Tech Talk: Aquarian (Electronic Beats TV)

Producer and DJ Aquarian steps up for the latest episode of our Electronic Beats Tech Talk series. The Canadian artist is most notably known for his productions on labels such as Dekmantel UFO Series, Bedouin Records and his own Hanger Management, as well as a collaborative project alongside Deapmash called AQXDM for fabric’s Houndstooth. Aquarian’s music has traversed through genre’s over the years with a focus on Techno and Breaks initially, while more recently Drum & Bass productions have been his focus.

Here Aquarian walks us through his production process, solely based in the box using Ableton Live, cutting up drum breaks and how he instills the dynamic grit into his work.

[ElectronicBeatsTV]

All tunes in this video coming out on Dekmantel UFO very soon

[Daikokuto]

A love letter to Ableton it is then. Kinda refreshing to see something else than gear fetishizing. Ableton is extra powerful in the right hands and that’s a proof right here. Underrated producer :)

[jorisvoorndj]

This guy is amazing!! Such a great sound..

[meilstone]

Agree on tape echo for character, got me hooked as well (i only use hardware, h9)...

[mrfrosty]

This video came up on auto play and it took a while until I realised that he made some of my favorite music, I love the Snake That Eats Itself. Hoping for more releases.

[rogierfrederiks]

Really nice! Didn’t know him, but we have very similar approaches to chopping breaks. Refreshing to see someone using software exclusively!

Nice tip for everyone, something I’ve been trying to perfect is chopping op your break and putting almost every chop in a different warp algorithm, with different parameters per step. Normally quantizing it first to 95% 1/8 stepped.

[SunLevi]

Awesome, some of his tracks are amazing.

[Crackalacking_Z]

Big fan of "The Snake That Eats Itself", I'd never guessed it wasn't made on standalone gear, not that I care, tools are the means, the end results count

[IJOSoundVideo]

I have been a fan of electronic beats for many many many years now, pretty much since the beginning of it, which already seems like ages and ages ago. However, the one thing that I didn't like was all the tech talk was done with producers coming from a techno background, and it was always the stuff with 4x4.. This video is different from its core as it dwells in to a mind of a breakbeat, and I wish Tech Talk had a lot, a lot more videos with a break beat scene artists, as this does come from a slightly different place and a though process.

[mareikemacinnes]

Finally someone says it's hard to emulate an Akai S Timestretch! Otherwise everyone always acts as if the e.g. Akaizer plug-in sounds exactly like my Akai S 3000i Timestretch. But it just doesn't sound like it!
Greetings from Germany

[cuevable]

Lovely lad, I can really relate to what he is saying

[not-hank-s]

"It ain't what you got, it's what you do with what you have. ... And it ain't what you do, it's how you do it.":

[tonedecoder]

The Tech Talk video series is so much fun to watch. It would be even better if you could get Sascha Konietzko from KMFDM on for one, as he lives in Germany these days :)

[nathansm]

he stole that Ableton Push from me. I lent it to him 3 years ago and I haven't been able to get it back since.

[CasperCollins]

This is great to know his process. What's the song at 2:55?

[sjmaury]

you could get an akai s1000 for €100 and just run your stems or master through it to get that sound? refreshing though, keep it up!

[Asiosky]

hearing americans pronounce Blawan always makes me chuckle. but this was a great Tech Talk. very refreshing to hear someone not gushing over gear

[realtonaldrum]

1:12 in what category does he fall? I didn't understand because the music is too present. lel

[justin]

finally someone that works the way i do you guys are so dogmatic.... we are in the future renoise + ableton in rewire mode for life

[KHos]

I am sure all of this can be done on ipads, what do you think?