Noisia AMA - http://www.reddit.com/r/AdvancedProduction/comments/38e8ba/noisia_ama_for_radvancedproduction/
Hackman Against The Clock
KiNK
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[quote]The most important part if you start out making music, is to get genre
specific samples from the beginning. This will help you to progress
faster. Many beginners do the mistake to adopt a mindset that they can
only be real if they learn to create sounds on their own, but this leads
directly into struggling, and this is the last thing you want to have
when you just start out.
You must not forget a sample loaded into a sampler can be seen as an
instrument, that can be manipulated with effects until it sounds
completly diffrent and so will be your own. Furthermore you will learn
with the years to synthesize sounds with a synth anyway, and also
recognize that it will still be not easy to recreate a sound if you know
a synth in and out.
But with some good samples which you can use to learn processing skillz
and some production talent you can get quicker to your goal then all
those who are spending more time with finding their sound than getting
something properly finished !
Because at the end its not you who can say that you are original or a pioneer, this will be decided by others for you !
And you can be sure, almost all your heroâs, especially in drum n bass
rinsing sample packs like hell, even those that are seen as pioneers or
originals, but not all really like to talk about, especially which packs
they use, this is a production secret some wonât share.
[/quote]
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[quote]The only piece of advice i wish Iâve gotten when I started out, is just
to write tunes and work on the art of writing tunes; full tunes. That
means, if I have to use a sample pack for some elements, just get on
with it and use it. Just work on the most crucial thing which is
arrangement and song flow. Get that down first. Learning details like
programming a break from scratch or sound design would come later, much
later, but at least you would know how to put together a song. Also
write with the intention of releasing music.
Thatâs really the only piece of âadviceâ I would give to any new artist.
Get good at writing songs, and write the the intention of releasing
your work. Doesnât mean you will get releases right away, and for the
most part, your work will suck, but the more you do it, the better you
get. Also donât listen to naysayers. Just learn from their criticism and
keep it moving. Your work may not sell now, but by the time they do you
will have 50 to over 100 beats to sell.
[/quote]
https://instagram.com/p/3eOf95i8sM/?taken-by=fanufatgyver
[quote=âfanuâ]OK, Iâm serious about bringing breaks and rich sampling culture back into D&B.
To be honest, I AM sick of hearing the same synthetic sht all over
again, and everybody wants to sound like the next guy. What the fck
happened to jungle? Whereâs originality, fresh breaks and beats and
samples?
At some point they took the black element out of jungle, and it became synthetic.
I sorely miss the days when jungle / D&B sounded way more organic.
I WILL start working on the breaks revival movement once I get everything else off my hands (hip hop album being one thing), I swear.
Donât they says things go in ten year cycles? The last time it was ten
years ago, and we were pushing it HARD, and I loved being part of it.
Need to get back into that.
Hereâs something from Danny Breaks, one
of the finest beatlayers jungle ever got to witness; tune called âMars
To Jupiterâ on his Droppin Science label. Listen to those damn drums and
tell me that donât sound dope as fuckâŚ
EDIT/PS: For the record: I do think Amen has been done to death. There,
I said it. Get off your lazy ass and sample fresh breaks â Iâll do the
same.[/quote]
I like this question but at the same time its like the term composition and maybe compositional skills are semi-frowned upon in e-music (lol sorry) ?
Isnât all of it just down to compositional skills in an way that inevitably makes the sourcing or the quest for authenticity become a part of the image more than the process?
You could have all the sources in the world and still end up going full-Zimmer?
7 Obscure Mixing Techniques Used by the Pros
Most of the time thereâs an obvious choice. Need more midrange? Grab an EQ and boost the midrange. Need more control of the source? Volume automation or compression. Easy. But sometimes we face strange challenges â like how to get more bass in the kick without running out of headroom. Or how do we make something sound brighter that doesnât have much harmonic content above 7 kHz except hiss. Well, where thereâs a will thereâs a way. Sometimes the way is just a little less predictable.
So with that said, here are seven counterintuitive mixing techniques you can use to solve unconventional problems.
1. Using a low-pass filter for brightness
What? How can using a low-pass filter make something brighter? Well, letâs say you have a distorted guitar. Itâs power goes up to about 5-6 kHz, but after that itâs just noise. A
treble boost will bring out that noise, clog up your mix, and make the guitar harsh.
Instead, use a low-pass filter with a very steep slope. This does two things. First, it cuts out noise and distortion. Second, it actually accentuates the tone at the corner frequency â so while you might be attenuating everything above say 6 kHz (for example), youâre actually boosting the 6 kHz region. This happens because the EQ generates resonance right at the corner of the pass band â and itâs actually pretty clean and clear!
2. Adding midrange for bigger bass
When we want to hear more bass in a bass guitar, kick drum, or other low-end element, the obvious solution is to boost the low end. However, sometimes what we really want to do is just draw more attention to that bass element.
We can do this by adding midrange: pulling up the thud of a kick or the gnarly overtones of a bass. This pulls our ear to that element, telling us thereâs more of it there â even if itâs actually just more
midrange.
This can be extremely valuable when you donât have much headroom, or thereâs something else competing for attention in the low end.
3. Using compression to increase dynamics
But wait, doesnât a compressor restrict dynamic range? Not necessarily. It attenuates a signal that exceeds an amplitude threshold. In most cases that will restrict the dynamic range. However,
if the attack is long enough, and the threshold is low enough, a compressor can actually exaggerate the attack.
