For Calcou, collaboration marks the beginning of a brand new period.
With Now, What?, the Berlin-based producer expands his solo challenge right into a full-fledged duo, joined by vocalist and songwriter Thea. The report captures the second when two inventive views meet, balancing dwell efficiency, digital manufacturing, and songwriting with readability and function.
The EP feels equal elements experimental and direct, pairing natural textures with modular power. Tracks like “Nearer” and “Inexperienced Hills” reveal how their shared workflow builds rigidity between pure heat and exact rhythm. That steadiness begins with instruments like Native Devices’ Reaktor, Monark, and Tremendous 8, which give them each construction and freedom.
What makes Now, What? so compelling is the way it connects emotion to workflow. Reaktor and Monark assist them discover sincere outcomes quick, avoiding the distractions of overproduced polish. Leap to those sections:
- Discovering inventive chemistry as a duo
- Utilizing Reaktor as a direct toolkit
- Exploring Reaktor ensembles for inspiration
- Constructing dwell setups round readability and management
- Performing with intention and visual power
- Preserving collaboration human and process-driven
It’s a report born from curiosity, the place each sound begins as an experiment and ends as one thing distinctly human. Comply with together with your personal copy of Reaktor and get free Reaktor presets that Calcou makes use of of their music.
How did you first notice your particular person manufacturing kinds might truly complement one another as a substitute of clashing?
Thea: We’ve already been making music aspect by aspect for fairly some time earlier than formally working as a duo, so we naturally found one another’s strengths early on. Stefan normally takes over the position as composer and producer whereas I step in because the singer and songwriter.
Stefan: If Thea works on manufacturing, she does it in her personal DAW and sends me stems. So our kinds don’t actually conflict, it’s extra of a give-and-take the place we share suggestions and fine-tune one another’s enter till we’ve discovered a vibe we each like.
What makes Reaktor such a vital a part of your inventive workflow as a duo?
Stefan: Reaktor is refreshingly no-bullshit. Within the early demo section, a number of VSTs trick you with big reverbs, delays, and shiny atmospheres that make your sketch really feel extra completed than it truly is.
Then later, if you truly produce the observe and begin stripping issues down, you abruptly notice the sound had no actual core. Reaktor is the alternative. Its presets are effect-light and constructed on strong, pushable foundations.
They provide us readability within the association — you immediately know whether or not an concept truly works if you’re not hiding behind a wall of results.
Professional tip from Calcou: Earlier than you dig into sound design, load a easy, clear Tremendous 8 patch. Begin with 2 word harmonies, 3 word most. Ensure you can inform a narrative with as few notes as potential. Focus on chord development and voice main till you’ve got a loop that triggers one thing in you. In the event you’re capable of obtain that with a easy saw-tooth patch, you’ve got composition and a fair higher place to begin for sound design.
Are there particular Reaktor ensembles you retain coming again to for producing surprising concepts?
Collectively: Completely – Reaktor Blocks is our wild card. It at all times surprises us, possibly partly as a result of we don’t absolutely perceive all of the modular routing, however that’s a part of the attraction.
We’ll begin from presets, tweak till one thing breaks fantastically, after which comply with that thread.
- Blips is wonderful for quirky rhythmic components.
- Drive and Monark Mikro give us the gritty, upfront grime we regularly use to attach concepts collectively.
Professional tip from Calcou: In the event you discovered a preset you want, keep it up. Use it throughout your songs, but in addition use it inside the identical music. In the event you e.g. discovered an awesome pad sound, why not pitch it down, make it mono and use it as the place to begin in your bass? Or why not pitch it up, make it mono and use it as the place to begin for the lead? Typically this may be actually useful to maintain your general imaginative and prescient and use sounds that match immediately.
To your dwell setups, do you pre-program Reaktor patches for every present, or do you allow room for improvisation?
Stefan: We run a mixture of Reaktor presets and an Ableton efficiency pack, which triggers the corresponding Reaktor patches and impact chains in our VST channel.
Thea: Our studio preparations normally have greater than 100 tracks per music so we would have liked to discover a solution to translate that to a secure live-set. Improvisation occurs extra in between songs and in addition with results and modulation.
Professional tip from Calcou: Your imaginative and prescient is strongest to start with; you don’t wish to lose that to tweaking a kick-drum for two hours. Have your instruments prepared if you begin, work as quick as you possibly can. Presets are an awesome place to begin, you possibly can at all times fine-tune later.
How a lot of your efficiency depends on real-time manipulation versus pre-sequenced components?
Thea: On stage we comply with one rule that retains us grounded: if the viewers can’t really feel it, we don’t pretend it. There’s no magic in twisting 30 knobs to recreate tiny studio automations that nobody within the room can truly hear. We wish each gesture to matter – each transfer ought to translate immediately into power the group can seize onto.
Stefan: So sure, we do real-time manipulation – however solely when the impression is obvious, audible and a uncooked, real-time push is required. In any other case, we’ll merely bounce the factor as audio to keep away from MIDI chaos and hold the present strong.
Professional tip from Calcou: Reverse-engineer presets. In the event you discovered a preset you want, why not dig deeper into what the sound designers did there and attempt to recreate it your self? It’s an effective way to grasp plugins and {hardware} synths higher, particularly should you simply began out with a brand new piece of drugs.
For youthful producers working in pairs, what recommendation would you give on discovering steadiness, sustaining chemistry, and ending music that also feels alive?
Thea: The largest factor is studying to guard the chemistry that made you wish to create collectively within the first place.
You every deliver completely different strengths, so as a substitute of competing, agree early on who naturally gravitates towards what – sound design, association, toplines, mixing – whereas nonetheless leaving area to modify roles when the observe wants a contemporary power enhance.
Stefan: To maintain the music feeling alive, keep away from getting caught in countless perfection. Set milestones – “sound palette right this moment,” “association by Friday,” “combine selections solely after stems” – and follow them.
Construct in moments the place you step away and return with contemporary ears. And don’t be afraid to maintain the human fingerprints – the imperfect take, the odd sound, the uncooked second that made you each smile. That’s normally the soul of the observe.
Professional tip from Calcou: In the event you don’t know the place to start out, begin with a drone. Load a easy patch and simply play one word. Make sure that to decide on a preset that has some motion in it so it’s soothing listening to, even when it’s only one word. Or add a ton of reverb and a few slight modulations. Then begin singing or taking part in no matter suits to that sound. It helps to restrict the quantity of countless decisions and is a simple solution to eliminate that awkward feeling of beginning “bare.”
Wrapping all of it up
Now, What? displays a course of constructed on belief, exploration, and shared intuition. Every observe feels related by the give attention to motion and readability. Reaktor, Monark, and Tremendous 8 present the framework that retains their concepts grounded, whereas leaving sufficient area for pure circulate and small imperfections that make the music really feel alive.
Stefan and Thea method collaboration with intention. They outline roles early, alternate concepts shortly, and hold the workflow mild. This self-discipline permits their creativity to remain open with out drifting into hesitation or overthinking.
Their working technique offers the EP its form. Each selection serves the identical function – to construct songs that translate on stage and nonetheless maintain emotion within the studio. Now, What? represents a ahead step for Calcou, exhibiting how precision and intuition can coexist throughout the similar sound.
The put up The natural precision behind Calcou’s Anjuna launch that includes Reaktor first appeared on Native Devices Weblog.
