|
"Which project are you working on right now?"
Guy Sigsworth: "We've just finished the new Alanis
Morissette album. She's asked us to do a few more tracks
- B-sides and exclusives with her. She's a dream to work with
- she's totally into my sound world. If I make a noise that makes
me feel a certain way, I know it's going to make her feel that
way too. I wrote twenty-five songs with her. We recorded thirteen
for the album, and we're doing eight more now. She can write a
song so quickly. It's truly amazing. On one song I opened Reaktor
(Akkord), she walked in, said, 'Oh, that's pretty', and we started
jamming against it. 20 minutes later we had a song."
"Is your working method more hardware or software-oriented?"
Andy Page: "Software. We've both been working that way for
years. For me nearly ten years now. There's so much more control
with software. A great instrument is a great instrument, it doesn't
matter if it's hardware or software, these days what is in the
computer is so good. It's also a convenience thing - with Alanis
we'd be working on twelve songs at once and if you need to load
a song up at once all the sounds are there and you can just continue.
It's a completely different world, mindblowing. I just rock up
with my laptop and I've got all my sounds."
Andy Page (left) with Guy Sigsworth
(right)
(Click image to enlarge...)
"Like Guitar Rig, which you often use?"
GS: "It just sounds so good. With guitars we always used
to keep a D.I. backup recording so we could re-amp later. But
once we started using Guitar
Rig the sounds were so vibey we just committed to them
immediately. We knew we weren't going to change our minds about
them."
AP: "There was one particular Alanis song with moshing distorted
guitars. Usually we'd double-track left and right in that kind
of song, to get the "wall-of-noise". But the sound of
one guitar coming out of Guitar Rig (and fed into two different
cabinet setups) was so big we really didn't need an overdub. One
was plenty big enough. Guitar Rig is really playable. I've spent
quite a lot of time just making my own sounds, the sort of things
that I would usually use."
GS: "It's not geeky. You don't need to refer to the manual.
Perfect for guitarists! The quality of the emulations - NI have
stolen the lead. We can concentrate on the part, because we're
getting the sound so easily."
AP: "And if we need to, we can change the sound of the speaker
cabinet even at mix down. Knowing that makes for peace of mind."
"What role does the computer play in your working environment?"
GS: "The computer has replaced the tape recorder. That's
just a fact. Certain kinds of record, like "Buena Vista Social
Club" will still be made with tape of course, but that's
it. And I - personally - don't miss it. It's easy to get sentimental
about the old gear. Old analog synths with unreliable intonation,
tape slave reels that take a minute and a half just to lock up,
recall sessions that never actually recall, hammond organs that
give roadies back injuries. No. The past is overrated. What we've
got now is much more exciting to me."
Arbiter MT's Bryan Borcherds (left)
with Guy Sigsworth (right)
(Click image to enlarge...)
"How has your working environment changed over the years?"
GS: "Cables are gradually disappearing, which I'm in favour
of. And having everything inside one computer, and traveling light
- that's great. I remember working with my old AKAI samplers.
There came a point where I couldn't wait for a software company
to make a decent soft sampler so I could sell them. I was just
tired of lugging them around in the car and having to constantly
plug and unplug them. It's amazing when you see those huge room-sized
modular synths, which are amazing to look at. But then you realize
your laptop is actually far more powerful, and has more sonic
possibilites."
|
 |
Guy Sigsworth and Andy Page in
Guy's West London Studio
(Click image to enlarge...)
"How did you first get into Native Instruments?"
AP: "I've used it since the very beginning."
GS: "A previous engineer, the amazing Damian Taylor, was
using Generator and I liked it! When I was doing "Everytime"
with Britney
I went to my family home in Poland to work on the backing track
during the kids' holidays. And none of my samples would load.
Nothing was working and we only had a dial-up internet connection.
We downloaded a demo of Kontakt.
It spat out white noise every thirty seconds. But it saved my
life. We actually used the demo of Kontakt for the whole track
apart from the piano which was already recorded, and we had to
just edit around the white noise! As soon as I got back to the
UK I bought Kontakt. Since then it's been my main sampler."
Guy Sigsworth with his Italia Maranello
Classic Bass Guitar
(Click image to enlarge...)
"Which Native Instruments products do you use?"
GS: "Right now I'm avoiding analog subtractive synthesis.
Other sounds excite me more. I'm focussing a lot on FM8.
I used to own a DX11 and loved it, so FM8 is pretty natural to
me. I use Reaktor
on pretty well everything. I prefer using its granulators and
weirder signal processors to its synths. Some of its physically
modeled stuff is very cool, and there are some cool wavetable
synths. It's all over the Alanis album. I've got Massive
and like it, but I haven't had time to program my own noises yet.
Andy and I don't like just inheriting other peoples' preset noises.
We have to "own" our own sounds."
AP: "I love Spektral
Delay to bits. It's a personal trademark. I use it on
guitars, synths, acoustic guitars, I use it on drums, vocals,
whenever I want to make something sound special and a bit different.
It's quite otherworldly. There's nothing else like it."
"How do you think the music scene will develop over
the next five years?"
GS: "I think shareholders of major record labels should
be very, very scared - maybe they should invest in other businesses
instead. But I still believe in music. I refuse to be pessimistic
about it. If you don't like what you're hearing on the Top Forty
just go and explore the internet - there's loads of wonderful
music out there, much of it domestically recorded. And if there's
less big money to be made from music the quality may actually
improve. If there's no money in it, nobody will bother making
a Westlife record. It's only money that drives those people. So
they'll just stop. But the people I love, they'll carry on writing
songs and making music no matter what, even if they have to get
day jobs to pay for it. As Frank Zappa said, Music is The Best."
|