This happens because the compressor allows the front of the signal to pass mostly unaltered, while still pulling down the sustain of the signal and making the attack more prominent relative to the sustain.
This can be very useful when trying to bring an already over-compressed signal to life (over compressed ⌠compress it some more!) â or for injecting some serious snap into a dull drum sound.
4. Sharpening transients before a limiter on the master buss
If youâre using a brickwall limiter on your master buss, chances are youâre doing so to make something loud. And to do that, you want the maximum amount of headroom available. So
why on earth would you use a transient designer in front of a limiter?
Wouldnât exaggerating the attacks use up your headroom faster? Well, yes and no. Technically yes, but remember that these things arenât perfectly mathematical. Sharpening the transients can do two things. First, you can legitimately get more transient through the limiter and still retain
loudness because a transient designer is boosting in a different way than the limiter is cutting. Second, the limiter is pulling down everything in the mix. That means while your kick hits harder for that 10 ms, your bass gets attenuated for that 10ms as well. The attacks will poke out
clearer in the mix, thus exaggerating the dynamic perception.
Warning: sometimes this sounds like crap, so use it when it works and donât use it when it doesnât.
5. Using distortion to make something sound cleaner
Now that really doesnât make sense. In what way could distortion possibly make something sound âcleaner?â
If we define clean by clarity of tone rather than by purity of the original sound, we can use harmonic distortion to make something sound more âpolished.â
Light amounts of harmonic distortion will exaggerate the overtones of a source. Our brain uses these harmonics to tell us what exactly weâre hearing. Itâs kind of like saying weâre going to make this clarinet more âclarinet-yâ by emphasizing its partials.
6. Using reverb for intimacy
Remember that reverb is used to create a sense of space. Without reverb, itâs hard to define the front-to-back relationship of elements in a mix.
Contrasting wet elements with room sounds to the elements that are almost entirely dry can actually create a more âin your faceâ effect than simply leaving a sound 100% dry.
The key to doing this is to keep your forward elements sent to a reverb that is a) primarily early reflections, and b) has a long pre-delay.
The other benefit to using this kind of âambianceâ reverb is that it reinforces the tone of the dry signal a bit, which often makes it pop forward as well.
7. Mixing quietly towards loudness
Not that I feel loudness is absolutely paramount to a successful mix, but in todayâs climate of
iPods, noise-ridden listening environments, and DJ controlled playlists, itâs important that the record lives within the same general vicinity of apparent loudness.
Or to say it another way: the record shouldnât sound out of place amongst the other records being played shoulder to shoulder with it in the same genre.
Getting a mix to sound loud without losing tone, dimension, or punch can be tricky â especially when the references of todayâs mixes are as loud as they are.
So Iâll say two things. First, trends are showing that the loudness wars are easing off in pretty much every genre except EDM â so aim to make your mix maybe a little quieter than your references. Youâll have a much easier time getting the mix to hang together.
Second, mix your record at low monitoring levels. The reason this works is because it forces you to create energy and excitement when loudness is not an option. This will force you to be more selective about EQ and compression settings, as well as general levels and imaging.
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Thomas âTakeâ Wilson has been building mind-blowing beats since the
MySpace days, releasing albums on labels like Buttermilk and Alpha Pup
and building fans on both sides of the Atlantic. Heâs also released
great records as Sweatson Klank, including last yearâs You, Me,
Temporary album.
Very impressive, IMO. He not only narrates what heâs doing, but is able to arrange a track rather than just having a 64 bar rolling loop.
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Icicle Discusses The Mechanics Of His New Live Show
As a producer, Icicleâs technicality is kind of unparalleled. Poised and
measured heâs impeccably frequencially balanced and ever so meticulous.
In short, his attention to detail is impressive to say the very least.
Itâs a style of proficiency that the Dutch producer has demonstrated
consistently throughout his discography of critically acclaimed material
(which includes two phenomenal artist albums, Under The Ice and Entropy,
which were both released on Shogun Audio). The latter work has since
recently been transformed into a brand new live show, thoughtfully
entitled Entropy Live. Described by the Ice Man himself as his
motivation to âbring what I do in the studio to the stageâ the live show
promises to be an hour long performance of live sequencing and analogue
mixing thatâs channelled through via his plethora of hardware,
controllers all set to stunning visuals thatâs hosted by the lyrical
talent of Manchester emcee, Skittles.
On paper, it sounds like it will Icicle at his finest. So to prelude the
event, we hot stepped it over to the producerâs south London studio, to
discuss the inner workings and his motivated intentions behind the
creation of his live setâŚ
Could you give me a brief verbal run down of your studio?
Icicle: Ok, so Logic is by far the back bone for my
studio set up at the moment. Iâve got my soundcard, vocal speaker and
Audeze headphones that are amazing. Iâve got a second screen where I run
my analysers. Itâs got this perfect curve taped to it as I worked out
exactly where I want my music to be. Thereâs also a fair bit of kit here
that Iâm more likely to use in my live show. Iâve got Machine Studio
which the whole show is based around. It gives me this higher level of
control and in the studio Iâm able to break down my tunes from Logic and
put them into individual parts. My new keyboard, Komplete Kontrol S2
from Native Instruments is amazing. I use it a lot as a fair bit of my
music is made using Native Instruments software. It allows you to see
where your samples are mapped once youâve loaded up your instruments, or
a complicated contact patch, so it makes the whole process and your
work flow much faster. Itâs a really intelligent MIDI controller - none
of the other controllers are really built for this sort of thing. Iâve
got the Virus TI Synth too which I also use when Iâm playing live â it
makes everything sound really nice and is a very good thing to use on
the computer with all the DI stuff. So, yeah, I guess this is just the
basics of my studio â Iâve also got my rack synths and modular synths
that I use for fun from time to time.
