how has it been self releasing all your songs on your own label and what is your opinion on record labels and their role when it comes to underground music?
and what do you listen to?

day 2. coffee in hand. let the incoherent babblings of a fool resume.

for my live sets, at least modern day, its the typical ableton trash. way back in the day it was external sequencers ( hola mr kawai q80 ), rented! and a bunch of midi crap. but anyway history.

so now like i said...ableton, reaktor junk i build, various vsts, plus a varying array of controllers depending on what im willing to carry. i tried to minizime my gear for a while using a lenovo s10 netbook (made possible with their pcix slot (which echo makes a card to fit) and some micro controllers. evolution type stuff. but after getting an apc40 the tiny laptop made no sense anymore, and realistically it was somewhat limiting trying to do anything crazy on an atom processor. i suppose i should just get to the list of gear i can choose or not choose to bring.

lenovo s10.
apc 40
novation sl thirtysomething key, automap junk
triggerfinger
evolution xsessioin
echo djx

in the fall, i'll probably be going out with a different setup. back to a regular laptop with, possibly testing the flexibility/potential of some locally produced gear by lividinstruments. atx what!


it can take me anywhere from three days to three months to write a tune. it just depends on what type of tune it is, how difficult the programming is, and how much actual time i spend on it. i've never been able to finish a track in a day, like some producers do. for one, the first day of writing usually sounds awesome the first day. but the second day i fire it up, i see all the glaring problems from the first day, that in my mind were awesome, but now are showing their complete suck. this process continues until i either can't stand to work on it anymore, or there's nothing left to do. then its done. wether it is or isnt.

stuff ive bought recently, not all of it floated my boat i guess, but i buy alot of junk:

iron and wine
calexico
muse
loads of hiphop, at least loads of hiphop producers, sans lyrics.
thom yorke. hmm, the latest eminem.
really anything, not much of it electronic in the sense of 'dance genre'. ratatat. you know.
all the same stuff everyone else probably likes. or most people hate.

Hi Bil, big ups and thanks for coming over here and doing this for us guys

I figured I'd let everyone attack you with all their questions for the most part, but I had one I couldn't let go. Would you consider yourself a right or left brain person? How do you juggle your logical, analytical side with your creative side when it comes to writing music? And, on the mastering side, do you ever see mastering as having a creative aspect?


By the way, I still feel like I owe you dinner or something, at the very least! I'll definitely find some way to make up the favor, thanks again


John Psymbionic

texture in my mind can come from anywhere really. often times it can be a layer piggy backed on whatever percussion setup you build, especially in the case where you may not have a tone of velocity layering going on. layering small bits of noise on or around say the snare and then modifying the filter so that it emphasizes brightness on the first snare hit, but a bit more dull with longer release on the second hit. doing the same with the kick. the thing to be aware of is making the modifications too great, or not making them enough. there does need to be a degree of control behind it. keeping it from becoming cluttered is important as well.

alot of texture comes from the synths as well, probably obviously. again this goes back to my dulcimer theory. or violin theory. or whatever you want to call it. i'd rather have one synth that can be programmed in many expressive ways than a dozen layered boring blah synths like white crackers from a saltine box. this also means you need to take the time to program the synth. assign some controls to the filters, modulations, releases, volumes... program them things as it feels natural they should go. emphasize things at the right time. don't just throw an lfo on some lowpass distorted garbage and run the gambit with it. one, it wont sound unique. two, itll be boring as crap because it's so predictable and repetitve. and three, you have your own personality, use that personality to inject some life into what you write. make mistakes in your writing. this is where the awesome comes from. just like life. unless you are as routine and dull and predictable and all these nouns i've used to describe a well timed lfo, i promise your music will come out as unique as you are.

then again, some times you need a well timed lfo. like the sun's rotation around the earth.

for stereo depth i use a number of thoughts. one way is just classic positioning used since the dawn of time. think of orchestras, or big bands, or the way drummers set up on stage. watch how they are setup, think about the way sounds reflect from those mono sources into your stereo ears.

using traditional recording/mixing methods, like pushing all the noises below 250hz into a mono, or at least stereo centered. making sure your instruments are not out of polarity or out of phase so that you aren't getting wierd comb effects or phasing or flanging ( of course unless you want these ) most all of which sound horrible on the low end. these are just guidelines. again, they are guidelines. if your imagination takes you elsewhere, then go with it. just know that if you are thinking your mix sounds awesome with a 50hz sub in the left ear and a 38 hz sub in the right...all out of polarity/phase...but because you smoked a stick of tea and are going to outerspace and bass is the place... tomorrow when you wake up after a night of mouth breating in your chair and that crap gets played back on a mono sub source chances are its just gonna sound like a fluttering fart with no air. and your track will be what stinks.

