Playing differently: Richie Hawtin and his DJ super-team

Perhaps the most technologically innovative artist in electronic music, Richie Hawtin has been a key figure in the development of DJ technology for nearly two decades. Now he’s assembled a DJ super-team to represent his new mixer, the MODEL 1.

Richie has turned chasing technology into an art form. Not our words – though we wish we’d captured Hawtin’s modus operandi in such a succinct soundbite – but the words of one of Richie’s trusted friends, ENTER. resident and MODEL 1 ambassador, Hito.

“She’s too kind,” laughs Richie. “The real art form is what happens between man and machine, and the infinite ways machines can work differently for different people. The art is how we constantly unlock different ways to manipulate the machines and how our relationship with machines inspires us.”

Relationship: a key theme when it comes to the MODEL 1, a mixer he launched earlier this year, recruiting a crack team of kindred spirits to test it to its limits and showcase it around the world. The philosophy behind it is to make DJs evaluate their relationship with their craft, machines and crowd. There are also more personal relationships to consider, like the one between Richie’s father and Andy Rigby-Jones, the MODEL 1’s engineer and ex-Allen & Heath inventor behind the club standard Xone mixers, and how their paths crossed 16 years ago. Which is where the MODEL 1 story begins...

Rewind to 1999: a new paradigm for Richie. At the time his set-up comprised two turntables, a mixer, a 909 and an Ensonique DP/4 effects box. Then three things happened: he and John Acquaviva launched Final Scratch with Dutch tech company N2IT, the production/performance platform Ableton was released and Richie’s favourite studio mixer manufacturers Allen & Heath moved into the DJ sector with the Xone:62 – something that excited Hawtin so much he travelled to Frankfurt to see it unveiled at a trade show where he met Rigby-Jones for the first time.

With each new development, the lines between playing and performing were blurring. His 2009 Livid Instruments controller CNTRL:R created even more dialogue between mixer and computer, allowing full control without having to look at a laptop. Meanwhile in 2010 his Griid application was one of the earliest to utilise iPads for performance.

“That was during the development of Plastikman Live,” he recalls. “I was controlling everything for that – audio, FX, lighting, everything. There was no way I could do all that on one controller so I wanted to incorporate the iPad.”

This thirst to control more and incorporate more and more technology reached a turning point during the development of his ENTER. concept. A live experience that featured an app (Smudge) which allowed you to interact with the event, it’s the one endeavour Hawtin would reconsider, in hindsight.

“The best nights and experiences are like hypnosis,” he explains. “The frequencies make you close your eyes and take you away, leading you into an alternate reality. We were giving people a reason to get their phones out and break away from that. I loved the interaction, but I question how it changed the focus of the experience.”

For Hawtin, the main mission now is to strip things back and create tools that enhance that alternate reality. To him, we’ve reached a point in tech where it’s not a case of working out what we need to find a solution, but deciding what we don’t need. Cue: MODEL 1. A mixer that, rather than featuring every possible bell or whistle, offers six channels to power whatever tools the DJ wants to use through some of Rigby-Jones’ most detailed, high-end audio spec to date, unique frequency-sculpting EQs and filters.

“I feel that with the glut of cookie-cutter mixers doing the same thing we are going down a precarious road, pushing a group of DJs and artists through a very similar pipeline,” he explains. “It’s great to have mixers with built-in effects, but the more flexible and modular our instruments are, the more opportunities we can create. I want artists using it to think about all the great nights they’ve had, all the things they’ve learnt about DJing and all their favourite records and ask, ‘How am I going to play these in a way that’s different to anybody else?’ It’s a mentality which, for me, is the base of the great DJ artisan.”

If the real art is in how we integrate with technology, the MODEL 1 is the biggest blank canvas Richie’s made so far. What’s interesting, he’s noticed, is how it’s influenced a change in style for him and his ambassadors. Rather than adding more tools, layers and complexities, it’s stripped back the technique. Liebing says he’s started to go a lot trippier with his blends, while Dubfire describes how it’s engaged him with the crowd again.

“It’s made some of us play slower and maybe only layer two things and just spend time using the mixer to manipulate,” says Richie. “That’s what I wanted to do: bring the focus back on the mixer as the main instrument. Right there in the middle. As it was for the pioneers who inspired me, as it will be for the pioneers who inspire the next generation as we move into the future. Which is, as I said earlier, where techno’s heart and soul lies.”

