Interview: Sunitram Invites Us to Learn About His Workflow & Collaboration
Blend’s community features a strong variety of talented producers from across the world. Some of our community have won remix features, released albums our label, and more. One producer who has been on a recent winning streak is Germany’s Sunitram, who is known for studying and recording nu electro acoustic jazz since 2006 evolving into a sonic diversified producer who is active within the community. We had the pleasure to catch up with him to learn more about his workflow, collaboration, his upcoming Blend release and recently winning a Seaboard RISE.
Blend: How did you get started producing music? What's your DAW of choice these days?
Sunitram: My first synth was a Korg M1 when I was a teenager and at that time I didn’t have a computer or anything to record or work with. But since it was a solid workstation and had a decent sequencer as well as an fx section, and digital oscillators I was able to learn a lot about synthesis, midi and how to record song snippets on the internal rom or on pcm cards. Then I luckily had the opportunity to get an internship with a broadcasting station, where they had a lot of analog equipment including, large mixing desks, studer tape machines and high end microphones and all that kind of stuff. I learned a lot about recording, mixing and EQing during that time and I also got the chance to learn what the important things in audio production are. I also remember that it was the time when recording digitally was presented to a broader audience because mac and pc became more affordable. And of course all the benefits in working digitally were something I really enjoyed.
The first DAW I used regularly was Logic 8 on a mac in 2008 and I still use Logic Pro X throughout some productions especially for mastering purposes. Since about 2 years my main DAW is Ableton Live. I really dig the intuitive way of working on remixes in Ableton. The slicing and warping features are very handy to use. I’d say it is always just a matter of habit and workflow. But I like how I can work in the box with Ableton. Of course some things work easier or faster on one DAW than on the other but in general I am pretty happy with those two.
Blend: Who are some of your biggest influences?
Sunitram: My influences from my early days in music are probably a lot of jazz recordings and a lot of classical music. Nowadays it has changed to a large variety of electronic music. To name just a very few of them: I like Jon Hopkins, Flevans, Jojo Mayer as well as Snarky Puppy, Nosaj Thing, Dave Matthews or the stuff from Chopstick & Johnjon. Lately I have been listening a lot to Stimming - a german electronic musician who works a lot with organic sounds and textures in his tracks. He really does a phenomenal job and his tracks are great. I also get a lot of inspiration in listening to live venues, club concerts or jazz club events.
Blend: What is your favorite part about collaborating and sharing projects on Blend? Any other producers you enjoy working with?
Sunitram: I think the greatest thing about Blend is, that you get to know a lot of like-minded people. I like the fact that you have the opportunity to work with material from famous musicians and producers, like for example moby. You get an idea of how they actually compose and structure their songs. I love the fact that you can get an in-depth look into something that you would normally not be able to because usually it’s not that easy to get stems of a track for remix purposes.
Another great thing about collaborating is the enormous variety of styles being represented in the creations on Blend. If I take for example the Emika challenge: there are already more than 100 remixes and a lot of them totally different. They go from classical to modern edm and I think this is really something special about blend.
Outwork by Sunitram
I also want to mention IMBAS music, which is as well something totally awesome. The challenge they put up of sketching an idea in a certain time frame gives everyone a chance to straighten up their workflow. I learned a lot working only an hour on a track and then really leave it and say it’s done now. Of course there are always things where you think you could have done better but the result of speeding up processes helped a lot with the work in general on other remixes and on my own songs.
Blend: You have had success winning several production challenges on Blend, recently winning the Seaboard RISE by ROLI. What’s your favorite feature about the RISE?
Sunitram: I am very honored to have been selected for several challenges lately and I really think that especially the challenges are a great attraction and motivation to the Blend community to work and fine-tune their tracks.
Winning the Seaboard was absolutely amazing! It is a dream controller/instrument, especially with it’s multidimensional axis. I have the feeling that I can play much more expressive than on a normal aftertouch keyboard. I like how the surface feels - it feels like silicon skin but with a very natural touch.
Rister by Sunitram
Equator is a very powerful virtual instrument. The presets sound very unique and I like the overall grittiness of its sound. The large variety in sculpturing sounds on the GUI is also a very strong asset to me. I like that you can recreate a flute as well as an enormous electronic bass sound and pairing sounds with the internal effects is just mind-blowing. To me some of the sounds really require practicing on the controller to get the most out of them. They have such a depth and variety in sound that it is almost like you have 4 or 5 different instruments under your fingertips, depending on how expressive you play.
Blend: Whats are you up to next? Do you have any advice for new producers?
Sunitram: There are still a lot of interesting challenges on Blend which I am definitely planning to take part and I think it’s great that there seems to be a never-ending source of fresh tracks that you guys at Blend dig out for us producers to work on. I am also totally excited and am looking forward to release my first EP with Blend this year.
Maor Levi - Andromeda [stems] 128bpm by Sunitram
If you are new to the world of Blend, music making and producing - try to find your own sounds. Don’t try to be as good as someone - try to be you. The unique sound of every producer is something that stands out and makes it at the same time a unique feature to people listening to and loving your music. Spend time listening to stuff other musicians have created, get inspired and show respect to the songs and producers you like.