Step inside Deadmau5's high tech home studio
Find out how he and Attlas made 'Bad At Titles'
What was the recording process like?
Attlas: Really spontaneous. I was living down the road from Joel (Deadmau5) at the time. The impetus for the experiment was trying to use Ableton Link, which is a feature that Ableton added in Ableton 9. It lets you link machines so that I can be one master in an Ableton session and link to his machine so my whole computer can show up as a single channel in his Ableton session. It’s very cool because we’re sharing clock time and if he’s going to loop a section, I’ll be able to loop the same section. While trying to see if it worked, we dropped a little melody in, then a percussion part. Then, we began to tweak a track. There were a couple of times where I would step back and he would mix my parts in. Certain moments I was really learning what kind of plug-ins he uses and what’s on his master channel. Then he would yell at me to give him another melody or a percussion line a little bit of sweetener on certain parts. Then all of a sudden we’re printing a master and having dinner listening to the new track.
What did you use to produce the track?
Deadmau5: I think we used a Moog Voyager on something, but a lot of it was in the box.
Attlas: For all my synth parts it was the Zebra plug-in, which is what I use for almost everything if I’m not using a sampler. I used Zebra because I learned that one first. You get good at the first thing you learn. I don’t really think there’s an advantage to using a specific plug-in over another. If you’re good at one, that will be the best one.
Were there any challenges?
Attlas: The challenge was to not be intimidated by working with someone with Joel’s musical reputation, but I knew if I could get my head around that it would just be two guys having fun making music, and something great would happen.
Why did you call it ‘Bad At Titles’?
Deadmau5: After we finished the track I asked Jeff to name it. He said, ‘I’m bad at titles’. So I said, ‘That’ll do’.
Deadmau5 & Attlas ‘Bad At Titles’ is out now on Mau5trap
[Photo credit: Clay Peters]
From L-R: Deadmau5's home studio, Doepfer A-100 modular system, Universal Audio 6176 vintage tube channel strip and Universal audio LA-610MkII, Neve 5088 console, ATC SCM45A monitor, DAW: Ableton Live, ATC 300 Speakers