Jerome Isma Ae is a German producer who reaches heartbreaking levels of simplicity in his productions. Whilst some producers rejoice in having upwards of 50 tracks in a song, Jerome often deploys less than 10.

I was given the opportunity to remix one of his more recent tracks: Tiger. Here’s the original:

I chose to keep most of the original structure but create a more organic atmosphere to compliment the stricture in the original.

To my ear, producers who use less tracks end up with a cleaner, more satisfying sound. Jerome Isma Ae gets a very clean sound indeed. I tried very hard to keep to the same track sound as him, but I didn’t manage it: I added a couple more. But I loved working in his environment of minimal set up, and peeking behind the curtain of greatness.

This is possibly his most famous work (and that’s him in the photo):

Finally, just as a thought, I am intrigued by whether the country a producer comes from has any effect on the way they produce music (as a distinct question from whether it effects the sound they ultimately achieve).

Do producers from some countries produce in a laid back way, whilst others adopt a more structured approach? This depends entirely on whether country-wide stereo-types even reflect reality in the first place. I won’t comment further on this, other to say that I really don’t think I’m sitting here producing with a stiff upper lip. If anything, seeing the way Jerome pulled things together made me smile nearly the entire way through the week.