Whatâs your favourite piece?
On stage it is the Machine Studio as itâs the core of the whole show. I
also get a huge kick out of the Virus if Iâm playing on some big stage
somewhere with a huge sound system. In the studio, itâs difficult to
say, but the speakers give me so much clarity especially when backed up
with the headphones. I cannot stress how important it is to blow your
entire studio budget on a solid monitoring system.
So I read that your live show is really about bringing what you do in your studio to an audienceâŚ
Well the basic [make up] of my live set up is what Iâve just shown you,
but Iâve also got an analogue mixer. This runs out of my soundcard and
allows me to mix outputs like drums, melodies, bass and percussion as
they all come in. You can use a mixer on the computer but Iâve purposely
used an analogue mixer so that itâs completely authentic. Itâs just me
creating some loops, sequencing, filtering out and creating a
progression while playing melodies over the top â a process that I
regularly do in my studio but is being articulated on stage. Itâs me
doing a lot of shit. Of course, Iâm not collaborating and improvising
with some jazz band, but itâs more live than Iâve ever been before and
itâs allowing me to connect so much more with my music. You know, I can
mix tunes from my USB stick in a club but itâll never hold the same kind
of value compared to playing live. Even when you play your own track in
a DJ set, theyâll be some other DJ whoâll play it exactly the same way.
I guess playing live is presenting yourself as an artist in your rawest formâŚ
Itâs just more much honest. With the live show, I only play my own
material so if I feel like Iâm losing the energy or disconnecting with
the crowd I canât just quickly play some anthem to get the crowd and
energy back. Itâs completely down to you and your music.
Do you find that there are more limitations compared to DJing?
It is a limitation but itâs not [limiting] because on the other
hand, playing live is 100% your own identity. Itâs you. I donât know, I
guess maybe it has something to do with the fact that I feel as if
DJing is too faceless. You just play the best combination of tracks and
although thereâs a lot that has to be said when it comes to selection
and working the crowd â you can still be a genius with it â but, as Iâve
come from a vinyl back ground, I feel that the authenticity has gone so
DJing just didnât cut it for me. Iâve always felt that there must be
more to it.
Can you tell us about the visual element of the live show?
Iâve done a live show before Entropy with an old set up â it
was fun and it taught me a lot but with this show I wanted to explore
and incorporate a visual element. In drum & bass you often see these
overly produced, big budget visuals brought in by some external company
but I wanted to do something a little closer to home. A friend of mine,
Drew Best, whoâs a renowned animator from America happened to be really
interested my ideas. I wanted to use my MIDI to control the visuals
myself, triggering various different visuals each time I played a
certain note. I wanted the visuals to underline what I was doing
musically rather than just having some DVD playing in the background.
Iâve also got a VJ to help with the effect and keeping the flow â which I
canât do because Iâve only got two hands. Itâs really fun to think of
your music on a different level and how it can be presented through
visuals. Video is multi-dimensional so I think it gives the show a lot
more depth.
And can you tell us about Skittles, having a vocalist involved must add a whole other âliveâ dimensionâŚ
Itâs wicked to have him involved. Heâs a massive part of the show and
weâve worked hard to get right but itâs been a lot of fun to play with.
He comes from more of a hip hop background so we met at this interesting
creative place which maybe before mightâve not have been so obvious.
But itâs worked really well.
What has been the biggest challenge youâve faced since you started developing the live show?
There have been so many! I mean, just getting stuff finished on time is
challenging enough. I guess what Iâve found to be most challenging is
just traveling with all the equipment. Weâre taking about carrying 100
kilos round with us and weâve only done about seven shows so far.
Setting up has proved to be quite difficult too â every club is
different so there will always be some technical issues. Itâs also hard
to work with sound engineers who arenât used to this kind of set up. And
to be honest, performing is hard too. Compared to a DJ set where you
can get drunk and go with it, you have to really focus so it can drain
your energy a bit though it is completely worth it.
Would you say youâve found the whole experience quite daunting in some ways?
Realistically? Yes it has. I might know how I am going to perform, how
Iâm going to combine the LED projectors and how itâll all work together
but until youâve done the whole tour and youâve experienced every
possible scenario in terms of the different clubs and different people,
thereâs a lot of stress that comes with it. Itâs exciting though.
Thereâs not a lot of artists who are doing this kind of live show,
especially in drum & bass and even more so within my particular
sound. So you can kind of secretly go, âfuck yeah!â Itâs all worth it.
Do you feel itâs helped you progress as an artist?
Completely. For me to work on numerous different platforms, different
software and to completely think about my music in different way, itâs
definitely helped me progress. As I said before, I might not be some
jazz pianist but Iâm thinking about what more I can do in dance music to
keep people listening and interested in my music so I think there must
have been some progress along the way. In fact, in terms of the visual
side of things, initially I was completely new to it but I already feel
pretty clued up. Iâve been learning non-stop for the last couple months.
