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The Elusive Tones of Wonder FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions)

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What gear do you use to make your tracks?

Fender Rhodes Suitcase 73 (70's Electric Piano), Roland System 100 Model 101 Synthesizer, Roland Jupiter 6, Korg MS10, Native Instruments Battery and Kontakt, Emu e64 Sampler, Roland S50 Sampler, Roland JX-8P (80's analog Synthesizer), Mackie CR1604 mixer and a Lexicon LXP5. Along side that, we use a variety of software packages on Macs and have recently switched to using ProTools and the Digi002 rack for recording audio and midi.
For performing, we're using decks, Octapads, JX-8P, Emu sampler, Ibanez Analogue Delay and Ableton Live.

What types of music do you like?

Drum'n'Bass, Dubstep, House, Breakbeat, Jazz, Dub, Reggae, Old Skool Ska, Trip Hop, Acid Jazz, Hip Hop - much like what you used to hear on Moz'n'Gannet...

What types of music don't you like?

Music with excessive shredding [80's guitarist style overused tricks], cheesy electronic music bereft of phatness, feel and groove, CCM and Country.

Whats wrong with Trance Music?

Did we say there was something wrong with it? Your decision. It comes down to ones own personal taste... But, we don't like too many cheesy synths in house music... gotta have soul...

How long have you been making music?

Well, we've been working on different projects since the mid 90's, stepping it up a few notches when we got our first sampler (Roland S50) back in '98.

Is there anywhere on the web where you have mp3's of work in progress?

The temporary page is www.elusivetones.co.nz/projects.htm. Some of these samples won't be there for long as it is 'work in progress'...

How did you get the name "The Elusive Tones of Wonder"?

Moz: "it occurred to me one night setting up some music gear for worship, but then forgot it! A few months later I managed to recall what it was. At that time we were doing live acid jazz gigs under that name (Moz on Rhodes, Mike on Guitar, Monty on Bass, and various loops on a laptop)"

Who are DJ Doughnut, MC Bus and Gas Man?

They are some people that we know really well, but for their own safety can't reveal their identities...

Why is your album completely orange?

The guy in charge of Grassroots Records (Andrew) came up with the idea, we liked the idea and it progressed from there... It made it easier to find in the stores too :)

Is that really Billy Graham on the song BillyG?

No. Its an aussie preacher that we still don't know the idenity of...
The story goes when Mike was in the band Real, he had a practise tape with songs in progress, but after the songs there were some leftovers of an aussie preacher that ended up being used in the track.

When is the new album coming out?

We've got enough ideas for another album, but to develop these ideas to a satisfactory level takes time. We should have enough completed tracks for another album soon. Hopefully it'll be more of a full length album with more tracks... In the meantime, Moz has been working with Tim Richards making heaps of quality house tracks that are starting to signed up overseas..

Will you put the songs from the upcoming album on mp3.com or your website?

We might put some of the tracks in preview mode on our myspace.com site, and 40 second track excerpts on this website. But we'll probably wait until the new album is eventually released before posting more tracks at amplifier.co.nz.

Any tips for people wanting to make electronic music?

Get a good understanding of the types of music you like first. Too many people might hear a track and then attempt to make one of their own without knowing enough about the style of music first . Know your genres well, then make tracks. Get heaps of feedback from people that'll tell you the hard truth and also give you tips on how to improve your work. Test them out on different stereos and compare with similar tracks from different artists. Try not to use too much chorus and reverb unless you're an old skool 80's producer ;-)

Check out Tastyfresh.com as there are many producers and dj's that might have a listen and give you some good advice. They might even hook you up with some stations if its good enough!

It pays to have a good sampler as these never have the problem of ending up with an outdated sound, unless you still use those... Some good hardware samplers are from Emu and Roland. These can also be taken to live gigs... There are now software samplers available too that are perfect for studio work - check out Battery or Kontakt from Native Instruments for at look at the future of sampling... Get samples from anywhere [legally though] and have a look at Ontology - the ultimate site/ link for sampleheads. Also, get a good analog keyboard with midi as these are fantastic for brewing up phat custom sounds from scratch. Check this article about you wanna be a producer?

Any tips for dj's?

Know your tracks well, get a good ear for timing as beatmixing and matching tracks is an art form and takes time. Moz started out in '96 practising with some old turntables and records and a standard audio mixer. Get yourself a dj mixer instead with a crossfader. The Behringer mixers are okay for starting out with and are not too expensive. Have a look at what most of your tracks are on - are they on cd or vinyl?

If its CD, the standard is the Pioneer CDJ1000. The old standard was Denon decks, these have no delay on their pickup time, have live pitch/time adjusting, sampling and looping with some models, like the DN2500's we still use. CD has big advantages when using your own tracks at gigs, with a bigger number of available tracks and convenient size [compare a crate of 100 records with 100 cds...]

More and more people are using iTunes, juno.co.uk, Beatport.com, Trackitdown.net and others for the latest tracks. There's minimal distribution costs and you get the tracks instantly - one more way to keep ahead of the other DJs..

Many DJs are starting to use Laptops alongside standard gear when playing outside of the studio with software such as Ableton Live. This allows you to rearrange and remix your own tracks in any way imaginable on the fly and mix in other tracks.

If you end up going with Vinyl, go with a turntable with at least a direct drive motor and pitch control. Buy a pair of slipmats if you don't already have some. If you're a bit short on cash, using some woolies plastic bags cut into the size of a record will get you started for for some cheaper turntables [use at least 2 layers with a standard slipmat on top]. For more professional gear, Technics 1200's are the standard, but Vestax, Gemini and a few others make some good gear too. You might find that some tracks come out on vinyl months before getting onto a cd. If you're producing your own tracks, its very expensive to get them onto vinyl...

For more help on dj'ing and beatmixing, memorise this excellent article on Learning to DJ.

 

If you have a question that hasn't been covered here, feel free to email us at elusivetones@email.com

 

 

above, the Pioneer CDJ1000 Mk3, Denon 1800F and the Technics SL1200mkii Turntable