His production skills and ingenuity have captured the attention of a wide range of fans and media outlets, with the likes of Billboard, Pop Crush, and NYLON praising his eclectic and powerful sound. In this article, we sat down with KRANE to discuss his creative process, famous bamboo snare, thoughts on using samples, and more.<\/p>\n
Over the years, you\u2019ve made quite a name for yourself producing acclaimed remixes, singles, EPs, and albums that explore and blend an array of genres. For starters, could you give us a general insight into your creative process? How do you find inspiration for your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n My creative process really depends on what I\u2019m in the mood for. Sometimes I go into the studio and have something in my head like a melody or just a feeling I want to capture. From there it\u2019s like solving a puzzle, creating the parts that add up to the abstract idea that\u2019s in my imagination. Often I start with melody and harmony – drums and things like that come later. But sometimes I really have no idea what I want to write, and that can be the most exciting time because I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to come out of a session. I sample a lot of music and use Splice heavily, and it\u2019s really just a process of collaging and something emerges. I once heard Flying Lotus talk a bit about his process in that way, and I think it stuck with me.<\/p>\n Inspiration comes from anywhere – hearing something in passing on the radio, digging around random music on streaming services, and poking around Splice Sounds<\/a><\/strong> of course. I think I\u2019m always sort of paying attention – even when I\u2019m listening to things for pure enjoyment, a part of my brain is collecting ideas and tucking them away for later.<\/p>\n On the more technical side, the sound design across your discography is incredibly ear-catching – everything feels very polished and meticulously crafted, from your larger-than-life synth leads to small percussive accents. How do you go about designing your various sounds? Any favorite or go-to hardware, plugins, or samples?<\/strong><\/p>\n It took me a long time to develop the craft of creating distinct and separate sounds within seemingly busy music. The skill I\u2019ve really had to hone over time is taking things out to make room for what\u2019s there. I\u2019m a firm believer in switching up your process to keep things fresh, so while I may go a few weeks really using VSTs (I use Diva<\/a><\/strong> and Serum<\/a> <\/strong>a lot), I\u2019ll change it up and go a few sessions just using samples and seeing how far I can take them.<\/p>\n Many of your tracks feature a very diverse palette of sounds. How do you keep your session organized when working in a DAW, and what sort of arranging and mixing techniques do you employ to make sure all these sounds are heard in the final mix?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nothing special – I use Ableton so I employ groups a lot. I also don\u2019t nest samples within drum racks which makes for too many channels sometimes, but that way I can see everything and it\u2019s easier to recall where a sound is for me. I also really mix as I go. I like to hear the song close to what it will sound in the end, rather than waiting until a song is finished to get into the mixing. And honestly, a lot of the process is just difficult to describe and comes from years of making lots of mistakes until things just slowly start to sound better. Lastly, the most important button is the \u201cdelete\u201d key!<\/p>\n