Welcome back to our ever-popular series 'How It Was Made', where artists from around the world give us an inside look into how they create the music we all love, showcasing the tools, tricks, and habits they use to do so. This time, we are joined by ED1999, an industrial artist who's fresh off the release of his Original Sin EP, out now via Porpax records. Below, he walks us through the process of creating the EP, and how he created such a big sound with a rather simple yet effective setup.
Words and photos by ED1999
« Original Sin » EP is the result of an interest in the 90’ and current Rave culture.
As a producer, my approach has always been to get familiar with the music/movement roots; obviously the EBM culture of my country, Belgium, represented by the “Sound of Belgium”, was the main inspiration of this EP.
My opening track “Pandemonium” was produced with the idea of following a path born 30 years ago: a powerful vocal from the artist Dreadfool who raged on the stages early 2000, a clean 707 kick, a SE-02 bassline randomly recorded and some short samples including the laugh of Pennywise, the clown in the horror movie “IT”! I’ve furthermore added a very loud snare which brings the noise in the mix. Moreover, I’ve added a pluck lead to improve the sound designing in the track. Finally, the break contains a creepy string a little bit saturated in addition to strange samples that come from construction site noises.
Regarding the other two tracks, the approach was different; I wanted to produce something faster; essentially equipped with Roland Gears, a TR-09 for the drums, a TB3 and the SE-02 for the basslines than I’ve pressed the record button of the Ableton software and started playing different combinations with my whole hardware gears. The final step was the sound designing, this process was time consuming actually. “Straight outta hell”, again with vocals from Dreadfool, had to be the main Rave track of the EP: straight and intense!
The third track “Evil Disorder” follows the same Rave mindset, though with the particularity of this “one-shot” SE-02 delayed lead that appears a couple of times in the track. It brings an element of surprise and tension.
The last track “The Furnace” is more minimalistic: fewer elements, but more FX sounds edited with Ableton audio effects.
TR–09 :
It was a must. The original TR – 909 was way too expensive so when I have tested the smaller version, I immediately heard the classic drum machine sound and I knew that I could reach a proper Kick with that new version.
SE–02 :
I totally fell in love with the quality bassline produced by this gear. I was looking for a very deep synth that could reach a high-quality level. This machine was the best compromise: it is very easy to modulate and produces great sounds. You can enjoy the potential of this machine in the whole EP.
TB-3 :
I was somewhat disappointed by the classical TB-303 machine; the sound designing was always close to the main known Acid bassline; eventually, I’ve discovered, played with TB-3, and found weird acid sounds, way different than the classic Acid sound. I’ve used it frequently as a layering of the main bass.
Overdrive Pedal :
I use this pedal to add some crunch, drive, and saturation to the track. Very affordable, it is super-efficient and easy to use. I love it!
Overdrive Pedal
Mackie Pro FX22 V2 :
Every track has been renderer, recorded, and premixed with my Mackie mixer; hopefully, I will be able to afford an analogue mixer in the future…
Mackie Pro FX22 V2
