Silvano Jud

Influenced by the electronic music scene, Just relocated to LA from Switzerland and working on is own productions @Silvano Jud is this month SoundGym Hero.

So how long have you been on SoundGym?

I think it's for around one year.I came to it when I was sitting in my Audio Engineering classes and my teacher was showing us some stuff about mixing. He bypassed the compressor and then he says: 'can you hear the difference??' Of course not!! I think this situation had every producer/mixer once in their lives...I went home, and began to research for ear training programs and found Soundgym and I'm really thankful for that.

What was your first connection to music?

Many of my family members, grandfather, uncles, cousins, were playing an instrument and I think that's why I was always surrounded by music at an early age.

I remember that I always listened to the radio to fall asleep, but I also remember that I tried to figure it out how many instruments were playing on a certain track.

Later I was impressed by the music (Techno, Trance) and people that I saw on the TV, dancing on the 'Street Parade' in Zürich. It's a similar parade like love parade was in Germany.

You recently relocated to LA from Switzerland,

 was the move music related?

Yes it was music related, but not only, I want to improve my English, that is what I'm doing at the moment, study English for 2 Months and after this, I will enroll in a music production program here in LA and beside of that I want to do an internship in a recording studio. So I can do both at the same time.

Who have been the biggest influences on you and how do you think they've shaped your sound?

Well, after I saw all these dancing people at Streetparade on the TV, I was around age 14, I started listening to Trance, and later around age 16, I listened to all different kind of electronic music, Trance, Techno, House, and also Hardcore for a short time. At this time I was digging for internet radio stations around the globe, went to Street Parade and later I found deepmix.ru and Andrey Pushkarevs mixes. I was flashed by real Deep House and Tech House music.

In my early 20s and mid-20s I went to clubs and festival every weekend for clubbing. I went often to a House Club in Zurich, called 'Supermarket'. This club is soon 20 years old! I think several different DJs at different Festivals in different countries shaped my sound. I think at the end it's the whole process, not only one specific DJ or Artist that influenced me.

I understand your DJing, tell us about that?

Yes, I started DJing around age 20 with passion in House, Tech House music. I was always impressed how music can affect people.I remember that I once stood on the Dancefloor of my favorite Club, Club Supermarket (House legends like Kerri Chandler, Mousse T., Dennis Ferrer, DJ Sneak, Doc Martin, etc. played in this club) and swear to myself that I once want to DJing there.

After a few years, I did several own Party series at Supermarket  Club with several international Headliners, the biggest and most famous was 'Sharam' of the duo 'Deep Dish'. Lately, I get e residency at the more underground house music-focused 'Kalimbula' Party at Supermarket Club.

But at the Moment I focus more on my own music and prefer work on my own stuff, learning more about mixing and mastering, rather than playing in Clubs.

As a DJ, What do you think of the commercial dance music?

I think commercial dance music isn't a bad thing.Sometimes it's some kind of a door opener for the sub-genres. Many bigger DJ's in the scene started first with other genres than House or Techno music. See Loco Dice for example.It's a process…Maybe many younger DJ's starting first with playing Beatport Top 100 Tracks, later they dig deeper and deeper, and at the end, they end up with playing Vinyl only sets. So I think commercial dance music isn't a bad thing, and also, how is commercial music defined?

What have you been working on lately?

Before I moved to LA, I finished my first band recording Project with a local band from Switzerland. Here in LA I started again working on my own productions.

Tell us a bit about your workflow at the studio?

Back in Switzerland I had a small project studio that I had measured with wizard and soundproofed on my own. But when I moved to LA, couple of weeks ago, I had only one suitcase for equipment, so I just took the most important stuff with me, that was: MacBook Pro 2010 with Ableton Live / ProTools (for mixing), a couple of Waves Plugins, Audio Interface, Analog Filter Schippmann Ebbe & Flut, Elektron Analog Rytm, Ableton Push, Novation Midi Controller, Pair of Shure Headphones.

But I realized that limitations really can help your creativity: I don't setup Ebbe & Flut or Rytm at the moment.I just worked with Ableton Push and Midi Controller and it is

possible to come up with really good results. So, about my workflow, I produce all my stuff in Ableton, mostly I start with 909 Kit as drumkit, I love old stuff, as bassline, I often use TAL101 plugin or also Rob Papen's Subboom. The main thing for me is, to let bassline and kick 'groove' together.

So I started with an 8 bar loop, add more and more things than I go as soon as possible to arrangement view and start with an arrangement.I recently had created a template for arrangement, so I can work more efficiently because back in the days I had problems that probably every producer once had: create an arrangement out of an

8 Bar loop. Then I have a rough arrangement, after that, I listen to it, decide where I have to put in some fills and create the fills, that could be crashes, fx sounds, reversed files with long reverb tails ect. 

After this process, I bounce the whole track and listen to it away from my DAW. then I take a list that I've created, write down what to fix, for example, 01:30, what to do: 'fill in' / how to do: reverse crash or something, and most important stuff: Timelimit! I repeat this process above a couple of times, and also on later days… After the production side is finished, I export stems and switch to pro tools to mix.

I haven't done something from my tracks mixed now, but I decide to mix as good as possible on my headphones and then rent a good acoustic treated studio here in LA for a couple of hours to finish the premaster there.   

Any habits you have before starting a session, both in the studio and out?

Nothing special, often make a cup of coffee, sometimes during the working process I take a break and go out for a walk to refresh my ears and mind.

What is one of your favorite production technique?

Try to fill the track up with stuff that you can't really hear, but feel. It's hard to explain and I also struggle with it at the moment.

One Free plugin that you recommend?

I really can't recommend one, at the moment I'm fine with Ableton Suite and a few third plugins. :-)

Which 3 plug-ins you can't live without?

TAL101 Plugin, Elektron Overbridge, Arturia Spark Library

Have you made music today?

No, I learned English grammar! :-(

What does the future hold for Silvano Jud in the music industry?

I hope I can get into an internship in a recording studio here in LA. I really want to learn more about mixing/mastering from professionals. Later I hope to release soon my own Productions. I'm still not 100% happy with my own productions and are still on the long 'production journey'.I also want to help other DJ's to co-produce their music that they want and offer mixing and mastering services. But these are my long-term future goals.

Last question, What is your favorite SoundGym Feature and why?

I really like Dr. Compressor a lot. It's the most challenging game for me. I was for a long time on a learning plateau, means I stayed a long time on the same Level. In the last couple of weeks I did improve on this game again and at the moment I am on Level 78.

I have the feeling that this game really has improved my listening skills to the details of music and sounds.

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