The future is where Richie’s heart and soul lies, too. As for the future of PLAYdifferently, he confirms that this is just the beginning. What seems important for him right now is not to add more noise to an already chaotic market but to only create something if there’s nothing else already filling that role. “Sometimes you want to create solutions. Other times you want to create possibilities,” he says. “But what we should never forget is the incredible synchronicity between DJ and crowd. Good DJs don’t just play the ten best songs you know them for, like a band at a gig. We’re watching and listening and moving with the crowd. We’re all on a trip together.”

Very few DJs have come through in the last decade without the profile of productions. Fewer have come through as vinyl-only. These are just two factors that ensure Hito’s unique status. Her philosophical perspective makes three…

“I’m always asked, ‘Why do I do this?’” she says. “I ask myself this question, too,” she considers. “I’ve tried Traktor and USBs but I don’t feel Hito. I think it’s about the way I deliver the message to people. It feels the most natural. It’s continuous in everything I do.”

Hito didn’t choose vinyl, it chose her. And its trappings and triumphs have influenced her ever since. Her selection is more creative as the limitation of tracks available on vinyl means she will draw deep for classic tracks to join the dots. The physical challenge of mixing records that can’t be manipulated digitally is also something she embraces.

“I love the thrill and the risk,” the Japanese-born, Berlin-based DJ admits. “Vinyl has an end. There’s no loop unless you use machines. You have to mix by the rules of the record. I chase those thrilling moments from one track to the other. Sometimes I have a bad day and do a lot of bad beat-matching. Other times I have a perfect day and the mixing is so good. Like good weather and bad weather.”

Her creative philosophy is backed up by fastidious technical aptitude, one that saw her travel back to Tokyo to study deck mechanics and the long-lost art of turntable TLC. “My tour manager and I went to Japan and studied with my master DJ Ko Kimura,” she says, alluding to another thing that makes her unique: she acknowledges the place in DJ craft for master roles.

“He’s like Tokyo’s Frankie Knuckles or David Morales. He’s also a talented mechanic. He can fix cars, speakers, headphones and of course turntables. We learned a lot from Ko. How to set up in different scenarios, how to avoid vibrations, faulty cabling, bad needles, setting the level of the needle. It’s very important. Knowing how heavy the weight should be calibrated in different environments. Detailed technical facts.”

It’s this precision balance of philosophy and technicality, deliberation and detail, that make Hito a perfect fit for Richie Hawtin’s ENTER. concept – although their first connection when they met in Berlin in 2008 wasn’t through music or technology at all.

“At the beginning we were studying sake. That was our connection, not music,” she recalls. “We were playing very different music. Then in 2012 when ENTER.Sake began he called me up and I guess he was positively surprised, so kept inviting me back.”

In a sea of egos, humility is the fifth factor that gives Hito a refreshing edge. Her role as a MODEL 1 ambassador is equally unique. A member of a crack team of DJs who embrace the widest spectrum of technology in their own unique combinations, Hito plays the concept of PLAYdifferently in a different way…

“A mixer is a musical instrument,” says Hito. “To use a mixer is to perform. The better the instrument, the more you will push the sound. With the MODEL 1 you get into the details of the frequencies; it’s not just high-mids-low, the sounds are more crafted. You can feel the frequencies in the mix. It’s completely changed how I feel and see the sound.”

Hito first felt this change when she debuted on the mixer after just two hours of practice (or “study”, as she calls it) at the PLAYdifferently HQ. She then DJed on it at one of techno’s most illustrious and respected venues: Frankfurt’s Robert Johnson.

“Everyone could see it, it’s a scary memory to this day!” she laughs. “But the scariest day was the live-streamed show that launched the mixer. The world was watching. Now I can laugh. But I have never had such a scary experience. But that’s the risk all DJs should embrace: trying something new and pushing yourself.”

Science and technology: Ali Dubfire is so inspired by them that they became the name of his label. His approach has remained authentic since he first emerged on turntables 25 years ago; from the selection to the performance devices, for Dubfire the crux of DJing is about finding your own sound.

“It’s not what you have, it’s how you use it,” he explains. “What makes you unique? For instance, you hear a Dice set and know it’s him straight away. The way he uses the FX, the way he mixes, his selection: it’s Dice. That’s the ultimate goal for all artists: to have a a sound that lets people know it’s you the moment they walk into the room.”

Yet Ali understands that this is paradoxically both easier and harder then ever. He loves how technology offers so many solutions that “you can always be more creative and respectful to the crowd than rocking up to the club with a pair of USBs”. But he also knows that the homogenisation of retail and kit means working extra hard to make sure a unique sound is established.

