Kepz's story is a pleasure to tell: as a young teenager, he stumbled upon Audiotool and played a significant role in shaping its early years alongside the first generation of users. Over time, he matured musically from producing playful Trance and Melodic House anthems to crafting a chillier, deeper Dub Techno and Deep House sound. Although still so young, he won the Moog Fest Contest and travelled from Sydney to the USA to play a DJ set at the renowned festival. As Kepz continued to grow as an artist, he began playing at parties and enjoyed numerous releases on various Dub Techno labels. In 2022, he made a deep impression on us when he applied for the developer position we advertised. And now, at the beginning of 2023, Kepz has undertaken his second-long journey in the service of Audiotool. He's come to our Audiotool Basement in Cologne to support us in taking the next important step. But before I reveal too much, read on to discover how the story unfolded from his perspective.

Interview:

About Kepz

I'm a Ukrainian born, Australian based artist, DJ and software engineer. I release and perform under my alias Kooscha, paint landscapes, work at a local record store and now at Audiotool!

In the beginning I was making mostly Melodic House and Trance but later started experimenting with Ambient and other soundscapy genres such as Dub Techno. I tend to go through phases of styles as I like to latch on to ideas and explore them as much as possible.

What influence did your environment on Audiotool have on the development of your music?

Audiotool's early community can take the credit for shaping my music taste. It opened my eyes to a lot of underground genres that I hadn't heard before. There was a huge presence of really well crafted House and Techno in the early days which I learned a lot from.

What were your highlights over the last 12 years?

Being part of the community full of amazing artists back when I was a newbie. The trip to Moogfest where I met and partied with rnzr , Frigolito and Mr. Standfast . Helping with the design of Quasar. And this year finally meeting https://www.audiotool.com/user/andremichelle/ , Snadbrugen , Martin Below and the rest of the current Audiotool staff!

Please tell the newer users about your experiences with the Moogfest Contest and describe your entry track and its creation

I produced a track specifically for the contest and worked really hard on it until it was my most polished work at the time. But alongside that track I also submitted an Ambient jam I made some time earlier with just one Pulverisateur (my track called 'Lost'). That jam ended up in 1st place. I remember waking up to lots of messages and comments and realised I must've won the contest. I couldn't believe it! I was so happy I'd get to finally meet some of the users and travel overseas by myself for the first time. Moogfest was amazing and I learned a lot about the history of Moog's synths and their impact on our world.

[Editor’s Note]

Moogfest was a festival Moog organized and it was hosted in synth pioneer Bob Moog's hometown Asheville, North Carolina in the US. Moogfest teamed up with Audiotool and invited anyone to produce a track using Audiotool and to submit it to the Moogfest Competition. The winners got to play a set during Moogfest in Asheville, in April 2014 when Kraftwerk was headlining the festival next to Laurie Anderson, Giorgio Moroder and a hundred other acts and different activations across town for music lovers. The winner tracks were also included on a limited edition release which went to the artists, VIPs and press who attended Moogfest.

Kepz live at MOOGFEST https://www.mixcloud.com/kepz/va-kepz-moogfest/

How has Audiotool changed over the years from your point of view?

There are a lot more experiments, short sketches and beats being published. It's cool that people aren't afraid to share raw ideas. I think for people learning music production it's important to try a lot of things and get a lot of feedback. There was a lot of perfectionist mindset back in the day. Some artists went as far as deleting all of their own work or accounts because they thought their music wasn't up to a standard. I think current users are a lot more free and open minded in that sense. Audiotool really encourages a growth mindset.

We know you are still very busy on Audiotool. What does your daily production routine look like? What other equipment or software do you use?

I use Audiotool alongside Ableton. No production goes the same, but a simplified version is: Audiotool is for jamming and having fun and sketching ideas on the go. Ableton for working with hardware, working on remixes, focusing more on polishing. I feel proficient in both and I can work with either depending what I feel like doing or what I need to do and often I end up using both on one track. I export and reuse sounds, loops and synth lines from a lot of my Audiotool tracks. I guess I'll just always have a Pulverisateur shaped hole in my heart no matter which DAW I'm in!

How did you get involved in the subject matter that ultimately qualified you to work at Audiotool?

I've been in touch with the team for many years, helping out with various things. I didn't think there was even a possibility to work at Audiotool one day and turns out no one even knew I was a dev until recently! I was part of Audiotool Next beta testing for a couple of years, then I helped out with moderating for a bit (but it wasn't my thing), more recently I got involved with the creation of Quasar for which I modeled and rendered the new style of knobs. In 2022 Audiotool posted the ads and I was apparently the first applicant in the inbox! I literally dropped everything I was doing and wrote my application within 1hr of seeing the news. I also sent Andre some examples of own code from personal projects and got good feedback.

