INSPIRATION IN CONTROL

KiNK, the most successful Bulgarian electronic musician and producer, plays all around the world with a MIDI controller developed especially for him in Resonator

Strahil Velchev-KiNK is a unique example for a particularly successful artist based in Bulgaria whom most Bulgarians have not heard about. He has been recording electronic music for over twenty years now, some of it published by labels such as Ovum (founded by Josh Wink) and Macro (founded by Stephan Goldman). For fifteen years now, he has been playing the biggest clubs in Europe and North America. His compositions are regularly included in the playlists of Laurent Garnier, Hercules & Love Affair and the like. Resident Advisor, the modern Bible of electronic music, proclaimed him Best Live Electronic Act in 2015 and 2016, and MusicRadar named him the best electronic live artist in the world in 2018. In the same year, KiNK – together with Konstantin Petrov-Kei – founded the label Sofia, recording most of his own music for it ever since. And this year, KiNK became inseparable with a small electronic device developed and custom-made for him in Resonator.

We meet in the Sofia label studio. Strahil does not have a lot of time. For him, the middle of the week is the calm before (and after) the storm.

Let’s provide some context. Where were you last weekend and where will you be the next?

Last weekend, I was in North America for three days. On Friday, I played in Chicago, the birthplace of house music. On Saturday, I was in Washington, DC, and on Sunday, I concluded the long weekend in Toronto. Next weekend, I have Ireland on Saturday and the Ibiza club Amnesia on Sunday.

What music do you play?

Only my own music – this is what they are inviting me for. Since 2019, I’ve been recording mainly for myself and my label Sofia which we run together with Kei. I do record for others, though – my last vinyl was published by Mutual Rytm, a very happening German label out of Stuttgart. To tell the truth, labels are not as important as they were fifteen years ago. These days, promoters look at the artists’ profiles on social networks – the number of followers they have, the number of times their tracks have been played in the streaming platforms – to estimate the number of tickets they could sell.

You mean the promoters contact you directly? You don’t have an agency?

On the contrary, I do. The agency working for me is Little Big – another of their artists, for example, is my very favourite Aphex Twin. But what the agency does might not be exactly what you imagine. My job is to generate interest with the music I make, and the agency is more like a logistical partner deciding where it makes sense for me to travel and how to combine my engagements to make the year work. It is well to mention this for the sake of the young artists who have these enormous expectations that once they sign with an agent, they’ll immediately start playing all the festivals. No agency can force a promoter to invite anyone. At least in my case, the agency helps out with a strategy, advice on where it’s good for me to play, and we filter the offers together to make travel easier.

Alright, how many engagements per year are we talking about?

About ten years ago, I limited my playing engagements to 65-70 per year. I don’t play during the first two or three months of the year – this is studio time. I don’t play one weekend of the month and I seldom play more than two days in a row, Friday and Saturday.

So what do you do during the week?

As I mentioned, for the past fifteen years or so I’ve only been playing my own music. This means that I need to generate music all the time, and continuously perfect my setup. So the work never stops, I’m always in the studio… just like now.

Alright, we get the hint. Let’s talk shop. Tell us about the device you’ve been fiddling with ever since we started talking. How did this “mini controller” come about?

I’m always discussing synthesizers with Tsvetomir Krumov of Resonator and once I told him that I needed a device to fill a particular gap in my carry-on luggage – between the plastic bag for liquid containers and the drum machine. This was the first condition. The second was for the device to have knobs of a particular size, with a particular distance between them, so that they are comfortable to work with my fingers.

What is it, exactly, and what do you use it for?

It’s a MIDI controller: a device which tells the computer what sounds to make and the music software how to behave. The physical instrument which connects my hands to the computer. And of course, it can be programmed any way I like. There are all kinds of models on the market, but none of them are exactly what I need.

So what did you use before?

I’ve been travelling around the world with the music I play live for fifteen years now. And all this time, I’ve kept buying various devices, with the first condition being for them to fit in my carry-on luggage even before they are enlisted in the confuguration that I use. Because, first of all, I need to transport them and then install them on the stage, where space might be limited as well. And if they have some functionality, as well, that’s a bonus. But many of these intruments I’ve been buying over the years don’t make it past the first test, so they stay at home.

While this one you have with you all the time?

Tell us something more about the actual process of creating the device. How did it happen? You went to Resonator to tell them what you need and…?

Tsvetomir Krumov and I have been talking technology for years, so in this case, I didn’t need to tell him anything. All we did was specify the parameters – the size, the weight, the height. Technically speaking, there is nothing revolutionary about this device. It’s just comfortable as hell, it looks good and it invites you to take it in your hands and start making music.

It becomes clear that for more technical details, we will need to go to the neighbours. We come out of KiNK’s studio, we cross the Kombinat courtyard and we enter Resonator. And more specifically, the Electronics Lab, where we find Tsvetomir Krumov – in the company of several others mini (-sized) and MIDI (functioning) controllers like KiNK’s.

