The Sounds of Science
Dec 1, 2001 12:00 PM, By Chris Gill
Richie Hawtin's career is like one of his DJ sets: constantly evolving, full of surprises, and never dull. During the past few years, the Detroit-techno innovator has emerged from the underground to become an electronic-music icon, doing high-profile gigs across the world. Winning over crowds in unlikely places such as Ibiza and fashionable superclubs from London to Los Angeles, where the audiences are more accustomed to progressive house, trance, house, and other styles du jour, Hawtin has made techno appealing to the masses without compromising his hard-banging style.
Although Hawtin still enjoys success recording as Plastikman and running the Plus 8 and Minus record labels, for the past three years he has focused on DJing. Hawtin's DJ-mix album Decks, EFX, and 909 (NovaMute, 1999) showcases his innovative performance style in which he processed records with live effects and programmed accompanying rhythms on the fly with a classic Roland TR-909 drum machine. For his latest album,DE9: Closer to the Edit (NovaMute, 2001), Hawtin took the mixing concept to a new extreme, cutting more than 100 songs into small loops and layering, splicing, and editing them to create an entirely new piece of music.
While DE9 offers listeners a peek at the future of the DJ-mix album, Hawtin's current live DJ performances are giving club goers a glimpse at what lies ahead in the fast-evolving realm of live remixing. Interestingly, a combined hardware and software product from N2IT Development called FinalScratch made both of those developments possible for Hawtin. FinalScratch allows DJs to control digital files stored on a computer from a vinyl record encoded with digital data. FinalScratch's software made it easy for Hawtin to extract loops from songs while he was gathering raw material for the album. Offering the ability to store thousands of songs on a hard drive, to slice each song into dozens of discrete elements, and to edit and rearrange those songs any way he sees fit, FinalScratch gives Hawtin license to venture away from playing records linearly and to create unique remixes instantaneously as he performs his sets.
Hawtin remains focused on new music-software developments that promise to enable him to take his live-remixing concepts even further. Although he doesn't feel that vinyl is obsolete, he does feel that the DJ's role is going to change significantly in the coming years. “The people who are really pushing it are the people who do a hybrid between live performance and DJing,” says Hawtin. “They're reevaluating and reinterpreting music right in front of you. Audiences are going to want to hear a DJ do more than mix a couple of records together on two turntables once they realize what is going on.”>
Hawtin has never forgotten that the term "techno" was derived from the word "technology." Even though he has enjoyed a career as an influential artist for more than a decade, he shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, his passion for the latest technological developments hints that the coming years of his career will be more exciting and full of surprises than ever before.
You're taking loop mixing to a new level on DE9.
I'm using technology to reevaluate my ideas and trying to approach them in a different way. Hopefully it will let me do something a bit more intricate, which usually is what technology allows you to do. In some ways the album is much like a DJ performance. All I'm doing is layering one track over another, but instead of layering them in a linear fashion from the start of one to the beginning of the next, I've been able to cut each track up into smaller components and build new ideas by overlaying, intermixing, and intersplicing loops. Remixing is taking someone else's track and reinventing it. I tried to reinvent the whole album by using different pieces of other people's tracks.
You must have listened to quite a few tracks in great detail when selecting the loops.
Yes and no. Because all of the tracks had been in my DJ crate for a while, I already knew what tracks I wanted and had ideas about what worked together. As you mix two records together, you may discover that they make a really cool rhythm, but that disappears as you go into the next record. I remembered how certain tracks complemented each other; that's what I zeroed in on first. I also liked the feel, groove, or bass line of other records, so it was quite easy to choose parts. The most time-consuming part was recording those things into the computer. Some of them were already in there for use with FinalScratch, but even then I had to cut and slice them down to what I wanted. It took me longer to edit the tracks than it did to find them.
What made you decide to take a loop-based approach on this album?
I've been thinking about doing something like this for a couple of years, but FinalScratch made me get back into experimenting with that idea. A lot of loop-based software has been developed over the last couple of years — things like Sonic Foundry's Acid and [Image-Line Software] Fruityloops. I was trying to see if there was some way of using these to create something larger in scope than some of the programs were able to do themselves. I was using the software to give me parts and usable pieces. One of the advantages I've found with FinalScratch is that it's very easy for me to reedit people's tracks, to take loops and breaks out or to take certain sections and repeat them to make a bed track that I could work with. I'd mix those tracks with other ones. The more I did that, the more I thought about it, and the more I started to think about music in a nonlinear fashion. It was more of a collection of parts that could be reassembled in any way I wanted as long as I had the technology that would make that possible. I'd move loops around for one track, then move loops around for a different version of another track. I wondered what would happen if all these elements became just components in the mix. Would that still be a mix album? Would it be DJing? Or would it be something entirely new?
How did the whole mix come together? Did you have a start and end point in mind?
