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A Guy Called Gerald Uses a Mixer Called UREI
Popular DJ Gerald Simpson (better known as A Guy Called Gerald) can look back on a distinguished career as a producer at the forefront of a number of club idioms in the ’80s and ‘90s.
Highly regarded for his early work on the Manchester acid house scene of the late 1980s with 808 State, and the chart hit Voodoo Ray he quickly led his DJ skills deeper into the production world, and has to date released seven albums.
Along the way his groundbreaking work on the jungle/drum ’n’ bass circuit of the 90’s proved a huge influence on the work of artists like Goldie and LTJ Bukem — notably his 28 Gun Bad Boy and seminal early jungle LP, Black Secret Technology, followed by a string of releases on his own legendary Juice Box label.
Recently Gerald has been looking to recapture some of those retro sounds of the late ’80s — a quest that has led him back to some of Roland’s classic drum machine/bass synth sounds as well as the warm smooth analogue action of UREI’s rotary mixers.
Today living in Berlin, where he produced Proto Acid: The Berlin Sessions at his Diehold Studios, his goal remains to transport the atmosphere created in the studio into a club. And UREI is helping him to achieve precisely that.
Gerald has been deejaying since the early days of hip-hop and his love affair with UREI also dates back many years — initially with the classic 1620, with its rotary faders, and more recently through the 1601E, which he uses for live sessions, and the 4-channel 1603 installation club mixer which he uses in the studio.
“The first place UREI really struck me was at Limelight, when I went to New York with the Hacienda in the early ‘90s. It was part of the booth set-up — although I had probably encountered UREI before because I grew up with scratch mixers with faders.
“I remember being able to make a smooth crossover, and really exploit the pitch control. It was much better working one track into the next with the rotaries and proved a really interesting learning curve.”
He also recalls seeing UREI used at the Ministry of Sound in London. “In fact all the big clubs at that time used rotary mixers; those knobs on the UREI had the feel of a real studio mixer.”
For a long time, he says, the studio and DJ domains existed independently — but using the UREI 1601E in conjunction with the 1603 has given Gerald the best of both worlds. “I noticed that the bigger studio mixer was more of an analogue desk — a vinyl mixer with more of a rounded feel to it — while the 1601E is more digital, and I’m using that with the laptops. With that I can a throw a pan in and it opens up a whole new dimension.”
A return to the Breakbeats idiom has seen the DJ/producer go back to basics, and in March he will start recording again — this time using the two networked UREI’s and Reason as his software tool.
With his 1601E hooked up to two laptops and plugged through his 1603 he looks forward to getting into the studio to try out new ideas. “The first session I tried was more like a studio-style mix, but thanks to the crossfader and FX it really worked really well with two laptops in a live environment.
“The thing with UREI is that it has a nice feel to it, and the EQ is really sensitive. For more than ten years I was swapping from a classic studio desk to a gig mixer, and the EQ was generally crude. But [the 1601E] is like a genuine mixing console — I can nudge it and get it to how I want it.”
Furthermore, he says that in venues where the PA may have not been up to par, by judicuous mixing of the highs, mids and lows he has been able to sweeten up the sound considerably. “In that sense it’s been invaluable.” The same goes for his old studio monitors which the 1603, he says, really brings back to life.
UREI clearly ticks all the boxes for Gerald Simpson. “Since I bought them I’ve not used another mixer — this has everything I need for what I’m doing and it is really well built.” It has also created a buzz among fans and fellow DJs.
In picture: A Guy Called Gerald mixing on the UREI 1603.
8th January 2007
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