David Mayer Is Giving Away the Sounds That Made Him

It may be a bit of an overstatement to say that hype is developing around Berlin techno crew Keinemusik's first sample pack, but Werkzeug Eins by David Mayer is definitely getting attention, and more importantly for the pack's creator, the feedback is exceedingly positive. "It's interesting, because originally this project was for me about creating sounds that first and foremost follow my personal needs and ideas," explains David Mayer, a key crew member. The fact that his loops and samples are appealing to other DJs and producers is a bonus, the last step so to speak.

The first step for David was the fun he had playing around with the modular synthesizer in his friend, NGHT DRPS's studio. In the beginning there wasn't actually anything more to it. "Playful is the keyword here," says David. "Essentially, I just wanted to try out the modular system, and then, after discovering the many possibilities it contains, I learned to love it." David would just try different things out for hours. The better he got to know the machine, the more he was able to get the result he was looking for. However, more often accidents led him to different results, which was what really made things get interesting.

A modular synthesizer consists–as the name implies–of many different modules (some oscillation generators, filters, sequencers and effects), that can be manually combined with each other. In contrast to conventional synthesizers, whose components are hardwired together and therefore by nature serve as tonal presets, modular systems have an inconceivable amount of possibilities and so you can get an infinite amount of sounds out of them.

Percussion sounds were primarily what came out when David Mayer was playing around–sounds that he would use in his own productions. If you know a bit about Keinemusik's discography, then you know that sweeping melodies and rich, synthie basslines aren't really at home there. Normally, a new track begins with toms and claps, David explains, and now he had collected a bunch himself.

The shakers come next, which can instantly give a track a certain groove and therefore breath life into it. David made a bunch of shakers himself, namely by playing with rice, couscous, chickpeas, coffee beans and screws in different containers–ceramic cups, glass, cardboard, wood or metal cans– and then recording the sounds in the studio. "Shakers always convey a direct feeling," David says, "I've also gotten very positive feedback from these sounds."

Then there's the question of whether David Mayer is worried about relinquishing his own sounds–especially the percussion elements, toms and shakers, which are the signature sounds of his label Keinemusik–to anyone willing to pay 25 euros for the sample pack. After all, anyone who kind of knows what they're doing with production software could now replicate Keinemusik tracks. "I don't think that will happen. If it was like that, so many more tracks would sound the same already, because everyone uses sample packs in the end. Most things really begin to develop when producing, cause that's where the real creativity comes out, through the use of effects, filters, pitch and speed," David assures.

The impression that the label Keinemusik has such a characteristic sound arrises from the group dynamic of the five heads behind the label anyways. "It comes from the personalities behind Keinemusik, that can't be plagiarized."

David isn't worried; quite the opposite, he's really excited about what other producers will do with his samples. He principally values his pack in that all the sounds are as crude and raw as possible–filters and effects should be implemented first in the production phase. That's another reason why the sounds from Werkzeug Eins aren't a "basis for plagiarism." But they are an answer to what David has had enough of in his life as a producer–that sounds from sample packs all sound the same, because they're packed to the brim with effects and filters, and therefore leave no from for creative adaptation. "It should be kept super simple, leaving a lot of room for freedom and more importantly for fun."

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