some good widening techniques... well it depends. read up on mid-side equalizatoin/compression/etc "mid-side (or mono/stereo) being the key term. this can get hairy for first timers, but is very useful and interesting.

easy ways to widen are

panning a dry source to the left channel, routing it to a verb/chorus/delay/whatever bus and panning that to the right (or leaving it stereo) and giving it a bit of pre or delay is a good way to get a big sound.

inserting a delay into a signal chain, setting it fully wet, and offsetting the left and right channels by 5-20ms does a decent job..though can get boring when overdone

much of the time in electronic work we are using synths anyway that we can select multiple oscillators...so obviously just slightly modifying the tuning or the pulse length, or really anything between the left and right panned signals will do it.

really this list could go on forever.

i think the best way is just placing instruments well so that when you sit in front of a stereo pair of monitors and listen, you can hear each bit that you want to hear and nothing is fighting for frequency range/headroom. this goes back to the orchestra pit analogy.

my typical work flow is sometimes very typical, other times not. i think producers who work on noises ahead of time, or during off times, are wise. producers who setup their groups in a way that makes sense are wise. all of this saves time and energy later. my problem is that when i do this, i either can't remember what i made (because i organize like trash) or nothing I've made fits the vibe i'm currently messing with, or even more typical...what i made sucks and now i dont want to use it. i enjoy doing it all on the fly. i like building the kits and noises together and then getting excited about that. i like building sounds to go on top of that and then screwing up something and realizing 'wow this is better' and getting excited about that. its very much a system of building and building a bunch of nonsense that just seems to be trying to go somewhere, just not sure where, it all sucks, its all ok, im excited, im frustrated, i hate this...and then bam something happens and it all falls into place. the sequence starts to make sense, the places the instruments should emphasize themselves or the tune should change or the hats should stop...all of it starts to roll out. thats the joy of it all for me, and what keeps me finishing tracks. they want to be finished at that point.

im not a planning type of person. i have no vision before i start something. no idea where its going to go or what im going to do. i dont sit down and try to write a 'badass in your face breakcore gabber trance track for mr chin stroke'.

if i pre-think everything out i find myself feeling stifled by a formulaic feeling routine. so instead i:

change up how i start (ok i usually do drums, lets try and get this feeling rythmic without drums)
change up what i sequence with ( quit using cubase for a while, go to live. quit using live, cut and paste sounds together in sound forge. )
limit myself on what i can use.
force myself to make a drum kit with only unknown64.

just these kinds of things. keep it interesting. worry about the left brain is the snare body overlapping too much with the kick thud and are my highs hitting at 10khz or 9khz...is my roll offs right...worry about that later. enjoy the sequence. change things up.

now, as usual, having said all that. throw it out the window and write whatever way works best for you, because this works for my personality and my situation. as you said, i release my own stuff. im not under pressure, and i couldn't do it any other way even if someone paid me to.

i finish most everything. a majority of it never goes anywhere because its just not worth it.

yes. midi roll situation. really depends on what you are going for here. non-quantize stuff sounds more natural. if your natural rythym sucks, doing something like a 'sort-of' quantize works...i.e. shifting notes a percentage toward the clock value ( please move all of this stuff 4% closer to the 16th note ). of course sometimes you want 4 bars of 64th notes at 130bpm. i dont think anyone can naturally do this. so straight step sequencing makes sense.

yes swing parameters work good in some cases..but are a little too perfect. alot of sequencing programs have randomizers and humanizers and this and that. dont limit yourself. try and play the beat first if thats what seems natural. if you are doing some hardfloor tb resuscitation, use the heavyweight quantizer with your own groove settings.

a side thought on that is use some of the vst plugs that will allow you to do sample swaps. i.e. run an drum track and assign certain frequencies to trigger samples. you can learn alot by seeing where a natural drummer hits trigger your drums on the midi roll. watching drummers helps to. you can learn alot about sound with your eyes it seems.