“With the popularity of download charts, and how easy some manufacturers have made it for people to become DJs there’s been a danger of the personality being taken out of the craft,” he says. “That’s why some of us lug around all this gear: to bring back individuality and personality. Connecting with technology in a way in which we feel comfortable to experiment inspires us. That ultimately feeds through the audience who reciprocate and transfer that back.”

This cycle has motivated Dubfire since his earliest days when he’d turn up with a portable DAT player to play his own tracks because he couldn’t afford to cut dubplates. These days he sports Traktor, two Xone K1 controllers, Ableton Push and now the MODEL 1: a machine that’s re-routed his set-up to add a deeper crowd connectivity thanks to its additional channels.

“Everything is controlled by the two K1s and the MODEL 1 now,” he explains. “It’s like a traditional two decks and mixer set-up in that sense. I’m no longer hunched over machines. I’m on the mixer, I’m facing the crowd and I feel more engaged with them than I have in years.”

Hearing a new tune and instantly knowing you’re going to smash it on the weekend: it’s a buzz that unites DJs throughout genres, eras and platforms.

“I will never forget it,” grins Matador, known to his friends as Gavin Lynch. “Getting a new record in the week and not being able to wait to play it out. Such a great feeling. Now, for that buzz I have to write a whole new tune!”

Gavin’s deep style of evocative techno is performed 100 per cent live and has been for several years. But in the early 2000s, when he was first bitten by the vinyl bug, his current complex set-up wasn’t even a twinkle in his eye.

“Like pretty much everyone I started on turntables and built up a record collection,” he explains. “But then, like a lot of people, I got to the point of wanting to make my own records. So I went back to college and studied sound engineering and music technology. After about six or seven years of graft, really working on my sound, I met Rich…”

Here’s where things get interesting. At this point Gavin was still very much a DJ, mixing with Traktor and a digital controller. His chance meeting with the Minus man presented an offer that changed Matador’s life, because Richie was looking for a live act.

“Just a right time, right place thing, I guess,” smiles the Dublin artist. “A case of ‘we need a live act for the Minus tour’ and I was up for the challenge.”

For Gavin, “development is something that should and has to happen”, and his set-up has been a constant evolution: “It was always going to happen, I was always picking up bits and pieces like an extra turntable or drum machine. It was always developing. It’s still an ever-evolving thing.”

His sound reflects this evolution, too, the live set-up influencing his studio process. Released this spring, his first album, ‘Ructions’ offers a restrained, sparse and far-reaching sonic consistency that draws on his recent years developing his live shows just as much as it draws on his decade-plus history of releases on labels such as Cocoon, Trapez and Perc, before he signed to Minus.

“Playing live is a steep learning curve that affects everything you’re doing in the studio,” he explains. “It’s a lot more raw to perform something live. I can add extra drums and a 909 when I’m playing live. It helps you work out what a track needs and what it’s missing. It’s a constant, moving thing.”

In fact, for Gavin performance and production are so closely linked that he uses the MODEL 1 slightly differently to other ambassadors: as a summing mixer – a studio mixing desk, effectively. The MODEL 1 summarises 16 tracks into its six channels, totally changing how he breaks down tracks live.

In a neat twist of contrast, DJing technology has also influenced his productions in a similar hands-on way. While he no longer takes a Korg Kaoss Pad on the road, the early 2000’s finest unsung DJ tech hero still has pride of place in the studio process.

“It’s a sung hero for me,” he laughs. “The Kaoss Pad still has a place in my studio. It’s great for creating happy accidents. I love putting a lead line through it and seeing what comes out. The same with FX pedals – I love having experimental sessions and seeing what sounds come up like that.”

And with that we leave him to return to his studio, neck deep in a new remix with two days left to his next show. You can guess where this is going...

“I’ve been in the studio at 7am for the last few days,” he says. “I want to finish it in time for the weekend!”

For some DJs it’s about mixing two tracks together. For others it’s three or four. For Chris Liebing it’s about endless layered loops. Or a carpet, in his words.

“A carpet of sound,” grins the German innovator. “So you don’t hear when something is finished or something new is starting. Being able to keep loops running as long as I want and really get into a groove, layering, layering, layering. That’s what it’s all about for me.”

Currently flexing six Traktor decks, a Maschine Jam, Ableton Push and a Cycloops looper, Liebing’s tech rider has developed exponentially since the two tape decks he used at school discos –and it’ll doubtless grow again.

