*We are particularly pleased that this feature has at last worked out after such a long time. Syntax is certainly one of the longest-serving Audiotool veterans in our new season and a little something in this feature is sure to come as a surprise to one or two of you. Be that as it may, Syntax has been enriching the Audiotool output for a very long time with his versatile but always unerring and mostly danceable genre mix. *

We thank him for that and look forward to a further fruitful collaboration.

Interview:

About Nicholas Girouard aka https://www.audiotool.com/user/inxile412/:

Audiotool artist of over 10 years from Winnipeg, Manitoba and just turning 27 years old.
I can't say I've ever found a specific style for myself when it comes to music but if I had to pick my absolute favourite genres that really get me in the mood? I'd have to say classical orchestral pieces or complextro.

Which artist has had the most influence on you (on and/or outside Audiotool)?

Astrum/Zonra on Audiotool has been my biggest inspiration to pursue music for over a decade now. When I was new to the site Astrum was always making these beautiful, albeit dated tracks by this point and to a new artist it felt like he could do anything. Even now I'm amazed at some of his older works' attention to detail and hauntingly catchy melodies. I might not have fallen into a similar style as Astrum himself but what I can say is its that type of music that kept me wanting to learn more all these years later.

Who would you like to work /collaborate with on and outside Audiotool, and why?

Anomalie is an artist that's blown up in recent years, but before that I knew him as a small time producer from Montreal that just wanted to get known, and he made his own youtube show that would feature himself as a personality followed by one of his many amazing tracks. Like myself, he has an experimental take on many different genres and he was just an all around nice person and to this day I feel like if there was any one person I've most wanted to collaborate with, it's definitely him.

Which film/game would you like to produce the score for or contribute a song to?

This is a bit of a difficult question because I've never truly thought about what film or game I would like to be a part of, but rather what type of music I would want to make if had the opportunity to do so. I've always leaned more into the orchestral side of video game music especially, the raw power it seems to invoke is always captivating and really, if I absolutely had to pick an existing piece of media that speaks entirely to how I feel the most strongly for; it would be the Nier video game series.

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've been having on and off writer's block for years now. And while nothing has ever proved immediately effective, I have noticed that keeping at it has always been what breaks through the block in the end. It doesn't even have to be full tracks; making small doodles, coming up with new sounds to experiment with, or even trying out new tools can be a good way to change things up and expand your abilities to the point where you might find something that really inspires you and brings the creative spark back. Though, if I had to say how I got through my two year long block, it was the Home Office contest on Audiotool. I'm a sucker for competition and even though I didn't place, bringing back my desire to make music was the real prize for me.

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

I could go off on a tangent and list a hundred or more reasons on how Audiotool has expanded my horizons but I'll just give the single most important one. There's just so much music being made on Audiotool that it's hard to not be exposed to new things all the time. Almost every day, even. So naturally when you hear all of these cool things coming out you want to hear more of them and that leads to you wanting to try all these new things. It's why I've never stuck to any specific style, there's always new things I'm wanting to try no matter how different it is and that's what gives me the drive to keep improving.

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

There's two things I like near-equally about Audiotool. First is the community and how it's the leading drive to create new and exciting music and just how easy the systems allow people to share and learn from others to the point that even new Audiotool artists are growing rapidly, far faster than we did back in 2011. The other would be how tactile Audiotool feels when you're making music. It can feel slow at times but even as pragmatic as I am; I'd never trade away Audiotool's sense of "tuning real tools and instruments" in favour of efficiency. That feeling of being able to control everything on one screen and wire everything together is the closest thing to being in a real life studio I can imagine on a DAW and it's just another part of what I think makes Audiotool so great.

The part that I feel Audiotool has difficulty in however, is facilitating the newer artists' growth. It's certainly not easy to learn and while tutorials help, I think a suggestion that would help a lot of people more handily would be pop-up text descriptions of each tool and its features within the app itself from something as easy as a right click on the tool itself. (Perhaps with links to demonstrate some of the more nuanced effects some tools can provide.) Parts of this are already in place but I think they should be far more detailed with further explanations. It would be a lot of work in the long run but it would also certainly help people figure out what they're trying to do in the moment instead of fumbling around through a list of tutorials on youtube or on the board.

Your message to the community:

Always be willing to try new things. There's nothing that helps you reach a specific goal faster than learning everything you can about the DAW itself and what it can provide. You might be in a place where you wanted to make a specific style and you've been trapped in a space where you feel like that's all you can do. That's never the case; especially on Audiotool where if you hear something you like you can open it up and learn from it and come up with completely new ideas. Keep expanding your horizons and learn to do as much as you can so don't end up in places where you feel like you aren't progressing, because in the end that will be your drive for creating new music.

Links:

https://www.audiotool.com/album/51mehaa/

Album

Syntax has also been kind enough to put together his five favourite tracks and the track that most closely represents his own work.

Track #1:

secta by https://www.audiotool.com/user/crazydruminator/

This super old track by Astrum may be using some of the time-worn tricks on Audiotool but to me it's still a masterpiece and the first of the driving forces for what makes me want to create. The way everything fits together down to the last note is something I still struggle with to this day and it's a massive source of inspiration for me.

Track #2:

Aquamarine by https://www.audiotool.com/user/infyuthsion/

One of my favourite DnB tracks in general, not just Audiotool. Infyuthsion's attention to detail, and especially the drums in this are perfect and it was definitely an inspiration for my current obsessiveness with mixing percussive elements.

Track #3:

Sayonara Days [Gone Bump] by https://www.audiotool.com/user/zonemusic/

A direct inspiration for one of my own tracks; this timeless beauty always has me coming back for a listen. The warmth of the bass and smoothness of the percussion is something so specific to Zone's style that I think is very captivating.

Track #4:

xenogenesis by https://www.audiotool.com/user/cuddlexdude/

Just one of the all around best tracks on Audiotool. laevent is so good with turning raw sound into beautiful experimental craziness and this track in particular has always received a large amount of my praise.

Track #5:

Light Pulse of the Heart by https://www.audiotool.com/user/trancefreak12/

Another very inspiring favourite of mine. Inavon's trancey synths in a pop-esque chiptune leave this one feeling dreamy and whimsical, yet still bursting with energy. Oh, and that melody is absolutely perfect, one of the best uses of tune sliding I can think of, however subtle its inclusion may be.

Track #5:

Phos;Nouveau by the artist himself https://www.audiotool.com/user/inxile412/

While I don't believe any one track of mine can truly represent my work, I feel like this may be the best example of something that potentially could. These eight minutes of complextro are the embodiment of all of the work I put into Audiotool to that point and represent all the frustrations and revelations it took to get there as I struggled through an awful artist's block. Yeah, it might sound a bit dated in quality but to me this is the track I hold in the highest regard and the one I had some of the most fun in my time working on, even if the process was a struggle.

The album in it's full splendor