Itâs got me to a place where I am really excited again. Music got to a
point where it became still in the sense that I was doing well for a
while, people liked my music but they didnât necessarily want me to
progress or do something new so I felt stuck.
I have the most fun when Iâm learning new things. I never cared too much
for my tunes or my back catalogue because I was always focused on what
was next and how I might be able to do something different. So I think
the live show has been a major opportunity for me to learn new things. I
now have this feeling that the sky is the limit. What else can I do?
What else can I learn? Itâs motivating.
Is there a lot more to come from it? Do you plan to develop the live show further?
100%. This is just my starting point. Iâve proved that it works, I can
travel with it and perform the show in many different places. I imagine
that eventually there will be a massive stage with all sorts of
incredible LED projection mapping and perhaps more people on stage with
me. Ultimately, the goal is to connect with the audience and to make
people want to dance. I donât want them to think of my show as some
self-indulgent, weird audio visual show so I think I will maintain this
focus on trying to make it work in any environment weâre put in.
So briefly what can we expect? How would you best describe the show?
Itâs my studio work flow brought to the stage. The majority of the material will be from my latest album, Entropy,
but Iâll also play a few bits from back catalogue and Skittles will be
bringing his mad energy to the table. Overall, itâll be a unique
experience thatâll hopefully disintegrate the place!
He says while not even using any kind of absorbents / stands for his monitors. Also, his room doesnât look treated. 
But hey, it obviously works wonders for him, seeing as Entropy is a great album.
His setup looks good in this video;
Though not sure how old this studio is. Also, we canât see the back wall. Monitors are Focal Solo6 Be, which arenât exactly cheap.
https://vimeo.com/19610612 (older though)
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Machine Love: Atom TM
Live from MUTEK 2015 in Montreal, Uwe Schmidt offers a peak into his HD Live audiovisual show.
From nine-piece electro-latino orchestras to the projections of
lime-green computer code that complement his digital techno, Uwe
Schmidtâs live shows have long achieved multiisensory impact. He doesnât
always perform with a purpose-built visual accompanimentâwith Tobias
Freund, for example, heâs focussed solely on wringing hard-hitting
sounds from his machinesâbut his A/V sets are marked by tight
integration with the music, technical inventiveness and dollop of wry
humor.
Thatâs especially true of the show Schmidt put together for HD,
his 2013 album as Atom⢠on Raster-Noton. To the beat of wildly
infectious techno-pop, a screen above the stage is blasted by abstract
shapes, video collages and a heavily retouched approximation of
Schmidtâs head, which occasionally lip-syncs along with the tunes. The
set is both a time warp to MTVâs '80s heyday and a hyper-contemporary
creation, which not too long ago would have required a small army of
animators and effects experts to pull off. When we caught up at this
yearâs MUTEK festival in Montreal, I found out that a range of disparate
technological advancements, from ever-increasing processing power in
laptops to the rise of YouTube tutorials, helped Schmidt, who has no
formal training in video production, assemble HD in-house. After a
short performance during MUTEKâs day programming at the Phi Centre,
Schmidt gave us the lowdown on whatâs become his signature set.
Thereâs a computer just for the video and a computer just for the audio,
basically for running larger parts of the audio. A small controller for
the audio and I normally order a desk and an EQ for the stage.
Is there any audio coming from the MPC, or is it just triggering?
Itâs both, actually. Everythingâs done with the idea of reproducing
pieces off the album, so the complexity was then: how would I fit
everything into an MPC? And I think itâs impossible to do that, or it
would have been insane to attempt that. So I decided upon reproducing
parts of the album as multitrack recordings from within Ableton and
other more improvised parts, which just happened towards the end of that
track, then run out of the MPC. So Iâm basically switching back and
forth between the two sources of audio. And, for example, the second
piece Iâm going to play, later on, is entirely coming out of the
MPCâthereâs no [computer] audio involved.
How close is this set up to what you used when you were making the album?
Nothing to do with it [laughs].
So you completely adapted all of that for this. What did the album setup look like?
Itâs very much Pro Tools-based, itâs all editing work. ProTools is
basically the place where I end up putting stuff together, arranging
music, mixing music. So where the audio comes from isâwell, Iâm flexible
on that. So I have gearâsynthesisers, drum machines, whateverâand I end
up layering stuff in ProTools. So itâs a very, very different process
from whatâs here. Itâs much less improv-oriented; I play very little,
actually. Itâs on-and-off, stop-and-go, letting things simmer a little
bit and then going back to the recording, put it back together, delete
stuff, and afterwards coming back. So itâs a rather slow and not very
real-time-oriented process.
HD was very, very slow coming togetherâsomething youâve been working on for many years, right?
Actually, I had started on the album maybe ten years ago and then
had a couple of technical problems and lost the mixes. I kind of started
to mix it down and lost the mixes twice and then I got totally fed up
with it. I couldnât listen to it anymore. But I had the unfinished mixes
on my hard disk for like, ten years. I always dragged it from one hard
disk to the next, and every couple of months, maybe, I would listen to
some of it. And then, throughout the years, I actually deleted some of
it. I had no connection to [the original] idea, and I just threw it
awayâthere were two or three pieces off that recording that still
resonated after, maybe, seven or eight years. But I had changed a lot,
and my ideas had changed a lot, so I decided to adapt them and put them
into something else, which then became HD. So itâs not really
that itâs an album that took ten years or something. Itâs more like, I
had tracks laying around and then adapted it into another idea, which
was HD. I recorded the other seven tracks for the album afterwards.
