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10 questions with Ramon Tapia
Lauded by the likes of Ritchie Hawtin and Style of Eye, Belgian native Ramon Tapia has released on labels such as Great Stuff and Tiga's Turbo Recordings and remixed some of the world's finest tech-house producers, including Lutzenkirchen, Tomcraft and Martin Eyerer. He's also recently guest produced the widely anticipated Riemann Kollektion 4, exclusive to Sounds/To/Sample. We caught up with the Antwerp native to talk phat basslines, keeping at it, and why he keeps his monitors turned way down.
What's been the highlight of your year so far and what have you got coming up?
The highlights so far have been the release of the first two singles from my forthcoming album 'Sunka Sanka', which have both gone down really well. I've also been signed to Strictly Rhythm, so I'm busy making new tracks for the label that will see the light in May 2010. My full album is released on Great Stuff Recordings in March 2010.
Any advice on monitoring? Quiet? Loud? Do you prefer flat and boring speakers, headphones or big, phat and chunky monitors?
I use Genelec 1030As. They're not too big or too small and they fit perfectly in my apartment without getting me in trouble with the neighbours. When mixing I generally monitor at low volumes: when you listen at low volumes you can hear if everything is present in the mix, and if it's sounding good quiet your mix will sound great loud. A second advantage is your ears won't get tired as quickly. Before bouncing down a master I always try the mix on several systems to see what fine tuning is needed.
What is the key ingredient for a track? Breakdown? Style of production? Bassline?
I think everybody has different tastes, but for me it has to be a good mix of everything. I love bass a lot, so a good rolling, phat bassline and some strategically placed breaks mostly do the trick for me.
Describe your typical workflow on a track.
Boom Tchak Tss Tchak Boom ;-)
What sounds do you find are the hardest to create from scratch?
Making great sounding musical chords can be a pain in the arse.
When mixing, what do you find the hardest thing to get sounding right?
Mixing and EQing the bass so that it has presence in the mix but also a deep, warm low-end is something I often struggle with.
When building a track how do you normally work? Do you start with the drums and build your way up from that?
I always start new productions from scratch and never use templates or autoload songs. The first thing I do is import a nice kick into Cubase and set it looping. Then I start importing samples, or firing up synths and see what I like. I have no set way of moving forward from there; I work best when I just mess around with sounds above a kick drum and seeing what works. There is no law for making music; do what sounds good to you - that means it comes from the heart.
Any advice for aspiring producers out there?
Learn as much as possible: there is always something to learn. Read books, visit forums, buy mags and watch YouTube videos. These days there is information available everywhere, and much of it is free. Try to keep updated on the latest technological developments and new plugins so you're ahead of the curve. And most of all, never give up. It's a cliche, but Rome wasn't build in a day.
What's your opinion on processing the mix bus? Leave it clean or drive it to the extreme?
It depends on the track, but on most productions I'll strap a compressor across the master mix bus, but I won't drive it into the red. I'll let it glue the elements without crushing the dynamics so the track still has plenty of headroom.
What do you believe is the secret to your success as a producer?
Never giving up and believing in myself. Early in my career someone gave me this advice: never freak out when a label refuses your music. Instead go back into the studio and do it better next time. See what the problems are and learn from them. It was great advice that has served me well since.
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More from Ramon Tapia: twitter.com/ramontapia and www.myspace.com/elcarlitto
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