Si vous suivez Electraumatisme depuis quelques semaines, vous n'êtes pas sans ignorer que l'album de Data Void a été accueillit avec le plus grand intérêt tant l'association de deux figures majeures de la musique qui nous est chère fut une excellente surprise.
Et bien figurez vous que Don Gordon (Numb remis en activité en 2019) et James Mendez (Jihad et membre régulier du public dark-electro en Allemagne) ont eu la gentillesse de répondre au questionnaire Kitchen Notes et de lever le voile sur la production de cette perle Dark Electro / Industrielle complexe et finement ciselée qu'est Strategie of Dissent.
If you follow Electraumatisme since a few weeks, you can't ignore that Data Void release has been received with the highest interest since the association of two major figures in the music we like so much has been an excellent surprise.
Well, would you believe it ? Don Gordon (Numb back on track on 2019) and James Mendez (Jihad and very active as regular part of the Dark-Electro audience in German's festivals) have been kind enough to answer the Kitchen Notes questions and lift the veil on the production of this complex and finely carved Dark Electro/Industrial gem that is Strategies of Dissent.
Gears and software
What gears/softwares did you use for Strategies of Dissent ?
DG: I work with a hybrid hardware and software setup whereas James prefers working with
software instruments. For Strategies of Dissent, we used quite an extensive range of virtual
synths and processing software. For synths this included virtual instruments from:
- Arturia V-Collection
- U-He - Hive, Zebra, RePro-1/5
- Native Instruments Komplete collection
- Vital
- Waldorf Largo
- VCV Rack
For effects we made use of a wide range of processing tools from:
- Soundtoys collection
- FabFilter - Q3, R1, C2
- Sonible smart: bundle and metering bundle
- Arturia FX Collection
- Native Instruments Komplete
- Izotope Trash2
Hardware used on Strategies of Dissent included:
- Sequencial Rev 2
- Sequencial Pro 3
- Kurzweil K2000
- Elektron Syntakt
- Korg Prophecy
- a large number of guitar FX pedals
For a DAW, James works with Ableton Live while I work with Logic Pro X. This meant we were
not able to build up tracks though the exchange of DAW files. However, this was an advantage
in that it got us to commit to sounds and musical parts earlier than we might of otherwise.
JM: As Don mentioned, I primarily used VSTs on the album. I still have a lot of physical
equipment, but didn’t use any for the album. Regarding which VSTs used on the album, they
are:
- Arturia
- V Collection 9
- Analog Lab V
- ARP 2600
- Prophet 5/VS
- Etc.
- KV331 Audio
- LennarDigital
- LinPlug
- Native Instruments
- Rob Papen
- U-he
- Repro-1
- Repro-5
- Zebra2 / HZ
- Vital Audio
Regarding effects:
- Ableton (various) stock effects
- Soundtoys collection
Your favorite gear(s)/software(s) ?
DG: My current ‘go to’ hardware synth is the Sequential Pro 3 and current favourite virtual
synth is Arturia Pigments. Not much evolution in gear over the course the album, but looking
ahead I can see more hardware purchases in my future.
JM: For me, it was the Arturia suite, u-he Repro-5 and ZebraHZ, and various Native
Instruments synths. For future reference, I will definitely introduce more hardware synths.
Sound Design
Do you use/tweak presets ?
DG: Presets can be useful as a jumping off point when doing sound design but they rarely
would make their way unaltered into a final version of a track.
JM: It is a mixture of using some presets and some altered presets.
Do you design you own sound ? On which synth/plugin in particular ?
DG: I don’t really think of myself as a sound designer per se. However, I am endlessly curious
to see what kinds of sounds that can be generated with the tools I have to work with, so I
spend quite a bit of time editing and creating patches and applying a lot FX processing on top
of this… Ultimately resulting in a unique sonic palette.
On Strategies of Dissent, I generally used Absynth, Buchla Easel V, Pigments, Hive and Reaktor
for the more abstract textures. Baselines were mainly from the Sequential Pro 3 and the NI
Monark, Arturia DX7, U-He Repro-1 virtual synths. No specific synths for melodic parts and
pad parts, whatever sounded good in context.
JM: I don’t spend a lot of time designing my own sounds. On occasion, I will tweak existing
presets if I come across something that doesn’t quite fit what I am after. It is something I used
to do back in the 90s, but not so much these days. I prefer to spend most of my time writing
which ideas are typically initiated based on the initial sounds I browse through.
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 ? ...
DG: For me, inspiration is usually triggered by hearing an interesting texture or some sort of
‘accident’, where something didn’t work as intended. From there it can go any direction.
For Strategies of Dissent, there was a lot of emphasis on bass lines around which we would
build multiple layers of texture, synth lines and percussion. Ultimately the structure would be
determined by muting/unmuting tracks to work with the vocals.
JM: This is an interesting question in that Don and I had no preconceived ideas as to what each
song would sound like in the beginning. We worked organically in that one of us would share
an initial idea for the start of a new song, then the other would contribute additional ideas
(going back and forth), while feeding off of each other’s ideas until we had a basic structure
outlined. This included all instruments / percussion (i.e., Pads, melodic parts, drum
programming, bass lines, etc.). We would eventually (naturally) gravitate towards a traditional
verse / chorus type structure in the end and would discuss the transitions throughout each
song where we felt they needed to go as we were continuing to write them. It was a very natural
process (in my opinion) and seemed to flow quite smoothly as we completed each song. After
we completed the initial structure of the songs, we went back and reviewed / refined them to
where we “finalized” them in the end.
Producing/mixing method
Do you produce/mix in the box or do you use mainly external gears (effect/comp/eq...)
DG: Strategies of Dissent was mixed in-the-box. For some tracks I made use of external
processing and would send the sound out of the computer into some external processing and
then record the resultant sound.
What is your most painful / enjoyable step in track production ? Sound design, arrangement, mixing, mastering ?
DG: My least favourite part of the song writing process is writing lyrics. I spend a lot of time on
these to make sure that they are impactful, capture the intended theme, and align with the feel
of the music overall.
JM: The most enjoyable moments for me was is in the song writing process and arrangements.
Though I do enjoy mixing songs (Don mixed all of the final versions), I especially liked the
writing, collaboration, and sharing of ideas throughout the entire process of creating the
album with Don.
Contact info
socialmedia@datavoid.band
https://www.facebook.com/officialdatavoid/
https://www.datavoid.band/
https://www.youtube.com/@CollapsingSilence
