Joerg Huettner

Interview by Rick "Brujo" Wishart.

Sonikmatter swam the River Rhein and traveled deep behind the walls of the Schloß Ahrenthal to find out more about Waldorf guru and wizard Joerg Huettner, a man of many talents and juggler of many hats. Musician, sound designer, A&R of Waldorf Record's "Zeitlos" compilations and head of Product Support at Waldorf and TSi GmbH, Joerg is a man that some of you may already know from his varied work, and now Sonikmatter can cast more light on this cool and clever gentleman. From formal musical training to studio experience at Danse Macabre Studio in Bayreuth, of early personal influential artists to artists he now produces, from inspirational work with the legendary Wave through to sound design for the Waldorf Q and Alesis Andromeda A6, to a 'day in the life' at product support, Joerg covers these and a multitude of other fascinating topics.

SONIK : Could you tell us about your musical background and how you came to work at product support for Waldorf and TSi GmbH?

JOERG : My first experiences in music came with classical piano lessons while I was a young boy. I played for about 6-7 years and at the age of 15 I bought my first synthesizer, a Roland D10 , and started creating my own music over the following years.

After finishing high school I learned all about mixing, recording and music production in a professional recording studio from 1993-1994. After that I worked for a professional studio equipment retailer for about 2 1/2 years and had already started building up my own studio.

At this time I got in contact with Wolfram Franke, my predecessor as product support, and Wolfgang Düren, general manager of TSi and Waldorf Electronics, because I was a big fan of the Waldorf Wavetable Synths - I owned a PPG Wave 2.3 until 1995 and bought a Waldorf Wave back in 1996.

During the years I've also been involved in several records as sound designer and keyboard arranger for studio productions. From 1998 until end of 1999 I took private lessons in theory of harmony and composition, and as the years progressed I owned more and more Waldorf Synths and other TSi gear and kept constantly in contact with them. I worked for Waldorf and TSi during the Frankfurt Music Fair in 1998 and 1999 and did sound design for the Waldorf Q Synth.

Finally, in the summer of 1999 I got a call from Wolfram Franke: TSi was searching for a new product support guy. In September 1999 I started working for the distributor TSi GmbH as freelance product support for the companies Waldorf Electronics (international support), Access (international support), Celemony (international support), Prosoniq (international support) and Novation (support for Germany). Wolfram was aware of the classic piano lessons and private tuition in harmony and composition I'd had, but this wasn't a requirement of the job when it was offered to me, though what I think was the most important credential was my synth background and all the previous work I'd undertaken.

Additionally to my daily job for TSi and doing sound design for other Waldorf gear, I did a sound bank for the Alesis Andromeda in early 2001 and I'm also running my own studio with various music projects. Since the "Zeitlos" compilation and the foundation of Waldorf Records, I'm also taking care of artists and the repertoire of future CD releases.

Pictures of my studio as well as a discography can be seen at http://www.joerg-huettner.com.

SONIK : Do TSi and Waldorf both reside at the Schloß Ahrenthal?

JOERG : Yes, both companies reside at the Schloß Ahrenthal, a castle near the river Rhein, and of course everybody knows each other. TSi is distributor not only for Waldorf Electronics but also for Access Music (Virus Synths), Celemony (Melodyne Software), Propellerheads (Recycle, Reason), Prosoniq (SonicWORX Software, Orange Vocoder, etc.) and Novation (Nova, Supernova, etc.). Novation and Propellerheads are only represented by TSi in Germany while all other companies' international shipments, etc. are also administrated by TSi. This is the reason why I'm doing product support for all of these companies except Propellerheads (this is done by another TSi employee).

SONIK : Who were your early musical influences and what styles did you produce with your Roland D-10?

JOERG : In the early 80's I had started to listen to electronic music, and I still was pretty young at that stage, and the initial track that made me curious about electronic music was "Leave In Silence" by Depeche Mode. My brother bought the single at that time, which I think was approximately 1983, and shortly after that I took my pocket money and bought the album "A Broken Frame" at the age of about 9 years.

Other bands I listened to at that time were Kajagoogoo, Jean-Michel Jarre and also Kiss - yes, those Rock guys with the black and white face paint and the sci-fi clothes...oh my god.....!!!!

When I got the D-10 in 1989 I just started with my own music or with band rehearsals, but nothing particularly special. At the beginning it was a real challenge to program that thing! At that time digital synths with small buttons, small displays and a horrible interface were the "latest" in synth development - no comfortable knob interfaces like today, but I persevered anyway. It took quite some time to get around the D-10 interface and due to the fact that I wasn't able to afford the D-20 with the internal sequencer, I didn't do too much with the D-10 until I bought the MV-30 hardware sequencer from Roland about one to two years later. Now this was the time when I started to writing my own music - a style of electronic pop with some New Wave influences. I had my first professional live gig back in 1992.

