Computer Music

Get with the programmer­s beatskillz.com

Beatskillz founder Gaurev Dayal talks Hollywood, Youtube and vintage sampling

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Give us a brief history of Beatskillz. “Beatskillz started here in LA. I was struggling to get a foot inside the music industry – coming from India, with many hits under my belt and big Hollywood placements in movies such as Gravity, doesn’t guarantee further success in this business.

“Working at the Capitol Records building as a composer/producer let me get a feel for the city and the work, but also the fact that pursuing music even at the highest level here has an uncertaint­y. Waiting around was boring, so I put my technical training as a computer engineer to use. I initially designed plugins keeping my own ‘quick’ workflow in mind. I could design algorithms, but hadn’t touched audio coding since engineerin­g college, so it took some help initially to make bug-free code. Soon after, I took up coding full time myself and started developing stuff I’ve dreamed of. For me, the GUI is as important as the code itself. Along with our passionate­ly-made audio/video demos, that got us noticed over time. We make stuff we want to use and are super passionate.”

Your new plugin, SampleX, emulates the sounds of vintage samplers in a plugin effect. What inspired the idea to make it?

GD “I’ve never had those super vintage samplers, but once I started getting into vintage sampling, I was very interested in bringing it out as a convenient and modern process. I’ve tried many such plugins, but felt that you couldn’t yet go into every sample rate or have the ‘grit’ or filters of the real machines. I started sharing my progress in YouTube videos, taking in feature requests and actually developing it into something even better.

I’m very very happy with what people are saying.”

“We make stuff we want to use and are super passionate”

Can we expect a full-on vintage sampler emulation instrument?

GD “Yes, for sure, and the key feature for this upcoming plugin is also human interfacin­g. A sampler that gets the workflow going fast, capturing those initial great ideas, rather than making the user dive deep into menus and too many features. This sampler is based on one MIDI track for everything programmin­g-related. It’s a new kind of approach, and I promise it won’t disappoint.”

This month, you’re giving cm readers Synthwave Keys for free. Tell us about that plugin.

GD “Having too many choices is a boon but also a curse. Synthwave KZ gives users a fabulous sound set that you can limit yourself to and create absolute magic with. These sounds are already treated with rich outboard processing and work together in a mix, eliminatin­g the need to try to make your sound ’fit’, and making them exciting to hear as soon as you hit the keys. It has one purpose: inspire the user! ’Less is more’ is its biggest feature! For a deeper control set, try our Retrovolt ’samplesize­r’.”

What’s next for Beatskillz?

GD “Many, many, many, many plugins being simultaneo­usly developed. Too much work on our hands! I can’t reveal much now, but a huge wave of new things are coming and we have at least one to two releases per month on both our brands – Beatskillz and Tone Empire. We’re making the most of the quarantine to make it happen. In short, we’re very excited!”

 ?? Gaurev Dayal ??
Gaurev Dayal

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