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DENNIS: Let's talk about the Korg Electribes that you have. How do you like using them? Do you use those on your tracks?

e:trinity: I have the EA-1, ER-1 and ES-1. I use the EA-1 on most of the tracks on "Various Shades of Blue". For example on "shi.bei.ju", I used the EA-1. When you hear an arpeggio with a filter, that's the EA-1. I didn't use the ER-1 that much on the new album though.

DENNIS: Do you ever use your ES-1 on your tracks? e:trinity: I only use it live but not in the studio. I use it as a secondary sampler. When I play live, most of the samples come from the Akai but when I'm transitioning to another song, I don't just stop. I just use the ES-1 when I transition. DENNIS: What led to your decision to use Cakewalk SONAR? e:trinity: I have been using Cakewalk since 3.0. When I got my first computer dedicated to music, I used Cakewalk because it was the best to use for Windows 3.1 at the time. As audio became more popular, Cubase became more popular but it crashed a lot and it was slow on my computer. But I'm used to Cakewalk and

what I like is that they listen to their users. When ACID came out, I wrote to them and ask if they can add an ACID-type looping feature. When I saw they had it on SONAR, I just had to get it.

DENNIS: Are you a midi enthusiast?

e:trinity: I've been into midi since 1986 but for the next album I'm going to experiment more with audio processing. I believe the future will focus on audio than midi. In the future, maybe you can arrange audio just like midi. These soft synths are like both. You record midi note events but when you mix it down, it becomes whatever instruments you're trying to make it sound like.

DENNIS: What instruments do you plan to incorporate in your studio?

e:trinity: I'm at a point right now where I'm happy with what I have. To make electronic music, you need the basics which is a digital synth, an analogue synth and a sampler. If you record everything on a computer and you can get by with these three devices and just multitrack them. I have the Alesis QS-6, Roland JV-1010, Yamaha AN1x, my samplers and my soft synths so I have everything covered. I'm not hungry for anything right now but I'll probably look into preamps and compressors.

DENNIS: Do you do your own mastering or do you take your finalized tracks to a recording studio?

e:trinity: I do my own mastering. I learned to master. This whole album was a learning experience in so many ways. It's ideal to get someone to master it but I didn't have the ideal budget. But I did learn and it's kind of rewarding. I learned to listen to sounds and EQ them and learned how use a Sonoscope spectrum analyzer.

DENNIS: Do you use a lot of compression in your music?

e:trinity: Not really. For this album, I used compression mostly on the drum and bass sounds. I don't use it to the extreme like some electronic artists.

DENNIS: What monitors do you like to work with when you make your music?

e:trinity: I use a pair of Yamaha MSP5's. They're powered monitors and clean sounding but not very large. The only problem is that if the bass goes below 50k, you can't hear it.

DENNIS: What listening tricks do you use when you want to listen to what your music sounds like on different speakers?

e:trinity: I used the CD changer in my sister's new car and I just drive around town. I mainly listen for too much bass. If I hear something rattle for a long time, I know there is a problem. So, I have to adjust and mix it down again. You have to really think where your music is going to go and put less bass.

DENNIS: Do you use a lot of delays in your music?

e:trinity: I'm not too effects crazy but I use delays. Mainly time delays. I like dub reggae that uses a lot of delays.

DENNIS: What's your approach towards panning? Do you use it a lot in your music?

e:trinity: It depends. If there is an effect I want to pan, I will but I won't exploit an effect if I don't know how to use it right.

DENNIS: Let's talk about performing live. Do you bring a lot of equipment on stage?

e:trinity: Yeah, I do but it varies on the performance and which songs I'm playing.

DENNIS: I see that the Alesis AirFX is on your equipment list. How do you incorporate that in your music?

e:trinity: The Alesis AirFX is my secret weapon. Everyone who sees me perform live will see me wave my hand over this blue box. It helps out in a live performance.

DENNIS: When you travel Internationally, how do you perform?

e:trinity: I have a basic setup. I wanted to bring my Akai with me and I even have a flight case for it but I ultimately decided against it, so I bought the Korg ES-1 Electribe. For samples I needed to trigger, I converted them from the Akai into the ES-1 and made similar sequences. There are some songs I can get away with but for complex sequences that the ES-1 can't do, I recorded those sequences from my Akai to my Mini-Disc recorder.

DENNIS: When you went to countries like the Philippines, how is music technology over there?

e:trinity: It's not that different. When I was there, I saw Roland JP-8000's, Korg Electribes and Roland Grooveboxes. The first show I did was in Makati where a boxing gym was used as a venue and when all the artists were setting up and pulling out our gear and we would all say "Oh, you have that too?!". Everybody had some kind of Korg Electribe, two people had a Roland JP-8000's and a me and this other dude both had portable Yamaha QY-70 sequencers. It was pretty cool.

DENNIS: Do you feel cheated when an artist uses a computer to perform live and not actually playing their instruments? e:trinity: I feel more cheated when I hear an electronic act that is going to play "live" and they end up just spinning records. So, it goes on different levels. For most electronic music, especially dance music, you really need a sequencer and/or drum machine. If you reproduced it with a live drum kit and guitars and bass guitars, it's not going to sound the same. I respect groups that make the effort to represent the live aspect, granted it's not the most exciting thing to look at, but at the same time, there are a lot of possibilities and one can make it exciting. If you want to trigger samples, instead of hitting a button, you can assign it to a drum pad and hit it with a stick. Part of the art form is not just playing the music but presenting the music with certain kinds of equipment. There is a lot of opportunities for innovation. DENNIS: Your music is getting noticed especially for that remix you did of Rex Navarrete's comedy piece that people can find on Rex's Website. Pretty cool!

e:trinity: You heard that? (laughing) I actually hate that style of music but it worked. I made that remix using the Korg ER-1 Electribe. I compressed the kick drum like crazy. I took the audio from Rex's CD and rearranged it and put it directly on SONAR. I'll be doing music for Rex on his next comedy album.

DENNIS: Let's now talk about your latest album "Various Shades of Blue". For those who haven't heard it yet, can you please tell us more about this album.

e:trinity: It's a diverse collection of music and different styles that I like. Drum and bass, down tempo, two-step, a little hip hop and techno, and half of it incorporates Asian instruments and samples. My first CD was mostly drum and bass so when I made this second album, I decided to put whatever different styles of music I liked on this album so it won't sound monotonous.

DENNIS: My favorite track on the album is "Shi.bei.ju". How did you and Barbie Chien come up with the song?

e:trinity: "Shi.bei.ju" is actually a traditional Chinese classical song. So, we technofied it. She played it on a Chinese instrument called an er-hu, which is like a two-string violin. We recorded it a few times, I sampled it and messed with it.

DENNIS: If there is one word to describe this album, what word would that be and why?

e:trinity: Blue. Blue is a color that describes many things. People use the word to describe sadness but blue can be happy, like a blue sky on a sunny day. The blue metaphor describes many feelings on the album such as dreamy, blue is like water, which is fluid…it has many interpretations. It's not one thing.

DENNIS: When shall we expect an album with e:trinity on vocals?

e:trinity: Well, let me just say that in 2003 you will hear that. Actually, the next album will have a lot of vocals whether it's mine or other people's vocals.

DENNIS: So, what's your final words to your fans?

e:trinity: Buy my CD!

DENNIS: (laughing) You said that last time in our last interview.

e:trinity: (laughing) Ok…well, since this interview is more technical. Get a nice pair of monitors to listen to my latest CD.

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