Korn shook up the rock world at the end of 2011 when the L.A.-based band released its tenth studio album, “Path of Totality,” featuring collaborations with a host of dubstep producers including multiple Grammy Award-winner Skrillex. Now, Korn frontman Jonathan Davis is doubling down on his recent statement that “North American dubstep is the new electronic heavy metal” through a side project, Killbot, and a solo project under his DJ name, J Devil, recording into a laptop on the road and in the studio, using Antelope Audio's new Eclipse 384 converter, master clock and monitor controller.
Davis recently added the Eclipse 384 AD/DA converter in order to streamline his mobile production rig after spotting it on the Antelope Audio web site. The 384 kHz A-to-D/D-to-A converter is clocked using the same Oven Controlled Clock and 64-bit Acoustically Focused Clocking technology that is implemented in Antelope Audio's renowned Trinity Master Clock. The Eclipse 384 offers additional features conducive to mobile production applications, including two dedicated headphone amplifiers and a custom USB interface, as well as two large peak meters on the front panel. In order to simplify operation, users can create up to five custom presets of favorite setups via the system's OS X- and Windows-compatible software control panel that may then be recalled from the Eclipse 384's front panel.
“This is all I've got now; I used to have racks of stuff,” says Davis, who records vocals, guitar and bass into an Apple MacBook Pro through a signal chain comprising little more than the Antelope Eclipse 384, an API Channel Strip and a Shure microphone. “It's basically my studio all in one box. It's the best interface I've used. I love that everything is right there,” he says of the Eclipse.
Davis, who has been performing DJ sets using the moniker J Devil, is a longtime aficionado of electronic dance music (EDM), and has been producing dubstep-influenced remixes for rock and electronic artists for several years. Having started creating EDM on his laptop “for fun,” Davis has now teamed up with dubstep producers and fellow metal-heads Sluggo and Tyler Blue to form Killbot, a “metalstep” collaboration that has signed to Steve Aoki's Dim Mak dance record label and has announced plans to release a four-track EP. There is also a J Devil solo EP in the works.
Davis has jumped into EDM production with both feet, making use of every waking minute to create new music for all of his projects. "Making electronic music and learning to produce and learning my new instrument—laptop, I call it—has been an amazing thing,” he told Billboard.com recently. "After every Korn show I come offstage, take a shower and I start writing."
By utilizing high-grade audio production equipment such as the Antelope Eclipse 384, Davis is able to produce release-ready masters right there on the tour bus or the hotel room. “The Eclipse is essential, because it gives me everything I need to work on the road and not just make a demo. The stuff I actually do on the road I keep and it sounds great—it's not just a demo that I have to rework or re-record later,” he says.