Meet DJ Manjit, a techno producer and DJ from London with over 20 years in the game. It all started with a love for DJing, which quickly turned into a passion for making music. Manjit studied Sound Engineering at Morley College and picked up a ton of skills from YouTube and Computer Music Magazine. Now, he's known for his killer tracks and unique sound design. Join us as we delve into his artist journey and see what makes him tick in the world of music production.
I have been making music for more than 20 years. My passion grew after I started DJing and fell in love with the music I was listening to. I studied Sound Engineering at Morley College in the mid-2000s and YouTube was the biggest source to learn electronic music production and sound design. Also, Computer Music Magazine was a great source of information. I would also highly recommend Electronica Dance Music Programming Secrets by Roger Brown and Martin Griese; I can't tell you how much it has proved my MIDI programming skills.
I have been using Ableton for a while now. All DAW's have their core plugins and similarities but I find Ableton really the best for sound design. I have previously made and released music with Logic, Cubase, FL Studio, and Studio One.
It has to be my Access Virus TI hardware synthesiser - it has such a unique sound. Together with my Mackie HR824 monitors they make my studio complete and are a match made in heaven. Mackies are the best monitors I have ever worked with!
I love these plugins and use them in pretty much every project:
Virus TI - An amazing sound and has some of the best wavetables for sound design
Serum and Pigments – I love the workflow of these synths
Mini V – It's just awesome for bass sounds
UVI World Suite – It’s amazing as it gives me access to sounds from every part of the world
Buchla Easel - Just superb for techno ambience and percussions
Devious Machines – Inlitrator and texture are amazing for adding that magic sauce to your track.
Kick - It is advantageous to have a plugin that enables you to sculpt your own kick so you can make it fit well within your track
Kilohearts - My favourite is the transient shaper and dynamics plugin which are great for mixing. It has a great choice of other amazing plugins too including multipass and phaseplant synth which I use a lot as well
Fabfilter EQ – My go-to EQ. Also, the multiband saturator is amazing too
I also recently bought VSX headphones with the software suite that helps me to listen to my music in different live environments such car or nightclub etc. This has helped me make better mixing decisions and help me check if my mix sounds good in different places and what frequencies are lacking in those environments
I also rely on many plugins that give me a visual guide when mixing, like Voxengo, to see how all your elements fit within your musical spectrum. I am also a great fan of using Pultec EQs.
Many years ago I retired from DJing and performing live because I was diagnosed with severe arthritis. Music has been a healing journey for me and I use it as a form of pain management.
My production journey starts with finding a vocal I like and then looking for a scale to find a flavour of notes to create the vibe I want. If not a vocal then I create pad atmosphere with a chord in a key that portrays the feel and energy.
Generally, with background atmosphere, you can mess with many effects to create a unique scene on which you can write a cool bass patch or a lead. This process really helps me to take my mind off my pain and arthritis and focus my energy creatively.
I then play with drums and percussion on my MIDI controller to create a groove. I don't always start the same way. Sometimes I make the drums and groove first. I find starting a track with a different element each time helps with writer's block and keeps my ideas fresh.
Some of my favourite YouTube channels are below:
ZEN WORLD – Evolution Of Sound
Also, Computer Music Magazine has some nice tutorials.
I would highly recommend this playlist as it gave me the knowledge of how to clip and saturate my tracks to make them as loud as other commercial music out there.
This playlist is super useful and full of awesome information. The playlist is called 'Mixing Loud with the Clip-to-Zero Strategy' and the link is below:
How to properly saturate and clip my tracks for a louder professional mix. If only I had access to this knowledge earlier, I feel my music would have been so much closer to what I wanted to achieve.
The biggest challenge is having offers for live DJ bookings from around the world recently from Brazil and America but as a disabled DJ, it becomes too challenging to navigate. While I appreciate it, the hiring of a disabled artist requires some extra help or effort, so can be disheartening when I'm unable to take up offers I know would boost my visibility as a producer. So to overcome this I put all my energy into making music the best I can.
Also, another big challenge in the studio is to choose sounds that fit within your musical spectrum and that they have their place to shine and are not masked by other sounds. For example, eliminating phasing and masking issues for a cleaner louder mix. Also coming up with different melodic ideas can be a challenge so knowing musical theory will help you overcome writer's block.
Keep it simple! Stick to a few elements in your track that the listener can focus on or get lost in. Too many nice sounds can be too distracting and can clutter your mix. Having basic music theory knowledge is also important to make all your sounds fit and sound cohesive with some melodic structure to them. Resample as many sounds as you can so you have a good choice of sounds that you can use to add variation between sections.
Yes, Pianoscales.org to find chords and this Delay & Reverb Time Calculator.
Generally, most of my feedback comes from labels and they can be abrupt sometimes. But before I send new music to labels, RepostExchange is a great platform to share with like-minded artists who give you good feedback so you get a good idea before sending it to labels. The labels only look at your music to see if it would connect with their listener or meets their label's style.
The track I am most proud of would be Multiple Realities as it has been nominated for Web3 Music Awards. This track has also had great feedback on the RepostExchange platform!
Yes, it has driven a good pool of listeners to my SoundCloud and has helped me try out different genres and get feedback from many other artists thus increasing my confidence after posting each track.
Connect with DJ Manjit on SoundCloud, RepostExchange, Facebook, and Instagram.
Want more? Sign up at RepostExchange.com.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
