Adhit Android; Helmproyek’s Bassist And A Sound Engineer
He had once studied on subject of sound at SAE Australia, and afterwards Adhit Android made his educational experience as his profession. From that point, he started to be serious in the subject of live sound engineering, and he had worked for some local leading bands such as Goregeous Smile, Mocca, Polyester Embassy, Homogenic and many more. Adhit also possesses a recording studio, Infintelabs. He built a first audio software developer system in Indonesia, Kuassa. In addition, he also initiated the first industrial band in Indonesia, HELMPROYEK.
How do you do, Sir?
Fine, Alhamdulillah.
What is your business nowadays?
I am now working on mixing process for an album of a Semarang-based band, in my studio. Whilst, I am now frequently becoming live sound engineer for Mocca.
How about your business with Kuassa?
I am now accomplishing two new products. One is guitar amplifier for software Reason, which I started in it in last January, whilst vst I am working on an Equalizer.
Do you find any difficulties?
Reason has a different system. We have to apply in advance, if we want to make a plug-in for Reason. After approval, the company will get a developer kit for producing it. Meanwhile vst is easy to find through Google, but rack extension must have required approval in advance. The process is quite long, and it would be done just through e-mail.
Would you tell us who did you become a sound engineer?
I started to be interested in sound in early 2000’s. Afterwards, in 2002, I realized that there is a special academy in the subject of sound, SAE Institute (Australia-ed). I left in 2003 and was there for about one and a half year. Once I returned home, I decided to be a sound engineer.
Would you name the most influential factors that may affect qualities of mixing and mastering? Whether the musician or the sound engineer?
First of all is the artist’ performance. The second one is the raw material. When he/she performs well and the record is good, then the mixing and mastering processes would be easy. So, once we were in the finsihing phase, we may do only the creative process, not to revise anything. For example, I had once been assigned to work on a raw recording of a foreign band. But when I listened to it, the result is almost similar with that if you heard on CD.
Would you tell us the difference?
They are more focus on recording process. Such as when we look for the sound of drum, it could spend up to 3 days to do so. The sound of guitar can be found after trying dozens of amplifiers, in order to get the best result. Therefore, some leading bands, as far as I knew, spent the longest time on recording process.
What is the difference with those of local bands?
Based on my experience, most of them who came to studio were still confused in explaining the sound they wanted.
When did you start to be a live sound engineer?
It was in 2004.
What was the band?
Gorgeous Smile. After that, most of my works were ordered by the band. Haha.
Which one would you prefer; to be a live sound engineer or work in studio?
There will be many factors. Gears and set up surely will affect any band’s performance. Maybe the gears are not good enough but the set up is wrong, so the result would be awful. At the end, on a live performance we may do more improvisations within a brief time. It would be different when I worked in studio, as I would be more focus in searching the sound that we want to apply and also lots of time.
Who shall obey? Is it the sound engineer or the band?
Although in fact I would be paid, but I always put myself being managed by them. I would more regard them as partners, by purpose that the sound engineer must try his best to do anything for the band’s sake. Maybe the band wants A, but then I would offer them an input, that it would be better if B. I will surely give my opinion if the one I would choose is better than the band’s choice.
Do you have any personal opinion regarding all-digitalized music, which has been increasingly utilized?
We may only wait for the results. Once you heard the recording result is good, you would not mind about how the process it was; whether it is digitally, analog or live taken. The tools may be digital, but only the results will be valued, not the tools.
Why HELMPROYEK is reunited?
In fact we had never stated that we are disbanded. Only a few personnel of it have been disappeared. We had uploaded some of our songs in a few social media recently. Perhaps because during the period of the early 2000’s through 2010’s, we were busy by our each activities. The remaining personnel are just me, who plays the bass and Bez who plays drums. Meanwhile, there are new personnel; Thomi (guitar, vocal), Vira (guitar) and Indra (synthesizer).
Is there any change on the music?
We still have similar reference with what we had earlier, we had listened to many industrial bands of 90’s, such as Ministry, Nine Inch Nails. The difference is perhaps more on the arrangement of live performance and recording. For example; there are some parts that utilize synthesizer a lot, but when we were on stage, the sound would be replaced by guitar sound.
Would you tell us the new release of HELMPROYEK in the near future?
You may find some of previews already through our account soundcloud.com/helmproyek. Few of them will be included in an upcoming split EP along with 4 other bands. Regarding our own album, we have yet not determined it since the recording process is still on going, but we planned to release it by the end of this year.
