AK

Artist AK (Aljosha Konstanty) has been serenading the world with his fusion of Ambient, Downtempo, and beautiful soundtrack pieces since 2012.  While most producers in this day and age are competing for who can drop the gnarliest bass-heavy banger, AK stands out from the crowd, offering tracks that transport you into a state of bliss with their warm atmospheres, soothing bass lines, and oh so elegant percussion.  His style has caught the attention of many, with collaborations with Veela, Holly Drummond, & Laura Brehm, and received support from the world renowned youtube channel MrSuicideSheep.  We were extremely delighted to team up with AK to release his series of unique sample packs through Black Octopus Sound.  His unique style is stamped all over these sound libraries, offering producers a valuable resource of sounds such of real world recordings, atmospheres, ambient rimshots, drums, and more.  We caught up with AK recently to hear about some of his favorite production tips and tools!

5 Production tips with AK

1. Use good samples as a starting point, rather than trying to extensively tweak a bad one. This helps a lot with mixing, especially in regard to drums.
2. Don’t try to mix too loud, just because everyone else does. A good friend once called me out for doing so, and told me that if I needed more volume, I should just use the “freaking volume” knob instead.
3. Try and think out of the box. Rather than doing what everyone else is, do what everyone else isn’t doing.
4. Make sure to check that each element of your track is actually audible (unless you’re dealing with ghost drum hits). By removing inaudible parts you can ease mixing a lot.
5. Try and limit yourself to the necessary, in terms of equipment. You might come up with something you wouldn’t have made otherwise.

The Lightning Round…

Favorite VST Instrument at the moment? I’m a huge fan of Xfer’s Serum, especially the png to wavetable function. It’s super fun to turn random statistics into sounds!

Favorite VST effect at the moment? Definitely Valhalla Room. I know I’m a bit late to the party, seeing as it’s been out there for a while, but I always love playing around with new reverbs.

DAW of choice? Ableton Live.

Do you use any hardware? Yes, I do! Especially if we include weird little percussion instruments. My favourites would have to be my AKAI S3000XL and my Ibanez Artcore. The latter of which I use in the majority of my songs.

Producer you are digging at the moment? I’m a huge fan of Andrew Applepie. Although I’m a tad biased, because I went to Berlin and wrote a song with him.

How long have you been producing for? I’ve been making electronic music for about 5-6 years.

Biggest mistake beginners make?  Being scared off by the vast amounts of information out there. I think some people are a bit overwhelmed by the thought that there’s so much they can potentially learn. I think that’s kind of what keeps music interesting for me though, the fact that I can learn something new everyday.

Is there is anything else you want to share? I film little music videos for all of my songs, so if you’re interested in those, I upload them to my Youtube channel 🙂

Check out AK’s royalty free sample packs!

[mpc_vc_products_slider type=”recent” number=”16″ category=”all” tag=”265″]

Follow AK on the web:

http://www.aljoshakonstanty.com/

https://facebook.com/aljoshakonstanty

https://youtube.com/aljoshakonstanty