Kurp undeniably stands as an artist who has discovered his distinctive style over the course of his eight years on Audiotool, and it's truly remarkable. His subtle use of the waveshaper to delicately graze his pads is a trademark Kurp technique, infusing his tracks with an unmistakable atmospheric richness. His music, with its organic and analog feel, works harmoniously with industrial-ish Techno rhythms, crying pads, and hypnotic arpeggios. This combination creates a captivating sonic experience that blends technical expertise, profound musical comprehension, and heartfelt emotion. For good reason Kurp is considered one of the record holders when it comes to visualized track features. His music is just perfect for overlaying unsettling, psychoactive visuals. [Editor’s note: 622 tracks. WTH?]

Interview:

About kurp

Greetings from Lithuania. I have been on audiotool since 2015 or 8 years. Currently I am 20 I have other hobbies like programming but I mostly focus on music. Favorite pizza style? Chicken and onions all the wayyy

Describe the style of music you produce

My style of music changes as I go on. It used to be little electro doodles, then techno, then electro tracks then cinematic pieces. I create melancholic music alot of the time, it just sounds the most comforting. The only constants are use of arpeggiators, simple waves (sawtooth mainly), delays/reverbs and distortion. My biggest inspirations are Lorn and Floating Points

What is your musical background and when did you start making music?

Audiotool is my music background :-P I started using Audiotool 8 years ago, which means I have been on since I was 12 years old. I have not much else to say except this is where it all started for me. Completely self taught, I neglect to look at any tutorials, I feel like I would start to create what everyone else is making if I use tutorials. All my 8 years of history on Audiotool is completely here for everyone to see. Not a single track is hidden, all stuff from day 1 is there for you to see.

What is your favorite Audiotool device and why?

The Matrix was the best thing that happened to me. It allowed me to create arpeggios with much more ease. And the random function is a godsend for art-block.

What is your favorite trick in AT/What technique do you always use?

For some reason adding a Waveshaper to something just makes it sound a lot better. I don't know why, but that's how it is. And if you have a long release envelope for your synth it makes some nice harmonic sounds depending on what notes you use. Or maybe I am deaf and it sounds terrible haha, I don't know

Have you ever had a writer's block? If so, how did you deal with it and what do you recommend to your colleagues?

I cannot remember the last time I had art block, maybe 2 years ago. My recommendation is to prevent it from happening.

I think the reason why art block occurs is for many reasons. You develop a personal relationship with your draft and don't want to upload something that is unfinished or not suitable for your standard of quality. I say just stop caring about that, do whatever is the most fun. An idea can't bring you to space, you need to let go if you can't think of a single thing to add to your draft. The important thing is that you had some fun creating it, now it cannot bring you any more enjoyment, now just let everyone else listen to it. I put all my demo drafts in an album called "demo mixes" it's all my drafts I could not bring myself to finish demo mixes . The rest of my music is created within two weeks or a week, over 4 hours in total not including breaks and days in-between. I recommend the same workflow, don't spend more than two weeks on the same draft.

Or another reason could be that you are just sick of doing the same things over an over again or you are probably burnt out from forcing your music out. I recommend listening to music if you aren't already doing so. But not just your regular music, something else, a new artist maybe. music.youtube.com has a radio feature which allows you to listen to similar music to your favorite song or artist. Maybe you will hear something that catches your ear and you want to incorporate into your music. And I guess the most obvious answer is just wait, continue opening and closing the daw... Eventually you will find a new sound to work with.

What has helped you the most on Audiotool to improve and widen your musical horizon?

I learned the best through remixing other people's stuff. I did this for a few years until I finally decided to start creating my own stuff, I wouldn't use presets or anything since I wanted to make my own sounds. The biggest inspirations to me were opaqity and looks (luxior) Their music had so many ideas within them and it was not just about sound design, but adding melodic stuff throughout their music in a way so that it does not sound like it repeats over and over. I failed to understand this until recently that, that is what makes good music sound good. You could make music with just three pulvs and percussion and you can still make it sound good as long as you choose some great chords and put in nice music ideas. Having simple sound design can be an aesthetic.

What do you like most about Audiotool? Is there anything you would like to suggest?

From my personal experience the best thing about audiotool is the community. Some people don't like it but i've had no real issue. It's who you surround yourself with is the issue. The reason why the community is great is because you can easily get an audience on audiotool. You can get people to help you with your music, collaborate and listen to other people's demo tracks and such, create remixes with ease. It's just a really great space to start your music hobby here. I cannot imagine starting off using another mainstream DAW and uploading on soundcloud or youtube or something. Because... well, soundcloud and youtube and bandcamp is a community of *listeners*. And audiotool is a community of *artists*. That's what makes audiotool a special community. A large community of artists is hard to come by.

If I could suggest anything it would be for the studio. It would be nice to have more random modulation. And macros... For example, right click on a note clip to transpose it by 12, or -12. Or scale it by 50% or 200%. Or right click on an automation clip and click on a button that says random values! And it creates a bunch of random modulation for you!

Your message to the community:

Create for the purpose of fun. Even if nobody likes your music, at least you do and had fun while creating it.

Social/Music Links

Bandcamp: https://kurp.bandcamp.com

Edition Audiotool: Kurp

Track #1:

second guess by opaqity

I cannot explain what feeling this track brings me. I have tried so many times to recreate this, but I can never pick the correct notes. Black magic. Such a damn good track

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/second_guess/]]

Track #2:

Max Whitby by Infyuthsion

Satisfying sound design and nice ideas sprinkled all over this track. Really really good stuff

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/max_whitby/]]

Track #3:

///confliction/// by LAEVENT labs ⚡️

This is the music I wish I would create, but instead I create chinese ringtones. Loving the feedbackish/glitchy sounds from this so much.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/59qp0363gws/]]

Track #4:

BALLS IN YO JAW [Jetdarc Entry] by Jetdarc

The way that this song flows....... AAAGGHHHH so damn cool...

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/s4h7gqs3k/]]

Track #5:

tundra by looks and 4udiocreations

Such a great song, back before all the good tools we have now like quasar and pulsar. Incredible.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/tundra-btd1i/]]

Track #6:

not really there by kurp

I am not really sure what to pick for my personal track, this track I really enjoy the sound design of.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/72peih1k4/]]

Full Album

Edition Audiotool: Kurp

• a-records

32

about 1 year ago

1		second guess opaqity	opaqity	5010
2		Max Whitby Infyuthsion	Infyuthsion	2421
3		///confliction/// LAEVENT labs ⚡️	LAEVENT labs ⚡️	2192
4		BALLS IN YO JAW [Jetdarc Entry] Jetdarc	Jetdarc	4711
5		tundra looks 4udiocreations	looks 4udiocreations	3008
6		not really there kurp	kurp	583