HEVYDEVY FORUMS

I've always wondered, even more so now I've started my music tech course in college, how the hell Dev produces some of the background sounds on his albums - not stuff like sampling tv or radio, the really weird stuff, for example - Olives, the massive drone at the end of Humble, 3 A.M., and most of the Devlab record. Any ideas?

Lots of layers and lots of patience, I imagine.

Anybody got a more educated guess? I am curious myself.

Slam your face on a keyboard and/or synch?

i think you're rightmonga probably about 20-30 samples layred ontop of each other very carefully until he get the effect he wants

Yeah, I'm guessing it's mostly about a huge amount of work, a fair lashing of inspiration, and a hell of a lot more work. In the press etc. Dev's spoken of both his work ethic and how he's a little proud of this side of his work.

I know I've never heard anything else like it.

JuZ wrote:Yeah, I'm guessing it's mostly about a huge amount of work, a fair lashing of inspiration, and a hell of a lot more work. In the press etc. Dev's spoken of both his work ethic and how he's a little proud of this side of his work.

I know I've never heard anything else like it.

Yeah, I agree.

I think it was on the Physicist commentary that Devin (jokingly) complains that he never gets any credit for the ambient parts. I guess that even then it was something he was thinking about doing more of.

Perhaps with the release of The Hummer we will learn more about this side of Devin. I still dont have a clue how he came up with some of the noises in Devlab, let alone the more common and subtle ambience amongst all his records.

one thing that happens to me at least is that good crazy sounds to chunk stuff up come basically from pure luck you test tons of effects on one random piece of sound and it ends up being something HIGHLY useful.

I think it is made in layers, patient mixing and a little luck to catch the frequenzies of the sounds you like, as you try it out. At least thats how i did on my record. Oh and patience

PS. Devin just went a wee bit more over the top than i did i believe ahem.. Hes the man

Dev's been around the block quite a few times. I think he's become very adept at observing sound and shaping it, and also is listening to a lot of stuff that is influencing the ambient side of his music. Anyone can hold the root note on a keyboard with a string timbre through maxed delay and reverb, but Dev takes it beyond that; it's simple, but it's thick. It's all technique, baby!

A strong indicator of his influences and his technique come across when he fills the atmosphere with sampled sounds of his voice - "Truth," anyone? There are a billion Devs singing for incredibly long periods of time - the beauty of sampling and digital music.

I tend to just record my voice and fiddle around with it, then add more voice and fiddle around with it