| Kraftwerk
have released their first album since 1991 on August 4 - an album long-awaited
by their many fans around the world. "Tour de France Soundtracks" entered
the German charts at number 1 the week it was launched, and was in the Top
20 in several other countries. |
| The
album features all new material, created and produced in an entirely new
way for Kraftwerk. "We've been trying a lot of new
things and the virtual technologies were key to that", says Fritz
Hilpert. "We all have an "old-school" studio background
where lots of cables and complex connections are required before anything
goes. Working with virtual setups has changed all that". |
| Kraftwerk
have used completely virtual setups for the first time on their recent live-events
in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Japan and Australia, and found it to be a
liberating experience. "The total-recall, power and
portability aspects have convinced us completely", comments Hilpert". |
| The
album "Tour de France Soundtracks" was produced on a networked computer
setup with a PC running Steinberg Cubase SX and TC PowerCore PCI as heart
of the system. Kraftwerk are the first artists worldwide to make use of
the new TC Helicon VoiceModeler for PowerCore, having received an exclusive
pre-release copy. "It is a great tool to transform
voices completely", comments Hilpert. "We used
VoiceModeler to create these whispery voices in the chorus on the track
"Elektrokardiogramm". We have also used the Waldorf D-Coder on that track
to create this pitched drum sound. It works really well on drums, because
it can produce very punchy, metallic sounding percussion and it has excellent
modulation features". MegaReverb,
ClassicVerb and a vintage Quantec unit are the only reverbs used on the
album. "We like MegaReverb's natural sounding room
impressions, especially for percussive material. It creates defined spaces
rather than blurring the sound picture", he adds. "PowerCore
has played an important role in our production process, as it allowed us
to run hi-end tools inside our native virtual setups, without clipping the
CPU or having to get connected to our outboard gear all the time. In
preproduction and when processing samples and voices for the album, I've
also used the TC Native Bundle's dynamic processors and EQs, especially
the DeX, quite a bit". |
 |
| TArticle
originally found at
TC
Electronics site |
|
