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10 questions with Reso
Championed by Mary Anne Hobbs, Benga and Rusko, and with releases on Civil Music, Hospital, Z-Audio, Storming Productions, Destructive and Urban Graffiti, Reso is a rising star of the UK electronic music scene whose influence is likely to transcend the dubstep tag many assign him. We tracked down the Londoner while he was putting the finishing touches to his long-awaited debut album on Civil Music to talk about funk samples, originality and mixing on headphones.
Loops? Or programming your beats from single hits?
I mainly program beats from single hits that I've processed myself and then recycle some loops and layer them up with the hits to get a groove rolling. Sometimes I sample beats from vinyl (rock and funk records in particular), and other times I'll take elements from sample CDs. In the end, it depends what sound I'm going for that determines which route I take.
What is the key ingredient in a track? Breakdown? Style of production? Bassline?
Everything in the track is important. Sometimes I hear tunes that have amazing basslines but dull beats, or vice versa. I think that's a shame: I spend a lot of time on every element. I approach my tracks as if I was producing a band. When you produce a band you need every part to shine: the bass, the guitars, the drums, the vocals. It's no different with dance records: every element should be strong. You don't want one part to let the side down.
When building a track how do you normally work? Do you start with the drums and build from that?
I don't have a rigid work ethic and my approach changes every time. Sometimes I start with a beat and go from there. At other times I begin with a melody, nice pad sound or cool bass patch - or even just a weird vocal sample. I like to change the way I work to push myself creatively and create something different every time, rather than just starting with a beat.
Do you mainly use analogue or digital soft synth sources? Do you think analogue makes a difference?
I'm all digital. I've never owned any analogue gear. Soft synths are so good these days I don't think you really need analogue synths. Digital also offers so much easier recall and automation. I think the main difference between analogue and digital kit lies in what you're personally used to: I've grown up with soft synths and they're what I'm most comfortable working with.
Any advice on monitoring? Quiet? Loud? Do you prefer flat and boring speakers, headphones or big, phat and chunky monitors?
I use headphones a lot. I've got a pair of Sennheiser HD600s that are my main studio workhorses. I do a lot of work at night and live in a small flat so have to keep my production pretty quiet. The plus side is that I get to really concentrate on the fine-details of a track and find that monitoring on headphones really helps with this.
I use KRK Rokit 8s as my main studio monitors and they're OK, but I'm looking to upgrade soon. When monitoring with the speakers I tend to keep them reasonably quiet and only crank up the volume once in a while to check how the sounds would translate to a club environment.
What are the biggest barriers that new producers face?
There’s so much competition out there these days that you really need to have something special to stand out from the crowd. I think it's important for new producers to take their time and try to create something orginal and special rather than copying other porducers that are already established.
How important do you think it is to have your music mastered commercially? Can you do it yourself as effectively and what tools would you recommend?
Professional mastering is hugely important. Mastering engineers have the ability to make a poor track sound better, and a great track sound amazing, and it's a skill that takes years to learn. I never put limiters on my final mix and generally leave about 2dB worth of headroom for the mastering engineer to work with. I find this approach helps a tune to retain its dynamics rather than sounding squashed to buggery.
What's your opinion on processing the mix bus? Leave it clean or drive it to the extreme?
I tend to leave it clean and process other elements using busses rather than rag the main mix.
What do you believe is the secret to your success as a producer?
Hopefully it’s my variety. I like to make lots of different styles of music; hopefully I do them all well.
Any advice for aspiring producers out there?
It’s better to take your time and make one tune amazing than make five that sound rushed.
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More from Reso: www.myspace.com/corgrimey
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