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within them. In fact, it is quite a creative process being given rules to stick to even though you are still adding your signature to it.” With a remix, you have a blank slate to be creative then? “Yeah, when I remix I really like to do my own thing. When I’ve been asked to do a remix on a house song and the track is house-y already, I don’t really find much to do on it, just a slight re-version. I prefer to have just the vocals so that I can re-write the track and do my own thing. When it’s already a house track it’s difficult; with a remix I like to do something that’s 100% original.” In terms of collabs, which process do you prefer — remote working or being in the studio with the collaborator? “I always prefer to have the artist with me when we are writing the songs, so that we are on the
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same page but I have a couple of people, like Boy Matthews — who wrote ‘Ocean Drive’, the Duke Dumont track — he lives out in LA. We’ve done a track together which is quite a big collab, we had to work remotely with Boy sending over top-lines and stuff for the track via the internet, but most of the time I try and get people to sit in the studio. I’ve just done a session in the studio with Andrea Martin who did the Toddla T track, she was cool to work with.” Looking around your studio we noticed the Akai MPC X sitting pretty in the middle, is your set up based around this? “I use the MPC to try and sequence on as much as I can. You can have it hooked up to the computer or use it standalone — the good thing about the MPC X is it has CV and Gate output so that you can use it with the analogue gear as well. I find that the clocking side, the timing on the MPC, is way tighter. If you have got a complex project running on the computer with lots of tracks and then sending MIDI as well, things can start to sound out of time, but if you have the MPC running alongside I can make all the MIDI and CV stuff all in time. I really like the combination of the MPC controlling other drum machines as well. I’ve got an E-mu SP12, an old ’80s drum machine sampler that is really good and when controlled by the MPC is sick.” Can you tell us about a few of your key pieces? “One of my favourite bits of kit is the E-mu SP12, which is such a great sampler. The [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture for distortion, it gives the sound a bit of drive and analogue warmth — love that. Then the ARP2600 clone which is incredible and then my favourite effects unit is the Eventide Harmoniser, the H3000, from 1986. It’s a multi-effect with pitching and all that, it has this metallic early digital sound that I use on everything. It’s got the classic micro-pitch shifting that Prince used to use on his vocals. I would say that anyone who just uses soft synths and wants to get a bit of grit on their sound should look at the Culture Vulture. There is also a UAD version of it, which I have trialled alongside the hardware and it sounds pretty great as well.”
RITON’S ESSENTIAL KIT 01. Mu-Tron Bi-Phase 02. Pearl SC-40 03.UAD Apollo 8 04.Maxon AD-230 Flanger 05.Eventide H3000 06.Distressor 07. Eventide H7600 Do you spend a lot of time tinkering around on your hardware to create sounds, then? “To be honest, I get really excited as soon as I get an idea or sound I think I should make a track out of, and then start adding elements to it, instead of jamming the whole day on one thing. What I have been doing recently on my ARP2600 clone is an example. I got the software version of it, then started looking at the patches on that and copying them on to the hardware. I’ve been doing that a lot as I have quite a bit of the original kit, using the virtual versions as they have so many presets and recreating the presets on the original hardware, checking out what patches people have been doing on the VST versions and then coming up with my own on the hardware.” And your production methods, how have they changed over time? “As I got more gear I started to write outside of the laptop using analogue sequencers and stuff like that — things that I like to work on. When I was living in LA a few years back I was actually using a mixing desk and using the desk to add reverb and delays — using the desk to record, say, eight channels of audio for one sound and then what would end up in the computer would be the final sound. Whereas before I would get it into the computer, then start adding FX and other things on top of the sound. Using the desk in that way was cool — to have the final sound as I wanted it in at the time, rather than doing it later. It was a different learning process to me, having the mixing desk changed my way of working.” djmagasia.com 105