00:23I tend to start off
in pretty different ways.
00:26Quite often it’ll be with
a sample that I want to use.
00:30Sometimes it’s only an idea,
00:33like a certain beat I have in
my head or something like that.
00:37And most of the time
I start by creating a new project
00:41and pulling the sample into it and
then just seeing where it takes me.
00:50In the beginning, I usually get
inspired by messing with my synths.
00:54For instance,
I really like the Prophet '08.
00:56Or also the Sub 37 from Moog.
00:59That’s the kind of kit that I turn to
when I’ve got a beat I just came up with
01:05and want to try some stuff
on top of it and lose myself in that,
01:08just jam,
just to see what happens.
01:18I recently did a remix for Erobique
01:21and that was the first track
I have ever made in my whole life
01:25that doesn’t contain a single sample.
01:27The first tune where it’s only machines,
so to speak,
01:29meaning synths, drum computers, etc.
01:32I actually sample quite a lot otherwise.
01:35That doesn’t mean
that I sample whole loops,
01:38it’s more a matter of little set pieces.
01:40Individual drum sounds,
maybe mini-loops,
01:43but not really that often,
not larger pieces from one context
01:47where the listener is like
01:48“ah, there he goes again, sampling this or that
Herbie Hancock track for the 80th time”.
01:54I really do try to avoid that
and I get excited about it,
01:58as I'm also collecting records
and investigating things
02:01that are perhaps
not all that obvious.
02:06For me, NI Maschine
is my go-to sampler these days
02:10first off because it’s just
so great for processing samples.
02:13On top of that,
I really like the fact
02:16that you can develop ideas a bit
right off the bat using the internal sequencer,
02:20that you can create
loops relatively quickly
02:22and you can just see what you can do
with the internal step sequencer.
02:27And I don’t really go any further
than that in Maschine itself.
02:30Instead, I run the individual sounds to
the computer through separate outs
02:34and pull the MIDI data
from Maschine into Cubase,
02:37where I develop them from there.
02:41So, in the end I use it
to come up with ideas
02:44and as my go-to
sampler these days.
02:59The studio has actually
grown over the years,
03:01that is,
I started with
03:03a normal computer, an Akai sampler
and one or two borrowed synths
03:08and then switched
from Cakewalk to Cubase.
03:12I’ve stuck with Cubase ever since,
03:14that’s still the corner stone
of my studio set-up.
03:17That’s what everything
gets channeled through.
03:18I’ve also set up all
my synths as VSTs,
03:22which means that I can work with
my synthesizers inside of Cubase
03:25without all of my
outboard mixing stuff.
03:30The whole thing is
then sent out through
03:32the 26 individual outs
of the soundcard,
03:35where it’s then sent to
various outboard devices.
03:38The whole thing is then finally mixed
together using a DIY project,
03:42where old Neumann modules were
used to make a mixer for summing.
03:46That’s where everything
comes together.
03:48The sum then goes
through a master EQ
03:52and then it’s just converted
and recorded directly.
04:00There are certain tools
that I use quite often.
04:04For instance,
I’ve got a Trident EQ that I really love.
04:08When I want to go a bit deeper,
I’ve got my EQs in the computer
04:11where I can set up some
pretty heavy notch filters
04:13and do different kinds of stuff
with extreme transition steepness settings.
04:17The outboard devices
usually have a sound of their own
04:20and I use them more to get
a certain color and to improve the sound.
04:25Otherwise, I actually tend to do all the
really more extreme stuff with the computer.
04:29That doesn’t mean that I use
every piece of kit on every track either,
04:33only when I feel like:
ok, here’s a stereo track with vocals,
04:37it’d be nice somehow if there
were more highs in there,
04:39then for example
I use the Trident,
04:41or I have one of those
Universal Audio channel strips,
04:45which I love using too,
04:47since the compressor
just sounds so good.
04:48And the EQ Station is just really great
for boosting the high frequencies too
04:52and giving the whole thing
a little more life.
05:00I put an incredible amount of thought
into dynamics, frequencies and the like.
05:04I've also been a bit obsessed
with compressors and EQs and all that,
05:10sometimes maybe too much
for some people’s taste.
05:13Then I’m in the middle
of my mixing process
05:16and buddies come over
and I’m like: “New version!”,
05:20“Huh?
What’s supposed to sound different?”
05:22“Yeah, the bass is a lot better
now!” That sort of thing.
05:24So sometimes I have to
slow down a little and remind myself:
05:27ok, that’s actually fine
the way it is.
05:31And I especially have to make sure
that I evaluate the external feedback I get
05:35in terms of whether
it helps me make progress.
05:39And doing another version or whatever
isn’t going to help somehow.
05:43It’s happened before that
I had 15 versions of the same track,
05:47all of which sounded more or less indistinguishable
from one another for the end listener.
05:53So sometimes I can drive
myself a bit crazy like that.
06:05Since I taught myself how to do
certain things or figured them out myself,
06:10I also learned for example to try
to clean up my mixes and to think:
06:15Ok, how does it look now,
is there something else in this frequency range
06:18or can I insert a filter
there for example
06:20to be able to add
something else in that section.
06:24Especially in my role as
a teacher nowadays too,
06:27it’s super important just
to get those kinds of things
06:29across to people to show
that you don’t just make a mix
06:32by taking four synths and throwing them
together somehow and seeing what happens,
06:37but that you have to understand that individual
instruments have their own place within a mix
06:49I don’t have any external effects,
just never felt the need.
06:54I was never satisfied with the reverbs
I can get out of the computer,
06:57but I never found anything in
my price class where I could say:
07:02Alright, that’s an awesome reverb.
07:03For a long time,
I used very little reverb in my mixes,
07:05because I didn’t like
what the computer could do
07:09and a Lexicon L300 is too expensive for me,
just too much money.
07:15These days I use a lot of
Universal Audio plug-ins because they...
07:19it was the very first time
that I cued up a reverb plug-in and thought:
07:23Yeah, that’s what reverb
should sound like.
07:26And of course then we’re
back to the classic debate:
07:28of course an external
Lexicon processor sounds better,
07:30but then we’re back
to the question:
07:33Do I really want to make the investment,
07:35or is it just a bit overkill for what I do?
