Showcase - Dhisk Jointed

From that I moved on to using 4 track recorders – recording myself playing guitar and programming an alesis drum machine – I think I was about 15 or 16. I then attended the School Of Audio Engineering (this was just before digital recording took over analogue) failed the course. Re-took the course and failed it again, lost my faith in recording music so I turned to Dj-ing.

In the late 90’s I started to run a club night with friends and DJ at a clubnight called ‘Surgery’ @ ‘the clinic’ in china town London, the music policy was a mixture of breaks, house and funk …both nu and old stuff. From this we (my co-promoters) coined the phrase ‘nu skool Electro funk’ as a description of our night.

It wasn’t until many years after id discovered electronic music and stopped running the clubnight … I started to learn how to use cubase and then started writing / producing music again, trying to involve my indian culture with new funky electro break sounds. That was over 5 years ago. My musical style has developed over the years, Ive had my music played on radio one and was featured on the BBC Asian networks’ BBC Introducing and was asked to describe the music I make – Nu skool Asiatic funk was how I described one genre of music I make, and recently (after purchasing massive) my sounds have changed, the genre id like to place my music in now would have to be ‘ nu skool electro funk’ … if you listen to my earlier music then jump to my most recent stuff, you can definatly hear the difference. Its ‘Nu’, ‘Electro’ and ‘funky’… well that’s what id like to think it is.

Id baught Komplete 6 a few years ago, massive was included but didn’t even open up the program for a while. It wasn’t until I first heard Skrillex which made me question how and where he got his sounds from. Im not much of a dubstep fan but Idid find out that he uses massive and after realising that I already had it, I just had to find out how he does it. ..once I found out I realised his sounds weren’t really for me, but it did introduce me to massive in a big way. I then came across the massivesynth.com website – an amazing resource of preset sounds (which I am hungry for) and tutorial videos on this website (still not got to the third tutorial video yet) and a whole load more info. To be honest im probably at the crawling stages of using massive to its full potential, but im happy to be using presets and be tweaking them slightly for now– that’s what theyre there for aren’t they?

1) Tell us a bit about your music (genre, inspiration source, goals)

A lot of my inspiration comes from Breakbeat , 80’s hip hop, 70’ funk, soul , Dub, rare groove – artists like Bushwacka, Rae and Christian, sugar hill records, james brown, the Stanton warriors, groove armarda, so many more – too many to mention. But basically my inspiration come from the music I used to play out when I used to DJ many years ago ..

I hope to make more music based around indian sounds and instruments – fused with western electro funk. Im still learning about different types of music and production techniques. And know this will always be the case

2) How do you use Massive in your productions?

I use massive in my productions for hooks, basslines, stabs, layering … in my track ‘our lives in you hands’ I think I must have used about 13 massive synth plugins – all are presets ive downloaded from the massivesynth.com website. And if im honest it is time saving and also helps the creative process flow a bit easier. There are some sounds I know I need to change/tweak and im learning as I go. There will come a time when presets will not suffice and creating my own presets will be my only option, but at the moment im having fun with what I have and all that seems far away . The macro controls are invaluable and very easy to use and manipulate multiple filters and effects … so much fun!

3) Can you tell us about the creation of a specific sound in one of your tracks?

Well like I said, im mainly using presets, and occasionally I’ll tweak em a little bit. And sometimes I’ll arrive with a sound that is pleasing to my ear but have no clue to how I got there. … !

4) Tell us a technique in Massive you use not many know about?

Well im into layering so bouncing down the synth tracks to audio wav’s and then layering them with the same sounds with a little (and sometimes a lot) of eq-ing … but basically a lot of trial and error and i usually end up with a sound that i like. I Cant say im using any techniques that no ones knows about cause im still a novice. Ask me that question again in a few months and I’ll be able to tell you something new 😉

5) How has MassiveSynth.com helped you on your production journey?

The videos and preset sounds have been invaluable and have really help me develop and sculped my productions into great sounding tracks… an invaluable source of inspiration id have to say. you can probably hear some of massivesynth.com presets in my tunes if you listen carefully.