I sample things all the damn time. There's no end to it.
I hear something great – I will sample it.
I also go to record stores and buy a bit of this and that.
Sometimes I buy records quite blindly just to support a record store, but in hopes of finding something useful.
I just bought a 1 EUR bargain bin soul record with a really crusty sleeve too.
And I found so...
Got my monthly DJ show rolling via Twitch.
I hope everyone's had a really good and inspirational holiday period!
As the old year comes to a close and a new one is around the corner, I first wanted to say big thanks to everyone who's here and supporting my Patreon.
It honestly means a lot to me, and I think this year has been the best so far.
Some of you I've mentored and seen your musical progress, I've had many...
Every DJ gets some really bad experiences sometimes. Travelling ones especially.
Let's talk about them.
How did I become a DJ?
I bought myself a pair of Technics in January 2000 to learn DJing, and never regretted that.
I'm happy to say my music (and being ...
2022-12-29 13:22:03 +0000 UTC View PostMerry Xmas – I’ve got some viewing for all you DNB headz for when you’re wildly downing that eggnog!
Here’s a walkthru of my Metalheadz song, Legacy.
It's the song of mine that's got the most plays (if that matters at all).
I’m going thru the project and showing what’s happening, why, talking a bit about what I think makes a Metalheadz song, the im...
2022-12-23 10:46:16 +0000 UTC View Post
(yeah, correct, it is a bike in that pic – I took it outside the house an hour ago...we've got some snow here!)
So wanted to do a quick update on things to come and what's been.
You may have noticed I've been slightly silent here.
Well, reason is, I was rrrreally fecking sick with some monsterous influenza for a while. Didn't leave home for 10 days and I didn't know I could cough ...
You remember Uncle Fanu promised to hit you up with some snares soon?
Well here they are!
20 snares – download
(and no sharing the link)
These are all copyright-free.
I've tried to keep these organic-ish and mallable: th...
Pro-Q3 kick/bass sidechain
So in a nutshell, place the EQ on your bass track.
Activate sidechain view to see the sidechain frequencies.
Create an EQ node, and turn its outer (dynamic) ring counter-clockwise.
Click on "auto" and then the little arrow-like button – this activates dynamic movement for t...
Always willing to inspire others, I wanted to let you know about this cool speech sample source site because it's quite unrivaled!
Basically that site allows you to search for phrases of speech in a huge movie database. You also get to see what movie it's from.
Obviously you can sample it, but you ca...
2022-11-20 10:07:02 +0000 UTC View Post
I'll soon have a new batch of fresh drumsounds coming for you, but check this. Cutting the audio gunk out of your signal AND then boosting – dynamically! – the good parts of it can make such a big difference to your sound.
Especially useful with noisy and resonant samples.
Can technically be done with any EQ that offers dynamic EQing.
2022-11-19 10:53:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Who wants some kickdrums?
Grab them HERE!
(no sharing!)
Basically, I was creating some kicks with Steinberg Backbone.
I did a bunch, scrapped some crappy ones, and here's a batch I think should be useful.
Some can be used ...
I got this question:
"Would there be any benefit to temporarily putting a limiter on the master in order to highlight any issues in the mix (I mean would it highlight anything too loud in the mix or annoying frequencies)?"
This is a good question, and I'm happy to answer this. Even if you're not that interested in mastering, this can be useful, because it can kind o...
2022-11-06 08:49:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Modular bass growl filth with Ableton Live from scratch? Hold my beer!
Using the modular Oscillot synth (a M4L pack).
Let's build a basic one-osc synth and get growly…the power is in that filter!
So let's get this breakbeat thing rolling!
Got lots of requests for that.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hrefo8z49ypnq3b/dirgepatreon.mp4?dl=0
(NO sharing the link! But feel free to tell your friends about my Patreon)
I took a break I've been working recently a...
Ez ya'll!
Just letting you know that I've been planning the Patreon horizon, and a lot of the recent requests have to do with jungle and chopping breaks.
I've been into that for some 25 years now...still as fun as it ever was!
Sooooo, letting you know I will be going thru some of that stuff on my Patreon this fall!
So…watch this space 👀
Also big thanks to everyb...
2022-10-09 10:50:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Audio enginerding stuff here!
