Retro is one of our inconspicuous heroes. His tracks bear witness to immense musicality and advanced know-how. In addition to all the technical finesse, his music also exudes liveliness and a funky freshness that is simply fun to listen to. His "Artblock" and "Dead Drafts" series suggest what his drafts hide and want to come to the surface, and makes each of us long for a creative block if those are the results. He is one of the greats, and we're glad it has finally worked out. Come by for a coffee sometime if you are ever downtown.

Interview:

About Jonas aka retro

Hey, my name is Jonas. I'm from Cologne, Germany and I've been on Audiotool for 8 years. At the beginning I was mainly just listening to music and sometimes looking at remixable drafts to try to understand what's going on. In 2016 I started making 8-bit covers on @8bit_n_chiptune and then in 2017 I made the @retrorhythm account to start making some actual music. Sometime between 2018 and 2019 I also started posting unfinished and failed drafts to @sheesh . I came across Audiotool via a friend of mine that happened to also be friends with Martin Below (@mbelow) who was working on this amazing website where you can make music online, and for free. Obviously I had to check it out and then got sucked into this little bubble of like minded people. I've been more or less active ever since and don't plan on leaving. I don't have a favorite style of music. I listen to jazz, classical music, electronic music and everything in between. I'm not picky when it comes to pizza, but if i had to choose i'd say pizza prosciutto is my favorite

Describe the style of music you produce

I have no idea how I would describe my music. I would say it usually has a certain groove to it and doesn't take itself too seriously. I try to incorporate somewhat interesting harmonies in my tracks with it still being digestible for the average listener.

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

I can't remember when I started making music. It probably all started when I was still really young. My parents make music, my brother makes music, most of my friends, and even many of my neighbors make music. So as far as i can think back, i've been surrounded by musicians. I learned to play piano by ear and only started taking lessons many years later. Now I have been taking piano lessons for over 16 years, and 8 years ago I started taking bass lessons as well. Over time I also accumulated all sorts of instruments I found interesting and started learning them on my own. Audiotool was my first experience with music production on the PC. When I joined Audiotool I was amazed by the type of music people made here and thought: „I want to make that too”. Little did I know how much it would actually influence my musical journey. Since then I studied Audio-Visual Media Design and worked in different recording studios.

What is your favorite Audiotool device and why?

Probably the Pulverisateur. It was the easiest to understand synth for me when I started on Audiotool. The analog synth styling is timeless, and the whole layout is easy to understand.

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

I don't really use a lot of tricks. Everything I do is pretty straight forward. Something I like to do is layering noise with my percussion using the Pulv. Or use just the Pulv to make hi-hats which works really well and is extremely easy. Activate only the noise oscillator, put the sustain on 0%, and use the decay to adjust the length of the hat. Something I only do sometimes is using the note splitter to play up to 3 synths at once. This can save some space in your timeline. Just connect the outputs of the notesplitter to the note input of your synths, right click on the note splitter, click on 'create note track', and now everything you draw in this note region will be played by all connected synths

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

Something that seems to work for me is only listening to music that you're not usually interested in and studying it. And if that doesn't work just don't make or listen to any music at all for a while. Just take a break.

Trying to force, it will make it worse.

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

What has helped me when I started was opening up tracks of other users and just studying the draft, looking at what they did and thinking about why they did it that way. And what has definitely widened my horizon is the diversity of the music people make on Audiotool. I discovered genres I never even heard of before.

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

Well, what I like most on Audiotool is obviously the community ;). No but seriously, the amount of artists on here that are easily distinguishable in their style while having the same set of devices as everybody else is astounding, and the pure talent and creativity on this site is endless. I don't really have a suggestion. I know the Audiotool team is working hard on improving the site, and it's honestly a miracle to me that Audiotool can sustain itself.

Your message to the community:

Just keep making stuff, and don't take yourself too seriously.

Much love <3 :)

Social/Music Links

Linktree https://linktr.ee/jobalu

Edition Audiotool: retro

Track #1:

Erythrocyte by Frigolito

This was one of the first tracks I heard on this site. And also the track that made me discover Frigolito's work, which I absolutely fell in love with. The track is an absolute earworm and it just makes me happy.

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

Track #2:

the passers by opaqity

Another track I heard very early on and it sounded so unusual to me that it got stuck in my head instantly. The odd meter, the percussion work, the airy and slightly detuned synths, I was just flabbergasted when I first heard this.

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

Track #3:

amalgam by nico

This was the track that made me create the @retrorhythm account and actually start making my own stuff instead of just covering videogame music. The chords, the rhythm change, the saxophone solo... It's just a fabulous composition.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/amalgam-ans3f3b/]]

Track #4:

jealousy by looks

The slightly wonky beat and the 100% Wet and 0% Room Size on the reverb is just such a signature Looks sound. And like with many of his tracks the structure and the way the beat progresses areso weird. I love it.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/jealousy-ynymkoer1/]]

Track #5:

sugar sugar by LAEVENT labs ⚡️

I'm not sure how they managed to create such a masterpiece with only a handful of synths and barely any effects. The creativity is through the roof with this one. All the little melodies and chords are a delight to listen to over and over again.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/gw3scxgv/]]

Track #6:

01/22/2021 Loop by retro

It's not my personal favorite, but I think it represents me quite well. A chill, slightly swung beat with the typical synth sounds I like to use.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/20ylscexx6/]]

Full Album

Edition Audiotool: retro

• a-records

20

about 1 year ago

1		Erythrocyte Frigolito	Frigolito	2165
2		the passers by opaqity	opaqity	3021
3		amalgam nico	nico	529
4		jealousy looks	looks	7276
5		sugar sugar LAEVENT labs ⚡️	LAEVENT labs ⚡️	5927
6		01/22/2021 Loop retro	retro	4451