DSF Q&A 20: Downlink

[downlink]

Thanks for doing this man!

If you are cool about sharing this- when designing a new mid bass sound, what chains of plugins would you place after the core FM8 patch for example? I know it would depend on the sound, but it would be very cool to see what choices you make to change the sound, and the order that you place them in. Is there a particular process that you use to start making the bass more metallic and robotic?

First would be EQ, then Overdrive, then guitar amp, then eq, then maybe ohmicide, then usually more eq and then i get into flange/chorus/phase/ringshift/bitcrush kinda stuff, then usually end it all off with a bit more eq and then a Camelphat with some subtle distortion tube or mech. camelphat limits the sound a lot so you gotta watch your level going into it. It can destroy your sound pretty fast but it also allows you to send it to the bus and not worry too much about overloading the limiter there.

no process to making things robotic sounding. there are numerous techniques. ringshifting, tight reverbs and tight delays, formant modulation, distortion, phasing. There's no set in stone rule. The sugarbytes effectrix "tone delay" function is pretty standard robo stuff.

[downlink]

What's up Downlink, love your music... I've started trying to learn how to produce this year and It's a lot of fun and I'm making progress leaning how to use Reason but would you recommend someone go to a school to learn how to produce or is just learning yourself via the internet and experimentation an adequate way to go about it? Did you go to school or did you teach yourself?

Thanks dog! I went to school but honestly it was kind of a waste of money. What I mean is that I wanted to learn more about producing electronic music, and I ended up learning a lot about engineering and recording and amplifiers and the science behind sound and all this other bullshit that didn't really make me a better producer. Obviously you can argue that that knowledge was valuable to me, and yes it was, but you can learn more about producing electronic music in 2 weeks of watching youtube tutorials and reading the forums, than you can in a year of audio engineering school. I'm sure there are some more electronic music specific courses out there, but honestly dude, just hit up youtube and the internet forums. Buy a subscription to future music, sound on sound, or computer music or all three or whatever. Save your money and invest in a decent computer and some monitors. Thats just my take on it. Most people I talk to share the same view point.

[downlink]

Easy man,

How do you approach a track? Do you go for the main drop first then work around that?

Ps Ghost is still a personal fav of mine, I've never been able to quite get my bass that wide without it loosing 'focus'

what up matt! I approach a track from the drop most of the time.

the Ghost bass is a combination of massives built in flanger (mono minus I think) and dimension expander. The bass was then bounced down and separated into layers for more individual processing (chorus on the mids, very tight reverb on the his, I think it was probably a "in car" reverb or something). Kind of an old school way of doing things but at the time thats how i was doing it.

[downlink]

Hey man had the pleasure of meeting you when you were in Ireland a while back!

anyways...do you ever think you'll do like an interview or a masterclass for computer music or any other type of thing like that? I still refer back to the Reso masterclass a lot cause it helped me out a ton with getting to grips with logic and stuff.

hey man whats up! Dublin was sick both times I played there. Although the first time I played there I got stuck in the airport overnight due to so much snow. It sucked balls.

As for doing a masterclass for computer music I'd probably do it, but I would be very careful as to what project I was sharing with everybody. I can't be giving away all my secrets

[Trichome]

What's your favourite waveform/wavetable?

[legend4ry]

Without sounding like I am swinging towards you (which I am not, I appreciate a couple of your tracks).

Have you done Dubstep which isn't the kind of stuff you're known for? Your production skills seem impeccable; it would be nice to hear someone from you which was more towards my tastes.

[bl0rg]

Sup Downlink! I'm from Canada and a huge fan of yours...

Could you go into some detain how you made the main bassline in Gamma Ray Burst? (effects chains + tips)

Its so heavy and crunchy!

thanks!



also how often do you resample your basslines?

[Digezt]

First massive thanks for doing this. Its always nice to see how other people work within the scene.

On you mid range basses they are always nice and wide, do you use the Logic Stereo Spreader for this? or the widener within Ozone? Do you apply this to the whole spectrum or just the higher end frequencies ?

Thanks

[ogunslinger]

Thanks for taking the time to do this, absolutely love your tunes ! I used to listen to Moonrock Badman all the time when walking home from my uni, so I was pretty stoked to see you were doing a q&a here !

Q: I was wondering how often you use the filters inside massive *or other vst's* vs. external filter plugins such as logic's autofilter/volcano 2 etc..

Also I was just wondering what kind of bus effects you have set up on your template & if you prefer to draw in automation or record it with a midi controller?

[Sonika]

Was Vex'd a big influence for you? I think I read that Datsik said he was kind of building on that mechanical, robotic sound he heard in some of Vex'd's tunes

[xbubbax]

Hello Downlink,

Been following you for years now, Love your production work and live sets. im going to have to say that crippled camel is amazing!! a few questions for you.

what do you use to play out live? Ableton? Traktor?

what is your fav dubstep track out right now?

how much time do you write on the road? how much time do you dedicate to music every day? do you wake up and just start at it...in a hotel room? or do you try to make most of your music in your studio?

I feel that I have alot of good ideas but finding the time and the mentality to work on things is sometimes hard. ( 40hr week job + DJ on side ) I was wondering how you find the inspiration to press on and get past these kinds of "mental fatigues" if any.

thank you

--Lylax

[Sonika]

xbubbax your avatar is a win best movie ever

Okay sorry to interrupt thread, continue

[xbubbax]

xbubbax your avatar is a win best movie ever

Okay sorry to interrupt thread, continue

hhaa u know that the avatar u have now was my previous one that I made into a gif

[Towany]

Sorry for the second question but Q&A's with one of my favorite producers don't happen that often..

After you've made your basses and resampled and fucked around with them loads do you send them off to the same bus? If you do what would you recommend putting on that bus to further enhance the sounds without over doing it? I do realize every time can be different but just wanting to get a starting point and stuff.

Thanks again man!

[shmidthapp3ns]

Thanks for doing this man, you're such an awesome producer. Keep it up with the 110 BPM shit Anyways, even though it depends from track to track, are there any plugins/effects which you always place on your individual busses (besides the obvious EQ and compression)? For instance, I always put a bit of Sausage Fattener on my Drum Bus. Cheers!

[mesc]

Thanks for doing this Q&A... some great responses already.

I recently have been approaching my sessions with a similar mindset of creating my sounds before starting a track. I'm getting the desired results in the sound design stage however, have had troubles getting my sounds to work together and more specifically with the drum line I've put down. Do you have any suggestions for getting your bass sounds to vibe with your drums? How do you go about getting your pre-made bass sounds and articulations to gel/ sound as one cohesive bassline.

Thanks again for your time, it's appreciated

[jetpack]

Will you be angry when the Canucks don't make the playoffs, and the Blues win their first Stanley Cup in 2013?

[drdeft]

Nice ! Thanks for doing that !

My question is : What the average Db's of your kick and bass when producing ?

[Teknicyde]

Questions...

1. How it do?

2. Do you get into like, the hunt for unknown dubs anymore, like browsing blogs/soundclouds/visiting record shops/ect/ect, or are you inundated with music daily from people youve worked with professionally to the point it inadvertently fills your collection?

3. Whats your preferred way of finding new music?

4. Could you maybe name some producers that make your record bag we might not have all heard? Up and comers, blasts from the past you draw on, ect?

Also, set was sounding good when you came through Pittsburgh. Respect on it. One of the better sets thats come through AE.

[dmisreal]

do you know what EDC stand's for? (no cheating and looking it up(no it has nothing to do with music)) if you know what it is can you post a pic of yours?