Transgressions a pris tout le monde par surprise à sa sortie en fin d'année dernière. Induktor nous explique ici les méthodes et le matériel employé pour parvenir à nous transporter des années en arrière à l'époque de la Dark Electro qui nous est chère.
Transgressions release took all of us by surprise at the fall of last year. Induktor explains us the methods and tools used to manage to bring us back to the good old Dark Electro era we love so much.
Gears and software
What gears/software did you use for Transgressions ?
Software:
My main DAW is Ableton Live. Reaper is my mastering DAW. I also used mobile apps such as SunVox.
As far as plugins go, various Ableton plugins (EQ8, Gate, Glue, Saturator, Simpler, Wavetable, etc), Valhalla stuff (so good), various Fabfilter, Lindell Audio 50 Series, NI Reaktor, Expert Sleepers Silent Way to name a few.
Hardware:
For synths and sequencers I used Eurorack modular goodies, Elektron Octatrack, Roland SH-101, Korg Polysix, Ensoniq ESQ-1, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 Rev 4, Sequential Circuits Pro 3, Behringer Pro One, Make Noise Strega, Arturia Microbrute, Schecter guitar, Sequentix Cirklon, Shure SM7b and my face.
Outboard:
Thermionic Culture Vulture 20A, Louder Than Liftoff Silver Bullet, Dramastic Audio Obsidian 500, IGS Audio TUBECORE 3U, Millennia Media NSEQ-2 with Fred Forssell Mod (NSEQ-FF), IGS Audio RB500ME, Black Box Analog Design HG-2, Sherman Filterbank 2 Compact, Alesis 3630 with Black Lion Mod and CP5 Colour Mic Pre with Implode FET Compressor Colour.
Convertors:
Lynx Aurora(n) 24, Lynx Hilo, MOTU 828 MK2 (now retired), iConnectAUDIO2+
Monitoring:
Focal SM9
That pretty much covers it.
Your favorite gear(s)/software(s) ?
Oh man. I like it all! For software I’d have to say that Ableton Live is a favorite overall. It sees LOTS of use. My favorite plugin is Valhalla Delay at the moment. So versatile! For Hardware, I’m drawing a lot of inspiration from the modulars at the moment.
Any evolution in your setup ?
A few recent additions are a Make Noise Strega and an Overstayer Modular Channel (this thing is bonkers!)
Sound Design
Do you use/tweak presets ?
I do occasionally use presets if they are inspiring. If it sounds good and contributes to my creative vision, it is good.
Do you design you own sound ? On which synth/plugin in particular ?
Absolutely! The majority of the sounds heard on the EP are my own patches. I am really into layering and processing percussion at the moment. I’ve come up with some killer, bombastic drums on the modular that get sampled for further mangling. The ALM Squid Sample has been a really fun sampler to twist up sounds with. The modular gear in general has been a joy to craft sounds on.
Personal synth story
Years ago I had an ESQ-1 and sold it. I really missed that synth and a couple of years ago a friend of mine gave me his since he rarely used it, so we were reunited and it saw a lot of use on this EP. Such a cool keyboard and if it’s good enough for cEvin Key, it’s definitely good enough for me. :)
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 ? ...
All of the above. Sometimes I’ll just be playing around with an idea on a keyboard/drum machine and suddenly it clicks and the foundation of an entire track unfolds in my mind. The title track Transgressions started as a composition in SunVox on my phone. I generally do not have a structure in mind at the beginning. The structure is informed by the process. For lyrical development I keep a journal to capture my stream of consciousness for later arrangement into something more coherent.
Producing/mixing method
Do you produce/mix in the box or do you use mainly external gears (effect/comp/eq...) ?
As you can guess from the software and gear list, I have a hybrid workflow. All songs were mixed and mastered in a DAW into and through various outboard processors. The Silver Bullet and Obsidian were used on everything for example.
What is your most painful / enjoyable step in track production ? Sound design, arrangement, mixing, mastering ?
The most enjoyable aspect is getting stuck in playing and designing sounds! Pure joy!
I am a mastering engineer and ironically the mastering process was probably the most painful stage since I was so intimate with the creative process of the project. This of course makes perfect sense since mastering is not as much about the gear etc. as a fresh, objective perspective.
Induktor's tips
Something I tell myself is, don’t overthink it! Let go and see where things take you. There was mention of presets earlier and while they can be useful and inspiring, don’t hesitate to init that shit and roll your own sounds. Another thing I like to do is save my ideas and jam sessions for future reference. You can go back to earlier ideas and draw inspiration from them or incorporate them into current projects. I'd also recommend printing virtual instrument tracks to audio. Lots of cool stuff can be done once it's committed and it helps to keep a project moving.
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