{"id":8435,"date":"2015-12-02T16:09:39","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T16:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.strettoblaster.com\/wordpress\/?p=8435"},"modified":"2020-09-17T16:47:46","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T15:47:46","slug":"production-specs-railster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strettoblaster.com\/it\/pieces\/production-specs-railster\/","title":{"rendered":"Specifiche di produzione: incontri promettenti Railster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enter Andrea Uliana, probably known to most as Railster<\/strong>.<\/h2>\n

Railster<\/strong> is a producer rather out of touch with the rest of your local music scene, and in a certain sense, it always has been. Both by geographical origin, Friuli, a tiny Italian region at the eastern border with Slovenia, and by current residence, London.<\/p>\n

His profile remains in an area blurred by very labile limits. Perhaps also for the fact that, if you find him sitting in a hip <\/em> caf\u00e9 in a friendly Saturday afternoon chat mode, he recognizes and appreciates with equal ease and verve Notorious B.I.G. as much as Juan Atkins.<\/p>\n

Maybe you’ve never heard of him, maybe you know that he is the founder and creator of the project called BEAT.IT<\/a>. Maybe you know that he also came out with a job on Lucky Beard<\/strong> (the musical label directed by Crookers, nda<\/em>). Also, you may know that his perimeter of action has solid roots in the hip hop culture but knows no boundaries, hybridizing with the thousands of modern and post-modern electronic drifts. That’s the perfect circumstance to bring you his gaze on the world of music production, and have a chat.<\/p>\n

The first beat sold\/placed?<\/strong>
\nThe first beat placed is a bit like the first kiss: you know more or less what you are doing, but it’s not that you take it as a reference in the future… \ud83d\ude42 I tried to sell some beats at the time of Myspace, but I remember that I never had great feedback, maybe I was doing a little too particular things.<\/p>\n

How long did it take you to produce something you were proud of? <\/strong>
\nA long time. I spent at least four years in the early 2000s making beats for my rap group that I had in high school and the like. I made an album in 2008 called Patchwork Anthems<\/em>, but then I invested several years in really understanding what I could and wanted to give and\/or do. I did a lot of experiments, up to a certain point, where I understood that I simply wanted to make electronic music that sounded interesting to me in the first place, but also for the listener. I was proud to have done a Jerrell James remix, around 2008 because it finally sounded like something original to me.<\/p>\n

Your favourite set-up for production?<\/strong>
\nI could very well only produce with Ableton Live, a handful of plug-ins, the Internet, and any laptop, but in reality, I like to complicate my life. For a few years, I have explored the world of hardware, and for more than a year now, my set up has consisted of an Akai MPC 2000xl and an Akai s950, which allow me to have a draft or a good starting point for the rhythm section and the samples. For the more musical part, I like to use the Roland Alpha Juno 1, as a master keyboard, studying the melodies, chords, and all the rest of the “composition”. If I’m not happy with the tone, I often reuse midi with different synths to get different and sometimes unexpected results. Among my synths, which I usually use, I have the DSI Tetra, Yamaha Tx7 or Yamaha Cs01, but then it depends on the song or song that I have to do, often based on what I try to select the hardware to use. The only problem is that after all, to clean everything up, you always have to go back to Ableton Live!<\/p>\n

The best “digging advice” you’ve ever received? <\/strong>
\nGoedi from Microspasmi once advised me to pay attention to the names of the musicians found in the credits of the records. It sounds like a simple or silly thing, but when you go digging, read the credits and you know that the drummer is good, there is a high chance that he will be good on another record, or another line-up too. That’s culture, finally.<\/p>\n

The producer, in the last 3 months, who made you say: “Oh, shit, I have to get back on the machines”? <\/strong>
\nIn my endless searches on Youtube, recently I found a couple of very interesting artists. Mr G, for instance, does everything live with the 2000xl<\/a>. But I must say that those who push me to go to the hardware are the historical artists that I have always listened to as a boy: the Italians like Gente Guasta, Fritz da Cat, Shocca<\/a>, Zonta, Fid Mella, as well as Kev Brown, J Dilla, and so on, passing through Autechre and Aphex Twin. If I use hardware, it is mainly because I like to study it. A friend of mine once said to me, “I, the MPC60, have it here.” pointing to his forehead. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

The worst production error you’ve ever made? <\/strong>
\nI think it’s when the base overcomes the vocals, it often happens when I make songs with many audio tracks. Or often when I do too many melodies they can sound dissonant with the sample or not scale. This is why I often try to take a step back, and by taking away and simplifying.<\/p>\n

An essential tip for mixing: <\/strong>
\nIf we want to give a very basic trick all I can say is: stay at -6db maximum peak always, keep the kicks at -12db, snares a little less, and everything else below. If then one needs a more present kick, he gives him an extra DB o, and in any case, there is a lot of headroom, avoiding to affect too much the dynamics. But then in the end with the whole loudness war<\/em> business, these tricks seem to serve less and less.<\/p>\n