They Made Me Do It

Mum made me go to piano lessons when I was a kid. Save for the odd thoughtful piece, I didn't much like the classical arrangements I was learning, and I definitely didn't do as much practice as I should have (sorry, Mum).

When I wasn't practicing, I could often be found on my knees playing with my Lego, while Crowded House and other popular 80s bands played on high rotation on the local AM radio station.

As a teenager, I graduated to religiously listening to the top 40 charts on FM radio, then, when I went to university a few years later, I discovered techno on Radio Active, and my eyes were opened to the big wide world of electronica.

I starting experimenting with making my own electronic music in my early twenties. I wasn't hearing what I liked at dance parties anymore, so I decided to try and create some sounds that were more to my liking.

Gear Junkie

Whenever I could afford it, I'd pay some exorbitant amount for the latest copy of the British production rag Future Music. It was packed full of the latest gear, and I idolised the techno producers who dominated the airwaves of my local scene down at Studio Nine.

My own production kicked off with some pretty rudimentary gear - a Sony twin tape-deck and MiniDisc recorder, and an Akai DR4 harddisk recorder. I used to sample bells and pads off CDs and pitch them down and record that to a cassette, then swap the tapes and repeat the process until I could hear what sounded like whale song and other deep ambience. Then I'd use the DR4 to sequence something, then save that to MiniDisc.

I also liked to use the MiniDisc to remix my favourite 12" singles, looping the bits I liked and chopping out those I didn't. I made some real anthems out of Corina and Opus III singles in this way...

Later on, I picked up a Yamaha DX-21, and an Atari 1040 STFM, and added sampled hip hop drum loops, bass, and even some of my own vocals.

Along the way I also owned a Roland MC-303 (which I never recorded anything from), a Boss SP-202 sampler (which I used to timestretch jungle breaks and sample my flatmates), and had fleeting access to an Ensoniq ASR-10 (which I tried to remix the Pet Shop Boys on) and a Roland Juno 6 (which I would have happily tinkered with forever had my friend not sold it soon after).

Computer Geek

After completing a multimedia course in '99, I bought my own computer and started cutting up sampled hip hop loops and pads in Sonic Foundry Acid. Prior to this my experimentations had been limited to Pet Shop Boys remixes in Making Waves, using my Mum's state-of-the-art 486.

Originally I went under the name of Tremor. Then, preferring Chameleon, I switched to that, until I discovered that Global Communication had already pinched it for their tasty drum'n'bass roller Links. Finally I settled on Panoramica, which combined my love of photography and the outdoor world (Panorama + Mavica) to paint a stereo picture of natural, sample-laced music, reflecting photographic life.

I discovered Propellerhead's Reason through a workmate. I bought a small stereo microphone and in December of 2001 I hung it out of the window of my Cuba St workplace to record a local busker for the flute section of Elemental, which I subsequently played in my first 'live' (CD-based) set at The Gathering in Nelson. It wouldn't be the first time that rushed gig preparation would unleash some creative genius.

I also acquired a Yamaha CS1-x, which I combined with courier samples taken on my multimedia course to create Rush Hour. The same courier samples were used on Midland, combined with some lush soft synths.

Live and Direct

In 2003 a While_you_were_Sleeping contributor put me on to Ableton Live and I found a more 'able' replacement for Acid. I played my first While_you_were_Sleeping set in June of that year, which consisted of Reason running through Live, then in July I played my first real live set using only Ableton Live.

I also rented my first non-bedroom studio space in Mt Cook, Wellington. Nestled amongst native bush it was a real haven from the other things that were going on in my life.

Meanwhile I kept making music using Reason. The tracks made it on to several demo CDs but were never released, as I was never completely happy with the production standard.

In 2005, a chance airing of Elemental on The Sesssion saw the track adopted as backing music for Radio NZ's weekly Digital Life show. Apart from the New Year's Eve sets, it was the first real money I had earned as a musician and I was pleasantly surprised that the whole payback-for-playback system actually worked.

2005 was also the year that The Catchpool Valley Found Sound Project saw forest samples supplied to local musicians for remix. I had never been to the Catchpool Valley, but I grabbed the opportunity to create something unnatural from the samples. The resulting set was the usual last-minute rush, but I was glad to have produced something unexpected from such inspirational material.

Later in the year I went to Europe with a MiniDisc recorder and took a bunch of recordings. I lost most of them, but salvaged enough to create another Found Sound mix, which I played live to air in 2006.

In 2007 I moved down to Dunedin. I took up residence in a house on the hill with a panoramic view of Dunedin harbour. I planned to release Elemental as an EP, but I over-committed myself to a huge range of remixes and didn't quite get there.

Time To Go

It's now 2008. I recently spent some months housesitting and took the opportunity to upgrade a lot of my gear, in particular the software and recording kit. I also finally bought a Novation Bass Station, something I had been lusting after ever since I opened my first copy of Future Music back at University.

I also finally launched panoramica.co.nz in a respectable way.

Now time is rushing by.. and the year is rapidly coming to a close.

It's almost time to head home to Wellington. But summer is here, and I'm itching to make some more music!

 

Dan Smith, October 2008.