“What an amazing time to be alive,” he says. “I feel more creatively fulfilled now than ever.” But it’s not all perfect. “For me everything has become too mechanical and robotic, it’s missing the human touch,” he says. “That translates to the crowd – there’s less room for floating, less room for flow or soul. I’ve suggested to Native Instruments that they add something into the preferences so tracks can float a little off-track. Like turntable behaviour. It would be nice to push and pull a little again.”

The MODEL 1, meanwhile, gives him a different opportunity to push and pull: pushing the mixer’s capabilities while pulling the crowd even deeper in.

“It’s a cliché but I’m actually playing differently,” he laughs. “The filters feel like I’m adding something, even when I’m taking something out. The harmonics have changed my idea of a set: I go a lot trippier, with more subtlety and length. Now there are even more options to morph things and create an even more unique, even deeper carpet of sound.”

There are two main routes into DJing: either someone’s always wanted to be a DJ and became a producer in order to have unique music to play and to raise their profile, or they’ve always wanted to make music, so consequently they’ve had to perform, too.

Then there are those who came through in a different way, and have a different perspective. DJs like Nicole Moudaber, a woman who’s stormed the techno ranks to become one of this decade’s most enduring success stories since emerging on Intec and Drumcode and then establishing her own distinctive, groove-laden imprint, MOOD.

Charismatic, resolutely ambitious and backed by a fiercely loyal fanbase; these are all traits that are rooted in her past life in music as a promoter.

“I had no intention of becoming a DJ – or even making music to begin with,” she explains in a smoky Lebanese/London drawl. “It was always the passion for the party that attracted me to work in music in the first place. After I took time out from promoting to renovate a villa in Ibiza I came back into music as a producer, and I still have a promoter’s perspective. I hope it never leaves me.”

As well as helping to dig foundations for her native Beirut nightlife, Nicole’s promoter perspective was truly chiselled at her Soundworx parties at London’s legendary Turnmills. Complementing the trance in the main room with a darker blend of tribal techno every week developed the skills and understanding she continues to develop to this day, most notably with her ongoing In The MOOD series of parties, the branded nights that she brings to some of the world’s best underground clubs with line-ups featuring Nicole and a few carefully selected guests.

“Our focus as DJs should be on the whole experience of the night, not just the small part we play individually. This is what I lived and I breathed for years and it’s so important. People go to parties in search of those special moments – moments that stick with you for years. You connect with new people. You open your mind. Music can take you to some real places, can’t it?”

And when connecting with the right technology, DJs can take that music and whole experience to unchartered territories – both for the crowd and the artist. The MODEL 1 has created a paradigm shift in the way she performs, elevating her from DJ to DJ/live hybrid with a weapons cabinet comprising Traktor, Ableton, Ableton Push and three controllers (two NI X1s and one Xone K2), all of which provide her with even more potential to control the party.

“I’ve changed everything right down to the sound card. I’ve spent the last week re-routing all my set-up and machines, re-routing my life… including the chips in my brain,” she laughs.
“I was always going to go in the live direction eventually, but my travel and hectic schedule prevented me until now. You have to do your homework and prepare in the studio and commit to lots and lots of practice. To do all those layering and live elements on the fly, and do them well, you need to know your technology inside out.”

This is why Nicole has attained an almost cult-like status. No matter how hectic her schedule is, no matter how deep into the technological rabbit hole she goes, she remains grounded – and passionate about music. DJs may have come into the game via two paths, but Nicole’s path is the party spirit that brought us all here in the first place.

Old-skool in spirit, new school in attitude: Loco Dice’s hip hop roots have never strayed too far from his forward-focused style.

“I’ll always be hip hop. I love that dirty, rough style,” he grins. “I don’t always mix on the one, I’ll often mix on the two or even the three. It’s how I feel the groove, not how it’s musically written. So when I’m looking at developing my DJ set-up, it’s important anything I add doesn’t take away from my style. If it optimises my groove, bring it on. If not, move on.”

Dice’s groove-optimising tools include four Traktor decks (on turntables), a Cycloops and Boss digital delay unit. A mix of old and new, it’s a fitting formula for a man of Dice’s mettle. The MODEL 1 mirrors his ethos in a similar way.

“It’s bringing back that old-skool, hands-on feel. Those big knobs. The rich filter from the legendary Rane and Bozac mixers that guys like Carl Cox inspired us with back in the day where you can play with the frequencies to make it your own sound. Add extra drive for a harsh feeling, soften it with a big swooping filter. There are many options!”

