words: MICK WILSON pics: KATIE BURRETT TECH
FROM ALPHA TO OMEGA
It’s been four years since the last Caspa album but the dubstep pioneer is back to what he does best. The new record ‘Alpha Omega’ is an evolution of the Caspa sound and adds a new dimension to his production with the introduction of vocals. DJ Mag USA gets the lowdown on how Caspa does his thing…
C
aspa was very much at the forefront of the dubstep scene when it became popular, with huge releases like ‘Cockney Violin’ and ‘Where’s My
Money?’. With remixes for Rusko’s hit ‘Cockney Thug’ and Deadmau5 & Kaskade’s record ‘I Remember’, he rapidly put his stamp on the genre. But since those times, dubstep has changed a lot, and with it so has the man. With new influences drifting into his sound, it’s time for a newly evolved Caspa to take the stage...
How have you developed as an artist during the four years since your last album? “I think, like everything, things progress, things are constantly evolving and changing. Things
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have progressed for me a lot and sound-wise it’s changed from me being in the bedroom having a laugh, messing around, to being more serious. I’m constantly learning about mixdowns, my craft, what it is… sound design, how to make my sounds fatter, bigger and more layered. My sound has become more advanced, more musical.”
Tell us about your current set-up? “I have a custom desk that was made for me by a company called Formal. I am not really hardware-based, I am pretty much all sample and software-based. It’s a pretty simple set-up, I am running a souped-up Power Mac with a really fast processor and two cinema displays so that I can see my arrangement and mixer at the same
time. Speaker-wise, I use Dynaudio Acoustics BM15s — these are the real big boys for real heavy bass and stuff, they have got great clarity. For reference I have the Yamaha Classic NS10s. Every big studio in the world has them, they are the industry standard. I use them quite a lot for mixing my tracks. For my vocal chain I have the classic Neve 1073 preamp and a Compressor Distressor, which is made to make vocals sound nice and fat. The 1073 is a classic preamp from the ‘70s, and has a real clean analogue sound to it. The Distressor was a recommendation from Mr Hudson’s engineer. It is great for running drums and vocals through.”
Talk us through the key bits of software that you’re using? “I use Logic first of all, which I have re-wired into Propellerhead’s Reason. I do a lot of drums in Reason and some synth stuff, but everything else is done in Logic. I use a soft synth from REFX called Nexus, and I run synths and audio through a plug-in called Guitar Slayer. I’ve got a lot of Native Instruments stuff as well, but I don’t use too much of it — I use their Massive soft synth for pads and FX, moreover bass sounds.
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