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hipnotic
whirling mathematician

Location: in a tea daze

The Grid gives you the opportunity to question some of drum & bass production's most prominent figureheads. This Q&A will consist of a moderated open thread in which you can ask production related questions to the interrogated. For this third edition we happily invite Tim Exile!

Born in Cheltenham (UK), Brighton based Tim Shaw AKA Exile has cut an unconventional path through and outside D&B for the past 7 years. Culturally inspired as a kid, Tim is a classically trained violinist and singer. His venture into audio started at the age of 16 when he began experimenting with old synths, drum machines and analogue tape, to move on to the sampler after his parents bought him one for his 18th birthday. Later on, Tim formed a strong relationship with John B, which resulted in an array of Tim's tracks being released on John's label 'Beta' and the legendary 'Moving Shadow', not forgetting appearances for 'Renegade Hardware' and 'RAM' sub label 'Frequency'. Since then his weird and wonderful career has encompassed freelance commercial production, a Masters degree in electro-acoustic composition, A/V installation art for the 'Victoria & Albert' museum, appearances on techno label 'Mosquito' and coding new performance tools to enable a unique improvisational live show (with 'Native Instruments' hiring him as a result). With his debut album 'Pro Agonist', which dropped last month for Mike Paradinas' 'Planet Mu' imprint, and an exclusive audio-visual live mix for DOA, what better time to invite the man to face an inquisition from The Grid?

Click here for the DOA interview, mixset and video.
Click here for his official website.

This Q&A is closed!

__________________

KEIRETSU :: 9 piece live dnb/breaks fusion band ::
- ONLY FORWARD CD (new!) :: TIMESTORM CD
- WEBSITE :: SHOP :: MYSPACE :: FACEBOOK

free 320kbps mp3s by me (ambient/progressive dnb):
- white horizon ep
- dawn sky ep

cinematic ambient/downtempo mixes:
= dawn embrace mix (new for 2008!)
- skyline breaks
- snowfall sessions mix
- seventh circle - coincidence mix

producers might enjoy:
- my eq tutorial
- breaks from my vinyl
- the grid threads of interest

Last edited by Croms on 12-22-2008 at 03:34 AM

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08-08-2005 12:53 PM

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Jack Herer
malignant drones

Location: islington

Can you list your Liveset set-up, especially the methods with you appear to be typing the beats out on your laptop?

Thanks,

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quote:
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08-08-2005 01:17 PM

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exile
.

Location: .

quote:
Originally posted by Jack Herer
Can you list your Liveset set-up, especially the methods with you appear to be typing the beats out on your laptop?

Thanks,

Hi Jack (oldest pun in the book)

The kits is:

P4 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 40GB HD running Reaktor
M-Audio Mobile Pre USB
MIDIMAN MIDIsport 4x4
Doepfer Regelwerk
Evolution UC 16
Edirol PC-160 keyboard
Korg Kaoss Pad (controller mode only)

The typing beats bit is a feature of the Reaktor patch which I programmed myself. If you own Reaktor 5 you'll shortly be able to download a demo ensemble taken directly from my live patch which allows you to mash up beats the same way.

It's basically based on temporarily applying sync-point or offset 'masks' to a continuous loop

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08-08-2005 01:30 PM

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Lexa_Lotus
High priestess of Bass

Location: Bangkok

I saw you doing some live vocals when you played over here in Brussels. What kind of processing were you doing on that? How were you dealing with them?

__________________
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http://www.myspace.com/lotus_hydra
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08-08-2005 01:54 PM

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man friday
Senior Member

Location: at work E1

nice one for doing this man

how do you go about writing/processing your drum tracks? what are your favorite breaks/drum synths to use

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08-08-2005 01:55 PM

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L.S.B@ti-music.co.uk
Senior Member

Location: E1

big up for this

artistry vs engineering?

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08-08-2005 02:04 PM

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Dillusion_Man
Emu Abuser...

Location: Bournemouth...

quote:
Originally posted by L.S.B@ti-music.co.uk
big up for this

artistry vs engineering?

my post that!!! haha, and my precise question too.

Wiegh it up, whats more important to you, tightness or feeling?

How does this affect your music and how you perceive other artists work?

Nice one man!

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08-08-2005 02:09 PM

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SEAL
Senior Member

Location:

Tim, first of all I want to express my maximal respect for what you do and especially on how you view music in general.

One of my all time favorite tracks is Crise de funke, can you tell me something about the writing process if you still remember? Was that just a spontaneous thing or actually a deliberate one?

...
I think it's perfect, the way you played with the sound is very firm and the structure is just amazing, how everything falls in place.

Other than that, your current stuff is fucking complex man, do you think about returning to a more minimal, less "dense" production style in the future?

More to come, best interview session ever

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08-08-2005 02:13 PM

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exile
.

