This week Riemann Kollektion mark two years of benchmark setting minimal techno and tech-house tools with the release of their first ever preset collection for Native Instrument’s ubiquitous soft synth, Massive. To mark the occasion we sat down with label boss Florian Meindl to discuss Riemann’s past, present and future…
Riemann Kollektion has been running on S2S for two years now. What inspired you to release that first sample collection?
When I was buying my first sample CDs many years ago I was often disappointed because there were either just full loops with no stripped versions or they were completely over compressed or they just didn’t sound like what I was hearing in the clubs.
But when I found S2S I saw that there was a new market emerging with really good companies and collections, so I wanted to represent my style there too. My aim was to give maximum flexibility to customers by splitting all loops into individual layers, whilst also trying to be state-of-the-art in terms of sound quality and the choice of sounds.
For me it was also important to include a guest producer who is established and respected in the scene to give the collections that extra cutting-edge feel. It’s been a popular feature and so far we’ve had Pan-Pot, Ramon Tapia, Martin Eyerer, Format:B, amongst others, and the latest one is Popof.
The infamous claps from your packages have been heard in many Beatport top 10 tracks, how did you actually do them? They are always so up-front in the mix?
I’m very proud of them, some are subtle but yes, many of them are perfect for peaktime tracks too. I call them “clap snares” because I often tend to layer claps and snares on top of each other. The snares are from analogue drum machines and Native Instruments Maschine, the claps are almost all recorded by myself with a Neumann microphone and in dry acoustic spaces. I mix up 10 different claps and snares applying effects, compressors and equalizers in order to shape the sound. The timing is also very important – claps which start a bit earlier than the beat can get through the mix a bit better.
Users have been asking for Riemann synth presets for some time now – what made you finally decide to create the Massive Techno Presets collection?
I had this idea a long time but I always decided to focus on audio rather than to offer patches for a synth because not everyone owns one specific synth. However, recently Native Instrument’s Massive have become so popular (standard, even) that it seemed logical to explore the technology – now Massive Techno Presets is available with a variety of leads, basses, pads and FX for Massive.
It seems that house and techno tracks are getting louder and louder – do you have any mastering tips for keeping up in the loudness stakes?
I’d agree that more and more tracks are heavily compressed, and quite often to the point of distortion. I think it’s fine to make peaktime tracks really loud but they still need to maintain a certain level of dynamics with them. For club tracks it’s important for me to have a very compressed and tight bass because this influences the whole signal and limiters in a club system tend to pull down the whole signal instead of just the bass.
A trick I have been using recently when mastering tracks for my FLASH Recordings label is to put a UAD multiband compressor right before the limiter to try and get the maximum out of the bass. I then compress the sub frequencies again separately and adjust the attack and release in order to create a certain dynamic.
What can we expect from Riemann in the future?
The next full Riemann Kollektion will be with another internationally famous producer who has released records on 100% Pure, Systematic and FLASH. Before the end of the year there will be another Riemann Special (either another presets pack, kicks collection or synth loops). In 2012 there will be an exciting collaboration between Riemann and Native Instruments too!
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