Cela fait pas mal de temps que l'on suit Mark Rydyger, le canadien hyper prolifique, dans Electraumatisme. La sortie de Destruction Built In, dernier excellent album de son projet Sylac, le plus cyberpunk, et donc plus près de nos styles de prédilection, a été l'occasion de passer le producteur à la question des Kitchen Notes. Si vous voulez en savoir plus, nous ne pouvons que vous inviter à le suivre sur les réseaux sociaux car il partage énormément d'extraits de ses sessions de travail, et c'est très intéressant.
We are following the hyper prolific canadian Mark Rydyger since a long time at Electraumatisme. The release of Destruction Built In, last excellent album for Sylac, his most cyberpunk oriented project, so then the most in phase with our favorites styles, is a good opportunity to move the producer to the Kitchen Notes routine. But if you want to know more, we greatly encourage you to follow him on the social networks as he shares a tremendous amount of worksessions extracts and it's very interesting.
Gears and software
What gears/softwares did you use for Destruction Built In ?
The album was produced mostly in the box, I used Ableton Live Suite and Reaper. For instruments I mostly use U-he virtual emulations like the DIVA and HIVE. For the rest I used Abletons builtin plugins like DrumRack(for percussion) and Sampler for all the sample work.
Your favorite gear(s)/software(s) ?
Ableton Live, Reaper, U-he Diva and Hive are my essentials and favorite pieces of software which I cannot live without. My favorite hardware synth of all time is the Roland sh-101. It’s a very simple synth but in combination with its built in sequencer provides a huge array of sounds and sequences. As everything vintage right now, if you want the original it costs an arm and a leg. Emulations have been very good though and are almost 1:1. Nothing beats the original hardware though.
Any evolution in your setup ?
I started out with hardware and outboard effects but over the years reduced it to a minimum to try to keep things under control while concentrating on finished results. Now I use a very streamlined setup that allows me to achieve what I want very quickly and without major obstacles getting in the way.
Sound Design
Do you use/tweak presets ?
I would say it’s about 50/50. 50% my own sounds that are built from scratch and 50% heavily modified presets that I run through my own custom effect chains.
Do you design you own sound ? On which synth/plugin in particular ?
I do design my own sounds, things like pads, basslines, kick and snares drums are usually designed and layered from scratch. My most used synth is the u-he DIVA which is a multifaceted emulation of old analog hardware where you can mix and match components like oscillators, filter and envelope sections from various different analog synths.
Any particular synth history ?
My synth story began when I was nineteen and bought a Roland xp-50 workstation. It was a digital synth but it was programmable enough with filters, modulation and layering as well as a built in sequencer. If it wasn’t for that synth I don’t think I’d be doing what I’m doing today. It got me started on this journey.
Writing/composing method
What
would be your main writing/composing method ? Do you start classical
rythm/bassline then arrange around it ? Do you already have structure in
mind ? Do you improvise, record sessions then select ? ...
Ableton Live is built around live experimentation so my workflow revolves around building a bunch of patterns and then playing around triggering them in various sequences. I have a general idea of where I want to go with the track but I do experiment a lot with pattern triggering which then gets recorded into the linear timeline section of Live. After that I clean everything up and polish the track.
Producing/mixing method
Do you produce/mix in the box or do you use mainly external gears (effect/comp/eq...)
I produce mostly in the box. I used to have external gear but due to time constraints I chose to keep everything on the computer. It allows me to do things very quickly with instant recall.
What is your most painful / enjoyable step in track production ? Sound design, arrangement, mixing, mastering ?
The initial composing and improvisation of a track and that moment when things start falling into place and you know you have something good is the most enjoyable part. The mixing/mastering stage is the least fun as it’s a very clinical engineering oriented process.
Mark Rydyger's tips
Keep things simple, gearlust is dangerous. You’ll be spending too much time messing around with new gear. Master a few tools really well and concentrate on finishing your tracks. And ALWAYS finish what you start even if the idea didn’t transform into something great. The experience of finishing full tracks is invaluable.
Contact info
You can find my projects at:
https://soundcloud.com/mark-r-3
https://soundcloud.com/sylac
https://subatomicaudio.bandcamp.com
Follow me on facebook and Instagram for news on new releases etc.
https://www.facebook.com/markholon
https://www.instagram.com/holonmusic/
