Mike Frade co-founder & creator of Waveform Recordings sample packs, has now launched a new web-store and sample company Raw Loops. Waveform is a staple in almost any underground producers sample library, the imprint carved out an impressive niche in the sample game giving many producers top quality samples to work with. Using this tried and tested formulate, Raw Loops owner & creator Mike Frade has launched this boutique web shop for the mega-underground producer/DJ. So we though why not interview our own boss? – Raw Loops Team
What are Raw Loop Sample Packs about? And why did you start a new imprint when you own a highly successful one already? (Waveform Recordings)
The idea really came about to create a sample company with a webstore dedicated to a more pure & ‘raw’ underground sound so that producers could have a true one-stop boutique location for everything they need to produce quality tracks and to prevent an insane amount of wasted studio time running around searching for packs through stores that are really difficult to navigate and find anything, cause at this point the market is so over-saturated that its hard to distinguish and find anything of real quality anymore.
What will be of Waveform Recordings regarding sample packs?
Waveform is now focusing more on the record label side of things and not on sample packs anymore. We may release one or two here and there but definitely not our focus, the sample pack focus is entirely here on RAW LOOPS. Our efforts are to build a real underground community of producers who are only interested in producing top quality underground music.
The Producer community talks about analog vs. digital production frequently. How do you feel about the ‘plastic sounding’ music being released recently?
Both sides have their pros and cons really…The analogs strength is the digital’s weakness and digital strengths are the analog weakness’…I definitely don’t just use one method to produce the packs I’m constantly using both and going back and forth to be constantly creating different sounds, textures and tones. For me the real answer when writing tracks is always using the best sounding samples and working them or manipulating them when needed to create the sound that you want, which makes for a faster production process and a better result in my opinion. Being a pure analog head is great for someone who doesn’t really want to be a professional DJ and artist constantly writing new music and truly breaking boundaries musically. The problem with analog is your essentially limited by your gear and if you only have a few pieces your sound will start to sound the same over and over and over, and you’ll get boring quick as an artist, the analog sound is great but its flexibility is weak, its true power is as a lower to your sounds and music. Even guys that work out of the box are still using samples in a sample based machine or something like it, so the need for samples in music will never change especialy electronic music which is highly sample based in the first place. Not to knock any piece of kit over another but for instance the new Akai Rhythym Wolf Drum Machine I’m sure it sounds great but at best you’ll get a track or two out of it before your fans get bored of you and you get bored of yourself. Thats the weakness for me its gets boring to constantly make the same style kick and snare and hi-hats over and over again, ok some slight pitch differences or other tweaks but your tone is always the same out of a machine like that. It gets boring and the music is not exciting after one or two tracks. I am personally, extremely into sound design and new sounds therefore the best tracks out there always have that element to them…. very rare a straight 808 record gets me excited anymore.
What piece of advice can you give to an aspiring producer out there who is trying to make it in music?
Producing high quality music with top marketing. This is really the answer you want to do anything in life. Producing music and Djing is no different, High Quality product with Great Marketing is the key to success. Put forth your best and go out an sell it.
What will be the future of Raw Loops?
Basically pushing on and creating more new and fresh sounds, but most importantly trying to inspire everyone that comes to our store. Opening up our product line is important to me too, so from samples, to presets, many more ableton raxx, midi packs, more analog shuffle packs and whatever else I feel producers could use to make their studio process easier, more enjoyable, and just tools to make us all sound better from the creative process to the mixing process, beat-making to song writing. Our core will always be samples for sure as in my opinion they are the most important part of your music period. Bad samples, bad music no way around it, everything else are just tools to aid us to manipulate the samples. Lastly, Id like to give a major THANK YOU to all of our current users for their support and all those to come in the future without you this wouldn’t be possible. That’s why we have made customer support a big priority here and work hard to fix any problems you guys may have with the site, it’s a bit of a work in progress for the store, we are artists here first not programmers so please bare with us lol. If you are one of the few who have had any issues.. Please feel free to email us at info@rawloops.com anytime for customer support or just to say what up! we are always around.