Seems the Loud Split plugin of Bitwig's new Spectral pack is pretty nice for controlling the amount of noise in a signal.
Making drums less noisy here, and also going super noisy!
It's interesting, as good denoising isn't always a walk in the park, but this new type of loud/quiet split tool should be good for that (this...
2022-10-07 11:50:14 +0000 UTC View Post
A good request was, "Could you show how to create basses with Vital?" so hey let's do just that!
Vital is a great-sounding FREE wavetable-synth you should grab.
So let me show you how to create a nice, moving, Reese-ish bass sound as well as a growly plucky one to get you started with it!
Video here (no sharing):
2022-10-02 07:17:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
I really want to let you know about this new DrumGAN feature of Steinberg Backbone.
It can create new drumsounds for you from scratch OR emulate a drumsound you drop in.
I've stayed away from synthesized drumsounds most of the time, as they just don't fit my style (they rarely sound organic eno...
I recently did a nice session with a patron using a drumloop he gave me, which is the original drumloop that was used in the classic Alien Girl tune by Ed Rush, Optical and Fierce.
So here's me having a go with it, layering things a bit and doing some analog-modeled processing to glue the drums together more and add some energy and dirt to the sound.
Let's get that low-level signal u...
It's easy and fun to create two-oscillator basses such as Reese basses with Serum, as they sound lively due to the movement caused by two detuned oscillators.
However, this often causes a problem with sub bass, which will also drift in and out, which we don't want: we want a solid sub bass level.
This video shows you how it's easy to fix this with Serum.
Today, I'm telling you about using limiters and clippers.
Where they differ, what's similar, when you should use either, and so on.
Join me for this 20-minute audio engineering lecture!
WATCH HERE (no sharing)
BTW, after I had f...
👉🏻Watch here 👈🏻
(no sharing, as it's Patreon-exclusive)
So in this series, I want to take a song I'm working on and go thru some things that I feel are interesting. Can be song structure, sound choices, plugins etc.
Aiming to keep...
Aye ya'll!
Just letting you know briefly that very soon I'll be publishing the first episode of my new miniseries, Short Studio Sessions.
In those sessions, I'll go thru things relating to making songs I've been working on recently: song structures, mixing tips, as well some interesting check-out-worthy plugins I want to show you.
The first episode feat...
First STEAMY SUNDAY STREAM on Twitch is done!
• Watch/download the video from Dropbox
What tune in the mix made me feel I need to take a shower after playing it? You have to listen to the archive to find out (I do mention it)...
2022-07-24 15:52:06 +0000 UTC View Post
So I’ve decided to start streaming DJ sets via Twitch (I may make downloads Patreon-exclusive)
First test stream is happening today, and very soon.
EDIT: Downloadable here now!
At 14:00 CET time (1 pm UK time), join my free Twitch to witness how well (or aw...
2022-07-24 10:25:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Here’s an old one from the archives!
Fanu: “Hämärä”
(Soundcloud has downloads enabled)
This is 10–15 years old!
I sampled a Finnish vocal group back then, and I was excited about this.
I kept contacting their agent, trying to discuss if they’d allow me to use the vocal, so I could use it in the song and feature it on my albu...
2022-07-17 09:20:35 +0000 UTC View Post
I received a good question: what do I take into account in mixing kicks?
VIDEO HERE (25 mins)
In this video, I go thru the things I always look for when mixing kick drums.
Covering the plugins I always use and go through some thoughts.
Slamming you with SP-12 drums sampled from my SP-12 AND instruments for Ableton Live 10 & 11, Bitwig Studio, and Redux/Renoise.
If you've been hanging around on my Patreon long enough, you'll remember that I originally did a rack for Ableton Live 10.
Now, I did an updated version for Ableton Live 11 (basically just named the pads, thanks to Esa Ruoho for the remin...
Been digging more and more into Bitwig Studio, and wanted to find out how to do this oldskool jungle type timestretch effect. Here's two similar ways!
First method is very interesting and more Bitwig-specific, but the second one is more applicable to most samplers.
🎥 Peep ...
Class is in session!
Here comes a video (47 mins) walkthru of my recent remix for Make Or Break label:
(Patreon-exclus...