Plugged In: Martin Dawson

Plugged In: Martin Dawson

13 January, 2011 | 7.17AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News : king roc, martin dawson, plugged in, two armadillos

Martin Dawson only began releasing under his own name last year, but he’s no newcomer: he’s been turning (house) heads for four years as part of Two Armadillos, his duo with Secretsundaze’ Giles Smith, while Dawson’s King Roc alias has spent the better part of a decade exploring virtually every corner of UK dance music, from breaks to progressive to deep house.

We asked Dawson to participate in our “Plugged In” feature, because we know the guy knows his way around a recording studio. Instead of singling out just one piece of gear, though, Dawson treated us to an in-depth look at his creative process, which we’re thrilled to be able to present to you here. Read on, and take notes!

Sample pleasures

My background in music was originally playing guitar. I joined a techno band and learned how to produce by watching those guys. For some reason when I started writing on my own I always found the keyboards I had didn’t sound the way I wanted them to, so instead I started becoming a sample freak.

Most of what I do is made by samples, and I go hunting a lot for them. It’s easier now with all of these sample packs you can buy, but most of these sound very digital and FM to me. So I guess I would say my main instrument is my sample library—which, I must add, is meticulously organized. Most the guys I work with are amazed at how anal I am with this part of my studio. It makes a big difference as I can find the sounds I am thinking of very quickly, which keeps the creative process moving more quickly—which is one of the most important things for me.

I have a mini LP coming in February next year on Moodmusic, and 90% of the sounds in the tracks are samples that I have collected. It’s really good fun to get a nice chord sample and lay it across a key group on a sampler. Then when you play a riff, it has this really old-school feel, like from back in the ‘90s, which I really love. I either do that or I put two or three sounds together to make a melodic pattern. That’s pretty much the core of how I make the themes of the tracks I work on.

I actually just made a King Roc sample pack for Loopmasters, which ended up being pretty big at 800MB. It’s full of loops that I have made mostly out of my sample library. I think it is fair to say I have almost every drum sound that you can get. If you want to get a better idea of this you can really hear it in the Sunday Smoking LP or most of the Two Armadillos tracks I have done.

Tickling the ivories

The next thing that I have that is important to my creative process is my Yamaha electric piano. I work out all of my melodies and harmonies on this, even down to tuning the samples I am working with. Playing some keys on this is a really good way to get some idea going for the kind of mood you want for the track you are working on. But I must say this is more when I am working on more album-based material.

I also pick up my guitars a lot. I am working on a bunch of tracks at the moment for my next King Roc album, and a lot of it sounds more like a kind of punk dance band because of the live bass, guitars, and drum sounds. I actually have several creative processes to write music. I find this is important to keep the experience fun and interesting. Working with the piano and guitars is more for the song-structured tracks, whereas working with samples is more for the club tracks.

Keep it warm

To create the analogue warmth I sum my digital output through a TL Audio Fat Track. It’s a very simple but effective valve amp mini desk with two mono inputs with EQ and four stereo inputs that run with a flat signal. I record my final track versions through this. It’s not super cheap but a very good way to create some warmth in the final mix of the tracks. You will hear this all in my releases… hopefully!

Martin Dawson

King Roc

Two Armadillos

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