This week we had an opportunity to catch up with zimbolt. We asked him to tell us about his release “Heaven” and to show us how Splice fits into his production workflow.
What inspired you to share this track with the Splice community?
At the time, Splice was a brand new service! It was very exciting to finally have a platform where people can share and collaborate on tracks. Before Splice it was really inconvenient to work on tracks with artists from afar.
Tell us about your approach to writing and production. Any favorite sample packs or plugins?
When I write music, I approach it almost like grinding on an RPG. There is a lot of drive to it and tons of pitfalls & mistakes, what I would suggest to producers is to NEVER give up and don’t be afraid to leave a project and start a new and better one!
As for sample packs, recently I’ve been testing the Splice Sounds service! What an amazing library you guys have collected. Every single sample is just right. My go-to samples are usually Vengeance, but I wouldn’t recommend them as they require tons of processing just to get them sounding decent. For a beginner something like Splice Sounds is an absolute godsend.
Plugins, oh man… I consider all of the FabFilter plugins absolutely essential for mixing in 2016, along with iZotope’s Ozone.
You’re primarily a Ableton Live user. What is it about Ableton Live that makes it your DAW of choice?
I started making music in trackers and quickly moved on to a more traditional DAW. In Ableton Live it feels like I have every parameter right under my fingertips not bogged down behind menus. Manipulating & warping audio is like working with an instrument in itself. Nothing else compares to me.
How has Splice had an impact on your production process or workflow?
Working with other artists has never been easier, seriously— I honestly can’t believe you guys don’t charge for something like this! The impact is immense and you guys have changed the game for me..
What are your influences at the moment?
Phew… Are you ready?
LoneMoon, Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, Flume, Wave Racer, MisfitChris, Grimecraft, Dark Cat, San Holo, Carpainter, Goodnight Cody, Masayoshi Limori, anything on the TREKKIE TRAX label, GEOTHEORY, Shawn Wasabi, Graves, Hex Cougar, Point Point, Sam Gellaitry, RoBKTA, Eptic, Jonah Trill, Pappa Woo, JBJblaze 8-B*Tchin’tendo, Fransis Derelle, DZZ, Deon Custom, Oomuh and I could go on for ages. There is no shortage of amazing music nowadays.
You’ve had quite a few users in the community Splice the project file for “Heaven” – what do you hope that they’ll do with it?
As with anything I post on Splice I hope they will take my projects and see how chaotic production can be. As a kid I loved to listen to isolated multi tracks of Van Halen tunes, Splice is like listening to a multitrack times ten thousand. It’s like being in the room with Van Halen— seeing every knob move and then being able to analyze and move those knobs YOURSELF. It’s like open source music. Nerdy as hell but completely fascinating!
Where do you think that you music is headed next?
I know that I will never stop writing music, I love it too much! The only thing that’s headed next to me is the NEXT track and after that next track I will write another one and another indefinitely until I am dead and cannot write any more music.
We’d like to thank zimbolt for taking the time to chat with us and for offering us some insight into his process. We’re looking forward to hearing many more tracks from him!
June 28, 2016
