Jeff Samuel

How did you get involved in creating music ?

 

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I started learning classical piano at age 4.  I played for nearly 10 years, but I hadn’t even begun any training in composition.  After getting into electronic music in the mid 1990’s, I began teaching myself drum programming and analog synthesis after a couple years of just DJ’ing.

 

Who (& which albums) did you work with so far ? Any pics ?

 

I prefer to work alone on my own material, but have been doing more remixes lately.  I wouldn’t say that it’s like working directly with an artist, but it is still gratifying in a different way.  Artists I’ve remixed or have been remixed by include:  Steve Bug, Ricardo Villalobos, Michael Mayer, Guido Schneider, Frankie and Dash Dude.  After 15+ EP’s for over 10 different labels, I’m starting work on my first full-length album this year.

 

How did you end up using FL Studio ? 

 

I found the program after a LOT of searching.  I was toying with Hammerhead, which I liked but was limited by the drum samples that came with the program.  Once Fruityloops started to use audio and sampler channels, I switched and never looked back!  It was tremendously powerful just with those features but no one really realized it until years later.  My very first record, released in 1999 by Lo-Fi Stereo Recordings, was produced entirely within the program.  It could even be the first commercially released record that was produced with it, but I’m not certain.

What does FL Studio mean in your current setup ?

 

FL Studio IS my current setup!  I occasionally use a different wave editor, but I do mostly everything within FL Studio.  Even when I had a hardware synth and drum machine, I only used samples of them to use within the FL Studio environment.  I also use an Edirol MIDI controller.  The generators and included effects are fantastic and of the highest quality.  The Fruity Reverb and Compressor are great secrets as they were based on the Ultrufunk plugins which are no longer available after being bought by Cakewalk for exclusive use in their (much more expensive) products.  I often don’t have a need to use other VSTI’s even!  It’s not uncommon for me to use 5+ TS404’s on one project.

 

What are the advantages & disadvantages of using hardware & software ? 

 

I have always been more comfortable using software.  In 1998 my peers told me that I couldn’t make techno using only software, but I proved them wrong!  Now almost all of those people have moved to software studios.  To me, the possibilities are much greater with software.  Sample capacities are larger, and using multiple instances of the same software synth offers a myriad of options.  And I just can’t imagine doing through my typical sessions on a tiny LCD screen!  There’s so much that I haven’t even discovered within FL Studio that I doubt I’ll even use more than half of the features in my lifetime!

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