CAPSUN ProAudio - a new name in sound design has recently launched under the helm of Brighton based producer and sample pack mastermind Jay Pulman aka CAPSUN.

CAPSUN ProAudio is a team of producers, musicians and sound designers who know their chosen genres. Their products aim to reflect current themes, sounds and trends. CAPSUN ProAudio is not one person attempting every style, but a dedicated team providing credible, useable content, designed to inspire and produced to the highest standards.

With their debut release DrDr - Deep Garage out on Loopmasters and more Artist and Producer toolsets waiting in the wings, we thought it time to find out what’s cooking in the Brighton HQ studio and find out more about one of the UK’s freshest sound design labels!

All Things Sampling?

Hi Jay - ok let’s talk about your new sample label, how did the project get off the ground and why did you feel a new sample label was the future?

Our company is based around the concept of 'Designed Inspiration' which to me encapsulates the future. I wanted to provide sample content that inspires musicians to create new and exciting original music of their own, not just provide them with ready made building blocks to duplicate today's hottest producer.

I want producers to open up that zip and want to make music right away, not just scan for one big kick in 500 samples.

As a producer yourself you’ve had hands on success with your award winning packs for Loopmasters, 5Pin Media, and Clicksound…do you think this was a catalyst for starting your own label?

I’ve loved working with all these great companies and have learnt a lot through the process. I really wanted to start focusing on developing my own new concepts for sample packs and producer tools and I simply felt I could run further with that idea if I had complete hands on control of the final product. I sincerely thank all those guys for giving me the opportunity to establish myself.

Your debut Artist sample pack ‘DrDr – Deep Garage’ out on Loopmasters is already in the best sellers chart, is this a sign of things to come!  

We're so pleased with the response to the debut pack. It’s a testament to all the people that have followed my progression to this point and are willing to take a leap with me to new territory and support what we’re doing. I can only hope that with all the amazing new products we have planned that the success will continue.

DrDr – Deep Garage is a huge selection of genre-defining loops and hits, taking inspiration from post-UKG artists such as Sbtrkt, Maribou State and Jamie XX, and aimed at Deep Garage and Future Bass producers.  How did you put this project together, and approach the process of creating it?

Being the first in our Artist Series, we wanted it to represent the values and aims we have as a label. It’s about providing an insight into the production styles and workflow of an artist as opposed to them simply creating a genre based pack.

We want it to feel like you’ve been able to sneak into their studio to search through their sample libraries and favourite presets. To see how they approach creating music and maybe be let in on a few secrets. We gave DrDr all the creative freedom we could and encouraged them to have fun with it.

The pack is a well thought out and bang up to date collection that fuses inspiration and usability - is this the way you see the label’s sample pack production moving, remaining on trend?

That's what it's all about – providing exciting new packs for the producers of tomorrow. I spoke to a lot of my musician friends and colleagues and tried to gage what they'd like to see. The consensus was that we needed to be in front of the wave, creating fresh content rather than providing samples that just sound exactly like what is already popular. Saying that, we are obviously music fans ourselves so our influences will show through what we produce.

It includes a wide spread of musical and sonic layering tools, along with healthy dose of soft Sampler patches for Kontakt, NN-XT, and notably Ultrabeat and Kong formats.  It feels like everything is going down the Ableton route currently, the inclusion of pure Logic and Reason formats is great…is Reason Kong something you like to use a lot yourself?

I've been a Reason user for 10+ years and it's the hub of my studio so I will always offer Reason formats as that's what I use to build a lot of my sounds. Kong is my go to drum machine for my own production and I absolutely love the way it works.

I started out as a hip-hop producer so the 16 pad format will always make sense to me! With each pack, we'll be extending our support for more soft samplers to eventually encompass all DAWs possible. I'm excited to start providing Maschine support as I know there's a growing community of users and it's an awesome bit of kit.

What is your studio setup for production at the moment; are there any stand-out plugins or key bits of gear you use time after time to get a certain sound?

I use a maxed out 27inch iMac with Propellerhead Balance as my audio interface and control for my monitors. I have a collection of hardware synths ranging from old analogues, 90s VA synths, brand new digital gear and cheap fun toy synths. In terms of plugins, as many will know Reason doesn't support third party plugins so I use loads of their rack extensions.

For example, I've used the Echobode from Sonic Charge all over our 'VOX' sample pack. If there's a plugin I really want to use I'll load it up in Pre Sonus Studio One. I've wanted a Roland SH-101 for years so I've been using d16 Group's LuSH-101 to satisfy that urge and it sounds phenomenal. If I want solo leads, that or my Yamaha AN1x are the go-to.

What’s your favourite studio gear currently?

My current favourite is the Novation Ultranova. Incredibly simple to program but a with huge sound. On the other end of the scale, we recently bought a Yamaha Portasound PSS-480 that was actually the first keyboard I ever played. It's just a toy really but the simplicity can really challenge you to experiment with programming.

You don't need expensive synths, anything can sound awesome with some time and work put in. Sometimes it's more fun to limit yourself and see what happens.

How would you define your production sound at the moment?

I make forward thinking bass music but I'd rather let other people define it.

What other releases are currently in the pipeline and production phase for CAPSUN ProAudio for the rest of 2014?

Next up is 'VOX – The Vocal Toolkit Vol.1', the first in our series of vocal packs aimed at electronic, urban and EDM producers. Expect sliced and effected vocal loops, almost 400 vocal one shots and over 300 soft samplers!

Next we release the second instalment in our Artist Series - 'Klax – Precision Drum & Bass'. It's a huge resource for DnB producers from an amazing act and we're very excited for you to hear it. After that expect lots more packs and producer tools covering various genres, some exciting new concept packs, more from our Artist Series featuring some big names acts and the next pack from myself in my own No.1 bestselling 'CAPSUN Presents' series.

Thanks for your time Jay and look forward to your next releases…

More About CAPSUN:
http://www.iamcapsun.com
http://www.soundcloud.com/iamcapsun

CAPSUN Products:

CAPSUN Pro Audio: VOX – The Vocal Toolkit Vol.1
CAPSUN ProAudio: DrDr - Deep Garage
Loopmasters: CAPSUN – Chill Trap & Future RnB
Loopmasters: CAPSUN Presents Trap
Loopmasters: CAPSUN Presents Trap Evolution
5Pin Media: Midi Focus - Trap Beats
Clicksound: CAPSUN Future Rap - Reason 7 Template