Question (Sean):
I was wondering how you guys track your vocals and what equipment you use to put the distortion effects on them?
Answer (Sascha):
The vocals are recorded once there is some semblance of an arrangement of a new song. Often, while we record the vocals new ideas come up that will then force the track to be re-arranged. The distortion varies, but more often than not I use the Ampfarm plug-in. It’s by far the best sounding smooth distortion available. Another way I do it, is to re-amp the vocals and record them onto a cassette tape, with Dolby noise reduction on. Then I play back the tape with Dolby noise reduction off and re-record it into Pro Tools. Various degrees of realy nice sounding distortion can be achieved that way.
Question (Brandon):
In your studio section on KMFDM DOTKOM you list tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. If a beginner at guitar wanted to achieve the KMFDM sound and they had an ESP guitar, what would be the easiest way to go about it or which specific pedals and settings would you recommend just for jamming, not necessarily for professional recording? Let's say a guitar novice wanted to play "Brute" for example, what would be the quickest way to that sound and what settings should they use on whatever gear you recommend?
Answer (Jules):
As I wasn't arround at the time "Brute" was recorded I can't tell you what was used in the studio. However, if you're looking for something to play through that could produce similar sounds on a budget, I just tried a SansAmp GT2 tube emulation pedal and it sounded really good. You could plug that straight into the inputs of your hi-fi. Other than that, some of the smaller Marshall practice amps sound great. It is a little known fact, but many "big" sounding guitar tracks don't come from walls of high powered amps and loads of expensive mics, but from a practice amp and 1 mic!
Question (Jack):
I am curious as to what Jules' main amp/effects setup is for live performances.
Answer (Jules):
At the moment I run a Marshall JMP 1 preamp going into the power amp section of a Peavey 5150 head through a Mesa Boogie 4 x 12 cab. Most of my effects come from a Rocktron Replifex inserted into the effects loop of the JMP 1. My pedal board consists of a DOD passive A/B box, one output of which goes to a Korg tuner, the other to the rest of my pedals - a Jim Dunlop Crybaby wah, a Digitech Whammy II and a Boss noise surpressor. I also have a Rolls midi buddy floor board to change patches on the Rocktron and JMP 1, however I rarely use it as I run program change messages to preamp and effects processor from the Pro Tools rig we have onstage, eliminating 90% of the "tap dancing".
Question (Mike):
For just starting to get into writing in the industrial genre of music, I was wondering how do you write your music? I know that as you have said before, you start with samples and add some guitars and then some bass . . . but how is it all put together?
Answer (Sascha):
It is all put together in Pro Tools, which acts basically like a huge complex tapemachine. I place the elements where I want them to go and build the song that way.
Question (Johnny):
How might one achieve a sound such as the synth bass on "Ready To Blow"? I'm assuming you are just using one oscillator with some portamento and no resonance.
Answer (Sascha):
That is correct, I used my Sequential Pro-1 for it, the internal sequencer is sweeeet!
Question (Andy):
When you're dealing with electric guitars, do you find that you can obtain the unique sounds you want from the instrument with
only FX pedals and other direct FX applications, or do you often rework the guitar parts and make additions during mixing? I'm just wondering how vamped up your guitars usually are.
Answer (Jules Hodgson):
As far as guitars go, there's no limit to the processing we sometimes apply to them. As our sound is very layered with a lot of stereo panning synths and samples, it very often applies that less is more as far as guitar processing. If you get too crazy with effects and you stand a good chance of losing what you're playing in the mix.Most "rhythm" guitar parts (riffs, etc.) tend to be double-tracked, i.e., played identically twice and panned hard left and right with little processing (maybe eq, sometimes a slow chorusing effect or a little delay). However, there's plenty of odd bits of super-processed guitar (and bass) stuff in many of our songs too. Sometimes it is pretty difficult to spot as they don't end up sounding like you'd expect. Most of the effect stuff happens after tracking the part, but whilst monitoring the effects as we're laying the tracks down, usualy using plug-ins in Pro Tools.
Hope this is helpful to ya!
Question (Laura):
I was wondering what mic preamps KMFDM uses on guitars when recording and what mics are utilized as well?
Answer (Jules Hodgson):
Sascha has a couple of Avalon mic pres and I use a Truevoice Precision 8 along with some pres off a Mackie desk. Most guitars are tracked through the Truevoice at my studio and occasionally through the Avalons. The Mackie only comes into the equation for extra inputs when recording drums.Most guitar parts are played direct into Pro Tools and given their sounds using Amp Farm, SansAmp, AmpliTube or Isotope Trash (usualy Amp Farm). If I'm recording cabinets, a well placed Sure SM57 gets good results. Sometimes I'll try a Neuman on another speaker as well, but making the decision as to when both mics are sounding good phase-wise can be more hastle than it's worth.
