Turbo Knight is a synthwave artist from Finland crafting retro-futuristic electronic tunes using REAPER. I contacted him this week for a quick email interview about production, collaboration and REAPER.
I couldn’t compose my music any faster in any other DAW. REAPER for life!
Hello Antti! I really enjoyed the new album Navigators, I actually found out about it through an iTunes recommended playlist.
My first question is:
Did you do all the production on this one yourself or did you outsource?
I did everything else on the album but left the mastering to new ears. I usually master my own tracks but working on an album for half a year can really make you deaf to your own music. Really recommend using outside force for the masters.
You’ve been collaborating a lot in your recent music releases, any advice for making that go smoothly?
I usually let the collaborators do a demo of whatever they are doing for my tracks, then give my notes on what could be improve or changed. We usually work really close with my collaborators on getting the track where both of us want it to go. Also a good hint for a successful collaboration is to choose an artist who’s been doing collabs before and knows how to work online with others.
What are some of the synths you used on the album?
I think most of the tracks are made with U-HE Diva, Repro-1 & 5, Reveal Sound Spire and XFer Serum.
I also use some free ones quite a bit like Arminator, Dexed and Tyrell N6. I used only soft synths on the album.
As for FX, my go-to paid ones are FabFilter bundle, Soundtoys bundle and some Universal Audio plugs.
What makes REAPER right for making your music?
I love how you can change your workflow on REAPER in so many ways using scripts, which i use quite a bit, like one for making an arp out of an chord. I couldn’t compose my music any faster in any other DAW. REAPER for life! 🙂
Are there any REAPER functions or tricks you can share?
Some things I couldn’t live without:
- Regions – makes handling the parts of the song so much easier
- mpl_Smart_duplicate items.eel – more intelligent doubling of items
- Changing horizontal zoom center to mouse cursor and vertical zoom center to track under mouse cursor
- mpl_Export selected items to RS5k instances on selected track (drum mode).lua – for quickly turning samples into MIDI drums
And so much more I can’t remember right now, my REAPER’s reaaally modified 🙂
Any advice for some one new to REAPER?
Give your time to REAPER, it might feel hard to use at first but learning it really pays off. I’m still learning some amazing stuff almost every day after using it for like 8 years.
Also check out awesome videos made by you (REAPER Blog) and Kenny Gioia (ReaperMania) before heading to Facebook groups to ask questions. You guys cover pretty much everything related to REAPER. I learned most of my stuff from you guys, thanks for that!
That’s it my questions, thanks for answering!
You can find Turbo Knight online in the links below
turboknight.com
turboknight.bandcamp.com/
soundcloud.com/turboknight
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