Peter "At Work" Presta - Novation Bass Station User

By Christopher Buttner

Hard, underground house music requires more bass than one can possibly imagine. The driving, Peter "At work" Presta Hard, underground house music requires more bass than one can possibly imagine. The driving, solid rhythm is designed to keep the masses moving from the time club doors open to the time they close in the wee hours of the morning. World renowned house music composer/producer, Peter Presta, is a recent convert to the massive bass sounds produced by the Novation Bass Station Rack unit.

"I discovered the great sound of the Novation Bass Station by borrowing the original Bass Station 25 note keyboard from a friend back in April 1995," states Peter. "I was so turned-on by the sounds of the Novation Bass Station Keyboard I called Novation in England to let them know how much I liked it. I spoke with Nicole at the Novation factory and I suggested they should build a rack version of the Bass Station. She said I should call Music Industries Corp., and speak with J. Corky Cohan. It turned out that Novation had already produced a rack unit version and it was available in America!"

Brooklyn, New York born Peter Presta began DJing in various clubs in and around New York City in 1987, at the age of 16. From working many hours in the night clubs he was able to save enough money to open his own record store, Strictly for Dee Jays. Along with the usual record store product, Peter also sold his self-produced mixed tapes. Peter's tapes soon became a smash all over New York. Word of Peter's production prowess and incredible sixth sense of house music composition soon spread beyond the limits of the Metro New York area.

Intense interest in Peter's mixed tapes led to the production of his first record released in May 1991, "Dancing on the Fire", by A New Trend. Peter collaborated with the Aleem Brothers who had produced "Release Yourself' and "Confusion" on Atlantic Records.

In November 1991, Peter was signed to management company MyStarz Music (NuGroove Records). This signing opened many new doors for him to other labels and artists. Through these new contacts Peter has grown to become one of the most sought after producers in the dance/hip-hop community.

His most notable production work includes self-produced projects such as "Funky Jumpy Music" (Maxi), "Biggatty-Bone" (Strictly Rhythm), "Car Alarm" (Maxi), and his "Unreel Record" series on Max'n. Some of his most notable remixes are "Funk Dat" by Sagat (Maxi), "Sunshine In The Rain" by Joi (EMI) and "Groove Thang" by Zhane (Motown). To date, Peter has worked with almost every single independent dance/hip-hop record label in the country, including, but not limited to Cutting, After Dark/Freeze and the Florida-based Underground labels.

He is currently in the studio working on various remixes, and other projects, under the banner of his own production company, Mix of Trix Productions.

"Recently, I've been using the Bass Station Rack for all of my underground tracks. I was originally using a lot of different old analog synths to get that really fat, rich bass synth sound. Now that I have the Bass Station Rack, I can't tell the difference in sounds from the older analog synths to the sound I get from my Bass Station . The Bass Station is so easy to use and it's very reliable. Plus it has all of the MIDI functions and capabilities I need to integrate it with all of my rack gear. I trigger my Bass Station with my Ensoniq ASR-10 keyboard sampler."

Peter concludes, "I'm very happy to be using such a great machine like the Novation Bass Station Rack in my work. I'm very comfortable with the unit and it sounds consistently great. I'll probably add another unit to my rack so I'll have two note polyphony. There are a lot of great sounds in there and it's are not just limited to the bass sounds. You can also come up with some really great string padding and fill sounds. Recently, I've been using it for all of my hard, underground house music production and composition. The Novation Bass Station has added a whole new dimension to my music."