I started using an MPC in the beginning of this year. I have started becoming tired of the sound now. I liked it for live sets putting its sound through my Modular G2 engine with a compressor and EQ module and drastically reduced mids. The claps also went separately thru it with an additional reverb module.
What is your monitoring setup? Are you mixing with loud volumes and do you listen to other reference music while working on a track? I used to listen very loud when mixing and it took me ages and dozens of sessions before I was happy with a mix.
Now I don't really pay attention to it anymore and I work at low volumes. During periods of music making, I try not to listen to other peoples music in order to avoid being influenced. However, when it comes to mixing, I think I should use one or the other reference tracks.
So that's a good point actually. What is the first fader you bring up while mixing? That's different depending on whether it is ambient or something meant for the dance floor. With the latter, one could start with something percussive. Can you run me through your effect rack? I am not good in effects, I wanna say I haven't paid attention to it really. In fact, in lack of an effects rack.
I use the internal Ableton reverb effect that I think is sufficient for my purposes. For live situations I have used the effect modules of the Nord G2. At the moment I am actually looking for some nice little effects units, just to get a little bit of a different sound and vibe to my sound modules rather than buying another new synth.
However, I like synthesizers more than effect units. Your music is often clear and well balanced to my ear, any tips for a clear mix and controlled low end? Thank you! It is hard to name it, I don't really pay attention to it, maybe it's just because I try not to overload with too many elements and layers.
The clearness is maybe because I do not use effects so much. I think it is good to give each instrument its own frequency range. If a sound, which is not the bassline, has too much low end, EQing or filtering that sound is what one would do, so that this particular sound doesn't interfere with the bassline too much. Whats your go-to analogue EQ? For more radical purposes e. Do you use a lot of compression?
Hardly ever. I did for the drum sets of the TR and TR That's actually something I would like to buy maybe: A hardware compressor. I should be utilizing the functionality of my mixing console a bit more, a compressor would be a good add-on.
So far again the compressor module of the G2 has done it for me. A long time ago I used to have a Behringer compressor, but I have given it to my brother. Do you have a compressor or limiter on the stereo buss while mixing? Except using tape compression, I try to avoid leading the sum through a compressor or limiter. Using it musically for a subgroup is a good way I think.
Do you use distortion often? Not very often really. I used it at places in the Drop album and now I think I should do that more often. I love it when the sound of the Nord Modular gets just a bit of distortion when briefly touching the resonance point using the low pass filter, and this saturated with a long reverb. The polyphonic sounds come from the top, the bass and the squelchy acidic lines comes from the bottom. What are the most important things in a mix to you?
Clarity and dynamics with the purpose to create emotional impact. How long did it take you to record and mix the album? The album is a compilation of recordings from several years reaching back as far as eight years or so. Several tracks I had sent out as demos to various, actually very suitable addresses, and were never taken. I was very happy when Kimochi's Max made the decision to put them all on one album, because these recordings are very important to me, they represent my musical feeling better than any other music I have made.
Each of the tracks were recorded relatively quickly. In January I decided to only make ambient for an entire year and I started with one track a day.
I didn't make it till December, however, a couple of tracks are from that period. Did you have a specific sound in your mind prior to the recordings or did you sculpture that as you progressed? I sculptured the Nord Modular patches until I thought, that's it, let me assign knobs to parameters, then I recorded while playing with the parameters by tweaking knobs.
What is your favourite album track sonically and musically? That's really hard to say. Recorded many years ago the album remains pivotal and as relevant as ever, much do the musicians behind the release. Looking back, they reflect on a different time and the collaborative process which lead to the release of the album as David discusses:. It was more like 'let's jam'.
This was back in Both of our albums stemmed from these jams which took place around the same period, they're sort of a pair. The sporadic nature of the collaboration is perhaps what lends itself to the singularity of the music featured across both albums. The music itself wanders between miscellaneous ideas and constructs, playfully meandering in a way which is unique and transient. Long, drawn out heads down tracks are paired with that of flickering melodies, wild intrusions and percussive flourishes.
Benjamin provides justification for the finished product. I think we both knew what the other one liked and didn't. In other words, we hardly held divided opinions. I was the more unexperienced between us. David is not much of a talker either. There was a similarity and no divided opinions, at least to my understanding and memory.
No textbook process or procedure but coincidence, time, our ages, our private issues at the time, air temperature, moonlight, the constellations in the stars etc.. Whilst Benjamin insists that the pair didn't discuss their influences or the result of their collaboration in much detail prior to hitting the studio there was a conscious awareness and a mutual understanding of one another's respective backgrounds.
The German electronic music scene and the diy movement which evolved in the 90's enlightened both musicians, as Benjamin recalls. Frank Bretschneider and Rastermusic in general, especially in and I went there almost every weekend and was amazed by the effect of continuousely mixed House and Techno music all night long.
Another incredibly influential night was a party called Raster-Kompakt, which featured a mixture of Raster Noton and Kompakt artists. Then there was a concert by Transient Waves, which was another inconceivable night for me. VOXXX was in a former brewery building with concrete walls and floors, high ceilings and a large pipe protruding and blowing very warm air into the room.
I often stood near that pipe enjoying the warmth, the large space, the high room, the sound. I am sure that the mix of music and the climate in there did something to me. David recalls similar experiences and moments from around such periods, whilst observing differences between the past and present in a creative sense. It's interesting to observe the fact that Benjamin is drawn to the longevity of the parties and the overarching playback of the music featured as opposed to the individuality of a particular track or moment.
This in itself is perhaps an ideology paired with that of the music created by both musicians when working in unison, as David goes on to explain. When we started in the 90's there was a void as the techno scene was still relatively new. Style wise there was still very much a blank canvas which could be filled in.
We were definitely a part of that kind of 90's sound, which I think is due a revival. For a while it was considered dated and lame but now it's come back around and sounds fresh again. People have given it a new spin, a new approach. I think a lot of the so called 'IDM' in the 90's has probably got a lot of potential with the new generation.
There's still some charm to those records which act as the blueprint for a certain style, an old Black Dog record or an old Luke Vibert record radiates something special. There's a sound quality to this kind of vintage music, you could say the same about house music in comparison to the sound of today. For me, those older releases hold much more character to them, even if it's in their defects.
From the bad pressings to recycled vinyl, it's all part of the package and I somehow feel that the vintage stuff still holds a certain kind of aura in which you can get sucked into.
When talking with both David and Benjamin, it's hard to imagine that they might have ever pictured themselves where they are at present. Many years on, here they are discussing the importance of their respective musical trajectories and an album which remains crucial to many.
It's all very positive on the most part. However, do they find themselves ecnouraged or lost within what is a very different musical community from that of where they both began?
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