Question (Junky):
Let's just say I wanted to play the opening part of WWIII. Is it in open C?
Answer (Jules Hodgson):
It is indeed in open C. Tuning from low to high pitch is: C, G, C, C, G, C. It was recorded on a Yamaha acoustic I picked up in a junk store. The soundboard had come away from the body resulting in such a high action it could only be used for slide. I payed $15 for it. A few months later it got destroyed at a drunken party! Typical !!!
Question (Astrix):
I see from the lists in the Gear Section of the site that you still have the Sidstation (Elektron Sidstation "Ninja"). How do you like it? Do you use it and has it shown up on any tracks yet?
Answer (Sascha Konietzko):
Yes I still have it. I love it and use it quite frequently. You can hear it all over the MDFMK album as well as ATTAK and WWIII.
Question (James/Tony):
Why do you guys use Macs?
Answer (Sascha Konietzko):
We use Macs because they are the computers of choice in the pro-audio world. Plus they're much faster, better, sexier and cooler than PCs.
Question (Chris J.):
What was the best piece of equipment KMFDM thought was going to change it all? Did it live up to expectations? What made it so good/bad?
Answer (Sascha Konietzko):
That would be the first sampler I ever bought. It changed my entire
perspective of making music forever.
Question (Anita T.):
KMFDM is kind of known for having orchestral / symphonic parts in some songs. Do you sample those or do you write them and what is the resulting difference?
Answer (Jules Hodgson):
There's no doubt that music completely changed with the invention of the sampler (especially when they became less expensive than a decent sized house), and without it, KMFDM would certainly have sounded very different (Godlike being a prime example).
The creative process of snipping chunks of audio from other records, film and TV is something that leads to a completely different sound than playing "real" instruments. Some people can take bits and pieces of sound, throw them together and manipulate them till something good happens (the Kapt'n springs to mind immediately - he has a real knack for that, and I'm frequently bamboozled by how he got to the sound he did), but I can't work in that way. It is, in my mind, a much more experimental approach than mine and leads to very different results.
The sampling mentality of DIY seems to me to dictate the rest of the song, in that, once the orchestra samples had all been found, jiggled around until something worked, the rest of the track could form round that and the bass line, whereas the strings in Blackball were written specifically to modulate and get from one place to the next musically. I know that if I'd have started trying to put together a part like DIY, I would have got nowhere, because I wouldn't have the tenacity to get it to a point where I'd have the starting blocks of a song, whereas in "Blackball", because of all the classical training bullshit I had as a nipper, I could write a specific part, knowing the voicings of a string section to work as an atmospheric link between one part and another. All I'm really saying here is that myself and Sascha have very different ways of getting results, both of which are equally as valid and, to my way of thinking compliment each other really well. It's a pretty good situation to be in - I write something, and Sascha fucks with it and gives it all the nitty-gritty twists it needs, and he gives something to me to work on, and I throw in the guitars and "musical" bits to make it glue, and then there's Andy...
I'm used to recording "whole drum takes" rather than putting together beats from loops and samples, so when we bring Andy into the equation, we end up with really tight punchy drum takes AND all the insane beat bashing that Sascha's warped head comes up with. Now that's what I call "Ultra Heavy Beat"!!! One way in which I combine both approaches is with some drum parts: If I want a specific sounding drum loop, rather than sift through a whole pile of sample CDs and sound bites, I just explain the beat to Andy, get him to tune the drums to the sound I want, record it, then fuck with it till it's exactly right. You can hear that in "From Here on Out" from WWIII. Sascha came up with the initial groove and bassline and I figured it needed beefing up with some real kit stuff The main drum part is a 4 bar loop played with no cymbals so I could get that boxy compressed room sound, then Andy played all the fills in after we'd got our loop and sound, then we overdubbed all the cymbal hits. This gives the track that repetitive "sample loop" sound but with all the flavour that a live drummer adds.
I guess all I'm saying here is that there's no one way to do things, and I've certainly learned a lot about fucked-up sampling from Ze Father...And what worldly wisdom have I managed to leave with him? Not to handcuff me to a bar unless he's prepared to pick up the tab the next day. Ha Ha!!!
Submit your questions for KMFDM's Tech Talk at techtalk@kmfdm.net