i release on my own label because in the beginning nobody would release anything of mine. and quite honestly, i think they'd still reject most of what i want to release. i release on my own label because i want no pressure of when i need to release...or any guilt for knowing that label is about to lose their hard earned cash by trying to release anything i do. i get alot of satisfaction by seeing how far a release can go through word of mouth only. and i feel advertising is the devils crotch. i know it's necessary, it's just how i feel.

i think labels are a great way to get exposure. i think labels are a great way to stay organized and focused and generally speaking get a sense of validity for your product. i have respect for the people that put hard work into their labels and try to do right by their artists and the people that give them their money.

i consider underground music anything that hasn't been posted publically on the internet, but is being played in a public venue.

alot of opinion just vomitted out my mouth.

a both sided person. i think if you dont' harness the rules and regulations of the left side, your right side would put out a bunch of inspired fluff that never gets finished or makes no sense. conversely, if your left side was the only side to contribute, you'd end up with an extremely well produced snore. falling on either side is tragic.

mastering is definitely creative, in a problem solving type of way.

not a production question or anything, but, whats the deal with the bless records artwork? the ms paint stuff... its absolutely hilarious.

i really just stopped in here to let you know that you were one of my earliest influences. i randomly bought the crazy american/that fuzz 12" back in 2002 at some record shop in houston (i forget the name of the shop.... somewhere on montrose). great tracks. to this day, they still sound fresh.

Awesome that you are doing this man!! makes me happy that one of my favorite producers is doing a Q&A... I caught your set at Raindance about a month or so back for the first time, took the initiative to sneak as close as I could behind the stage to see what you were using lol..... awesome set though! even after freq nasty's 4 hours! good to see gates on here too, both of you guys are the shit!

but if I had one question for you:
i know somebody already asked you about how you design your drums, but I'd like to further that question... how much of your drum sounds come from synthesizers, or are they mostly found samples that you process/layer?

thanks again for doing this!!!... things like this are what get me past those barriers i get stuck at (i've spent a lot of time making percussion/drum sounds w/ synths, yet they sound so cheap, trying to find a solution)

Thanks for doing this man! I've had Life Mechanism 1 and 2 on repeat in my playlists at work for weeks. Also the Nas Says remix has been destroying dance floors lately.

To the question (in 3 parts):

Who do you consider to really be making moves in glitch music right now? Who do you feel are the ones pushing the music forward in innovative new ways? Who have you had on repeat in your playlists?

could you elaborate more on your technique for creating inharmonics in your synths? problems i should be aware of when doing this, etc?

thanks so much man!

Much thanks and big ups for doing this again Bil!

first of all say that I am a big fan of yours for quite some years, since its inception with the son of the Electric Ghost

you gives me wonderful things with their melody, why harmonic scales usually move you to create your ringtones?

Is it true that there is a rivalry between dave Tipper and you?

I would love to see you some day, thanks for your wonderful music

Hey Bil,

I am a huge fan! I get goosebumps every time I listen to babytoys, fun is happy, or cursed (Most all of your music actually) . I am curious I to know if you are really rocking a beetle powered C64 or are those SID sounds are coming from a VST or custom 6561 synth (Sidstation, HardSid, Etc)? If so how do you output your audio out of the c64 into your computer? Audio out from the Television, Circuit bent 1/4 inch out or just the good ole c64 DIN output? I am trying to figure out if I am going to add a 1/4 out to my own c64. You seem to have it figured out so I thought I would ask! Thanks for doing this Q&A! Your the man!

One more thing thats important, Loss of a child @ 1:24 what is going on with that bass line? I would love to know how you are getting that crazy grainy mid range goodness? That is Epic!!!

Thank you

hey if I link you my track on rapidshare, can you master it for free?






KIDDING!

thanks for the Q&A, I learned alot

nothing valuble to contribute here but this made me lol.

One question:

When can we expect another Skeetaz album??

Toad Ya is still one of my fav jams!

I found fantastic the movement in your sounds, could you talk about LFO´s or how you modulate your sounds?

I just discovered that thread, that's nice !
I had a question for Bill, if he still watches it ...
Although I ripped my vinyl copy, I'm looking for a digital version of your track "The Fuzz".
As far as I know, the only place to get it is on your "Early Years" promo CD, which I can't find anywhere ...
So I was wondering if you could make that tune available to buy in digital version somewhere, say like on Addictech ? Pleaaaaase !
Meanwhile, merry christmas !

Thank you Bil Bless and everybody who participated. We have reached the limit of questions we can expect Bil Bless to reasonably answer in his spare time. This thread is now closed.