I did. There's a track at the end that I always ended my special sets with, and I always wanted to get that into one of my mix CDs. That was the point I wanted to get to: the point of no return. I was playing with certain ideas for the beginning, but everything came back to continuing where Decks, EFX, and 909 left off, which was a Burial Mix [label] record [Rhythm and Sound's “Never Tell You”]. I started this album with a track by the same people, which had a similar type of dub feeling. I wanted the albums to be different but complement each other. The first album started off quite intense and broke down, mellowed out, and got weird at the end. I wanted to start this one that way, build it back up, and then bring it back down.
It's fascinating how seamless the whole mix is. Sometimes you don't realize that it's a compilation of a lot of different tracks.
The album was a little bit longer at first. It was approaching 70 minutes. I cut it down further because I wanted to keep a certain pace. I explored a few ideas then went off to something else. I didn't want any one track to play so people would go, “Oh, there's that track.” I wanted it to be a little bit of this track and a little bit of that track. I wanted to have a forward progression and a real momentum. Suddenly it starts, and then it's done. It takes on a life of itself, and that's what I wanted.
Were any parts difficult to piece together?
Not really. I had the beginning and end and moved forward through it, putting things together that seemed to complement each other. At certain points things came in, and I knew what would work with it because it worked in my set. Even when I record my own tracks, I work as fast as possible and don't worry about minute details. Then I go back and do the microediting and chop things down. Most of my recordings and compositions are longer at first, and then they end up shorter.
Is Pro Tools your main editing system?
Now that Pro Tools has integrated MIDI, tempo mapping, and grids that can lock MIDI to tempo, it came into its own for this project. I was able to bring a lot of loops in and drop them into different grid paths. I could change my grids to 32nd notes and get in there quickly to edit the loops. In the past, I would have had to do that by looking at the waveform and scrubbing over it. I wasn't necessarily doing anything I hadn't been doing before, but progressions in the software enabled me to do things much more quickly and efficiently — things like using Acid to bring everything back to the right tempo. Because I was able to use a program like Acid to lock up some of the loops, it enabled me to focus my attention on other areas.
How did you discover FinalScratch?
I and a friend of John Acquaviva saw it a couple of years ago. We're always looking for new technologies and ideas. We thought it sounded cool. We had no idea how well it would work. We'd seen other things like Video 15 that you hear about over the Internet, so we were a bit skeptical. John was going to Holland a couple of weeks after he heard about it, so he was able to check it out. He gave us a report back and said, “It does what it's supposed to, but there's a lot of latency. But the actual theory is working. If they can reduce the latency it should be interesting.” We stayed in contact with them. Initially John was more into it than I was, because he still wanted it even with the latency. He picked up a really early version, but I don't think he ever got it to work. I wanted to wait until the latency issues were worked out. There was no way I was going to play a record with a five-second delay. Finally, one day N2IT contacted us and told us that the latency was reduced. When I saw it, it was unbelievable. John got the first revision of the new prototype, and I got the second. We've been taking it through the paces ever since.
What type of PC are you using?
A Pentium III/600 MHz Sony VAIO — one of the superslim models. I have a 20 GB hard drive, which is about the biggest you can get for a superslim, and 128 MB of RAM. One of the best things is being able to sit on a plane and go through all my new records.
How many MP3 files do you carry with you now?
I have about 2,500 tracks.
Do you still bring much vinyl to gigs?
I've been trying to get down to one crate, but I'm still carrying two crates with me now. The only reason I do that is because I've been traveling back and forth so much that I haven't had time to catalog what is on the computer. As soon as I figure that out, I'll be down to under one crate. My sets are ranging from a minimum of 30 to 40 percent FinalScratch up to 80 to 90 percent FinalScratch. I did a one-hour set the other night, and I didn't play any records at all. I just hooked up the computer and did my set. It's definitely liberating. Having all those choices can be overwhelming, but it's amazing once you get used to it. There are so many possibilities, such as having the ability to reedit tracks and loop tracks that I can mix in a special way. I have loops of my breakdowns so I can elongate them from five seconds to two minutes if I want. It enables me to put on a better performance. I can take things further than I was able to do with the whole Decks, EFX, and 909 show over the past couple of years.
All of that must have significantly affected the way you DJ.
It has, and it will do more as I have more time to work with it. I've been doing some edits on planes, but I haven't been able to reedit the material as much as I would like. I don't want to play the regular version of any record any more. I want to edit everything, even if it's just a slight change. Someone may hear it and think it's the regular version, but then they'll hear a little part that they don't remember. I want to get more into that. It's really offered me new possibilities.
Are you currently doing very much live effects processing?
It's all with outboard equipment. FinalScratch is only playing back the music. I'm not using any plug-ins. I have a customized Allen and Heath Xone 62 mixer that has extra sends and other modifications. I'm using the Electrix Repeater, which is one of the coolest hardware products I've seen in a long time. I used a prototype about six months before it came out. I didn't use the really early versions because they crashed all over the place, but it's really solid now. I used to use an Ensoniq DP/4, but I've moved over to a Lexicon MPX500, which is much cleaner and offers me better sampling delays. My whole show is running on completely different boxes and hardware than it was three years ago when it started.
