Belief Detect

"It’s interesting, this organic process you describe of copy / paste with the Reaktor patches – and then working with hardware and adding those elements. How do you contrast those two approaches? YY: I think it’s a lot about adapting things to your system. [XX] had been pushing the whole Eurorack thing on me. Then Reaktor 6 happened, which allowed this kind of seamless integration [with the modular]. XX: Yeah, using Reaktor Blocks, basically. Even with the current modular outboard modular gear, also implementing it with Reaktor Blocks, sending CV through the sound card. In the last few years I’ve personally developed a fond relationship with hardware instruments. I’ve never been a purist as far as only using hardware instruments or only software stuff. I’ve always felt inspired by whatever creates really cool stuff. I think Reaktor kind of caters to that nerdy side of me. Opening up that structure and seeing this web of wires is just as fucking cool to me as looking at a modular synth with a bunch of dangling patch cables."

"For the Atonal show, I basically just used a computer, Maschine, and the Nord drum. I had a delay pedal on the sound effects – the Strymon Big Sky."

"They’ve melded analog outboard modular gear with a rig built around MASCHINE and REAKTOR. This setup turned REAKTOR into both a playground for achieving whatever sounds they desire, and a hub for controlling the resulting mayhem. MASCHINE provides tactile control for the REAKTOR ensemble’s inner workings, and acts as a MIDI sequencing hub."

"What does the rest of your instrumentation look like? XX: There are various things for different tracks. Kontakt was a very big one, as well. YY: Also Molekular. I didn’t know you could do that to voice. Vocals have always been a personal fixation, ever since Skinny Puppy. Using the harmonic quantizer, and then going crazy and have everything not drift into gibberish was just amazing. XX: Believe it or not, a large majority of the stuff was Native Instruments plug-ins in general – just things from Komplete. XX: I’d be bold enough to say 60% of the record was Reaktor. For sure. And there’s a handful of tracks where we pulled stuff off modular synths, just running patches and recording stuff."

"There are various things for different tracks. Kontakt was a very big one, as well."

In the photo from Cdm, Belief Detect is shown using the Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S49 Keyboard Controller.

"On a separate group, Belief Defect control their Nord Drum – this time using MIDI CC messages mapped to encoders. That group is color-coded Nord red (cute)."

"You want to see the patch thing? Yeah, let’s look at it. The little waveform – that’s stolen from Polyplex."

"We had two laptops and Bitwig has multiple stems from the album lined up. And he’s got a small modular Eurorack system that’s basically more for improv stuff – just sending sequences to it."

"We work differently, but I can speak for myself. I try to get the most out of something. I go to my studio, grab the Music Easel, take that out of the room, and just sit down and isolate myself with it. I’m just making music with this, just trying to push that thing as much as possible to get as many different ideas as possible out of it. Even this small Eurorack system that we have here. It’s not the most complex synthesizer – it’s got an oscillator and an envelope and a filter – it’s basically the structure of any other synthesizer. But I know how those modules work well enough to get the results I want from it."