Tsvetomir is the Resonator team member in charge of the Electronics Lab, but together with German Germanov, he is also the founder of the company Backpullver Software which developed the mini controller. The device’s circuit board was designed in the Electronics Lab, and the case was made in the Fab Lab.

Let’s go one more time to make sure we get it right. What exactly is this device that you made according to KiNK’s personal specifications, and what makes it different from the ordinary models?

It’s a MIDI controller – a device with which you control various parameters in audio software. For example, the echo or the filter for the cutoff frequency – the frequency that you can hear. But in practice, it can be connected to anything.

How do you work with it, exactly?

Let me show you. It connects via USB and it appears in the software program as a controller. And in this program, you can tell it: I want this parameter to be controlled by this knob. So that when you turn the knob on the controller, you change the parameter in the program.

And what do these buttons do?

They can switch between different modes, for example. They function on a binary principle – on/off. You switch something off or on. By the way, we used a phosphorescent filament to 3D-print them, so that if the button is lit and then you switch it off, it keeps glowing so that you can see it in the dark.

Because it was made to be used in live performances, right? What else did you do to make the device as comfortable and functional to work with as possible?

It has more free space built in – the controllers are spaced more widely so that you can turn them more easily and more precisely. There’s only eight knobs and they’re bigger. There are no labels on the device. Firstly, because every knob and button may be linked to anything, and secondly, because it was built to be used in the dark, by professional DJ’s and musicians – so the person using it won’t need any labels to know what’s what. It has no cables – just one USB outlet which also feeds it power. The idea is for the device to be as simple and robust as possible, and not to mess up the working space.

How did you settle on this number of knobs?

Form factor. On the one hand, we had the parameters given by KiNK, who wanted a mini controller to fit in his carry-on luggage. On the other hand, the device was to be used with both hands at the same time, so that there is an equal number of knobs for each hand. We also considered making a model half as big as this one – a smaller controller with four knobs which can be combined with another if you need a bigger one. This model can also be combined with a second device, which makes for a total of sixteen knobs.

What else is important for a device which is going to be used for live performances and travel a lot, and how did you achieve it?

Well, it needs to be robust and dependable. The controller’s case consists of just two halves – upper and lower. It was 3D-printed from PETG because this material can handle bigger temperature variations.

So we needed to make the device in a way which does not allow it to distort because of the temperature variations. We also rigged the potentiometers – the knobs are made in a way which doesn’t allow them to keep turning beyong the maximum value, in the heat of the moment during the live performance. The device sits as low as possible, with the inside components packed as tightly as possible – this leaves no empty space insde, which makes it even more robust.

What about the electronics?

A device which is going to be used for live performances needs to have the lowest possible latency…

You’ll have to explain this one.

It needs to work without delay. Latency means the amount of time the signal takes to reach the computer after you’ve turned the knob. With this controller, it happes in less than one millisecond.

How did you achieve that?

With a specialized computer chip with prepares the information from the potentiometers before it feeds it to the processor. This chip works independently from the processor, so the processor only needs to say, “Give me the latest data you’ve read” instead of, “Measure the value of the potentiometer, wait for things to stabilize and only then send it to me”. And speaking of the processor, it has relatively limited resources, so we coded it in C – a more machine-like language which is not that universal and easy to use. For devices such as this one, the code is written on a lower level, closer to the ones and zeroes, because it is simpler and it takes up less space.

We already know that KiNK is very happy with his controller and he uses it all the time. Who else might use such a controller and where might one get it?

The MIDI standard was created for communication between musical instruments and devices, but it is a universal communication protocol which can be used for all manner of things – lighting for concerts, operating video programs, whatever. Anything in which you can connect the knobs to different parameters so that they are controlled from 0 to 127 – for a total of 128 positions. As for the second half of the question, KiNK’s controller was the first prototype, and we are currently on the second “generation” – an improved model with a total of ten copies produced. KiNK and Richie Hawtin already have one each, so there’s only eight left. Get yours quick!

On hearing the name of Richie Hawtin – a legend on the techno scene, mentioned by Tsvetomir Krumov in passing – we return for a moment in KiNK’s studio.

We’re sorry to interrupt again, but we just found out that none other than Richie Hawtin himself is already using the same mini controller. How did this happen?

We were both doing a sound check in a club in San Fransisco, he saw the device and asked me about it. I promised that I would fix him with one. And when Resonator produced the second batch, the first two controllers from it were for me and for him.

Wow. So do you have any other reviews, in addition to Richie Hawtin’s?

Well, everyone who sees this device is interested in it. Every time I play, there’s at least one colleague asking me what’s this and where they can buy it from.

For a MIDI controller like the one KiNK and Richie Hawtin are using, contact Resonator: an incubator for technological ideas, a hub for developing prototypes and the first place in Bulgaria which offers access to Fab Lab and Electronics Lab – shared working spaces for high tech, specialized hardware and software combined with a team prepared to assist both individual clients and (future) companies.

To see the mini controller live, follow KiNK’s schedule.