DJ Pulser
Andy Perring aka DJ Pulser is one of the most respected dance and trance artists with a career totaling 80+ releases, spanning nearly 10 years and a discography of iconic productions and remixes under his belt including the hit single "My Religion". Discovered by Paul Oakenfold in 1997, Andy helped popularize the sound of trance that came to dominate club land.
Collaborating with Steve Helstrip (The Thrillseekers) under the name 'Insigma' he co-wrote a string of classics including the Tiesto/Oakenfold anthem 'Open Our Eye's' and also partnered UK trance legend Lange to form 'The Basstarts' who released 2 funky trancers (Atacama & Summer In Space)
Other projects like 2001’s ‘Trinity Project EP' also found a home at clubs like Twilo in New York with DJ's like Sasha, John Digweed and others. Pulsars festival debut at Global Gathering led on to his first global ranking in DJ magazines poll reaching No111. His single 'My Religion' became the theme for the Global Gathering festival.
Find out what DJ Pulser is doing at his My Space web site
Hello. Thanks very much for taking the time out to have a chat with Camel Audio. Could you introduce yourself?
Hi, It's my pleasure!
I'm Andy Perring and I'm a UK based dance music producer and DJ.
I'm currently signed to Armin Van Buuren's 'A State Of Trance' label in Europe and ATCR/Surface Recordings for the rest of the world under my Pulser
alias. I also release records under several other names including 'Insigma'
(a project with The Thrillseekers), The Basstarts (With Lange), Haylon (with
Tim Stark from ATCR/Rapid Eye), Ija , The Trinity Project and The Olmec
Heads.
I spend most of my week in my Oxfordshire studio and my weekends DJing at clubs and events all around the world and have just been signed to represent Ibiza superclub 'Amnesia' on their world tour.
How did you get into writing Trance music?For most people Trance started with tracks like Ferry Corsten's 'Out Of The Blue' and Paul Van Dyk's 'For An Angel' but I was already a 'Trance' fan long before they were known.
Acts like T.I.P., Man With No Name, Age Of Love and basically anything on labels like Perfecto & Platipus influenced my writing and production style during my bedroom studio years.
The catalyst was when I hooked up with a friend (Westy) to form 'The Olmec Heads'. We had a mutual friend, Mark Gardener who was the lead singer in 80's indie band 'Ride'; He joined us live on keyboards for a short while and also passed one of my demos to Paul Oakenfold. Paul was so supportive of the tracks that pretty soon we had approaches from labels and in 1997 we signed our first deal with UCMG.
What projects have you used Camel Audio software on?
Basically everything since I discovered Camel Phat & Camel Space. On my recent remix of Mike Koglin's '1:1.618' single (NOYS records) you can hear camel space morphing the choral pad from the breakdown into a pulsing, rhythmic sequence that drives the tracks later stages. I also used camel phat extensively on 'Haylon' Starfighter (Surface Recordings) where all the filtering effects are from automating the amazing BP filter. Both plugins frequently take care of basic compression, distortion, delay, reverb etc. Space & Phat are always the first native plugin's I load...I love them!!
What do you like most about Camel Space and Camel Phat?I think their true power lies in the way each module of the plugin has been crafted with music in mind. They can be as complex or as basic as you want with each individual component adding a unique character to the sound that I haven't found anywhere else. Most of the time I just want to get on with making music and not get caught up in the vast array of cryptic features that so many plugins seem to offer. These should carry a 'musician friendly' label as well as being 'a tweakers delight'. Both Space and Phat let me focus on the important thing...the sound, though they look beautiful too.
What do you like about Cameleon?I'm just blown away by the sound of this synth. The vast patch library covers just about every type of sound I can think of. It's so intuitive to use and its actually a fun process creating original sounds. I love Cameleons ability to throw bizarre and unique but highly usable sounds at you with the minimum of effort. I've only just started to push the boundaries with Cameleon, but already it's proving itself to be my weapon of choice for trance pads, textures, leads and fx. I think my hardware synths have finally met their match.
How do you use these plugins? Any tricks for us?There are so many things I use these plugins for.
1. I always insert an instance of Camel Phat on my output busses to roughly simulate Auratone 5c sound cubes on my ATC's. The 5c is a small, single driver box that sounds cheap and nasty but is pretty much a standard monitor for getting radio mixes balanced well and great for sitting vocals in a mix. Just insert Camel Phat on your output buss, clear the preset to initialize it then turn on the 'BP Filter'. Now set the Low fader to 100 - 150Hz and the high fader to about 15-17Khz (use shift key and mouse to get finer adjustment). You can then mono the channel and hey presto you have a virtual crap speaker. It wont sound identical to the 5c because of cabinet size and crossovers but its approximate enough to give you an idea what a mix would sound like on a cheap system.
2. Another tip for the BP filter on Camel Phat is to clean up loops or add weight to bass drums. I usually roll-off the ultra low frequencies of kicks by inserting a camelphat on the drum channel then use the low fader to slowly move up the frequency range. Usually when you get to 30-40hz (depending on your monitors) you'll notice an increase in perceived volume as the inaudible frequencies are shelved out. This adds punch and weight to bass drums and bass lines and can really pull out the dynamics of drum loops. Use the High control to remove top end noise then add some exciter to make a sound sparkle. Also try shelving out low frequencies then reintroduce them with the magic eq set at around 60-70hz.....phat!
3. Add some grit to bass sounds and pads. Use the 'Tube' & 'Mech' knobs on Camelphat to overdrive a bassline then use the mix knob to balance the nasty stuff with the clean signal. Sounds great on analogue pads too!
4. don’t ignore the presets!! Even though some of the presets might sound a bit dominating as an insert fx try using space or phat (or both) as a send fx. Try this with vocals and you'll be amazed at what can happen.
5. With space and phat being modular, musical and very CPU efficient I don’t overlook them as basic stock fx. I always try the reverb, delay, autopan, flanger, exciter, enhancer & distortion functions first in isolation and most of the time I end up using them in the mix. The Bread 'n' Butter preset bank is a great starting point. Also try 'randomize' on things like the flanger & delay with everything else switched off.
What are your plans for the next year?
I've been Djing a lot in places like the US, China and Europe and also been working on 2 albums simultaneously for the past few months. One is my first 'Pulser' album and has been a real challenge to find fresh places to go in 'trance'. So far I've completed 6 tracks which are all very individual and take elements of Progressive house, Techno and Electro mixed with what I'm known for. I've also gone back to my roots somewhat and have a couple of real old skool 'Oakenfoldesque' tracks that are probably my favorites. Hopefully the album will be completed soon and should be out this year.
The other thing I've been doing is a new band project called 'HiFi Heroes' with a couple of friends Kev Dodwell (ex ZTT records singer) and David Nash (Defacto, Skint Records). We started writing tracks last October taking influence from Depeche Mode, New Order, Erasure, Duran Duran and 80's synthpop fused with dance production. It very exciting for me and I've even sung and played bass guitar on some songs. We have about 20 songs in advanced demo state but we've really only just found 'our sound'. The plan is to get a single out in the next couple of months and take the band out on a live club/festival tour. The album will be out when it's finished but it's looking good for 2006.
I've also just been signed up as a resident DJ on the Amnesia Ibiza world tour 2006/07 alongside Judge Jules, Marco V, Rank 1, Eddie Halliwell and a few others starting at the end of the summer. It's going to be a busy year trying to fit it all in but I always enjoy a challenge!