Letâs talk about the visual concept, which is the really striking thing about this set. How did the A/V set get started?
Well that whole A/V project started eight years ago. It came along
when I realized that I was able to program and play audio and video all
by myself, onstage. That was not possible to do during the years before,
when I started making music and started performing 20 years ago. I
always wanted to do that, but it was totally impossibleâit would require
a small team of people. Iâm not very good at giving orders to people.
Especially with video, Iâm very picky about timing and stuff like that.
And whenever I had tried to work with people, it was alwaysâit didnât
feel right. I always had to tell them what to do, and I donât like that.
And then at some point, after I had performed for more than ten years
with SeĂąor Coconutâit was a totally different thing, me onstage with ten
peopleâat some stage I was tired of doing that, of being onstage,
travelling with people, being with people [laughs]. I really had
this strong feeling I wanted to be alone onstage and be responsible for
myself, kind of like a samurai idea. So I was getting really interested
again in playing that type of set and did a little research and found
out it was possible, actually, to do video and audio with a rather
portable set, just by myself.
What had suddenly made that possible? Was it particular technology, a particular piece of software?
Well, laptops, I thinkâlaptops and the fact that the average laptop
is actually able to play HD video. I started to play with my MPC3000,
which basically, all the audio came off the MPC3000 and the audio was
triggering the video in real time. That was how everything started. So
this set is a progression of that first idea. Due to the fact that I
wanted to reproduce tracks off the album (which was not the case with
the first set) I had to include Ableton for sound and be able to manage
bigger amounts of audio data, and of course then I switched to HD video,
which requires more memory and faster computers. So now Iâm using two
machinesâtwo computersâto do that.
Itâs still necessary to have two laptops, one for audio and one for video?
You know, I donât trust computers [laughs]. It feels shaky in
general, playing with computers. I donât like computers onstage. Thatâs
why, as you see, I donât really look at them. They could be somewhere
else. Theyâre not, because I donât trust them.
You like them within armâs reach, basically.
Yes. If something crashes, which has only happened, like, once in
three years, I need to be there, to reboot or whatever. So thatâs why
theyâre onstage. But for the first A/V, where I played with an MPC3000, I
had the video computer somewhere else backstage. I ran it off a
FireWire cable, and yeah, that worked pretty well.
So you designed all the visuals that weâre seeing here?
Yes.
Do you have a background in this kind of thing? How did you get started?
That was quite a regular experience, actually, because I was pretty
sure about what I wanted to do audio-wise and how to solve that. And I
had a very specific idea about the kind of visuals I wanted. So the
option is always, âDo I find that person and explain to them what I
want, or do I try to do it myself?â Actually, when I started to prepare
that set, it took me maybe four months to actually finish the album. And
to finish that production took me six months. Thatâs because I had to
learn video editing, blue-screening, everything from scratch. I bought
the computers for the set. I bought the whole audio equipment just for
that set and had to figure it out and learn it, and also learn the whole
video side of it. Not only how to play it with the program Iâm using,
but also to make the video, to produce the video. So the first section,
for example, of that video, the first seven minutes, are an entirely
pre-rendered section that I trigger off the MPC and the two computers.
So the audio comes off the Ableton, and the video comes from the other
computer.
And they run in sync, fortunately [laughs]. When I first
started to produce it, I wasnât sure if that was the case. Sometimes
thereâs some glitch in the clock and sync or something, and it runs it
out of sync. Thatâs why the MPC is so important, because the MPC has a
very stable clock and Ableton does notâsorry to say that [laughs].
If Ableton was the master clock for that set up, the video would not
run in sync. So I needed a stable master clock, and the MPC is actually
that. So I started playing the MPC, and thereâs basically two MIDI
channels off the MPC. One is triggered with the video and one with the
audio, and they run in sync forever, basically.
So MIDI keeps both the video and the audio in syncâthatâs the way that theyâre talking to each other?
Yes. So the MPC is starting the clips and switching the
clipsâswitching the video programs, switching the scenes, the layers and
so on. And every now and then I can play the clips with pads, and
sometimes theyâre playing by themselves from within the MPC.
So youâre still getting to play the video? This is one of the big
questions people have about a set like this: when youâre trying to have
video and audio working together, how flexible can you be with the
audio? How much can you deviate from the particular script?
Quite a lot, actually. Maybe in the next track itâll be a bit more
obviousâitâs way simpler than this one. The question is not so much how
far can you modify what youâre doing; the question is, how much do you
want to? Or how far are you able to do that? Since I started to play
music live, I realized that thereâs a certain balance between how much
you could do, and how much you really will do, from experience. From a
very early moment I used very complex machines onstage, and you never
really use the entire complexity it gives you. You always end up with a
certain number of parameters you want to tweak, and after realizing that
itâs much more inspiring for me to have far simpler machines onstage
and just focus on a couple of parameters you want to tweak.
So a track like this, for exampleâyou realize when playing it whatâs
possible and whatâs not possible. You thought [some aspect of
performance] would be fun while preparing it, but itâs not actually that
entertaining when youâre doing it. So this is how certain ideas ended.
