Welcome
Tim Bergling aka Avicii is yet another sensational Swede to reach the dizzy heights of DJ superstardom.
There must be something in the waters of Stockholm. As a city it breeds some of the most talented young producers out there and in roughly two years its favourite son Avicii has gone from playing his first official DJ gig to becoming tabloid property courtesy of Leona Lewis. As one of the new generation of super-producers Future Music went in to find out what gear is behind his anthemic dance productions.
Check out the Autumn Issue 245 for the full tour, including an exclusive tutorial video on the magazine's DVD.
FL Studio
It’s not often we see people making chart-topping club tracks with FL Studio. We asked Avicii to give us the top-three reasons why he reaches for FL Studio.
1. "The mixer is really straightforward and it’s really easy to assign different elements of a track to their respective channels, add plug-ins, keep track of their order and achieve the desired effect without it becoming a complete mess.”
2. “Nearly everything can be automated in FL Studio and the automations are really easy to keep track of and tweak. This really comes in handy and saves me a lot of time if I decide to change the layout of a track mid-production.”
3. “The built-in step sequencer is straightforward and easy to tweak to your liking, whether it’s changing the pitch of elements or swapping samples, which is essential in order for me to transfer my ideas into the track in as few steps as possible. It doesn’t sacrifice any functionality though, so I don’t have to compromise when it comes to getting the exact groove I envisioned for the track.”
Monitoring
There's a no-nonsense monitoring rig with a set of KRK VXT8s and a pair of Genelec 8040s.
"We tested a lot of different monitors," explains Avicci "The KRKs were my favourites by far. My manager Ash preferred the sound of the Genelecs so we got those as well – it’s always good to have two sets to A/B on for the final mix.”
Hardware
As he works completely from within FL Studio, hardware is a new experience for the young producer.
"This hardware has only just gone in the new studio so I haven’t actually used any of it yet," Avicii explains. "There’s the UA LA-610 channel strip, TK BC-1 compressor and an RME Fireface UC.”
Keys to success
The huge, weighted, M-Audio MIDI controller keyboard might give you the impression that Avicii is something of a trained pianist, but that's not the case.
"The cool thing today, is that anyone can learn how to make a track," he explains. "It’s not about your finger skills on an instrument, but your skill in the programs and knowledge of what makes a good track, putting it together and getting to grips with chords and scales in that way.”
Studio and vocal booth
Although the new studio is compact there's a comfortably sized vocal booth tucked into the corner.
“This was part of the reason we made the whole complex nice, explains Avicii. "When we start to bring in vocalists, they'll feel relaxed and have a cool environment to record in.”