. Situations that make you alert and excited. I have a little theory about ‘meditative bass’ actually. As an embryo in the mother´s womb, when the ears and brain are developing, the first sound you hear is bass as it is all that properly travels through the protective, embryonic fluids. And while you´re an embryo you are in perfect harmony, in total equilibrium with your mother – there is no experience of hunger or any other need. I would get a calm feeling from heavy bass-y dubstep sessions and it made me wonder if perhaps there’s an underlying subconscious connection between sub bass and this time of being in harmony with your mother as a growing embryo.

Besides the Fabric mix you did an amazing album with Shackleton, which sounds quite different from your previous work. How did this extraordinary collaboration come about?

Pinch: I´ve known Sam for years and I guess it all started when he was in the UK. He stayed at mine for a few days and we decided to make some music – we were thinking – maybe do a single. I think he came up to Bristol two times and I went up to Berlin for a few weeks. We spent about probably 7 or 8 days in the studio there and we just got so much done in that time until we thought it´s kind of enough for an album so we just carried on working on it. It was quite easy to work together. I think we complemented each other well in terms of knowledge and stuff.

Have you sent the tracks back and forth to each other?

Pinch: Not really, we did it all together pretty much. Most of the album was done in his studio in Berlin. It was about a year and a half from start to finish.

Somehow it seems to be a natural thing that you’ve made ​​an album together. Both of you have similar musical backgrounds and you are always one step ahead of the scene. But I can imagine that it´s really hard for two such idiosyncratic producers to work together.

Pinch: What I really like about collaborating with someone is that you have to come to a point where you compromise. So there are certain things where I would maybe think: “That’s OK like that” and he would be like: “No, I don´t like this kind of snare” or something like that. And when you find something to replace it that you both agree on – the result is stronger. I really enjoyed making the album with Sam – we had a lot of fun with it.

You already played in the states several times. With regards to the development of the american dubstep success, do you think the majority is still able to understand your music?

Pinch: I´m kind of lucky. My agent in the states understands very much what I do. He is more a foundation fan and so I never really get booked for these shows. Frankly there are lots of situations in the states where unless you´re playing stuff that tears the ceiling off people don´t really get it but thankfully I haven’t had to deal with that too much.

They might not have enough patience.

Pinch: Yeah, exactly, I mean culturally in general people all over the world have less patience for music than they used to have. If it doesn´t grab your interest immediately you click on the next thing. Whereas when I grew up I could buy a CD and it was like: “I paid my money for it so I will really listen to it.” Sometimes I didn´t get stuff immediately so it took some time. But those were often the albums that changed the way I would think about music. Today, it´s so easy to just click on the next thing people run the risk of missing out on something that’s rewarding in a slower or more long term kind of way.

[wub]

Haiku production

sample stuff on youtube with a phone

spam mail into photo sounder

clean it with software eq

pitch your voice down

claps

[ruckspin]

where is this quote from?

any time you engage with technology you have to engage with a particular interface. These are getting easier, quicker to use and more intuitive by the year, but let's not forget that this is enabled by the trial and error of those who are trying to push these boundaries. It's not possible to separate the development of music and technology. They march forward hand in hand, the one pulling the other in ways they couldn;t and wouldn;t go on their own. I think it;s fair to say that there are some works that are obvious showcases or explorations of technology, and others which are less so. I don't see any aesthetic problem with creating music that really explores new technical possibilities, and I don;t think that this as an end in itself precludes musicality, whatever that might be. Ultimately on what grounds do you judge whether this highly technologically virtuoso piece stands or falls? By the way it sounds. That's the only way you can judge it. If it sounds rubbish to you it falls, if it sounds awesome, it stands. This is a musical judgement.

Take some of the Chrysler or Paganini violin pieces. They were what we might call tech-heads these days... they were violinists, violion makers and composers, and some of the music they wrote was extremely techy... just as much as say autechre or squarepusher. Just that now we've society has absorbed these experiments into its cultural constitution we don;t see these things as adventurous.

Take the piano. When that was first invented it blew music as people knew it out of the water. The techniques for buiilding pianos and playing them were then honed over years and years and some amazingly varied playing styles came out of it... a lot of which must have sounded very jarring when they were first aired.

It pays to be aware of how we respond as humans to developments, to things that havenl;t yet come into our realm of comprehension. We need to adapt in order to find a place for these things in our system of understanding, and this is a painful and difficult thing to do. I really admire people who are willing to destroy they voice they know so well, go back a few steps and build a new one. I believe the further you go back, the deeper you go, the more you will discover.

