Featured Artist: Multi-Platinum Record Producer, Scott Bruzenak
The Voltage Modular community has grown to over 100,000 super-creative and talented users, we'd like to take a moment to introduce you to one of the most accomplished of them all, Scott Bruzenak: multi-platinum producer, writer, founder of his nanolabel Noisecastle III, vlogger, and self-professed modular synth enthusiast. The list of VIP artists who Scott works with continues to grow.
Among the highlights in his career, Scott produced multiple tracks for Daya's debut album, including RIAA Certified Platinum hits "Sit Still Look Pretty" and "Hide Away."
Scott co-produced "Breathe" for Mako, produced "Prom Queen" for Catie Turner, and co-wrote and produced "Us" for Carlie Hanson. He also produced and co-wrote most of Dawn Richard's "Blackheart" album.
Q: What was it like co-producing/co-writing four tracks with Jojo?
Jojo is a such an amazing singer that everything that came out of her mouth was a revelation. I would know which takes to use because the performances would give me out-of-body experiences. Even listening back today, I get that same feeling.
Q: Scott's intention to fuse his passion for modular synthesis with his day job of making hit records is a work in progress. As he explains it:
At the moment, modular time is me time. I think that eventually I'll develop enough tools to where I can do the assisted composition thing in sessions with singer/songwriters.
Q: What do you like most about Voltage Modular?
Voltage Modular has the easiest integration via MIDI and audio processing. You can use one instance to make feedback loops. As an example, you can produce MIDI in your DAW and then have the MIDI be processed via Voltage Modular, and then spit out more MIDI which gets rendered to audio, and then feed the audio back in and have the audio influence the MIDI processing. Out of all the virtual modular suites I've tried, Voltage Modular makes this easiest.
All the low-level analog computing stuff, I like the utility modules. The thing I like most about the modular paradigm is the idea of 'computer aided composition,' that one could program their own compositional tendencies into a simple machine and then surprise themselves with the results.
I really like the 'meta-Bach's 1st Cello Prelude' I made.
Voltage Modular is not just a modular synth, it's an entire platform. Using the Voltage Modular Designer, Cherry Audio gives you the ability to make your own modules, although I haven't tried it yet.
Q: What future projects are you working on?
Next on my plate musically is the Westberg EP "Boomer Studies". The first single drops on June 29th.
Next on my plate for modular noodlings, I did one vlog about an automatic melody harmonizer which needs to be edited. I've also been toying with the idea of abusing the Sampler 2 module to make a giant granular feedback machine.
On behalf of everyone at Cherry Audio, we'd like to thank Scott for sharing his music and modular synthesis musings with his fellow modular synthesizer enthusiasts. We love this picture of Scott and his dog, Len.