In addition to his production masterclass (check the studio section), Steve 'Dirty Bass' Voidloss takes a little time out to tell us all about his career in music to date. Performer, label owner, producer, mastering engineer.... Does this guy ever sleep? Tony C attempts to find out!

1) Hey man, for those who aren’t aware, can you tell us a little about who you are and what you’re involved in?

Right’o! Well, I’m Steve V and I produce techno, house and dubstep as Dirty Bass, and dark-techno/IDM as Voidloss. I run Dirty Bass Records, Singularity Recordings, and Dirty Bass Grooves, as well as playing live techno (and other electronica) on a regular basis I also run a mastering studio..... and I'm involved in the Level-1 music network and club T.E.D nights. Occasionally when I get the chance, I sleep. :)
2) It stands to reason that you have been involved in the techno scene for many years, can you tell us, through your eyes, a little about how the scene has evolved since you first got involved?

Well, I first got involved in techno in the late 90`s (before then I was doing industrial music in bands, kind of mixing industrial, with the more ravey sounds of Prodigy and Underworld) in the free party/illegal warehouse scene, running parties as part of the United Systems free party network in London. I’ve always been more drawn to the underground side of any scene, but I have somehow ended up also floating about in the commercial side too, by accident. The scene has changed quite a lot, although I’m not sure it has evolved as such that much. The big change is that the dance music bubble of the 90’s finally burst, as media attention moved on to newer ground, and live music bands became the fashion again.

This has made the scene all over smaller, and so Techno, being a niche of dance music, has gotten smaller, but also more underground, which is cool in my eyes. Technology has changed, and the download culture has really killed the vinyl market, but there are other ways to play the music, so that’s not too bad. The music has split, fragmented and changed with minimal being the current commercial big hitter in techno, as it is closer to house and more palatable for average Joe. Technology has allowed the music to advance also, so overall the scene has changed in good and bad ways, but not as much as you would have thought. I’m still happy.

3) Do you, or did you, DJ traditionally in the past or have you always tried to incorporate live elements into your performances?

Well, I first started playing techno in the warehouse scene. I used to play live Acid Techno and Techno on hardware, eventually my mates threw me on the decks, and I took to it like a duck to water, so I ended up DJing for hours at our parties, every week. It was relentless, but I learned to play on a sound system, rather than at home like most, and so I got very good, very fast. I could almost mix in my sleep. A lot of people in the real underground scene were really good though. I did get cocky towards the end of my involvement in the scene and sometimes I could be seen playing 3 decks along with my live PA. Haha, such a show off.

4) Over the last few years software like Ableton Live has revolutionised opportunities for performers. Do you think artists in the techno scene are leading the way in this respect?

No, not really. Oddly enough, outside of minimal, the techno scene has remained staunchly vinyl based, and resistant to new technology. I find this incredibly odd, as techno has always been based around technology. The change is happening slowly, but in all other areas of dance music, people have embraced all the new technologies far more quickly. For ages I have been one of the few regular people gigging Live PA’s in the techno scene and even now there aren’t that many of us. You are starting to see more people in techno taking up digital DJing now though, which is good, as it opens up so many opportunities for creativity. 

5) Can you tell us some juicy details about your live PA? (Its understandable that you might want to keep some secrets though hehe)

Well, I’m not secretive about my PA at all, I’ve taught a lot of people how to implement a live PA, and in fact, the club night I am involved in (Club TED) is all live PA’s, no DJ’s, and I’ve helped a lot of the performers develop their PA’s. I could go on in a super nerdy way about this forever, but I’ll try to be brief.

I run Ableton live on a PC laptop, and control it with a Behringer BCF2000 midi controller. I run 8-12 channels of audio parts at any given time, along with 3 channels of VSTi synths, and a whole bunch of effects over individual channels and the master channels. The only real secret is the way I set up my master channel effects to get a real phat sound. Essentially I can play any of my tracks, in any order, and have a loose structure to my PA`s (with control over all individual parts), but I can go off the map at any time and go into pure improvisation, if I feel like it.

6) So you’re obviously a fan of Ableton? Have you ever considered dabbling in NI’s Traktor or Traktor Scratch?

Not really. I stopped mixing on decks about 5-6 years ago, as I lost interest in it. Mixing on decks to me is a mechanical hurdle you need to deal with in order to do the creative part of DJing, which is song selection, and the act of mixing itself. Whilst it’s a fun thing to do occasionally, I have no desire to play with decks any more. If I were to go back into DJ’ing I would use Ableton, and in fact I do make mixes on Ableton of other people’s stuff, for my own pleasure to listen to at home, or on my MP3 player whilst travelling. But really, there are enough DJ’s in the scene, and I’ll leave those who still have a real passion for it to get on with it, I don’t need to add to their number.

7) Finally, thanks for your time and do you have any parting words of advice for anyone thinking of getting into digital based performance?

No problem, my advice? Just do it. If you really want to get into it, the technology has been designed to allow you to focus on creativity rather than mechanical tasks, so experiment and practice, practice, practice! Ignore the haters and do your thing, digital based performance is the future happening now, and for it to survive, techno must always be at the leading edge of the blade.