DSF Q&A 20: Downlink

[deadly_habit]

Downlink has been punishing dancefloors all over the planet with his heavy brand of bass. With roots in Jungle & DnB, he is no stranger to the vile side of subsonic dance music and has set out to explore a frantic, adrenaline fuelled style, influenced by everything from heavy metal to astrophysics. He is a Rottun Recordings regular, but has also released on some of the biggest labels in the game like Mau5trap and OWSLA. While consistently coming up with sick material time after time, he has gained DJ support from all of the biggest names in the scene. His successes on the Beatport charts have been extraordinary. He managed to hold down 4 of the top 10 spots in dubstep at one time and has had multiple tracks hit #1 in both dubstep and drum n bass. Recently Downlink's skills have landed him a prominent role in the production of legendary nu-metal band Korn's tenth studio album. His keen ear for sound even led him to being given the honour of mixing the album. He then went on to support the band on tour in America and Europe, playing to massive arenas, time and time again leaving crowds stunned with his energetic performance. Downlink is not one to be pigeon-holed and is constantly on a quest to evolve and refine his sound. With this in mind, one thing will always remain constant - a pure unadulterated heavy listening experience…

[eldoogle]

Awesome, thanks for doing this. How long have you been producing for?

[Attila]

How do you fine tune sub frequencies when mixing in a non ideal environment with non ideal equipment? (ex. using monitors that lack proper bass extension)

[didi]

What is your system setup?

What plugins do you swear by, hardware, speakers etc.?

[MKRUGGER]

Awesome! Cheers for doing that

How did you wrap your mind around sound design, and use it to create the sounds in your music? Also, do you go in with a sound in your mind, and then create it, or just twist and turn knobs until something cool comes out of it?

Do you mix as you are producing a track, or after? Or possibly a mixture of both?

When (if ever) did you reach that point where you felt like your production was decent enough to be released to the public? And was on the same level / above the level of other producers? How long have you been producing?

Hardware or Software? Or both?

When you started out, what kind of set up / studio were you working with? (I'm guessing it's a lot better now )

When you felt your music was ready to be heard, did you just send it out to a bunch of labels? Or what was your process of getting it out there?

Finally, if you have any more advice for up and coming producers, that would be greatly appreciated! Any little tips on processing your drums or sounds would be awesome!

[Climax]

Ive seen you a few times over the last couple years, and your live shows have become really, really good!

Do you tend to produce a lot now with the Live stage in mind? Do you make a lot of seperate productions (full tracks, breaks, builds, drops, etc) specifically for "Real System" applications?

If so, how do these productions differ from what you would release for a public EP?

[ehbes]

What provides your inspiration for a track, is it a particular sample, mood, newfound technique, or a combination of all?

Bug ups for doing this

[deadly_habit]

hehe i meant to be the first to cut off the common questions but if not asked
what gear do you use soft and hard (gear porn)
what was your break through moment producing that gave you your sig sound
does mastering make a diff vs a good mixdown?
what piece of advice can you give to the i want to sound like downlink/skrillex/noisia crew to help them become unique?

my real question... do you play any real instruments and who are your influences?

[mthrfnk]

First off, thank you for participating in this.

Questions that come to mind from me:
>When you first began producing was it anything other than a hobby or did you set out with the aim of becoming a professional musician, did you have prior musical knowledge (piano/guitar lessons etc)?
>If you could change your career in any way, or possibly in the future, what would you like to change?
>How long do you spend working on a single track and in particular how long do you like to spend on sound design for individual basses & leads.

[idontreallygiveashit]

How long, after starting, did it take for you to start making tunes you actually thought were good and were pleased with? Stuff that you were confident enough in to send to labels etc.? Was it an instant thing or did you go through a phase of disliking your own music?

Also, it's really cool how this all came together in the end, big ups

[dubesteppe]

I love your music! Would you mind describing some of your midrange bass processing and resampling techniques?

[billybuxton]

Have you ever done any Production Courses ?

[RandoRando]

Thanks downlink for doin this!

Do you find yourself starting a new track by making new sounds first. Or do you have your favorite presets you made and use a mixture of new and saved presets? And do you start with drums? Midrange?

[BonerJams04]

what would you do for a klondike bar?

[cheshirebeats]

Thanks a ton for doing this! You make some great music, hope to hear lots more from you in the future.

Really curious as to how you and excision did Existence, that track is awesome and has basically just one bassline and drums going on, and its huuuuge.
Any insight into putting basslines like that together?
Do you flesh out a basic bassline and then resample and distort and stuff?
Or do you make it sound by sound, one complete sound at a time?
(hope that made sense)

Also curious as to what you were doing for the modulation in that track, there's a lot of movement in the bass.
Did you filter and automate stuff inside of a synth like Massive or did you do the filtering and effects after?

Stoked to see this Q&A happening, thanks again!

[kaimera]

Hey. Big ups for doing this.

Got any tricks up your sleeve to get a good mixdown? I'm not talking about hard rules like "put your drums at -10 db", but more vague methodology. Like, do you take a walk between passes, do you listen to the mix on a zillion systems or just a few you know well, how the hell do you clear your mind out after mixing for 8 hours and not get OCD about a couple elements, etc. etc . That kinda stuff.

Thanks!

[idontreallygiveashit]

Hope you don't mind if i fire another question your way, but who would you say are the biggest influences on your sound? Who do you look up to most in terms of production or those who have a direct influence? If you have any non-dubstep (i hear the jungle influences with the amen breaks and the like) or even non-electronic inspirations that really helped shaped your music, then that would be really interesting to hear too.

Again, it's really cool you're doing this!

[Marzz]

Thanks for doing this man. You're a great producer. Crippled Camel has to be one of your best tunes.
How do you go about your drums? Whats your favorite sample pack/sample company? How do you mixdown your drums? Drums buses or individual drums? Last one about drums: Midi or Audio?
Big ups man.

[Sonika]

Cheers for this Downlink!

So when you sit down at your computer, where do you start? How do you go about sculpting your tunes? And when you start, do you usually have some idea or inspiration in your head or do you just mess around until you start getting somewhere?

2nd question: How many tunes do you finish versus how many tunes do you give up on/put aside?

[imSleeves]

hey man thanks alot, i love these Q and A's

my question is this.

when working on a tune, do you find yourself jumping from technical things (programming synth patches, adding compression, reverb) to creative (writing notes and melodies and or riffs) and back? or do you try and set up your sessions in a specific manner before trying to write a tune? i.e. get all the sounds you want then begin placing and arranging them?

also do you try and finish the bulk of tunes in one day? i find myself not being able to get into the same mindset if i open a project a few days or weeks later.

thanks alot, i feel my biggest problem is workflow, so im just wondering how you manage yours