INVTSwitching it up with
Acid V & MiniFreak
Miami, USA: In everything that they do, electronic music duo Luca Medici and Delbert Perez - aka INVT - put movement first. In their quest to keep their sound fresh, their workflow fluid, and their audience’s feet moving, they discovered Acid V and MiniFreak. We caught up with them in the studio to find out more.
The journey so far
Like many of their contemporary electronic music peers, they started off playing instruments at a young age - and their love for dance music can be traced right back to the beginning.
I grew up playing drums and making bands. When you’re the kid with the drum set, that’s where everyone comes to jam… We ended up getting into jazz, about the same time we were into funk, hip hop, getting into dubstep as well.
Between their appreciation for a plethora of genres electronic or otherwise, and their desire to discover new things and evolve in their creativity, INVT spent the years that followed branching out, refusing to conform to a single genre and taking any opportunity to play a show that sounded fun. They even went as far as establishing their own sustainable clothing brand. But wherever their energy took them, there remained a common theme: dance.
We started getting hit up to play more electronic environments like festivals and clubs, and we wanted people dancing. That became the focus of our music: dancing.
Limitless
Before genre, before sound, it’s all about movement; not just keeping their listeners moving, but keeping their workflow moving. This is one of the things that led them, naturally, towards dance music.
I think the amount of people who come together for dance music was really what reeled me in, and allowed me to understand what dance music could be. I just like how the sounds are limitless.
Playing a crucial role in accessing these limitless sounds is their instant-access setup. Anchored by an Ableton-driven DAW setup, their DIY studio has been set up to accommodate a fast, immersive, see-what-happens workflow. All their hardware, from sequencers to drum machines to keyboards, is hooked up in an accessible place, in sync, and ready to rock at a moment’s notice - a feeling they want to convey in their sound.
The audience gets to experience the same feeling that we do when we’re in the studio. We like to keep it fresh, keep it moving.
ACID GUARACHA
When INVT got their hands on Acid V and MiniFreak, a banger was pretty much guaranteed. For their upcoming EP, they put together an exclusive track for this feature: ‘ACID GUARACHA’ is out now on Bandcamp, the CALENTÓN EP will be out on October 27th.
On working with Arturia
Luca and Delbert took the time to give us a behind-the-scenes look at how Arturia hardware and software brings momentum and excitement to every session, starting with Acid V.
Acid V
The 303 is the kind of sound that you know, even if you think you don’t. It’s a classic, a cornerstone of synth sound design that’s been replicated and reincarnated countless times. Despite this, Acid V is designed to bring a certain freshness to an otherwise familiar character, with a bigger voice, bigger sequencing, and bigger sound design potential. For INVT, this helped rekindle their lost love for the acid sound.
In this session, we can hear Acid V introducing darting acid lines generated and mutated via its sequencer.
I feel like with most acid plugins it’s just a clone. I’ve been turned off from the acid bass even though it’s a classic sound. When I used that plugin it brought in this new life, this sense of freshness to it. I’m making hella acid tracks now because of this plugin!
MiniFreak
The Freak ethos has always been about playfulness, experimentation, and customization - making a sound entirely your own, even without a deep understanding of synths or production. This immediacy and fluidity perfectly aligns with INVT’s flow, putting track-ready sounds at their fingertips in seconds.
For the track they’re working on, it’s on bass duties, punctuating their acid-infused guaracha track with pumping FM-esque bass stabs.
The approaches you can have with it, even if you don’t know anything about sound design or synthesis… you can just hit that thing and it makes magic. Or, if you’re a huge nerd about that stuff, you can rewire everything like 10 times. Deeper than deep.
BeatStep Pro
For tactile control over their hardware, INVT have a BeatStep Pro on hand, an advanced multi-track sequencer that can also be played, letting you interact with your project in real-time without interrupting the momentum and precision of your sequences.
It’s an amazing sequencer that we’ve been using for a long time, in live sets and in the studio.
Keeping it fresh
It’s obvious seeing them in action that INVT need devices that can keep up with their need for creative stimulation and their genre-bending workflow. Luckily, between Acid V, MiniFreak, and BeatStep Pro, they’ve found a balance that works for them - and the dope results speak for themselves.
“Being able to switch up your workflow is really important.
I think playing around, switching it up, keeping it fresh for yourself -
it’s like eating the same meal every day. We don’t do that. Switch it up, try something new,add some more flavours to your palate.”
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