As far as actually integrating this exploration into creating music goes, it';s tricky. You have to find a comfortable balance. This is why I have stuck with Reaktor. It gives me enough power to go down to the last bit if I wish, but at the same way I can and do integrate the programming into the creative process, as the interface, for me, is quick and intuitive enough.

[flood]

where is this quote from?

dogsonacid Q&A Session 3: Exile

[ruckspin]

tim exile is such a G

[wub]

King Britt has been one of the most prolific artists in electronic music since his first release – 1990′s ‘Tribal Confusion’, released on Strictly Rhythm in collaboration with former business partner Josh Wink. Since then, he’s produced music under numerous aliases, from his more traditional house output as Scuba through to his improvisational, hip hop-tinged, jazz-inspired, vocal-led output with Rucyl as Saturn Never Sleeps.

Britt’s recent Fhloston Paradigm EP on Hyperdub marked another high point in his career, combining a retro sci-fi inspired aesthetic with contemporary production values. From a technical standpoint, the EP’s extensive use of vintage analogue gear and foreboding arrangements will draw comparisons with Vangelis’s classic Bladerunner score and John Carpenter’s soundtrack work, but the release delivers a distinct take on the established tropes thanks to careful sound design, painstaking editing and – most importantly – subtle melodic composition.

We spoke to King (that’s his real name, by the way) about his approach to making music and the ways in which the equipment itself informs the sound of his projects.

Soundcloud

Attack: Let’s start by talking a little about the Fhloston Paradigm EP, which is one of the most interesting pieces of music we’ve heard this year. Can you tell us a little about the decision to limit yourself to a few pieces of analogue gear for that record?

King Britt: Well, it’s interesting how it all happened. I collect synths, so I switch them in and out of my setup every few months. On this occasion, around 2010, I set up my Moog Sonic Six and Boss DR-110 to make little rhythm tracks. I was learning to run the drum machine through the Moog processing; there’s a little mixer on the Sonic Six and you can get some really raw-sounding things.

The first EP was Fiction Science on the Saturn Never Sleeps label. A combination of the Moog/Boss rhythm tracks and a bit of 808 and Roland JX-3P.

Kode9 put one of the tunes on his Essential Mix and I sent him an email thanking him, then in late 2011 I sent some tunes that he may dig – not really for Hyperdub, but just some he may like. He loved them but definitely wanted ‘Chasing Rainbows’ for the EP, so it all worked out. I then fine-tuned the other songs using the Korg quad pad and Moogerfoogers.

The idea of restricting yourself to a limited set of tools is so interesting these days, seeing as most people are using software which offers almost limitless options…

Nowadays there are so many options, especially with software, that you find yourself spending more time on finding the right plugin rather than doing the music.

So when I did the Adventures In Lo-Fi album, which is mainly hip hop, I only wanted to do it the way I did back in the day – a stack of wax and an MPC. I’d close my eyes and grab a few albums every day for a week, which gave a certain randomness to the creative sampling process, then see how many tracks I could do from those stacks. It created sample pairings that never would have consciously happened, thus creating a very clever sonic palette.

Using this approach of limitation, you tend to shape the sound of the project because you only can use the sounds of those things you’ve chosen. For Fhloston, choosing three main synths actually branded the sound of the project and made all the songs cohesive. I do it with software too. Only these plugins, or what have you. I’m now doing a series of sample packs which are textures used as foundations for the start of projects.

Are they just for your own use?

No, I have a series that will be available exclusively through Sounds To Sample from November 16th. The series is called Fragments and they’re pieces of glitchy goodness that I created from scratch for producers and DJs. I used a different process to make each volume and they’re all Ableton-ready.

Sounds good. Going back to the restricted sonic palette, do you think that approach has a big impact on the way you compose the music?

Absolutely. More so with synths because they all do something distinctive. Like the way the Mono/Poly has four oscillators and each note in a chord has one oscillator, so you get things that you may never get with another keyboard.

Or how using only CV and gate gives you a whole different swing than MIDI due to lag time and trigger sequences.

Have you taken a similar approach with other projects, sitting down and deciding on a set of tools before you actually make any music?

I always do now. Always. With my Soul Litchfield project for Saturn Never Sleeps, it’s all Minimoog, JX-3P and MPC into Ableton using the APC40. It totally changed how I composed. I was performing more in a live way of thinking because the APC is essentially an instrument if used right.

