Justin Lassen
A self-proclaimed "old school user" at the age of 28, Justin Lassen has been using the tandem combination of Sound Forge and ACID since the early days, and his work can be seen (and heard) in a bevy of different places. His maudlin sojourns into soundtrack creation (Midnight Meat Train) and symphony composition (And Now We See But Through A Glass Darkly) have resonated with thousands of gothic and industrial fans, while his remix work for Top 40 bands like Lady Gaga and The Killers flex his penchant for twisting up pop melodies into new sonic landscapes. He's also just released a Sony Creative Software Premium Collection loops and sample library, White Rabbit Asylum. We spoke with Justin about how ACID Pro compliments his workflow as a producer, a remixer, and a composer, and why he's stuck by the software since its first iteration back in 1998.
SCS: We hear you're a longtime user!
JL: I was originally a Sonic Foundry user back in the mid '90s, and fell in love with what they were able to do back in those days. My first Sonic Foundry product was the original ACID, which I bought in the music section at Fry's Electronics, so I sort of represent the old school users of Sony's various applications. I've walked into the biggest studios in the world, and while most people think, "Oh yeah, pros use Pro Tools," a lot of the big artists and producers I'm friends with have a secret ACID Pro setup somewhere in their house. It really is the recording world's best kept secret.
SCS: How would you summarize all the different work you do?
JL: It's tough to pigeonhole me in any particular form or function. I think before I became a producer, I was just an artist/songwriter fiddling around with tunes, melodies and technology like anyone else. Being a producer wasn't really something I called myself or something I wanted to be. It just happened. I started getting remix contracts, starting with my first one in 1999 with Robert Miles. One thing lead to another and I became a "remixer." Another thing I didn't really plan on becoming. I think my entire career has been organic like that. To de-scribe myself as a producer, I'd say I'm pretty eclectic. I love the classical, romantic, and Victorian eras.
SCS: What are some of your favorite and most notable projects you've worked on?
JL: Synaesthesia, to this day, has become an amazing, worldwide project. It was a chance to collaborate with painters and CG artists that I respect. I had no idea it was going to turn into something so big everywhere, and I hope it continues to inspire people. I have a very special two-disc collector's edition with 38 tracks, remastered from the 24-bit originals, available here. I was also asked to produce and remix the entire soundtrack to Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train, which became a mini cult classic. The label gave me full control of who I put on the soundtrack and how I remixed it. Clive has been one of my heroes since the Hellraiser days, so I take it as a great honor to work on one of his projects. And Now We See But Through A Glass Darkly is a symphony I composed and performed in 2003. I had no idea what would happen to it, because it was dark classical music, but it was heavily downloaded. From 2003 to 2009, it's had over 100M downloads. It was free, so I never expected to make any money on it, but I'm just happy that people are out there enjoying it.
SCS: You've done remix work for The Killers ("Spaceman") and Lady Gaga ("Just Dance"). What were your visions for both tracks, and how did ACID help you achieve the end result that you wanted?
JL: When I'm remixing an artist, I don't always have some big scheme or goal in mind. Sometimes I don't even know what I'm going to do until I start doing it. In the case of the Killers, I got the masters as Pro Tools session files, which made everything difficult. It was R and L files that I had to manually line up in ACID. I loaded up the commercial MP3 of the song, and just started lining up each of the massive pile of R and L stems until they were all in the right place, then I used Render To New Track feature to turn them into stereo stems. I used the built-in BPM finder utility, and once everything lined up perfectly and the BPM was figured out, I was able to chop it up a million times, add new drums, new synths, and stuff like that. With Gaga there were less stems, which means I had more to cut up and add to, but again, the marker features and BPM finding and matching up works great. ACID is a great way to see a remix visually. It helps me map out where I'm going to go, where the break down is, where the outro is, and how long the intro is. Once you start markering it up and doing all the transition cuts, stings, bells and whistles, you begin to see the power of ACID working for you. No complicated loading or anything. I also used KitCore drums, which was included in ACID Pro 7, on both of these remixes.
SCS: What, specifically, are your favorite things about ACID Pro, and how do you use them to your advantage?
JL: I'd have to answer that in three ways. As a remixer, what I like about ACID is that I can make sessions look great. I can really chop things up anyway I want. I also love how visual and responsive it is. I like that it's not dealing with the file directly, so that there is not destructive editing. I can cut it up a million times and it's not going to make a million copies on the hard drive and fill up space that it shouldn't like other DAW software. It really is like surgery. It's probably the most precise cutter on the market for remixing and beat editing, period. As a producer, what I like about ACID is that I can make very clean masters and session files and it doesn't crash! I've thrown 200 - 250 track sessions at it and it's handled them just fine. I feel the most secure and stable in ACID, especially the backup/auto-save feature! As a composer, I like that I can get ideas down quickly. Even if I want to use another DAW later, it's always a great place to start projects and remixes. I love the auto-pitching, panning, automation, and the way you can layer and chain effects together. And the snap to grid/bars? How useful is it to know that your audio is going to hit precisely when you want it to hit, not a millisecond before or after.
SCS: You've also got a Sony Creative Software Premium Collection loops and samples library coming down the pipeline. Tell us a bit about what we should expect from that.
JL: It's a sound library containing deep, otherworldly, sad, scary, and emotional soundscapes collected over the past three years on my journeys around the world in places like London, Budapest, Paris, Phoenix and Los Angeles, all while working on various symphonic projects. It was recorded with both hi-fi and lo-fi equipment; portable mics, notebooks, powerbooks, cell phones, i/o boxes, firewire cards. Anything and everything. Some people take snapshots of places they visit. I takes audio snap shots – impulses, reverbs, sounds – and collect them just as precisely as someone would collect stamps. This is not your typical "environmental soundtrack" CD, as it contains sounds that are re-manipulated or re-mastered within a DAW environment to clean them up, yet keep their rawness intact. Furthermore, this isn't your typical Hollywood horror soundtrack pack. This is subtle horror. Think music boxes, porcelain dolls, mannequins, ventriloquist dummies, eyes that blink, paintings that watch, walls that change, doors and windows that move. The raw environments and audio are then cinematically augmented for the environments in which they came from with orchestral and synaesthetic contraptions. Each sound is carefully restored, remastered and sonically refined in high quality format for this premium and rare collection. Overall, the goal was to combine my life into a digestible library that might help other composers spark new ideas and take the world in new musical directions. "Those amongst us with broken hearts, hide inside the darkest arts." That pretty much sums up a lot of the feelings in this library.
For more on Justin Lassen, visit his site at www.justinlassen.com. You can also check out his new Sony Sound Series Loops & Samples Premium Collection, White Rabbit Asylum.