Are you still using a Roland TR-909?
The 909 is being phased out a little bit because people have had trouble finding them for me. I don't like to carry too much with me, so I'll rent things. The Repeater and FinalScratch are about all I take with me now. The 909 really works. It's amazing, and people love it. Some people are disappointed that I'm not using it that much anymore. I'm looking for something that is like a 909 that I can really interact with spontaneously, which is what's so great about the interface on that unit. The problem with a 909 is that its sound bank is limited. I could use it with a sampler and have it MIDI'd up, but I just want to use one box. Right now, everything comes down to size and weight. We're at the mercy of the airlines.
Part of the allure of being a DJ is not having to deal with hauling a lot of gear around and doing sound checks.
The reason why a lot of clubs like to book DJs is that they don't have to worry about bands and sound checks. Unfortunately, if you are booking me, you do still have to handle that. A lot of places have to rip their DJ booths apart because we're bringing in our own mixer. The only things we usually use are the turntables. I have a sound technician who travels with me. Some clubs were a bit apprehensive at first, because there was more work involved.
Some DJs are a bit lazy because they don't want to take that extra step. They just want to play their set for a few hours and then leave. Those days are numbered. DJs and promoters have to wake up. There's more work involved with what I do, but it offers everyone a greater experience. When I was a kid and I went out to see Derrick May or Jeff Mills, the best moments were when they did things that I had no idea what they were doing. Back then it was a simple matter of changing volume or pitch — that was the cutting edge. But it was fresh. I want those experiences again. I want to give people those experiences. You can't do that when you're just mixing two records.
One of the most exciting developments of the past ten years is the concept of live remixing. The manufacturing community is starting to come out with products that support that concept.
The Repeater is basically like Acid in a hardware box. It allows you to grab samples, loop them, and change pitch and tempo. I'm looking at Ableton's Live software, which seems like it will allow me to do what I did on the DE9 album live. It also records your gigs. Sometimes I come up with ideas while I'm working in front of people that I can't re-create later. This software will let me pull that performance back up so I can refine it and perfect it for an actual release.
Where do you get most of the records that you play?
All over the place. I'm getting more records than ever sent to me; not all of them are good, though. Everywhere I am, I go record shopping. I'm listening to more demos than I ever used to. Even though I'm not signing as much as I used to on my label, now I have the potential to load it into FinalScratch and play these demos live. One of the biggest tracks I'm playing right now is a demo that some kid from Holland sent me. I sent him an e-mail, but he hasn't gotten back in touch with me. I just wanted to let him know that it's a great track. It's not what I'm looking for for my label. It's a bit more clubby, but it works perfectly in my set. When I was in Montreal, I found this demo that someone from Montreal had sent me. I loaded the track up and played it that night. I was hoping that the kid would have been there, but unfortunately he wasn't. That would have been crazy. He just finished the track the week before, and there I was playing it. That's how fast things are moving. People are posting MP3s on FTP sites, so I can download them and play them if I like them. I've had some songs three or four months before they were even pressed on vinyl.
Recently certain styles like house, progressive house, and trance have become popular, yet techno remains underground. How do you feel about that?
Techno will always be somewhat underground because of its progressive nature. What's happened with the other styles is that someone will have a good idea and then everyone will milk that for six to eight months. When that happens, the music stops developing. When ideas get stagnant, the mass population has more time to catch up with things and starts to appreciate those ideas. It's hard for the mass population to appreciate something when it's constantly changing. It's too hard for companies to promote and commercialize. Someone has to grab hold of our equation and move it into the mainstream. When something like progressive house becomes more commercially viable than what I'm involved in, it becomes a bonus for us. That means that more people will get into what we're doing. My music has the funkiness of house and the weirdness and electronic progressiveness of techno. Some of the tracks on my DE9 album were pressed in runs of only 800 copies. I consider those things on the cutting edge of electronic music right now.
What is one of the most significant changes you've noticed in the scene during the past couple of years?
FinalScratch is the first thing I've seen that bridges the gap between the digital and analog worlds, the new world and the old world. Being able to perform with digital files has caused me to re-evaluate everything I play. Being able to have an entire studio on a laptop is amazing. [Propellerhead] Reason is quite liberating. During the past five years a lot of manufacturers have finally realized how big this market is and that they can make products for people who produce this music, whether they're groove boxes or DJ mixers with effects built in to them. All these weird things that we used to only dream about ten years ago are widely available now.
I'm going to use the advantages I have to let people know about things. Whether it's FinalScratch, creating DE9, or using effects with turntables, sometimes the only way people are going to find out about it is if they read about it or hear about it from some artist. I like to use my position, whatever that is, to try to forward things. That's what keeps me involved. I'm interested in making tracks and music, but in a progressive way. People who have a progressive frame of mind are the people I get along with and appreciate.
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
| Want to use this article? Click here for options! |  |
