Mike Huckaby: Follow My Lead

In sound and scope, Mike Huckaby is a consistently inspired individual. The past couple years alone have seen the Detroit veteran remixing Vladislav Delay, Juan Atkins and Pole (among others), teaching music production, playing around the world, and, with his latest endeavor, re-editing Sun Ra.

The Sun Ra edits started with the masters of the original tracks, which he then imported into Live, destined for eventual export, as finished edits, to reel-to-reel tape. In the Warping stage, Mike explains, there were some tricky things to keep in mind: "I cannot stress enough how editing a jazz track is different than editing a typical electronic track," he says. "The tempo would often change from one bar to the next, or the timing in the playing varied heavily, and could be improved. Often I would face many challenges trying to determine where the 'one' or beginning of a particular phrase would be. And if that is poorly estimated, the edit will not be effective, or believable to the listener." The challenge ultimately paid off both in sound and skill for Mike, as he shares, "I love a project that has an inherent level of difficulty surrounding it now. Before I used to hate projects like that, but now I welcome them, because I know the answer is there within the workflow of Ableton Live."

Listen to a preview of Mike's Sun Ra Edits on SoundCloud:

Mike is currently touring with the Sun Ra material, playing it live with reel-to-reel tape copies of his edits. In addition to his regular teaching at YouthVille Detroit, Mike continues to do demonstrations on his productions technique at schools, festivals and clubs around the world. A true innovator, he embraces collaboration, personal growth, and sharing in his musical endeavors.

Learn more about Mike Huckaby on Facebook.