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Artist Profile: Christopher Wade Damerst
Cakewalk: Can you tell me about your background? Christopher: I started working in my father's recording studio and playing guitar when I was 13 years old. I was constantly surrounded by music and learned a great deal. I bought my first LinnDrum in 1983, built my first MIDI computer in 1984 and started composing electronic music. While in college I mixed house sound for War and Shelia E. After that I started an independent record label and began sharpening my skills as a producer, composer, engineer, and mixer. CW: How did you get your break? Christopher: I had produced a song for the Exies debut album on Ultimatum Records. They wanted me to produce demos for them to shop for a new record deal, which I recorded out of my home studio. Those demos helped the Exies get a record deal with Virgin and gave me a foot in the door. Subsequently, Matt Serletic gave me my first real break by hiring me to do drum programming and looping for the Exies and Willie Nelson. Matt has been continually generous by placing me on other high profile projects. CW: Congrats on 2 Grammy Wins last year. What was going through your head when you found out you won? Christopher: The first thing I thought was "What serendipity, this will look good on my resume." Frankly, I was very fortunate to work with two previous Grammy winning producers and artists. CW: Could you talk a little about the work you did with Willie Nelson & Robin Williams that won you the Grammy Awards? Christopher: I was at Record Plant doing some heavy drum programming, looping & keyboards on the Exies Inertia and Matt Serletic was there mixing Willie Nelson's The Great Divide. Matt asked me if I would do some loops for Willie to give the song a little more movement and power in some of the changes. I ended up doing some percussion loops in the verse and big tribal tom-toms in the bridge. Luckily, I was able to step in and accomplish what they needed, and in the end it worked out for me. On Robin Williams, Peter Asher was producing Grim Rapper for Live 2002. Noel Golden asked me to come into Conway Studios to do some MIDI drums and bass parts. I have established a good relationship with Noel having worked with him on numerous projects in the past. During the session I used SONAR, I placed Mary Hopkin's vocal into a track, and MTC'ed it to Pro Tools for the string section with the cimbalom to play against. It was a fun session because I was able to chat with Peter about Peter & Gordon, Paul McCartney, the Beatles, and the crazy 60's. CW: Your most recent remix for Virgin, Baby, I'm in Love by Thalia, was completed in SONAR 2.2. Could you describe your process for creating a remix? Christopher: Well, with the remix of Thalia's song for example, I was given the Pro Tools Session with all the tracks from the album version on DVD. I converted the Sound Designer 2 files to Wave files at 24/48 like the original session. Then I imported all the 70-some files into a SONAR session and picked about 3 original tracks I really liked, a digi-synth thing, a pizzicato string melody and some chimes, along with all of the vocals tracks. I archived the rest of the tracks in SONAR just in case Virgin needed some of them in the final mix. I began hacking away at a new style drum groove using a bank of samples I made in Kontakt and put the Waves L1 on it for some pump. I used the EM1 and the ER1 for percussion rhythms and some low-end sounds. I programmed a thick bass sound on the Nord, tracked a new bass line; and used the microKorg for some extra bass licks. I also used the Nord for a square wave keyboard part. I hunted around for some modern synthesizer strings to represent some of the song's original sampled string melodies. I tried various plug-in synthesizers, ended up programming a sound into the Pro53 for one melodic part and Rewired to Reason for a smooth Malstrom pad. I used Project5's Tempo Sync Delay and Classic Phaser plug-ins on the individual tracks to give the strings a good swirl. On Thalia's 10 or so lead and backing vocal tracks I added Waves Renaissance EQ, Renaissance Compression as well as Project5's HF Exciter and Tempo Sync Delay, to accomplish a rich texture. After burning all my external MIDI tracks as audio tracks, this gave me everything I needed to make a mix. I then began adjusting levels in SONAR to get a good balance of drums, percussion, basses, keys, strings, lead vocals, and backup vocals. Utilizing SONAR's automation capabilities I was able to obtain proper dynamics for the structure of the song. Ultimately, I was not vibin' with the original tempo of 83 so I time compressed all the original tracks from Pro Tools to a tempo of 89, re-imported them back into the session and changed the tempo in SONAR to match. Since all the tracks I had composed were still MIDI instruments or virtual instruments everything sped up nicely, including the all Tempo Sync Delays and Phasers. I re-burnt my MIDI down to audio tracks. I exported the mix to a wave file and that's what I submitted to Virgin. CW: Thalia, the Rolling Stones, Crash Radio, Robbie Williams, the Exies, Keith Urban, Beenie Man, Pink, Santana, that's quite a list of