SONIK : What music studio did you work at during 1993-94?

JOERG : I worked for the "Danse Macabre Studios" in Bayreuth. Since I knew the owner of the studio already because he signed my band to his label I wasn't just the "apprentice" cooking coffee and cleaning up the studio! Of course I was doing this too, but he also showed me a lot of things from day one onwards including stationing microphones on amps, drums, doing recordings, mixing, using outboard gear, live mixing etc, etc. - all necessary knowledge for work in a studio and for any production. And I also improved my skills regarding synths, samplers and sequencing during the time in the studio.

SONIK : How did you acquire your skills in sound design?

JOERG : I learned all skills about sound design and programming synths with the "learning-by-doing" approach! I always was interested in creating my own style and therefore also my own sounds. To do this it was necessary to know as much as possible about the machines I worked with. So either I read the manuals or simply played around with my gear for quite some time to know all about their features and possibilities. Of course the daily work in the studio and for band projects helped me a lot with this also.

SONIK : Before working for Waldorf, what made their synthesizers so endearing to you?

JOERG : Hmmmm - good question! Of course the sound was the major point for me personally as to why I liked the MicroWave that much. Compared to the interfaces of the other gear we had in the studio, Oberheim Xpander, Jupiter 6, Juno 106, etc., the MicroWave was quite difficult to edit - in other words, it was a challenge and I *like* challenges!!

Sometime in 1994 I went to an equipment shop with the studio boss and saw the Waldorf Wave for the first time. I was quite impressed already, but I really was blown away by its sound when I plugged headphones into it and hit one key. In other words, it was love at first sight !!! It took some more time before I could afford one so I started with a used PPG Wave 2.3 at that time.

SONIK : What synthesizer's do you consider to be classic and/or groundbreaking?

JOERG : Of course the E-mu Systems Emulator II was groundbreaking. They were the first 'affordable' samplers in the early 80's with a price of around 30.000.- DM (around U.S.$14000). And there was the Fairlight CMI 1 which started the whole sampling thing. To be honest I didn't follow the scene from the 70's as I was still a child then so I cannot tell from personal experience which of the old analogs was *THE* groundbreaking machine, though of course the Minimoog must be named here!

Furthermore the first PPG Wavetable Synths started a new era and age with loads of ensuing digital synths. Also its biggest competitor, the DX7, was another "groundbreaking" synth: FM and digital sounds for an affordable price.

Regarding design and sound of course I have to name the Waldorf Wave here. This beast simply rocks and looks so fantastic!! To this day a lot of people still simply stay in front of the unit for the first minutes when entering my studio.

But there are also a lot of synths that could be considered as "classic". I loved the sound of the "Xpander" during my time in the studio as well as the Jupiter 6. Of course the "classic" drum machines like TR-808 and 909 and the TB-303 *BECAME* "classics" due to their enormous use in today's dance music.

Personally, all the modules I use in my studio are somehow "classics" for me since they are my favourite sound devices!

SONIK : What patches did you program for the Waldorf Q and Alesis Andromeda A6?

JOERG : Quite a lot of mine are in the Q's Factory Sets from 1999 onwards. In the latest 2001 set the following are also programmed by me:

• A013 Visions of Q jh Arp


• A020 Cleanline 303 jh Arp


• A023 Vince Clark 3 jh Arp


• A025 EyesWideOpen jh Arp


• A041 Alphaville ?! Jh Lead


• A075 Phazer PWM jh Pad


• A084 HornsOfJerichojh Wave...etc, .etc.

In general, all sounds with my initials at the end of the patch name "jh" denote my programming authorship. As for the A6, I did a complete Sound Bank.

SONIK : How did you come to do programming for the Alesis A6 and what's your impression of this synthesizer compared with the classic Oberheim and Moog synths?

JOERG : The product manager of the Alesis A6 was watching the Waldorf Demo Show I was doing at the Frankfurt Music Fair in 2000 and was quite impressed by the sounds and the music. He then asked me whether I'd be interested in doing sounds for the A6. So we stayed in contact for quite some time and I met him again at NAMM 2001. Since I was interested in the A6 myself I kept on asking about the offer and shortly after the NAMM show I started programming the set!