Basically the whole experience for me shrinks down to a very defined
choreography, I would say. You know what you like about a certain track,
you know what works and what doesnât. And within the whole set, which
is a one-hour set, I have to find the spots to improvise and the spots
where itâs not necessary to improvise. So like I said, the first six
minutes of this track, I wouldnât have to be onstage, actuallyâI could
play and just remain onstage fixing the audio and doing little things
here and there. Then it goes into a couple of loops after six minutes.
It gets stuck in a loop, and I can improvise on top of that, and audio
from the MPC is then layered on top, and so on. And then I play some
sounds, which trigger some video. The very end sectionâthe whole track,
if I just run through it and donât really improvise, it would be maybe
seven minutes, but Iâve played that track for maybe 25 minutes. If the
vibe is good and the sound is good and Iâve realised that people want
more, or itâs just fun to do when I have the time, then I can expand it
quite a lot.
I imagine thatâs the important part of doing a set like thisâif
itâs too planned, you canât really react to the crowd. Youâre basically
just getting up and pressing play, and giving people the same thing
theyâd get if they saw you on any other day. But at the same time, you
also donât want it to be too improvisational or too open, or else you
probably wouldnât be able to have such sophisticated things going on
with the video and all of that. Is it a balance?
I think so, yeah. There are a couple of factors here that you have
to start taking into account before making a set. For example, before
performing at a festival such as MUTEK. Itâs a very different situation
from performing at a sort of concert, where they invite just you to
play. You could play for two hours if you wanted. At a festival youâre
given a certain slot, and they tell you to play for 40 minutes or
whatever, and then someone comes on and says, âThatâs it.â So you canât
really improvise entirely, even though you wanted to, and you even
sometimes have to take bits and pieces out of the longer set to make a
shorter set.
To me itâs rather important to be able to structure the entire
thing, time-wise, to have an idea for how long it can be and develop a
feeling for it. Iâm not looking at the clock when I play; I have a
feeling for it. I know, if I improvise at a certain time, there are some
islands of safety after the improvisation part where I can relax a
little, where itâs pretty structured and I donât have to worry. I
personally need that structure for that kind of set, because itâs
really, really complex. Itâs a very simple setup, but this means itâs
really, really complex, the way to program itâlike how its interlinked,
how the media and the audio are different. If you make a small mistake,
like switching the wrong program at the wrong moment, you can mess it
up. So thereâs a lot of concentration involved, and making it 100%
improvisation would be a bit too much to focus on.
You mentioned that there are moments where things could malfunction and could go wrongâ
And sometimes they do, and I have no idea why [laughs].
Does that happen often? And what do you do in that situation?
You act as if nothing has happened [laughs]. Yeah, it
sometimes happens. Itâs quite mysterious actually. Every now and thenâI
would say maybe ten percent of showsâthereâs a glitchâsometimes a major
glitch, sometimes a minor glitchâwhere the program wouldnât change, for
example. And normally I rehearse that; for the technical side of things,
I rehearse before I go on tour. If I change a piece of equipment, or a
cable even, I run the whole set for a couple of days, actually,
emulating the live show. And itâs happened quite a lot that itâs all
identical: the cables are numbered, itâs always the same connections, I
never change the cables, itâs always the same thing, and it suddenly
doesnât trigger and I donât know why. I make a note of it, and when I
get home I go back to that glitch, as I want to see whatâs going on, and
then it works. Itâs weird. This setup is quite, how can I sayâI thought
a lot about this setup, and the reliability of these machines, and I
test them a lot and know what could happen and what the possible bugs
could be.
In general Iâm pretty prepared, you know? Iâm not freaking out like,
âWhatâs happening?!â Itâs always just, âOh.â There are always moments
in the structure, and thereâs moments like this in the whole set: I
start the MPCâs pattern base, and I start with pattern one. Then I run
from pattern to pattern, using the foot pedalsâI step through. I never
go back from 20 to 16 or something, itâs all a sequence. And there are
always points in that sequence of patterns where I have programmed a
reset. So if youâre lucky, youâre back on track.
So thereâs a little bit of troubleshooting thatâs built into the set up?
As much as possible, yeah.
Youâve been playing this set now for about two years, right?
Yeah, two and a half years.
How has it developed over time? Or are you basically doing what you were doing before?
No, actually it has. Like I said before, it took me a long time to
program it and to make it run, and while on tour I canât really change
anything, because itâs too complex. So what happened is, I prepared the
first version of the set, and then I realised that certain things would
not work, or I preferred a different order, or I enjoy a lot of things
more than others. So I did a second version a year after where I changed
things and took pieces out and put other pieces in and streamlined it a
little bit, I would say. And thatâs basically still the version Iâm
playing.
I definitely wanted to ask about is this guy [points to spinning Atom⢠head on the screen]. We didnât see it in this portion of the set, but there are parts of HD Live where heâll talk or sing along with the music. What are we working with here? Heâs a computer-generated version of you?
Photoshop [laughs].
How was he created? Did you film yourself?
Well, thereâs no 3D rendering or anything involved; itâs playing
with Adobe After Effects and stuff like that. This is just the picture, a
photo. And thereâs the other parts where Iâm singing. And actually, the
thing for me performing the HD album live is that there are
vocals in there. I didnât want to perform vocals liveâIâm not a
vocalistâbut I wanted that connection to happen, that when the extra
voice was sounding, itâs not just coming from somewhere but thereâs some
relationship. You see that thereâs something happening with the vocals,
somethingâs happening or someoneâs singing or something. So my idea was
more to create a virtual me, basically, thatâs singing from the screen.
