Do you essentially create an electronica album and then record live instruments over the top?
Yes. The core is electronic music recorded using all sorts of synthesizers and samplers into Steinberg’s Nuendo 4 software. We strip down the electronic recordings and take them into big studios to record the real instruments. We’ll play through a tune several times, cut up the best parts from all of the different takes, and build it back up just like an electronica track. Instead of sampling old records, we’re sampling and looping ourselves using old mics and whatever program on whichever computer is around to get the job done.
What’s your thought process as you go about putting these sounds together?
We’re looking for nasty, aggressive, and otherworldly sounds whether we’re working with a bass or synthesizer, or twisting a sample. I recorded my basses mostly through an Avalon U5 preamp and IK Multimedia’s Ampeg SVX bass plug-in. Sometimes I would mic up tiny guitar practice amps and drive them heavily to capture that Queens Of The Stone Age sound.
How do you balance bass guitar and synth bass in the final mixes?
It varies throughout. Sometimes a bass guitar can provide the right tone in the 2kHz-10kHz region, and the bass underneath can be purely synthesized. Or, we might switch the two in and out. For example, “Propane Nightmares” has normal bass guitar in the pre-drop parts, but the drop of the tune has a shelved bass guitar sitting on top of the synth sub bass. The whole thing is a bit of a mess because I use so many different basses and sounds. You pay for it later in the live setup, but we’ve definitely got that down.
How do you recreate your studio tones onstage?
My StingRay is customized with MIDI pickups built into the saddles. My magnetic signal goes to an Ashdown Classic Series rig, and the MIDI signal runs through an Avalon U5 preamp and into an Axon MIDI detection brain. It uses artificial intelligence to detect notes in different ways. For instance, it will detect a note’s harmonics if that’s quicker than finding the raw frequency. I try to help the MIDI system by playing with a firm D’Addario pick and incorporating a lot of palm muting to define each note as much as possible. The Axon feeds its MIDI signal into a Muse receptor. I’ve programmed that to trigger the appropriate preset in the appropriate program for the exact same sounds I used on the record. It’s seamless and automatic, so I’m free to concentrate on playing my best and rocking out. The rest of the band does the same thing.
That’s a lot of technology to lean on. Is it simply impossible to create drum-n-bass music properly without it?
I don’t think you can simulate electronic drum-n-bass music with conventional bass guitar. It needs everything we’re adding to it. Bass guitars just can’t go as low as synth basses, but a combination of the two is a powerful force.
CAN BE HEARD ON
Pendulum, In Silico [Atlantic, 2008]
CURRENTLY SPINNING
InMe, Daydream Anonymous [Graphite, 2007] “It’s indie-meets-heavy rock. They’re not well known, but they should be. We’re going to be gigging together.”
GEAR
Bass Customized, MIDI-capable Ernie Ball/Music Man StingRay, Warwick Streamer, Ibanez Soundgear, various Fender basses; Ernie Ball Medium Slinky strings
Rig Ashdown Klystron 1000 head and Neo 810 8x10 cabinet; Avalon U5 preamp
Effects Boss GT-8