credits. Would you care to comment on which of these projects were your favorites and why? Christopher: I am into R&B music, so I would have to say Beenie Man. It was a great experience because it was very intimate. I was able to work closely with Beenie Man, Matt Serletic, and Peter Mokran. I really like working with people of different back grounds because of their diverse input. CW: You've made a quite a name for yourself with your innovative drum programming and looping techniques. Do you have any tips or tricks for SONAR users on drum programming? Christopher: Your basic goal is to make the drummer sound amazing, and not be afraid to change things to make it interesting. Sometimes you may find happy accidents. Try experimenting with the plug-ins. When you add all these different elements together you begin to make it your own. CW: How long have you been using Cakewalk products? Christopher: I think since Cakewalk 5 or 6. I've done somewhere
in the vicinity of 10 albums and numerous songs with Cakewalk SONAR. CW: What are your favorite things about working with SONAR? Christopher: Tracking and graphic editing in SONAR is a breeze. The MIDI editing is fast and easy to use. It's remarkable that VSTi and DXi exist in one system. The ReWire implementation is very tight and quick. The user interface is clean and immediate. What other system does all these things, and does it this well? CW: How about Project5? Christopher: I love using Project5 because I have all the tools I need to start creating tracks. Easy switching between instrument controls, and a wide variety of plug-ins in one package. The MIDI is easy to edit just like SONAR. Pattern based editing is like second nature to me. And I dig the fact that it makes hardware obsolete. CW: Do you use a control surface with SONAR? Which one? And how do you like it? Christopher: Not yet. Hopefully soon, because I think computers are now fast enough to replace mixing boards. CW: What features are you excited about in SONAR 3? Christopher: The new interface, real-time control like Project5 (no pauses), Lexicon Pantheon Reverb, Ultrafunk Sonitus:fx Suite, per-channel EQ's, and new and very sweet universal bus architecture (goodbye mixing console!). CW: How does Cakewalk software factor into your workflow? Christopher: It is the center of my workflow. If I didn't use SONAR things wouldn't flow well as they do. Believe me, I've tried other systems and I never want to go back to tape again. I am very comfortable with SONAR. I am to the point where I don't have to leave the software in an entire session to complete a song because everything needed to create is at my fingertips. Everything is incorporated so well into SONAR you don't have to think about anything but the creative process. CW: What plug-ins are you favoring these days? Christopher: Moog Modular V, Kontakt, Pro53, Antares Tube, Waves, all the Project5 plug-ins because they sound great and sync to tempo. Also, I've got my eye firmly planted on the FXpansion BFD, Arturia CS-80V, and the UAD-1 Plug-Ins Card. CW: Do you have any tips, techniques or advice you would like to share with musicians who want to make music on the PC? Christopher: Assemble a loaded PC with as much memory as you can afford, add a nice soundcard and a USB keyboard controller. Personally, I always build my own super systems. Then buy yourself a standalone system like Project5 and you'll have an instant studio. When you are ready to start tracking vocals or guitars, get a good mid-priced condenser mic and little mixer with clean pre's. Then setup SONAR and ReWire it with Project5 and start tracking. Experiment with the plug-ins, try to figure out what they do and how they work, and you'll end up with some really great sounding tracks. Believe me; records can be made this way nowadays. CW: How about some advice on getting and doing remix, production or engineering work? Christopher: Try interning at a studio to gain experience; there are plenty of studios that would love to have someone working for them for free. Get as much knowledge as you can under your belt so that you stand out in the sea of competition. Start by creating tracks and recording artists to get your name out there, even if you have to do it for free. Your abilities and specialties are what will ultimately get you work. CW: Who are your creative influences and what are you listening to lately? Christopher: My influences are the Beatles, Kraftwerk, XTC, Sly & the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Tomita, Thomas Dolby, Gary Numan, Whodini, Elvis Costello, Sabbath, AC/DC, Buddy Holly, Dr. Dre, and Timberland. I've been listening to Self, Queens of the Stone Age, Slayer, Beyonce, Roni Size, Tricky, J Majik, Neptunes, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Bo Diddly, Meat Beat Manifesto, Polyphonic Spree, and a lot of my loops playing around and around and around. CW: Do you have a personal philosophy about music? Christopher: Leave your ego at the door, do what's best for the
song in terms of quality, detail and integrity. And lastly, have a good
time! Visit www.christopherdamerst.com for more information on Chris and to hear examples of his work.
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