Now, for quite some time I had wanted to buy some classic analog synths like the Oberheim Xpander, Jupiter 6, etc. when I had some spare cash. After I did the sound bank for the A6 and worked considerably with this "monster" I wasn't interested in the used gear anymore! The A6 does a great job and sounds very good. It's analog and you simply hear it. Of course this synth is anything but cheap but it's worth every penny and it's definitely a good addition to all my other synths, especially the XT and Wave.

Now, as to comparing the A6 with classic analog synths, honestly this is not an easy question for me, since it is quite some time since I had some old analog synths in my hands. Well, if my memory serves me correctly the Multimode Filter of the A6 is a replication of the Oberheim SEM Filter and I've heard from Oberheim users that the A6 gets damn close, and the 2nd filter is a replication of a Moog Filter and this one also sounds very, very close.

SONIK : How do you approach a sound design project?

JOERG : First I explore the new synth if I don't know it's architecture already, and even take a look at the manual and check its features and possibilities. Then I start to tweak the first sounds after I have found either the initial 'function' or 'sound' I'll use to start programming from scratch. I have most of the sounds in my mind when creating a sound bank. But of course there sometimes come up a few sounds "by mistake" which make it into the set after fine-tuning them.

Depending on any demands, like doing sounds for a special music style, I of course work different and keep an eye on the sounds really fulfilling any requirements. If I have to do sound design for music productions I do demos and 'layouts' with any rough mixes I get from the bands and after having a chat with them to see what they, or the producer, wants to get. Obviously this is a totally different kind of sound design.

SONIK : What lead to the evolution of the Waldorf Records Company?

JOERG : In 2000 we released the 'Subout' Electronica Compilation together with a small label, since we still didn't have our own record company. Everything went fine but in the end we had several issues and problems and this lead to the final decision to found our own record company for any future compilation and demo CD releases.

With the production of the 'Zeitlos' Ambient & Chillout compilation, Waldorf Records was also born at the same time. With 'Zeitlos' we'd been searching for a good distributor to be able to publish the CD on the market. Finally a contract was signed with the German distributor Intergroove and the 'Zeitlos' was out in June 2001 and available worldwide in all good record stores. We're already working on the next projects and of course we'll present a new compilation CD called "Zeitlos II" which will be released in March 2002 and will be available worldwide.

SONIK : What is a typical day's work in technical support?

JOERG : After switching on my computer in the morning I start to answer incoming emails (which can be up to 200-250 a day in busy times) and do organisational things for the various companies eg. answering letters and requests, etc. and take care of dealer requests in case they have any questions or gear to be serviced, etc, etc.

Later in the day I'm answering phone calls at the TSi Hotline and still go on with emails. I think nearly 80-90 % of all information "traffic" is done via email nowadays in my position. I think it wouldn't be possible to answer that many questions during the day if I had to write a formal letter for each support issue request!

After 5 pm our time the Hotline is closed and I'm then taking care again of preparing music fairs and promotional tours, CD compilations, keeping contact with the manufacturers we represent, and so on.

Depending on the work pending sometimes I also continue my product support role even into my own studio if I have to prepare a demo for any music fairs or do beta testing. Sometimes we have guests who want to get a short demonstration of our gear or software and so I undertake this also.

As you can see the job is very, very diversified. In other words it is nearly impossible to detail all the different work I have to do since it is not like operating a single handle in a factory!

SONIK : Are there any particularly humorous moments you recall from your role in technical support?

JOERG : Just a while ago I had a Waldorf MicroQ customer on the line claiming his MicroQ was damaged: "I can hear a delay on nearly every sound, no matter what I'm doing.....!" I needed about 10 minutes to explain to him this "delay" was an E-ffect and not a DE-fect on his machine!!!!

SONIK : Are there any particular aspects of Waldorf equipment that you think users should explore more fully?

JOERG : Many users just scratch the surface of the possibilities or do not even program their own sounds even if the user interface 'invites' you to use your creativity for your own patches.

I cannot focus this question on a particular feature, but for the Microwave II/XT Series often the Wavetable Synthesis possibilities aren't used extensively enough and perhaps also the FM functions in the Q.

What makes Waldorf synths outstanding are definitely their sound, filters and extraordinary features you cannot find in other gear (Wavetable technology, Comb Filters, free filter routing, etc, etc.) and of course the easy-to-program interfaces.

SONIK : What do you feel are the fortes of Melodyne and Prosoniq's products?

JOERG : Let's start with Melodyne. Peter Neubaecker, founder of Celemony software already started to think about audio algorithms some years ago and kept on working on his idea about being able to edit audio in a different way than was the case with most audio editors.

I will quote Peter Neubaecker himself from a statement about the development of Melodyne:

"In fact, the basic principles of Melodyne and their first implementation existed quite a time before the idea of a "product" came up. I spend a lot of my time with the question: What IS sound?

