dad's warm leatherette its Lunden and its really really busy we're on our way to go and see Daniel Miller who is a British born London born British music producer Daniel Miller is best known for his work with Depeche Mode and the label mute records which he owns as an advocate of synthesizer since the late 70s when he released a single as the normal called warm leatherette influencing a generation and a host and marking a point in time when synthesizers became more than just electronic music or an instrument of production and modern music but I knew somebody who had one and I had a bit of a go of his before I decided which one to buy and a few things I particularly was the head of repeat all the names for all the for all the module devices within the synthesizer different to the ones that people use now but there's one called repeat which meant if you press the key which is to have a rhythmic repeat it's kind of meant as an accompaniment instrument you know to sit on top of an organ so you can play a little nether the flute sound or something like that it was just on a table you know like an auto with the tape recorder there and the synthesizer there and some speakers and that was it really and it was great and I was liberating getting it home that first day and setting it up the kind of the liberation liberating feeling of being able to work on being able to overdub and not be with a band I was playing guitar at the time and I was I'm a very bad guitarist I very helped me to express to the other guys what I wanted to play I really wanted to make these more electronic sounds and I really couldn't do that very well with the guitar in the way that I wanted to with when you're trying to make your own sound it's not so much how many synthesizers you have it's more about how well you know those instruments it's more about attitude than sound because I didn't sound anything like a punk rock record the ripple that I made but in my head it did then I thought punk rock was kind of great for a moment but then actually what punk rock was just speeded up sped up pub rock and with sometimes with great lyrics the musically wasn't really going anywhere for me and so with a monophonic synthesizer first well you can't play chords which is great so I like monophonic since I'm not big on chords and yeah you could just do it was much more about direct connection between us set between your head and the tape that I really like that kind of interface I there wha leather ads you know I was in living in London and there were people around the country and independently doing their own music people like you know Cabaret Voltaire and OMD and you know people people like that but I think think they were really relatable there was no connection between those Radl maybe in Sheffield between people are humanly and keira Voltaire those may be a bit of a connection because they were in the same city but but I think it was a big country specific moment in history that the higher that sort of triggered those activities really we were all roughly the same age you know early to mid twenties with all all those people had loved like I think things like can and Kraftwerk and know that you're the very German kind of sounding things rather rather than the prog rock kind of synth music and punk happened and that energized everybody to fact they could actually maybe in that world they could actually do something and then then then the chief synthesizers came on the market so it was all very much of it could only really have happened to that at that particular moment various historical events that the cosmos brought in that some brought together really Wow generally speaking it's good to have loud speakers in the studio as a general rule help help and and you have to be able to trust those speakers because you're making sounds all the time very making subtle changes all the time it's really important that the mostly use that you're hearing what you're doing properly and that's e so you know you've after you don't be second-guessing the speakers of all time you just want to know that what's coming out of speakers is what is right and what your is what you're playing or mixing so that's very important monitoring is extremely important some guys have like four different sets of monitors up to switch between models to see how it sounds on different monitors that's not the way I will occasionally do that but generally I like to stick to one set of speakers for the whole project and trust those know those speakers inside out and trust them and know what I'm hearing is well and it's going to sound like on up on all sorts of other systems you know because that's the most important thing I think for me dropping between different speakers just I just get more confused so I'd rather have one pair of speakers I trust and then occasionally check on very small speaker or very big speaker when I was working with de peche anyway we only really use the big speakers the big studio monitors built-in once you know once we work we knew we were happy with the mix and then we would just sit back and enjoy it on the big speakers that fly it's very misleading sometimes so if you start very quietly and I think I'll have a tiny bit that sounds really value most not loud there's no distortion on it you know that you know if I'm eight if I'm just messing around with a banging techno track I'll send it up but from if I'm just working on sounds I don't need to hear the very loudest hit need to them clearly that's the most important thing because there's so many as you can see haven't counted how many knobs or buttons are on this studio there's so many variations you want to be able to hear what you're doing really you mean when I hear be able to hear what subtle changes that are happening it's as important that for clarity is more important I'm not one of these guys who likes to switch between monitors all the time there's some dots of two pairs of mamas in the studio I might do that they cut at the end of the mitt at the end of a mix just to double-check but during the mix I would just pretty much only work on several monitors good monitor is the is the monitor that you know really the monitor that you you've lived with for a long time and I don't know about curves and holes and blood the frequencies I just know right this sounds good on these monitors it's gonna sound good on my speakers here have my domestic speakers on my headphones on my all different ones that the ones I happen to like and no exterior Dino do dine audio BM fifteen switch for as long as I can remember we've had those in the studio and I've got them still having my studio Alan might have in my other studio in Berlin and I just know what it's gonna if I play something through there a comedian know what's wrong with it all it's good about it the space that you're in is very important it's got to be a space that you feel comfortable in as a musician as a producer I think it's um it gets more difficult as you have more stuff try and limit the number of decisions you have to make I think that's very important focus on the core of the song will the core of the piece of music that you're making don't just add stuff you people is so easy to have things now that you get just get really get lost you know and I don't think that's a very positive musical so very musical way of working at thee be don't don't use presets don't record too much stuff limit your number of tracks but I'm a very I've got my bug barriers don't use presets you know I really think I made some great presets on this some of these since other because they're great everybody else is going to use them I think it's really important to have your own signature sound if you've been making electronic music the only advice I could give to somebody wants to start a label today is this is that they're they have 100% passion for it they there's no option for them an other option them in life you know that's the same free musician as well is if you've got qualification I could be a lawyer I can be a doctor you can end up being a lawyer or a doctor because it's too tough running a record company it's my hobby which keep which me which and I don't really make music I just make noise in here make sounds and without any end product in sight which i think is really healthy and small about being in the moment it's not about making something people recording something I do record stuff sometimes in here just that's kind of source material for something else if I think I've got a really good sound or rhythm I really it's just about the moment for this kind of this environment for me