The inspiration was Max Headroom, actually.
So when I started to produce [the set], I had to produce the videos
and the audio. The audio was really simpleâI had done that hundreds of
times before. As for the video I had no idea what that meant. So I
bought the video computer, and I bought the software, and then I had to
learn After Effects from scratch and Premiere from scratch, and I had to
learn blue-screening from scratch. I did the whole thing without
anybody else helping me. One of the very last things I had to do was
actually the head thatâs spinning and talking. I wanted it to look
really artificial, but I had no idea how to do that. It was just like,
âOK, this must be possible, but I donât know how.â So I said to my
daughterâshe was 15 back thenâI said, âI have to learn the software.
Itâs called Adobe After Effects, and I need to learn blue-screening, and
I have no idea how to do that.â Then she said, âWhy donât you go on
YouTube and look for a tutorial?â [Laughs] I was like, âYeah, of course!â So I learnt all of the blue screening stuff on YouTube.
Thatâs something I hear all the time from people just talking about
audio: if you donât know how to use something, you just go on YouTube.
Exactly. And interestingly, when I wanted to start looking into
blue-screening, I thought it would require a small team of people:
somebody with a camera, somebody doing the lights, somebody even for
makeup. Itâs a small anecdote, but I was thinking about how to do that. I
was about to buy light equipment and a blue screen. I was standing in
my bathroom, which has this huge open roof, in the summertime in Chile,
so itâs really, really sunny, and thereâs this huge mirror. I was
shaving, and behind me thereâs a thing to hang a towel. And Iâm standing
there, looking at myself. The problem with blue-screening was, how
would I film myself, and how would I see what Iâm filming without
anybody else doing it? And I realised that I was looking at the mirror,
and actually the light was perfect. I could hang the blue screen behind
me where the towels go [laughs].
Thatâs how I did it, basically: I could put the camera in front of
the mirror, so I could see in the mirror myself, in film. And the light
was perfect, and I could put a grey towel behind me, so I wouldnât even
have to buy the blue screen! But I wanted to see if it worked, you know?
And it worked. I just filmed myself and blue-screened, and I cut myself
out and did all the Adobe work. But to my surprise, something I had not
contemplated before I started was the fact that the video was way
slower and, data-wise, a very, very big task. When youâre making an
album, even if itâs complex work, the session data and stuff is a couple
of gigabytes of production data, you know? Then I suddenly realised
that just filming myself was like four gigabytes. And making a version
of that would be eight gigabytes. So suddenly I had, like, hundreds of
gigabytes. I wasnât prepared for managing the amount of data, copying
things, rendering things. It started to slow me down. The further I got
into production, the more data I had, and the slower it got. Then the
tour came up. I had the tour already planned and booked and everything,
and the video actually kind of threw me off the plan, and I couldnât
really finish all the tracks. I used them when I put together the second
version of the set.
How much hard disk space does a show like this set you back?
On the video computer actually, on the day that itâs being played itâs not that big anymore.
Because itâs already been rendered out?
Exactly, so I donât knowâlike 60 gigabytes or something. The video
computer is not even a new machine, itâs a four year old Mac. Itâs ok,
itâs enough. But also, Iâd planned to buy new software for playing back
the video, but I had no idea how that would behave when I configured it
with MIDI. So I bought it, because I wanted the maintenance, the
troubleshootingâbeing able to call the people and being like, âI had a
problemâ or whatever. So I bought and installed it and when I started to
put the set together suddenly it would crash and I wouldnât know why or
what the problem was. Was it the codec, or the amount of data? So there
was actually a lot of time spent troubleshooting with that and playing
it over and over and over again, until I had the feeling it was kind of
stable. But it was a lot of trial and error and re-rendering the whole
thing in a different codec, finding the right proportion between the
codecs, compression and a lot of data, and so on and so on. In general,
triggering with HD video off a laptop is the tricky thing with that
software. It never feels 100% safe.
I know one of the big technical considerations of this set is
getting the video to the projector and then to the screen without a huge
amount of lag. Itâs more complicated than just plugging an HDMI cable
into the projector. What do you have to do to make sure that whatâs here
on the laptop is matching up with whatâs there on the screen?
Thereâs a funny story. I went on tour in France last yearâit was
like seven shows in a row, every day a different show, and the guy who
booked the tour for me also was the tour manager. And he asked me
before, he said, âTell me, what do I have to know about your setup, so I
can help you? Is the video very difficult?â And I said, âWell, actually
you will see that every single day there will be a different problem
with the video.â And he said, âNo, itâs not possible. Itâs a standard.