Location: .

quote:
Originally posted by Lexa_Lotus
I saw you doing some live vocals when you played over here in Brussels. What kind of processing were you doing on that? How were you dealing with them?

Ello sweetcheeks!!

sorry :blushes:

The vocal processing is another part of my reaktor patch. It allows me to retrospectively sample anything I say through the mic, then loop it and essentially treat it the same way as I can treat breaks, basslines and any other loops I use in my live patch. I can manipulate the mic through various different FX algorithms I programmed as well, either before and after I've sampled it, and even after I've sampled it once. I can go on resampling through FX as many times as I want. All in realtime and locked to the beat...

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08-08-2005 02:25 PM

exile
.

Location: .

quote:
Originally posted by man friday
nice one for doing this man

how do you go about writing/processing your drum tracks? what are your favorite breaks/drum synths to use

My Pleasure Mr Friday!

I generally work on my drum tracks in audio. When I moved over to an all computer environment I pretty much gave up on samplers, mostly because the version of Pro Tools I was running didn't support software instruments. I used very old fashioned techniques actually. I've never used reacyled or any automatic beat chopping software... I'm so used to Sound Forge and Pro Tools now that I just do it all with those two... I guess it's like old engineers getting hooked on cutting up tape with razors. It seems crazy with todays tools but hey, it works for me!

I tend to do very little in the way of severe processing when I'm starting out writing a track... although I do go to town with the compressors, and also editing and crossfading little bits of the beats etc... such as editing out background noise before an important hit eg a kick/snare so the compressor has a decent chance to get back to unity gain before the next smack. once I've got all the elements I think I'll need for the drum track I'll work out a series of patterns with alternating combinations of the elements, then bounce everything down to maybe 3 audio tracks max (partly cos Pro Tools only has 16 stereo audio tracks, partly to simplify stuff), so then when I'm editing the beats afterwards, which is all done by hand in audio, no randomisers or anything, just me, a mouse and the odd offline plugin.

I don;t really knwo much about breaks or synths. I generally make my own synths, although I do often use the built in ones in Reaktor... the simplest ones are the best for macaroni cheese sounds... occasionally you want a caviar sound and I';ll use something like Photone, then go to town on tweaking it out. A lot of my synth lines are actually done in audio in Pro Tools though... pitching stuff up and down with the offline processing... then you can really tweak each not out and animate it.

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08-08-2005 02:37 PM

exile
.

Location: .

quote:
Originally posted by L.S.B@ti-music.co.uk
big up for this

artistry vs engineering?

Think poetry vs grammar

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08-08-2005 02:38 PM

exile
.

Location: .

quote:
Originally posted by Dillusion_Man
my post that!!! haha, and my precise question too.

Wiegh it up, whats more important to you, tightness or feeling?

How does this affect your music and how you perceive other artists work?

Nice one man!

Well both really! It's all the same thing. Feeling/content is the most important though... there's a lot of turd polishing in dnb I reckon. Some music lends itself to a loose production sound, some needs to be tight and honed... it depends what you're trying to achieve. Generally I think the poetry vs grammar thing illustrates it well enough. You can use anything as a tool, even bad grammar/bad production so long as it works. Check out some of the mashcore stuff... the production's all over the place but the music's ace. Then check some really deep loopy techno where it;s very sparse but the production's incredible... enough to carry the music in its own right.

As far as perceiving other people's work... I used to have a sort of bare minimum production standard under which I wouldn;t be able to hear any music in it, but I've got through that now thank god, and have discovered some wicked music as a result.

Doing the live show taught me that... the quality of the production on my live recordings is fucking shite... shiter than a shite novice producer producing shitecore using shiteSEQ lite and shitesynth. But I'm beginning to be able to see through that and listen to the ideas behind it.

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08-08-2005 02:48 PM

exile
.

Location: .

quote:
Originally posted by SEAL
Tim, first of all I want to express my maximal respect for what you do and especially on how you view music in general.

One of my all time favorite tracks is Crise de funke, can you tell me something about the writing process if you still remember? Was that just a spontaneous thing or actually a deliberate one?

...
I think it's perfect, the way you played with the sound is very firm and the structure is just amazing, how everything falls in place.

Other than that, your current stuff is fucking complex man, do you think about returning to a more minimal, less "dense" production style in the future?

More to come, best interview session ever

Crise de Funke... definitely a vibe track. I actually wrote it at almost exactly this time of year. 2001 I think. I finished it just before I went back to stay for a week in the house I'd grown up in but not seen for 4 years. Thinking about going back to my roots really made me feel like a child again... quite comfortable and at ease, and it made me feel like writing something quite nano... it's in the same vein as Undergrowth, a track I did a couple of years before that. It's got the pixy/fairy vibe. There's so much spiritual energy in the place I was living in at the time... near the Wiltshire downs. I used to go on long walsk up to old iron-aged forts & burial mounds etc, and Avebury stone circle... I'd suck up some history, some mystery, some rolling hills and that strange electric pink you get in the soil there, then come back and pour it all into a track.