The Dusseldorf DJ also believes MODEL 1’s double-cueing flexibility won’t just encourage creativity for multiple DJ sessions but will also prevent the one thing technology has hindered with its endless options: clumsy switches between DJs.

“Everyone is carrying some serious shit around now,” he says. “If you have a set-up where two DJs can both link to the mixer and check their music without affecting the performing DJ then that changes the game. The changeover can be a total nightmare. The guy who comes after you comes with their own set-up, it starts to get hectic, there’s a commotion and the crowd see this, and they know it’s unprofessional.”

Dice, meanwhile, remains a consummate pro. And now he’s looking to add more kit to his armoury; the only problem is finding something that suits his style. “There are a lot of options for DJs and for non DJs to mix two songs together. Instead of making another plastic controller that plugs into the computer, give us more hardware, more analogue stuff, more samplers. Shit we can press, shit we can fuck with. Shit that people can see you actually doing something live on stage with.”

Want to know how fast-rising Italian Florido switched from an exclusively live performance set-up to the dynamic DJ hybrid he rocks now? Dial 999 for the long-running techno haven in his home town, Prato, where he was resident and where he developed his unique set of machines and performance style.

“I tried turntables but knew they weren’t for me because I want to play more than one track after the next,” says Fabio, a producer long before he became a performer. “Ableton let me play all my own productions. But when I became a 999 resident I had a problem: the crowd was mostly regulars. I couldn’t play the same live set every weekend.”

Fabio quickly built his set-up to keep the crowds coming and his residency in place. First Traktor, then a Maschine Mikro for drum layers, Traktor remix decks and two Xone K2 controllers, now brought together by the MODEL 1.

“We have an important role to find inspiring ways to keep the music entertaining, moving and interesting,” he says. “The original DJs and pioneers did the hard work getting everything accepted. It’s so much easier now: promotion, connectivity and acceptance of our culture as an art form. We can’t sit back, relying on their work. We have to take this to another level for the next generation.”

Techno’s new generation already considering the next generation? The future is safe in Fabio’s hands. Four years after auditioning as a street team PR rep for Richie’s Ibiza party and he’s a major component in ENTER., using tech to chase that elusive DJ holy grail.

“It’s about that moment when you realise you’re doing something that may never happen again,” he says. “Different layers, highs from one track, bass from another, live drums and FX… You’ll be deep into it and suddenly realise you may never have that exact combination ever again. It’s inspiring.”

Paco Osuna’s working relationship with Hawtin dates back almost a decade when Paco released a handful of funk-swung grooves on Richie’s Plus 8. He’s now a firm fixture in the Minus family and an even firmer friend of Richie’s. But things could have gone differently if Paco hadn’t been so ready to embrace the times…

“I was running a record store,” he recalls, “and the day Richie created Final Scratch I knew vinyl was going to crash. Eventually I closed my store down.”

In the hands of a bitter ‘back in the day’ guy this could be fighting talk. But definitely not for Paco, who’s been a prominent figure in techno for 23 years. Instead, he continued in the spirit that founded DJ technology in the first place: move with it, or move over.

“I’m a huge lover of vinyl. But first and foremost I am a DJ,” he says. “I’ve never been happier with my set-up than I am now. Why would you say no to something you know will change the DJ world? In the studio when we’re producing the music we welcome all new developments. So why wouldn’t we do that as performers? I get sent around 30GB of promos per week. 1,000 tracks. Maybe only 100 of them are on vinyl. So you’d miss out on discovering if any of those other tracks work for you.”

His set-up reflects his discovery-driven selection, comprising three controllers, Traktor and Ableton, giving him a hands-on, live-inspired set-up. He’s not one to instantly dismiss past technology, either. Like Dice and Liebing, Paco has dusted off his old Cycloops thanks to the independence and sonic consistency of each channel on the MODEL 1. A neat pocket-sized looper from the early-2000s, Cycloops allows DJs to quickly loop the previous bar of the track playing. A cool creative tool and a godsend for random laptop crashes, they now pass hands for upwards of $300.

“I have two. I treat them like gold bars. They’re one of those special machines in DJ history, like original 909s,” explains the artist behind Barcelona’s legendary Club4 and the Mindshake label. But while he has a soft spot for classic machines it’s the future he’s much more fascinated by. “What will become of DJ technology in the future? This is the question they must ask themselves at every big music company! Who knows? What I do know is that technology is to make our lives better, increase creativity and that I will be following it.”

Paco Osuna’s working relationship with Hawtin may be a decade old, but as kindred spirits they go back to the very start of techno.