How did you fare when you finally got the acceptance?

I felt ecstatic but also relieved, because it was on my mind for so long during this several-months long application process. I told all my close friends and celebrated with some beers and a DJ mix at a friend's house :)

What was it like to travel from high-summer Sydney to wintry Cologne?

I was excited enough about Audiotool that I didn't really think about the weather. But it's not that bad! I just had to buy a warmer jacket and a scarf when I got here. I think the novelty of being in a new city is still making me excited to go outside.

Is there anything you may already reveal to the interested users?

There are many really cool things coming in the next year and beyond. I'm personally excited for some more professional tools for mixing and exporting stems which will improve cross-DAW workflows for power users (me :P). But there are also many cool ideas aimed at newcomers and jammers making the learning curve easier. I'm also helping improve the website experience, it's not my main task but I am dedicating some time for it each week as I think the community will really appreciate it!

What are the biggest (technical) challenges Audiotool is facing?

I'm assuming we have lots of technical challenges yet to discover during our Studio rebuild, but currently we know there is a lot of complicated code on the backend doing complicated things and using deprecated frameworks. We want to trial a simpler way of handling online collaboration, rethink our handling of user sessions and have more separation between website's front and back end while phasing out deprecated frameworks. I

What are you currently working on?

Rebuilding Probe together with jujuu . We're ditching Defrac and Java and now using Typescript with our little inhouse framework. We're starting with Probe as a learning exercise before fully diving into the bigger rebuild of the Studio with Andre. Alongside that, I'm cleaning up a lot of messy and complicated styling on the website. With the next few updates there should be more responsiveness, less visual bugs and a bit more consistency in it's design. After the bug fixing, there are plans to improve overall user experience and make the current design more finished.

What is the biggest challenge you want to take on?

I'm currently motivated to make improvements to the user experience on the website, which is why I jumped into to the big bug cleanup with Alemonia and SilasGyger . In the near future I'm also keen on implementing our planned new features with completely new interfaces. We've got plans for things that will take Audiotool to a whole new level. Integrating these features with the current Audiotool design and workflow will definitely be an interesting challenge as we've got a really unique DAW with it's own unique strengths.

Social/Music Links

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kooscha.music

Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/kooscha

Bandcamp https://kooscha.bandcamp.com/

Edition Audiotool: Kepz

Track #1:

sensory deprivation by sila and WPX

Sila's signature pulsar sampling technique combined with WPX's knack for golden age IDM sound birthed this very unique collab. Great balance of ambience and suffocating rhythms with just enough room to breathe to get you through 12 minutes.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/or9wwaui/]]

Track #2:

untitled by emre girginkaya (voyd)

A great track of many in Emre's extensive and consistently impressive library. He was one of the first artists to crack the deep lo-fi formula many years ago and he was not afraid to push things a little further than most.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/kwybp1p23/]]

Track #3:

therma by gekor8

This track has all the qualities of an instant Audiotool classic. Great sound design, proper track structure and subtle quirks to make it memorable and interesting. I'm instantly thinking of warm summer evenings while listening to it.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/nsi0w29197/]]

Track #4:

audiophil by sumad

Another artist with such a consistent output it's hard to pick a winner. Sumad is one of those users that constantly reminds me how unique Audiotool can sound and how far it pushes the emerging tech of web based DAWs. His work is on par with many serious names in the Dub Techno scene.

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

Track #5:

Lava U by VLTRA

This is one of my all time favourite tracks on Audiotool and I was overjoyed to see it get a proper physical release under his alias Tlim Shug. The record is part of Cactus Traxx series and came with real seeds of Selenicereus Grandiflorus which is still growing strong at my sun soaked flat. It's actually gotten so big and limby it's claimed one of our chairs to itself.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/isa34vlvm/]]

Track #6:

self aware by Kepz

I think this is the first track that got me traction outside of Audiotool under the alias Kooscha. One of the first times I've heard my work in someone elses dj mix and people wanted to ID it. There's also a crazy video of a South African dj foreva_authentik playing it and filling up a dancefloor. People are chanting, jumping and climbing tables by the end, it's absolutely insane and so unexpected for a track like this. Brings a smile to my face every time I remember it. (edited)

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/lexn1jv0k/]]

Full Album

Edition Audiotool Special: Kepz

• a-records

34

about 1 year ago

1		sensory deprivation sila	sila	1557
2		untitled emre girginkaya (voyd)	emre girginkaya (voyd)	182
3		therma gekor8	gekor8	163
4		audiophil sumad	sumad	502
5		Lava U VLTRA	VLTRA	1033
6		self aware Kepz	Kepz	468