Wbeeza's Equipment Guide

Born and raised in the South Peckham territory of London, Warren Brown aka Wbeeza has long shown a visceral aptitude for music from an early age. Growing up in South London he dabbled in writing lyrics and testing the percussive elements of his voice through forays into boxing but it was his super accomplished techno-tinged productions and infatuation for live equipment gear that launched him into the hands of Guy McCreery's, Third Ear Recordings. Read up about the label and you'll find the significance of its output to be made "primarily (but not exclusively) with synthesizers, computers and turntables/controllers as the musical instruments" and is heavily influenced by the iconic sounds of Detroit with curators of the city sitting side by side Wbeeza on its roster like Delano Smith, Mike "Agent X" Clark and Norm Talley as the Detroit Beatdown crew. Before we get crazed up by Wbeeza’s brand of non-stop, improvised techno jam sessions on the Room One stage this Saturday, he gives us a personal insight into the creativity behind it all below for the blog... Wbeeza's Equipment Guide First, you need to master the tools. So from the start, keep your tools simple and of good quality. They should never be the focus of your music making. Don’t let the game rush your creativity. The companies just want to sell you shit. They’re not interested in whether their new gizmo is something that will improve your music. That’s for you to decide. So my tools are basic. The sound is what is important. So, I spend a lot of time making sure my sounds are tight and my samples are original, taking great recordings and working with them like a piece of clay. Some of my tracks are obviously sample heavy, in that you can hear that I’ve sampled two or four bars or more of a recording and I’ve not processed it much. Other tracks are also full of samples but you can’t tell they’re samples, most people can’t, because of how I’ve edited them or they’re heavily processed and they could have been generated by a synthesizer of some kind. Other tracks are mainly electronic sounds, either generated or sampled from classic synthesisers. I'm still making beats on Reason 3. I also record drums either on pads or on keys. All my tracks begin in Reason 3. Which is 8 years old now. Why Reason 3? I’ve never felt a need to move to a different version. I’m using an analog mixer. I bought Maschine, because I was feeling flush! I use the machine for all purposes. It’s great for both studio & live & it’s fun to play with. I was using it to create my own grooves. I’ve gone back more to programming beats again. In Reason 3 I find myself working out more, experimenting more. I used a basic M-Audio Evolution eKeys 49 controller from when I started..with me from the beginning. I recently bought a Micro Korg. It’s got a mic which is cool. I like to vibe on the mic, even though I usually don't use the vocal and I use it for MIDI. I may laugh at the Evolution now, but this keyboard helped deliver some of my most loved tracks. I’ve also got a Yamaha DD8 which a friend gave me before he went away. I was blown away by the look and the colours so I thought I'd try it out. I use some of the sounds on it when I’m feeling it but haven’t really used it. I've used it on one or two tracks that are coming on my album. Kaos Kaoscilator Pro El Prevost bought this when he was feeling flush the other day. He wasn't too keen on it, so somehow ended up in my room. So I'm giving it a go. Nice sounds. Haven't made anything with it though. For my live show, I’m running Ableton Live on a Macbook Pro with a Novation Remote Zero SL controller. I like the Novation because it's responsive, it's got a nice feel and I'm so used to it now. I've used it everywhere. It’s traveled all over the world. I used to use the old Remote Novation SL and have stayed with Novation. It's light and reliable and allows me to do what I need to do. I like to keep it simple. Ableton allows me to jam live. What I’m running on Ableton, how I’m running it and what I do is the key. I'm breaking down tracks and remixing tracks live. I've got tons of sounds and loops. Adding loops and sounds. Mixing and remixing live. Loads of unreleased tracks on there.. the popular ones get released. When everyone is saying ‘you have to release that’ then you know it. Every night is different. I can play seven nights in a row and it will be different every night. I probably don’t know what I’ll start with until I’m in the club and I’m about to start, already vibing on the audience. I haven’t got it all laid out ready. I’ve got my new jams and tools and tracks that I want to try out and hear on the system. Often I plan to play something but forget to because I’m in the zone, in the moment, vibing. I never know whether I’ll play hard or with a lot of vocals or very deep or minimal until I start and then I don’t know where it will go or end up. I’ve got it all ready, that’s all I know. Wbeeza will be performing live in Room One this Saturday joining Lil' Louis, Craig Richards and George Fitgerald on the bill, for more info and tickets go here.