William K
William K is the Founder and CEO of Wusik.com, creator of the Wusikstation VSTi, a virtual instrument that he uses in his own songs.
"My musical background is mostly Classical and Instrumental, with a hint of electronic music. Music has been in my life since forever. I got my first keyboard at the age of eight. After that I spent more and more time experimenting with all sorts of hardware – everything I could use from around the house. I tried Tape Dubbing and even computer sequencing using the printer output as a MIDI device. Over time as technology advanced, I got into 'Tracker' programs, (the old FT2) advanced Synthesizers and Computer Programs."
Artist Q & A:
Q: How did you hear about Open Labs?
A: By Internet on Harmony-Central and other music related websites.
Q: Which kind of keyboard did you have and how has the MiKo been integrated into your Studio?
A: A while ago, I had a Yamaha Motif and lately a M-Audio Keystation Pro. But now, since I sold everything and have no other external hardware, having only one piece of gear spares me a lot of room in my current studio. The MiKo is the main thing, it does it all. Everything is done with it and easier with the touchscreen interface.
Q: You are the developer of the WusikStation VSTi plugin, what led you to program it?
A: I realized that hardware was limited. I didn’t like anything that was already present on the market, so I had to create my own. WusikStation works like a regular VA synth, with four Oscillators and two Wavesequencers. Where you load regular waveforms such as Pulse, Sawtooth, Sine, Noise and anything you want. You can apply filters, envelopes, LFOs, effects - just like any regular synth. So its not a ROMpler, its not a Sampler, it’s a mix of everything you can imagine. It also does Granular-Synthesis, a bit LoFi, but vey usable. Our Wusik Sound Magazine offers tons and tons of new sounds every month, in addition, we show you what you can do with them - things that you would not have thought to be possible. I have a very good community of users that helps me out to do it. Right now, the magazine is no longer “William” alone. At the start, around the third issue, it was mainly my articles and sounds. Now, everybody is contributing to it, helping us out.
Q: And now, WusikStation is integrated and delivered with all Open Labs keyboards. That means the Open Labs’ users could be a part of your community and even participate by importing the samples from MimiK?
A: Sure, with the new converter it’s very simple to import the samples of MimiK in WusikStation. Just few clicks and the converter will read all MimiK WAV files and convert to WusikSND files that are multi-sampled.
Q: Your last song Hyper was composed with the MiKo only. How different is it with the standard computer and do you think that quality of production would be possible with another keyboard?
A: Not at all. With my Motif a while ago, I couldn’t stand the limitations. With the MiKo, I’m no longer limited to anything. There’s always something new to check. Not to mention the power you have at your fingertips. The whole Hyper song was using less than 20% of the entire CPU usage. So the MiKo is indeed VERY powerful and I’m not limited in memory or space. I remember my old Workstation keyboard, that had 8meg of memory to load samples. Now I got 2Gb and with WusikStation Disk-Streaming, that means I can load much more than just 2Gb. The included sounds are also very good. I used Crystal and Purity along WusikStation. It was the first time I used something that wasn’t WusikStation for around four years.
Q: Does this mean that the soft bundle, which includes WusikStation, has other plugins which provide a complete high-quality sound library?
A: Indeed, I’m just starting to use the other synths that came with the MiKo, and I have to admit I was very surprised. The great thing is that Open Labs took the time to select the best sound modules out there, and arranged it in a nice way. So, I don’t have to bother about visiting sites and checking every new thing. You guys are doing that for us musicians. So, we can concentrate on the actual music. There are a lot of new updates and new plugins, synthesis, samples everyday - and finally limitless upgrades or updates. And if I have got some spare time, I can always add more stuff myself. That’s the beauty of the system. But the stuff that came with the MiKo is really good. You can bet that soon my songs will be using a lot of those products.
Q: Your last album The New Dark Ages is available for download on your website, what is coming next for you?
A: I plan to re-visit the whole album, creating more up-tempo tracks. And/Or a totally new album, with a more Electronic feeling to it - just need more hours in the day now.
Equipment Used
Purchased MiKo LX (Gen3)
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