00:08We have a lot of choice,
00:09but it's better to be limited
00:18My first instruments
were modular synthesizers,
00:21because I realized that in order to learn
00:24synthesis and music production
from the ground up,
00:27it was absolutely necessary to understand
how modular synthesizers work.
00:32They are perfect for understanding
signal flow
00:36and therefore understanding synthesis
as a whole concept.
00:39And it helped me tremendously.
00:41I love my Elektron Octatrack.
00:45I synthesize a lot of my drum
sounds and mainly
00:49Kick drums inside Ableton,
00:53And the recording of that,
00:54I take and put it into the machine,
and then we re-sequence it, reprocess it
00:59and that sort of process
of alchemisation
01:02results in my sound.
01:15The first of these machines
that I owned was the analog rhythm,
01:18so that taught me already
the Elektron workflow.
01:21But it wasn't until I got the Octatrack
that I really started to fall in love
01:25with these machines because like I said,
the Octatrack is very limited,
01:30at least in the way I use it.
01:31I use it as a sampler, purely as a sampler,
and it forced me
01:36to make stuff
that sounded good on the machine itself.
01:39So I don't even record
like individual tracks or whatever.
01:43It have to come out
good out of the machine.
01:46And I think that's a great process
to limit yourself.
01:49We have a lot of choice
and it's better to be limited.
01:53I have the Digitone
which is a FM synth, frequency modulation.
01:57As for my sort of bleepy sounds,
the ones that I really love
02:01making that sort of spacy
sounds, I use that a lot.
02:05But for anything else
that's like chords and pads.
02:09I do use my Poly Synths
because they sound great.
02:13I mean, you pay for the sound
because they are also extremely limited.
02:16And they're old machines
that have been reissued,
02:19but they sound absolutely incredible.
02:22And I don't really need anything
more than that.
02:25I can still sequence from Ableton
on the machines or I have my Cirklon
02:29but I mainly use Ableton,
especially Max for Live sequencers
02:32to sequence these machines
if I have to.
02:36I will use my modular synth
or the Syntakt.
02:40It's fairly new in my collection,
but it works.
02:43 It has these chord modes.
02:44But so there's this one actually,
the Digitone has incredible
02:48chord sounds that you can like design,
and it sounds beautiful,
02:52especially for a synth that costs
like €600 or 700 or so.
02:55It's really incredible.
02:57I have these two as well.
02:58This Avalon bassline
and the Norand Mono, which are sort of
03:01like these mono basslines.
03:04This one also can sound
like a lead synth.
03:06So like also in the upper
register and they are beautiful,
03:10I use it for my live set
and it sounds fantastic.
03:13You can do this
like dreamy acid type of sounds.
03:16And this one is like basically
like a 303.
03:19My Elektron machines, or most of them
are connected by Overbridge.
03:25and yeah, it's synchronized
03:27and you get the audio directly
and then everything that's analog,
03:32the modular and all that,
03:34they are running through
my sound cards
03:36which are hidden there in the back.
03:38My audio cards are RME Fireface UCX
03:42and I have two of them
they're connected by.
03:44ADAT so I get two times eight analog in.
03:48So I have 16 analog inputs.
03:50And then for the MIDI,
it's all synchronized via the computer,
03:54essentially like it's
connected to the computer by either USB,
03:59I have connection on the
sound cards via midi too.
04:02So they have these like connectors
through MIDI
04:05and that's how like...
I have a pretty strong computer
04:08and I adjust the latencies
and then everything is perfectly in sync.
04:14I record everything.
04:16I send the machines into Ableton
04:18and I record the master output in Ableton
04:22and I jam for long periods
04:25for an hour, an hour and a half,
sometimes half an hour.
04:29And then I take what I recorded
04:32and cut pieces,
which are good, and that's it.
04:35And then I master them myself and then
play them the next day in a nightclub.
04:44My tracks are jammed and arranged live
04:48and I know the process like I
practiced it now for close to ten years.
04:52So that's how I arrange.
04:54Obviously I'm limited in certain regard
because I only have two hands,
05:09is mostly adjusting
the envelopes, pitch velocities,
05:16and then you do a do
a little bit of EQing
05:18and a little bit of like group compression
and things like that.
05:21But on individual sounds, I'm not starting
to do much EQing and whatnot.
05:27The sound source has to be good enough.
05:29I use a little bit of Valhalla effects,
05:33but mostly Ableton stuff.
05:36has great effects like hybrid reverb
and even the like original delay.
05:40It sounds good enough.
05:41I do have Plug in Alliance things
or Sound Toys and things like that,
05:46but I still find myself
using the Ableton Delay for example.
05:49I think it's a lovely tool.
05:50It does its job and it's perfect,
honestly,
05:55like and when I teach,
05:56I actually only use stuff from Ableton
because that's all I want to show
06:00my students that you don't need
other stuff in order to make good music.
06:07is probably one of the
most important things
06:10when you produce any kind of drum
based music,
06:16that you add, whether be a high hat
or a tom or a snare has tuning,
06:20and if those are not tuned correctly,
06:23it will just sound disjointed.
06:26It will not sound like one.
06:29Another thing that I think is
extremely important is velocities.
06:32So the strength that which your sounds hit
and the most important
06:37is the length of the sound,
so that how they run into each other.
06:40So if you factor in tuning velocities
and envelopes,
06:45you can do a lot more than EQing
or compression.
06:50A lot of people, like my students,
06:51ask me like, how do I compress or how do I...
06:54Leave that all aside,
06:56learn to make your drums
in such a way that you do not need that.
07:00And then only you can do
a little bit of EQng to correct
07:03some of the imbalances or resonances,
07:06but you can do most
of the work with that.
07:08And for that I only suggest
that you learn how to listen.
07:13It sounds obvious, but you really need to
07:17just combine and listen.
07:19Like, let's say a kick and Sub.
If you can tell how like what
07:23your frequency or Sub is, pitch it
one octave
07:25higher or two and then you will know
if it's in the right frequency.
07:29And that's how you need to learn.
07:31And if you really can't, then use a tuner.
07:33But I would say it's better for anyone.
Because our job as a music producer
07:38and then make choices
based on what we hear.
