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Tell us what you do. I've seen you in LA, seen your name
on hardware synth presets, on software synth presets, and bumped
into you at Air Studios at 2 am once! Who is Joerg Huettner?
"Joerg is a nice german guy, who's been working in the music
business for more than eleven years now! He started as intern
in a music studio and purchased his first synthesizer at the
age of 15. He worked, and still works for a couple of MI companies
as head of product support, sound designer and consultant and
he does a lot of music productions in different areas, from
ambient/downbeat, nuskool breakz, goth-rock/metal to TV and
film music productions and more."
You've done a lot of work with Hans Zimmer, what role do
you play and how do you approach each project with him?
"I worked on three movie projects for the "Zimmer team" in various
areas. For one project I was doing electronic sound design and
programmed synth sounds, synth and drum & percussion loops,
multi-sampling sounds, etc. In other words, I supported the
composer with new ideas and fresh sounds that aren't and weren't
available in any sound library.
On another project I was assistant to one of the composers.
This included the maintenance of all used technical hardware
and software as well as preparing the orchestra recordings and
the audio material for the final mixes. I was assisting Hans
and James Newton Howard directly during the production of 'Batman
Begins' and did some percussion arrangements and a bit of sound-design
as well."
When you get time you also work with bands. What have you
done recently and what is your formula?
"The last bigger production I did was for the german goth-rock
band "Evereve". I was involved in the whole pre-production process
and I did all the electronics and orchestrations for their album.
This was already the 4th album we worked on together. I got
their rough demos they recorded already to a tight click and
then started to develop electronic ideas and drum loops and
effects as well as orchestra stuff for the really symphonic
tunes of the band. All my ideas were then discussed with the
band and either I applied the changes they wanted to see, or
they rearranged their songs based on ideas I brought in. So
it's a very creative way of working for them.
I always try to bring in my own ideas if a project or group
allows me to do that."
Celemony Melodyne is a superb studio tool, how do you use
it in your projects?
"I use Celemony Melodyne
for two different things: Melodyne is a great tool for sound
design purposes, when it comes to do extreme time stretching
or pitch editing of samples and it performs at an unbelievably
good quality.
The other thing I use Melodyne for is vocal correction. That
doesn't mean I'm solely working with bad singers, but one task
included a pre-production of a goth-rock record, where we had
to record four tracks a day just to get a first impression on
how the vocals could sound like. Of course we just did a few
takes and I did an overall correction later with Melodyne to
get a better picture on what the final vocals could be.
Other uses include creating completely new vocal melodies for
remixes. However this can lead to some very surprised faces
from band members stating: "We didn't sing that, how the heck
did you..." ;o)"
I'm sure you use all major sequencers in the big studios,
which do you prefer and why?
"I'm a 'Cubaser' since the very beginning when I switched from
hardware to software sequencers. I'm currently running Steinberg
Cubase SX3 and it is amazing what you can do with this program
and how it has developed from Cubase version 2.5 on Mac back
in 1995 or so.
Personally I think Cubase SX3 is the most musical sequencer
program of all out there, and I know and use a couple (including
Logic 7.1 for instance). It doesn't keep you from composing
and making music because of necessary technical setups or so.
It is just straight and easy. Apart from that the audio functionality
of SX3 outperforms a lot of competing programs, which are often
called superior to Cubase SX3, which definitely isn't the case.
When working on different programs you get a chance to compare
and I never thought about switching to a different app as my
main tool."
Steinberg Hypersonic, for which you created presets, is
probably the ultimate all-in-one virtual sound module. Does
this get a lot of use in your studio?
"Steinberg's
Hypersonic is a great virtual workstation indeed. To be
honest I was quite sceptic about it, when I first heard about
the concept, but I was really surprised how good some virtual
analogue stuff sounded after playing around with it. For its
price and its possibilities it's definitely a 'worth-buying'
product, no question.
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Right at the moment it's not in use that much, since I'm experimenting
a lot with new things including NI
Reaktor 5, but I used it a lot even for the movie projects,
when I needed good sound content right away to create basic
ideas."
Using the feature film 'Batman Begins', explain to us the
process from getting the brief to the end soundtrack.
"To be honest, I was asked to come to London when the crew had
already been working on 'Batman Begins' for a while, but I had
already heard the first sketches for the music before that in
Los Angeles, when we were working on a different project.
In other words, most composers present the directors a concept
on how the music could sound like for a movie. Whenever the
basic direction is set and the first rough cuts of the picture
arrive, the composer starts to work on that and creates themes
for certain moods or even persons / characters. These themes
normally come up on several occations in a movie, but always
in different modifications."
You're a big fan of the Native Instruments sound design tools.
What are your favourites and how do they get used?
"I bought the Native Instruments Komplete 2 bundle more than
a year ago and also the Komplete Care 2005 package. Kontakt
2 is the sampling work-horse in my studio, since I can use
it in different sequencer software without any problems. This
allows me to use my own library on various productions, even
if I have to work on a different platform or sequencer software.
Apart from that I find it easy to use, very flexible, a great
sound design tool and also great in performance.
Another great tool of this package is Native's
Intakt, especially if it comes to processing loops in a
different way and in different tempi. Being able to cut a loop
into 'slices' and especially to give every slice different settings
for filters and effects is great and can give you great results."
"For drums I not only use Kontakt
2, but also Battery
2, which offers you different opportunities to work and
edit drums. It simply depends on what I want to do.
Last but not least I'm getting more and more into NI
Reaktor 5, which seems to be a 'never ending story' so to
say. Being able to dive into the deepest levels of sound design
is a bit 'dangerous' for people like me.
Sometimes I just feel like it's not enough to simply open a
Reaktor 5 ensemble and to create my own sounds in there, but
to play around and to create my very own gear from scratch.
Paradoxically I even use the "Electronic
Instruments 2 XT" pack. A little drawback is the CPU hungry
performance of Reaktor 5 (at least on Mac).
All the other stuff from the Native Instruments bundle is also
in use here and there and it is great as well, but since I still
use a lot of hardware synths, I focus more on the plug-ins named
above."
Any hints or tips for fellow composers, producers and engineers?
"Oh wow. That's a good question, since this really depends on
what kind of situation somebody is in or what they are working
on. One thing in general when it comes to plug-ins: what I learned
over the last few years is simply: it doesn't make any sense
to 'collect' as many plug-ins as possible just to fill up one's
music system. I rather prefer to use a certain selection of
plug-ins and to really be able to use them in depth, eg: like
the NI stuff, my Waves, Wizoo and PSP PlugIns. Apart from that
it really makes sense to buy software and not to use pirated
copies. It is more reliable, you get support and you also support
the companies when buying the products."
What's next on your agenda?
"Currently I'm working on my own music projects again, which
is fun and inspiring and gives me the time to experiment with
new technologies and to play around with different tools. Of
course this leads to new ideas and so on. At the same time I
enjoy having not too much stuff to do at the moment. I was working
pretty much non-stop from last year October to end of April
this year and I had another bunch of projects until end of July.
And more work will come up again by the end of the year."
Many thanks for the interview!
"You're very welcome!"
www.joerg-huettner.com
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