Dance Mix

This month, we’re focusing on an Austrian legend, Peter Rauhofer, whose world-renowned accomplishments include remixes for everyone from Madonna to Yoko Ono, a 2000 Grammy for Remixer of the Year, and his own prestigious label — Star 69 — which is currently home to the Pet Shop Boys, Yoko Ono, and Suzanne Palmer, to name a few. Recently, Peter gave us a glimpse into his inspirations and production process.

How did you get started as a musician and remixer?
In 1983 I started DJing at an underground club called U4. I was then working in a DJ store. By 1985, I was international A & R for GIG Records in Austria, signing artists and productions. 1992 was my first production, “Let Me Be Your Underwear.” FFRR signed it and the track exploded. After that, remix offers started coming in.

What was your first big break as a remixer?
The first remix that really took off for me was my Funky Green Dogs’ “Fired Up” remix back in 1996. Getting that onto KTU radio was essentially the big break that got things started.

What are the top five favorite tracks or remixes you’ve done? What’s your personal favorite remix?
My top five remixes are — in order — Christina Aguilera, “Beautiful,” Depeche Mode, “It’s No Good,” Madonna, “Impressive Instant,” Karen Ramirez, “Looking For Love,” and Toni Braxton, “He Wasn’t Man Enough.” As far as my personal favorite, I’m happiest with my mix of Depeche Mode’s “It’s No Good.”

Your remixing sound draws from a lot of different styles. Who are your top five artistic influences?
Chic, the BeeGees, C&C Music Factory, David Morales, and Todd Terry are among my favorites, as is the brilliant Trevor Horn.

With a Grammy under your belt and your own label — Star 69 — you’re pretty much a world-recognized name. Have you ever used an alias for a remix project?
Yes, in fact. Over the years, I’ve also worked under the names Club 69, Size Queen, and House Heroes.

What are your thoughts on the future of the remixing and dance music scene?
Today, with computers, software, and plug-ins, everyone can remix at home. Hardware-based keyboard sounds and big studios are no longer necessary. I think that’s going to have a big impact on the future of the industry. I’m on an Apple G4, dual 1GHz with 2GB RAM and approximately 1.5 Terabytes of storage. I have a Universal Audio UAD-1 DSP card with all plug-ins. For software, I use Logic Audio 7.0.1, Reason 3.0, Pro Tools LE, ReCycle 2.0, and Melodyne 2.5.

What are your favorite hardware synths?
The Clavia Nord Lead rack: It has edgy, punchy sounds, though only stereo outputs — we sampled a lot from this unit! The Access Virus B: It’s the Swiss army knife for sounds, nearly 70 percent of the sounds I need for my overall sound are possible to do on the Virus; that this beast has character, too. But if some sounds need to have less mid-range color, then it’s time to pick some other synth. The Elektron SidStation: Nothing compares to this unit. Especially in dance music, you need some sounds with special patches. Dirt, distortion, screaming filters — everything you hear is totally different from any other synth. The Roland JP-8080: The ravy, trance-type “Super-Saw” preset was the sound from the start. And I love that ping-pong delay!

We’ve updated some of our gear, too. Our Minimoogs — like most of the older equipment — have the Kenton MIDI retrofit upgrades. The Roland JP-8 and Moog Source MIDI converters are by Encore Electronics.

With all this equipment at your fingertips, what are the most innovative — or craziest — studio tricks you’ve used to achieve a sound?
I mainly work in Austria in a studio called Home, which is owned by my keyboardist George Luksch. Over the years, we’ve done some crazy things! Once, while we were mixing in the control room, we played some beats and recorded the signal through a small Sony stereo microphone onto a MiniDisc player. It came out very cool, with the room sound on it, so we put it back in the Apple Logic exs24 sampler and used it as the main drum loop at some places in the song. The ambience sounded like we could have recorded it at night in a club!

When we need to get a nice filtered vocal effect (like on our Madonna remixes), it’s always nice to route the audio back through a Minimoog, with the input overdriving into distortion.