The more common notion is that sound is everything that comes to our ears or to a microphone from audible events in outside reality. In this notion, sound is bound to its appearance in time. But in my opinion, we already have a representation of sound if we, for example, have notated music, maybe along with lyrics. We can imagine the sound, and the singer imagines the sound before it really sounds. This representation is independent of time, even independent of absolute pitch. But as soon as a song is recorded, the idea of sound is frozen in time, and is converted to the representation described first.

All audio recording applications so far are based on this first notion, because they are descendants of the tape recorder and MIDI applications are closer to the second notion.

Usually, a recording is understood as a registration of real time events with a 1:1 relation of event time and sound. But we could also understand a recording as a registration of a sequence of local sound states, where the external time only indicates at what "location in time" which sound can be found. Thus we could stay at a certain location in time and listen to that sound there for an arbitrary duration in "external time", or we could run through the given sequence of sound states in an arbitrary way.

As soon as sound and external time become independent of each other, the sound necessarily becomes independent of pitch, too.

The method and algorithm I developed is based on that notion of sound. In other methods, the "frozen stream" of recorded audio material has to be "manipulated" in some way to be brought to a different pitch or time behaviour. In the Melodyne method, the recorded audio material is regarded as a resource of sound that can be played with any pitch and time course, just by reading out the material in the way the "Local Sound Synthesis" technique provides. So far, this applies only to monophonic sources.

After some time of working with the application that was built around that notion of sound, we felt that it could open a completely new experience for musicians not to work with recorded audio as "frozen" material, but with a material that inherently can be reshaped at any time of the composition and production process.

So we dared to found Celemony Software and to make Melodyne a product. In fact, a Melodyne-like application existed for about three years, and it took the last two years to bring it to a stage that we considered a 'product'".

As for Prosoniq Software, their products also have a very high quality and are really professional. Starting already at favourable prices with their Plug-Ins, like the awesome sounding "Orange Vocoder" and their Pitch- and Time-Stretch-Software "TimeFactory", their products always are easy to handle and provide perfect algorithms and features. The "SonicWORX Powerbundle" Software is the perfect tool for sound design as well as mastering (since the Powerbundle combines SonicWORX Artist and Studio) with real-time as well as offline Plug-Ins. If you're running a MAC, this software is highly recommended.

SONIK : Which artists or tracks do you admire for their innovative use of Waldorf or Access synths?

JOERG : There are quite a lot of artists and thus it would be too 'narrowed' to only talk about some of their special songs / compositions!

Of course there's Nine Inch Nails. I really like their sound, their great productions as well as their sounds and fx they're creating. Trent is a fan of the Virus and Charlie Closer (keyboarder) of the Waldorf gear. Of course they are using gear of both companies in their productions.

O.k. - from industrial to film scores: Hans Zimmer is a great composer and also using Waldorf and Access synths. I think I don't need to add any further comments on his work. He's simply great.

Then there's Leftfield. They are more into Dance, but they're still not doing 'normal' and 'charts' stuff. They have a very good combination of hard and spacey sounds throughout their records and I think they're innovative at the same time. I remember their video for "Original" which included shots of the Wave.

Tori Amos. Yes, there are also women out there using synths, though unfortunately there are only a few. On her "To Venus And Back" record you clearly can hear Wavetable-Sounds. If I'm correct I think she used a Wave on this record and she did the programming herself.

And there are far more out there working with Access and Waldorf gear and doing a great job....!

SONIK : What artists do you consider have had a significant influence on your musical styles?

JOERG : Well, of course Depeche Mode was one of my fundamental influences in the early years. Or, more precisely, they made me interested in electronic music and synthesizers in general.

Years later I got influences by a lot of different industrial bands like Skinny Puppy for instance. With the years of working for the music industry and making my own music my taste in general got far beyond one specific style. Today I'm listening to a very wide range of music starting with BigBeat, TripHop, good Pop records, R'n'B, Ambient, loads of film scores, NuMetal, etc.etc. - It simply has to be good and well produced. Also classic and Jazz records are finding their way into my CD-Player!!

Just to give you an overview: the last CDs I bought have been: Björk, Kosheen, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Depeche Mode, Aaliyah, Linkin Park, and many more.

SONIK : What 10 CD's would you choose to take if you went for an extended stay on a 'Desert Island'?

JOERG : Only 10? That doesn't seem fair!

