-mI AM NOT A PRODUCER


(image: Sina Schulz)

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THE INSTRUMENT
The EP “The Instrument” marks the end of the Machinist EP but also of a chapter in growing confidence with operating modular systems live. The track only consists of a few tracks, all of which are recorded live after one another. There is no fixed tempo or sync happening, everything is timed by hand. It took me one studio session and one mixing session to finish the track. I figured that when I work quickly with my ideas, I won’t start questioning my choices but go with my gut feeling. This thought was working in me for a while since I heard a podcast with acid legend Robert Babicz (Rob Acid), who released over 1000 tracks since the 1990’s. Babicz explained that he finishes every idea in one session to keep that emotional attachment and euphoria with the original impulse. Instead of refining the same idea to the point you can’t hear it anymore, Babicz would rather produce a lot of tracks and decide afterwards which one is good, which is worth remixing, or which is trash. 

Working fast like that requires some skills one needs to develop first though. Besides a developed ear for pitches and rhythms, it’s important to know what sound to go next for and how to achieve it. Does it need a second drone, something drum like, a melodic sequence? It took me quite some time to get to that point.

A new method I tried in this project was strict resampling. After every recording I immediately treated the respective track with compression, effects like saturation or resonators. Instead of using a lot of automations I treated the knobs while recording and when I was happy with the result, I printed the track to audio to not have any plug-ins or automation to deal with. As someone who tends to have second guesses, this approach helped me as much as recording hardware to stick to my idea. It also helps to shape the development of the track from early on. When the previous channels already follow a certain dramaturgy, the following recordings will react to that and that leads to a more organic and often surprising development compared to when I have a bunch of non-expressive channels that I try to treat and automate afterwards.
Media:

1) Example of a playable patch

2) Recording a Drone for a job with rosie cpt while modulating parameters and the Filter Cutoff by hand. 

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©2025Tobias Hausen


(image: Sina Schulz)
“Not as with the instrument, which the worker animates and makes into his organ with his skill and strength, and whose handling therefore depends on his virtuosity. Rather, it is the machine which possesses skill and
strength in place of the worker, is itself the virtuoso, with a soul of its own in the mechanical laws acting through it [...]”

Karl Marx - The Fragment on Machines