SoundOnSound magazine recently featured a lengthy interview with Hal Ritson on techniques used to get the characteristic vocal sounds of Deep House music, with case studies taken from Duke Dumont’s Blase Boys Club Part 1 EP.
“Hal Ritson is one of the most in-demand producers on the deep-house scene. Here, he reveals the secrets behind the genre’s distinctive vocal sounds.
“A vocal that doesn’t have some level of electronic manipulation in it somehow doesn’t feel like it belongs in electronic music. You have to do something… Electronic production is all about using technology to create sound. If you haven’t used the technology, it feels like you’ve got an acoustic session vocal guesting in the middle of an electronic track. It doesn’t feel like it belongs there.” So says Hal Ritson, the multi–talented songwriter, producer and multi–instrumentalist who has spent the last 15 years making the world of electronic music a more interesting place. From his original releases, mash–ups and remixes as half of the Young Punx, to the exacting sample replays he’s created for some of the biggest dance and urban artists as Replay Heaven, Ritson combines acoustic and electronic elements with considerable flair and imagination, not so much straddling the divide as completely obliterating it. In recent years, he has provided additional production to a range of electronic artists, including deep-house DJ and producer Duke Dumont.
Hal Ritson’s studio — in the old Stock, Aitken & Waterman studios in London — with outboard and software both in easy reach courtesy of Ritson’s Zaor studio furniture.“I work with quite a lot of electronic producers this way, where they’re in charge of the overall aesthetic and they are hands–on…” READ MORE