In alphabetical order:

• Aaliyah - "Aaliyah" - great R'n'B album - unfortunately she's not alive anymore.
• Barber, Samuel - "Adagio For Strings" - this is just one track and it can be found on several compilations and recordings of Barber's work. This is one of the best classic tracks from the 20th century. Some may know it from the O.S.T. "Apocalypse Now".
• Björk - "Verspertine" - little, crazy girl and a great new album. She's great.
• Depeche Mode - "Exciter" - their music made my interest in electronic music and synths, so... ...and I like the new CD.
• Depeche Mode - "Violator" - a classic.
• Hans Zimmer - O.S.T. "Thin Red Line" - he got an Oscar nomination for this score - fantastic.
• Linkin Park - "Hybrid Theory" - great "new metal" album - I like the songs, the songwriting, the voice....in short: the whole CD is great!
• Massive Attack - "Mezzanine" - triphop/downbeat at its best. The CD has a great mood and an innovative sound.
• Nine Inch Nails - "The Fragile" - fabulous production, great sounds and you're forced to listen to it several times to get used to it - that's what I like on good CDs.
• Waldorf Records - "Zeitlos" Compilation - this was obvious wasn't it?? All included artists did a great job on this record.

Are you sure I really cannot take more with me???!!!!

SONIK : What do you see as the defining characteristics of today's various electronic music genres?

JOERG : The synths of course!

Well, a lot of electronic genres get mixed up these days. So you can find elements of various genres nearly in all professional recordings. There's drum'n'bass mixed with pop (kosheen), pop spiced with industrial elements, ebm mixed with dance, etc, etc.

In *good* electronic music these days you will find 'crossover' productions of different genres and the combination of new and unheard sounds as well as a well done assortment of sounds and fx.

Synths are there for being creative and not just making a copy of the latest no.1 hit and the sounds used in there.

Also more and more bands are combining real instruments with electronic stuff. That's what I think is the most interesting development these days.

SONIK : In your own studio what are your favourite programs and VST/DX plug-ins?

JOERG : All the music and productions I'm working on now, and I did in the past, were done with Steinberg's Cubase. Right now I'm using Cubase 5.1 VST/32 and I like to do song writing with the program.

Since I'm also working a lot with vocal and other real recordings I'm thinking about getting a more professional audio editing software. I will probably get Nuendo since I can import my Cubase songs into it.

My most favourite Plug-Ins to process audio files are the Waves 3.0 Bundle, which I use extensively for recordings. They are of excellent quality when talking about compressors, de-essers, etc, etc., and of course their effect Plug-Ins are great, too.

For weird audio processing I prefer the D-Pole. It's not only great for filtering but also for really getting LoFi out of HiFi!

I'm not working much with instrument Plug-Ins yet since I need nearly all the CPU Power of my G4 for processing vocals, etc. but the Waldorf Attack is a great tool when you need electronic drums and want to tweak them on your own.

SONIK : What music are you producing at the moment?

JOERG : Presently I'm producing a german hip-hop band, "Die Besucher" (which means 'the visitors'), and I think we can start searching for a label pretty soon.

We just did another studio session for recording vocals at the weekend and another session will be pretty soon.

I'm doing all the recordings with a tube mic into my 03D desk and via an RME Hammerfall card and Cubase VST32 5.1 into my G4 computer. For this project I'm doing the whole production, sound design and the music. But the band comes up with all the lyrics (which is a very important part in hip-hop) and basic rhythm ideas.

I'm also working on the sound effects for a stop motion movie right now. It is just a couple of minutes, but still there is a lot of work to do for only 7 minutes of film.

My next project will be the new album of "Saros" (the latest track was released on the Waldorf Records "Zeitlos" compilation), my own ambient /chillout project.

I'm also producer for a German industrial project ("Skorbut" = scurvy), and I have my own BigBeat/DownBeat/Progressive Electronic project ("Boon").

Furthermore, I do music for promotional ads (throughout all musical styles) and also did some techno/goa stuff before. Basically I'm not limited to a certain music style, but of course there are some styles I don't like at all, like country or "Volksmusik" as it is called in German, for instance.

Once a year I also do sound design and keyboard arrangements for a Metal group called "Ever Eve".

SONIK : What's your personal reaction when you hear your music played in a club or when you do a gig and the crowd responds positively?

JOERG : This is an amazing feeling, especially if the people really like it and the dance floor or concert location is filled. It is a mixture of feeling good, proud and a relief at the same time for not getting tomatoes and beer bottles thrown at you...!

It is also a sort of "reward" for all the hard work you did to finish a production or album.

Playing in front of a large crowd is an especially amazing feeling. The largest gig I ever had was in front of 3,000 people as headliner of a festival in Germany back in 1998.

SONIK : Thanks for your time and an interesting interview!

JOERG : You're very welcome.

February 2002