EXCLUSIVES

Dave Tipper > Tip of the Iceberg

Words by Erez Reuveni
Images by Dave Tipper

Imagine packing up your iBook, getting in your car, and taking off on a trans-continental road trip seeking musical inspiration amidst the varied urban and rural landscapes of the United States. Now imagine being a consummate DJ and turntablist who has the capabilities of an entire studio packed into a small portable computer, allowing you to record new music while also going on tour.

This is exactly what Dave Tipper, a London-based DJ, did during his 2002 tour of North America. Using only his iBook, Tipper laid down the tracks that comprise his soon to be released album, Surrounded. The album, a down-tempo opus of shadowy grooves and introspective melodies that intimates both the excitement and loneliness of extended travel, is completely engineered in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, providing the disc with a level of quality unheard on most of the down-tempo, electronic discs out today.

Tipper is already renowned in his London home as an accomplished turntable artist and breakbeat DJ. His two previous albums, The Critical Path and Holding Pattern are well-respected releases that garner praise from the most ardent of breakbeat critics. His soon to be released Surrounded is a new chapter in the evolution of Tipper's artistry. The album, best heard with headphones, is both a landmark down-tempo production due to its foundation in Dolby Surround Sound and an elegiac, reflective examination of traveling through new, alien landscapes. With the disc's opening notes you can easily imagine Tipper staring out of a tour bus window at the passing landscape. Sounds and beats flow sinuously across the aural spectrum, as undulating bass lines translate scenes from passing deserts and cities into sonic contemplation.

The Surround Sound the disc is recorded in serves only to enhance the album's listening experience. But recording an album in Dolby Surround Sound is far more time-consuming and demanding than conventional album recording. "I wanted to make my first album in Surround Sound," says Tipper, "but that was probably eight years ago and it was just totally out of my price range." While the technology has matured, the effort required to utilize the technology is still daunting. "It's been a long process. About a year or two of prepping tunes, the writing process, 800 hours of planning, and a couple of months of mixing. You can't just sit down and start straight away. For example, you have to make sure everything's calibrated correctly and that the speakers are perfectly equidistant from each other and all spitting out the same db level."

The recording process wasn't spontaneous. Before leaving London for his North American tour, Tipper uploaded his entire library of instrumentals, samples, and drum loops onto his iBook laptop. "It's taken the place of my studio really," says Tipper, "but more out of necessity in the first place. I didn't really want to have to do everything on my laptop, but now, having worked on it, and seeing how easy it is to get along in that environment, I'm very happy working like that. The laptop has been essential to me. There's no way I could've written the album if I didn't have it."

Tipper uses an iBook equipped with Logic Platinum and Final Scratch, as well as a dual processing G4 machine when in the studio. About seventy percent of Surrounded - primarily the writing and compiling - was done on the laptop, while thirty percent - mostly mixing and post engineering - was done on the G4 in the studio. "This is the first album I've done on my laptop. It's all positive really. The beauty of being able to work on the move is invaluable to me. I DJ a lot as well, which means I can write music at the same time as being on tour, which hasn't been an option before." The iBook has also been particularly useful while touring and performing. "Sometimes I play whole sets just off of my laptop using various programs to sequence stuff live and sometimes I'll use it as a third turntable with an audio mixer with a pitch control or just drop effects and weird noises over the top of my set."

Programs like Logic and Final Scratch have revolutionized the way DJs record and perform their music. Today a DJ needs to be just as well trained in the digital aspect of his music as in the technical proficiency needed to use a turntable. But while reactionaries in the DJ business might fear a technological takeover that could lead to the extinction of the turntable, their fears remain unfounded due to the fusing capabilities of technology. "The turntables will never be obsolete, because people want to see that for the showmanship. That's where things like Final Scratch are going to come in and really corner the market." Final Scratch is a computer program that allows DJs to play audio files off of a laptop onto a piece of midi timecode vinyl, which looks and feel exactly like a record but in fact is a digital conduit for files stored on a computer. With Final Scratch, the art of the turntable is preserved and combined with the advantages of technology's portability and flexibility. Tipper notes happily: "All you need to go out and DJ is your laptop full of your entire record collection and two bits of midi timecode vinyl."

Tipper's future projects include putting together instrumentals for a hip-hop album and releasing more breakbeat and dance oriented music. Eventually he wants to do film scores. "Anything left of center or unusual. I want to do whacked out film scores." In the meantime, Tipper is preparing for the release of his Dolby 5.1 enhanced album Surrounded on May 20th while also touring. His sets promise a synthesis of both his upbeat and down-tempo material, while his album is sure to provide an aural indulgence few can match.

www.myutopiarecordings.com