Itâs HDMI, itâs justâyou plug it in, andâŚâ And I said, âYou will see.â
[Laughs]
I have a couple of things in my tech rider, itâs quite specific what
I need: itâs an amplifier, or an Ethernet transmission system. Thereâs
not too many options. And then, on the first day, the projector would
not recognise the computer. On the second day, it would be noise
somewhere, and so on and so on. Every day there was a different issue,
and every day it took me like two hours, being patient, talking to the
people. And itâs always the same routine, because the video technician
always says, âOh, itâs your computer.â And Iâm always like, âNo, itâs
not my computer, I know itâs not my computer.â [Laughs.] And then
you have to go through itâthey go get another cable, and I donât know,
itâs sometimes the adapter, sometimes the cable or the combination
between the two. Itâs quite mysterious, actually. Itâs not as standard
as you would think it is. And then every now and then you have huge
latency, where itâs so off that itâs not fun to play. Then I have to
delay the audio on the main board, which makes it really hard to
improvise because youâre like half a millisecond off. Itâs a lot of
concentration and trying to have fun onstage, but its really not
comfortable, not smooth. All that kind of stuff can happen and you have
to be prepared for that. And be patient.
Youâve been doing this set for a number of years now. Are you
beginning to think of what the next step is? Do you have some ideas for
new ways that you could perform onstage?
Yes, but itâs not very concrete just yet. This is basically the last
year I will perform this set, and then I have to go on to something
else. I have a couple of ideas, musically and visually, of what that
could be, but Iâm not very far with that just yet.
As youâre working on new music in the studio, now that you have
all of this experience with video, does that influence the music making
process at all?
No. Whenever I make music in the studio, I know if I would like to
play that live or not and in which way. Sometimes I think itâs not
always necessary to have video. Thereâs a couple of sets, like the one I
play with Tobias Freund, for example, without any visuals, and itâs
about a totally different idea; itâs really more about sound than
anything else. And, yeah, whenever I make music I already have the
feeling for whether it can be played live. Not all the music I make
should be played live. Thereâs different moments in music where itâs
better to just listen to, you knowâat home, for example. And not all
music needs the visuals, either. For example, the other piece Iâd like
to play used to be an encore for the first A/V set. It was a piece I had
just thrown in very quickly, just in case people wanted me to play
more. Itâs just out of the MPC, and [the visuals are] basically just a
very small JPEG, a very simple black and white JPEG. And what I do is,
with the MPC, I play plug-ins on top of that JPEG, and the overload of
the different plug-ins does all the effects. And it was so much fun to
play that I put it in the set and kicked something else out. Itâs
actually one of the only old pieces I had to transfer into the new
system, so itâs an entirely different idea, and itâs a piece of music
that very much only exists because itâs so much fun to play with video.
It wouldnât be half as much fun without it.
2 Likes
NGHT DRPS: Against The Clock
Up next: NGHT DRPS. Although heâs based in Berlin, NGHT DRPS draws
many of his influences from London, often blending elements of grime and
garage into his productions. Heâs currently working on an audiovisual
live show, collaborating with Berlinâs visual artists.
For his Against the Clock, NGHT DRPS shows off his hardware-based
approach to grime production, combining the chopped rânâb of acts like
Low Deep with classic bass and synth sounds from the genreâs early
years. Listen to the finished track on Soundcloud and check out NGHT DRPSâ debut EP SLIPPIN, out now on Through My Speakers.
1 BigUp
How to find unwanted/ringing frequencies in your mix and carve them out?
It often happens that the sounds we use in music contain a bit
of useless noise that only fills up the bandwidth. Our ears get so used
to hearing our songs, we may not hear these things while weâre mixing,
so this is a good way of removing whatâs unnecessary. We end up getting
all kinds of small things with funny resonance in our mix, and
in the end they often accumulate, so itâs good practice to get rid of
âem.Itâs easy to find it and carve it out to make your mix more
spacious. This can be done with any EQ out there, but itâs preferable
that the number of bands can be pretty high.
Use EQ bands with narrow Q setting and high boost (see the rightmost
band in the pic), around 15+ dB, to find âannoyingâ, unmusical
frequencies in your mix. As youâve set the band to narrow Q and high
boost, âscanâ thru the frequency range slowly back and forth, and youâll
hear it when something starts to really stick out of the mix. Then,
once youâve found that, simply do a cut on that band, cutting as much as
feels good; itâs usually safe to cut, say, -3 dB, or more but I rarely
carve out more than -7 dB or so, but itâs always case-specific.
Keep the band narrow to not cut too much out of your mix: we only want
to find the annoying stuff, and those badboys donât usually take a very
broad space frequency-wise (if you find thatâs the case, though, you
should go back to your mix). Do this with several bands (as seen in the
picture) until youâve carved out all the unnecessary clutter out of your
mix. As youâve found everything, try flicking your EQ on/off to hear
the total result, and you may be amazed how much clearer your mix
sounds. Also make sure youâre not carving out too much; the sound may
get hollow and unnatural if you do.
For me, this is a part of mixing as well as mastering process. I do
it to instruments / tracks, but nothing says you couldnât have a master
EQ doing this while you work on your song; just make sure to do this at a
later stage when you probably have all the elements in your song youâre
going to use. Loop a busy part of your song for this process. I do a
bit of both.
Resonant stuff or âringingâ is common with old recordings as well as
those made with cheap recording devices, and rooms tend to create their
problems in recordings, too. I tend to use lots of old funk breaks, for
example, and some of them can sound a bit funny, and a lot of unwanted
stuff can be there you may want to notch out. However, itâs good to
realize that some of that can give it its character, and you may not
want to get too âperfectâ with it in order to retain its vibe.
As for plugins: Fabfilterâs ProQ2 as well as any sonogram (such as that of Melda Productionsâ MDynamic EQ) can be great for actually showing all that resonant stuff for you.
FANU AMA