You’re a big Ableton fan?

It’s the best program to ever exist. It really allowed me to break out the synths and incorporate them quickly and efficiently into a MIDI setup. I also love the Moog MP-201 pedal, which I helped consult on initially. To be able to have four MIDI to CV triggers to different synths is mind-blowing.

Your output is incredibly varied. Not many artists could release fully analogue, sci-fi-inspired techno, for example, while also contributing remixes of Sister Gertrude Morgan to the Miami Vice soundtrack – and that’s really just a small part of it. How do you approach all these different projects? Do you decide, ‘Today I’m going to make a Fhloston Paradigm record,’ or is it a case of making the music first then deciding where it fits best?

It all comes from inspiration. Like in the case of Fhloston, I was watching The Fifth Element and decided, ‘I need to make some sci-fi’.

It always starts from a pure inspirational place or intention and then I think of where it fits. But I sometimes don’t care where it fits.

I get the impression you’re the kind of person who draws inspiration from just about everything around you. Is that a fair assumption? What’s the strangest thing that’s inspired your creative process?

Very true. Everything around me inspires! I wouldn’t say this is the strangest inspiration, but Shibuya Station in Japan is just so inspiring. The movement of masses of humans via technology… Looking down from the Starbucks six floors above is such a great feeling.

You’ve remixed some iconic performers over the years. Not just for the Gertrude Morgan LP but also in remixing Tony Scott for the Verve Remixed project or your reworking of Edwin Starr and Curtis Mayfield. Does it take a certain different approach when you’re working with such highly prized source material? Do you feel like you have to treat it with a different kind of respect, for example, or that you should stay more faithful to the source?

Yes! I respect all artistic work and vision but the reason I’m hired is to bring my total sound to the project. So now I take it as far away from the original as possible to give a fully different experience. I also only remix what I like.

You’re never tempted to take on a project with some source material you hate and try to turn it into something you love?

No. I need to be inspired or it won’t work. There needs to be something in it for me.

You posted some photos of Stockhausen records on your Instagram recently. Are you a big fan?

Hell yeah.

Do you think there are comparisons between modern electronic musicians and the approach to composition and sound design taken by avant-garde composers like Stockhausen?

Those groundbreaking approaches were the basis of how most of us think these days. Everything from musique concrète to found sounds and sampling…

Stockhausen’s Mixtur and Microphonie II incorporated electronics and orchestral ideas which paved the way for artists like Björk and Jean-Michel Jarre.

His ‘spatial’ music series is now revisited with the art of mixing in 8.1 and DJs like Francois K are experimenting with playing this way.

You’ve got a pretty big collection of music gear – vintage and more modern. I get the impression that they’re not just tools for you?

Each piece of equipment has a story in my life. They’re very much a part of me and my evolution as an artist. They also each have their own individual sound and personality, much like children in a way. Those characteristics definitely lead to inspiration in the creative process because they create limitations and parameters that shape the way a composition will eventually come into fruition.

Like, my Roland JX-3P is just my go-to machine, especially with the PG-200 programmer. I can make sounds so quickly and really create a sound for the whole song. Each element would be created from scratch which no other person would have, unlike software sounds…

I also admire great design and functionality of things. Like the Monome, just such an intuitive machine with MLR. The way I’ve incorporated it within Ableton has changed my whole sound recently. I just did a full Monome performance and it was so much fun.

What projects are you working on next? What can we expect to hear from you in the future?

I have a beautiful series coming out called The Buddy System, on which I’ve collaborated with a bunch of friends and plan to release an EP a month. The first will be in January with Parisian singer Rachel Claudio. It’s so 1984!

I’m also heading to Zimbabwe to work with Tendai Maraire on Dumi Songs, an album using his dad Dumi Maraire‘s masters as source material for a mind-blowing tribute. We intend to work with many of the original cats his dad worked with.

[wub]

Scientist On Dub - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GvhMHJK ... re=related

The Sound Of Dub - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mZ-Lms0 ... re=related

Dub Stories (full documentary) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Eet-sm ... re=related

King At The Controls (King Jammys Documentary) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5SzZryT ... re=related

Dub to Jungle Documentary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4SdNOhr ... re=related

UK DUB (documentaire complet) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-cJeeB4 ... re=related

Mad Professor - A Dub Lesson - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIwZbn26 ... re=related