I do think a lot about returning to more minimal stuff. At the moment I feel like I have to prove myself by being complex. Dunno why. Maybe it's because my cock's not as big as yours. But I can feel a change coming though, definitely. And I love minimalism... I love techno. I think I need to get a girlfriend, that'll make me make more minimal music I think.

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08-08-2005 02:57 PM

radioactive
Banned

Location: Postcuntsburg�

Tim ,
can you pls post the most important 10 tips that you can think of,
about playing Live on stage, i mean technically and philosophically.

Thnks in advance.

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quote:
Originally posted by The_UFOS
who is the spastic that bought some songs on beatport haha? jokes man whoever it was THANKS made a sick track today cos i got some dank with the money hahahhhhahah

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08-08-2005 03:15 PM

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skylove
Senior Member

Location:

Hello,

what tips do you got about arranging your track? How would you go about this process? Any thoughts behind what you do and why?

What would be according to you the biggest misstake a novice producer could make? Any tips for not falling to the path of that misstake? And what would your most important tip to a novice producer be?

Thank you very much for doin' this.

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08-08-2005 03:17 PM

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double J
fist pump

Location: raleigh, nc

tim,

1) were you born kicking ass?

2) have you ever considered doing collaborations with any non-dnb artists? (i was thinkin something along the lines of autechre & exile would fry my brain )

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08-08-2005 03:24 PM

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exile
.

Location: .

quote:
Originally posted by radioactive
Tim ,
can you pls post the most important 10 tips that you can think of,
about playing Live on stage, i mean technically and philosophically.

Thnks in advance.

Oooh... tricky. Can I just be a bit general?

Make sure you have a sound check and a jam to get to know the room you're playing in.

Make sure you remember all your leads... specially if you're playing abroad!

Don;t drink too much or your hands stop working

Do whatever the fuck you want to do

Don't get scared too quickly if people stop dancing, else you'll freak out and fuck up

Make loads of mistakes cos it's really funny

BE YOURSELF

BE SPONTANEOUS

Don't plan anything

Don't try to change your setup right before a gig. Shit will go wrong, even if you;re confident it won't.

Don't drop your laptop, check it in on flights or worse still hit it (I have paid the price for all 3 of these)

Don't be a demanding diva, be cool with people, firm but nice... Until 15 mins before you go on when you have carte blanche to be an arsehole until everything is how you want it and you're comfortable!!

If people ask you what software you use say you made it yourself... then they generally don't ask you any more questions

Drugs don't make you play better, they just make it sound better.

Don;t have any preconceptions about what you're going to do on stage. Just get up there and do it. Don;t rationalise it, don't wonder whether what you just did was good or not, just do it... move on!

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08-08-2005 03:31 PM

exile
.

Location: .

quote:
Originally posted by skylove
Hello,

what tips do you got about arranging your track? How would you go about this process? Any thoughts behind what you do and why?

What would be according to you the biggest misstake a novice producer could make? Any tips for not falling to the path of that misstake? And what would your most important tip to a novice producer be?

Thank you very much for doin' this.

Ummmm... I just do whatever feels right. It's the arrangement bit that has no rules for me really. I just start at the beginning and push on through. I try to create a strong narrativein my tracks... I don't like blocky arrangements, I like things that flow... that grow at various rates rather than going from one section to another to another... although sotimes harsh changes can work really well though.

The biggest mistake for a novice producer would be to give up. The easiest way to avoid this is not to give up. The second most important thing about being a novice producer is not to listen to anyone. Do it your own way, it'll pay off in the end. Artistic vision and tenacity always gets its just desserts.

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08-08-2005 03:37 PM

exile
.

Location: .

quote:
Originally posted by double J
tim,

1) were you born kicking ass?

2) have you ever considered doing collaborations with any non-dnb artists? (i was thinkin something along the lines of autechre & exile would fry my brain )

Hey man, how;s it going!! :)

1) I'll ask my Mum... ;)

2) I have actually yes, in fact Leafcutter John and I went to a house in the country at the beginning of the summer with the express intention of writing some kick-ass music. It didn;t work at all. We started loads of interesting stuff... like recording bees we captured in bottles, interactive generative pieces using the bee recordings, a proper track etc, but we never realy got into it. Shame really! Jamie Lidell and I are meant to be having a jam at some stage. That'll be fun cos his live shows are incredible... but he's a busy busy lad at the mo touring with his album. Autechre would be awesome but it ain;t gonna happen!

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08-08-2005 03:42 PM

blal
TECHED SOLDIER

Location: St Aines

thanx 4 doin this man

firstly, whats on your head in the pic

&

what would you call your most influental d n b track of all time ?

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08-08-2005 03:47 PM

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