Orlando Voorn
Amsterdam(NL) / Washington(USA)
Orlando Voorn is one of the first Dutch musician to establish a vital connection between Detroit and Amsterdam in the early 90’s. Orlando Voorn has long been recognized as one of the Netherland’s most original and ingenious producers in the world of elctronic dance music. Voorn began Djing at the early age of 12 years old and later went on to win his first scratch competition at Amsterdam “Club Flora Palace”. Amazingly Voorn did this by borrowing records from his competitor.
After winning that competition he continued to practice every day and was discovered by a Dutch Radio host Robin Albers, better known as JayDee (Plastic Dreams) who was in charge of the Dutch DMC DJ Chanpionship 1986. Surprisingly Voorn placed 1st in the Dutch competitions 1986 & 1987 for Holland which placed him in the world championships of DMC twice in the United KingDom where he came in 3rd place (’86).
Voorn used many Aliases’ back when he started to produce records in order to present various styles of music without limitation to producing only techno. It was a common fad to use fictious names as it is today. Voorn has never limited himsilf to one particular style of producing. you could easly say that he is incredibly in switching between many styles that demonstrates him as a well known producer.
Along with side projects on various labels including his own Voorn’s Nightripper project will be re released on vinyl on Underground Liberation Records with remixes by Vaious well Known producers that respect Voorn’s work. After more than two decades Mr. Voorn can look back on a solid career leaving a legacy of dance music from the past, present & future.
Orlando Voorn Q&A
A: Do you remember the first beat you made?
OV: The first beat i worked with tape i would make loops and edit that into a track. The first beat made and released was fixomatic hurt em bad . I rapped on that track myself as well. This was around 1988.
A: If you could choose one of your favorite productions what would it be?
OV: I think Fix “flash” bodies what i am about mostly in productions Raw uncut funk with heavy bass . Something that can be still played after 20 some years.
A: Favorite Studio gear ever?
OV: Definitely the DDA Profile mixing Console , EMU SP1200 , AKAI MPC2500 ,Ableton
A: What motivates you to keep making music?
OV: It is what i have been doing for the last 32 years i don’t think i’ll ever stop.
A: When composing, do you always start with a clear proces/idea in mind or do you rely on improvisation or…?
OV: Definitely Improvisation one track can go a way and after a half hour it can be something totally different from what it was. It just depend on the mood.
A: Any good advice you’d like to share with our readers about the creative process?
OV: There are no rules to this it can now be whatever you want it to be. But as for myself i like to feel the music as in soulful and where it at times can give you chills listening to it.
A: What is your DAW of choice?
OV: Ableton is my daw of choice because it’s so freestyle. I also had used a lot of hardware over the years so i know how to mix down and relearned to do it all from there. So many benefits to this way of working it is way faster then it was then back in the day .
A: What can we expect from your project OV1?
OV: It’s a retro feel sounds and drums, including many basic functions like adsr, panning, lfo, reverb and there is a function where the sound is boosted emulating bandlimiting and all cpu friendly. It’s more about the sounds that i have designed in a cross platform plugin.
A: What advice can you give to aspiring producers and artists?
OV: Be true to what u do and be yourself.Listen to productions you admire yourself and try to find yourself in the sound. If you don’t have intonation you might wanna leave this field alone as that is a must. Nothing more irritating then someone who is tone-deaf.
A: Star trek or Star Wars? OV: Star Trek!
Contact info:
DJ Bookings: http://www.hjckd.am/booking/
