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Danny J Lewis on how Cubase 14 inspired new AI album ‘Night Tales 3 - The Dreams Of Eve’

What happens when an advanced prototype AI awakens to life through the sounds of her own musical dreams? A groundbreaking album that takes listeners on a genre-defying journey through house, hip hop, broken beat, classical, and beyond from British producer and DJ Danny J Lewis, that’s what.

Best known for the 1998 hit Spend the Night which reached No. 29 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 1 on the UK Dance Singles Chart, to this day Lewis is known for his innovative take on the traditional New York and Chicago house sound. With a discography that includes releases on labels such as Defected, Strictly Rhythm, and Soulfuric Trax, he has established himself as a leading figure in the UK underground house scene, and has been recognised by fellow DJs and producers for his role in reviving the ‘90s underground sound in this modern day.

“The interesting thing is that there hasn't actually been that much change,” says Lewis from his home in South West London on how he stays true to his roots while evolving his sound for modern audiences.

“The great thing at the moment is, particularly with the ‘90s stuff, a lot of the younger audiences really vibe on it. There's something about it that still resonates for them. So in some respects, there's no need to become a bit more contemporary, because it seems that people are very happy to hear the older styles, but equally, there has been innovation since the ‘90s. There have been some styles that have created an impact,” he considers. 

“There are new textures and new tones that you can merge with the older sounds, so it does bring a new angle. Technology has changed so much in the way you can process sound now, so you can certainly have that ‘90s ethic and vibe, but bring it up to date by offering a new perspective through new tools. It still has the essence of the original sound, but gives it a modern gloss.”

The great thing at the moment is, particularly with the ‘90s stuff, a lot of the younger audiences really vibe on it.

Lewis’ new AI-centric album, Night Tales 3 - The Dreams Of Eve follows the story of an AI discovering her own emotional capability whilst being secretly evaluated by her human creators. As one of the data scientists falls deeply in love with her, the narrative crescendos into a tragic, cinematic finale – with a twist that leaves audiences reflecting on the boundaries between human and machine, art and science. No, he wasn't watching Blade Runner when this unique concept came to him – he was cycling.

“What tends to happen for me is that when I do physical exercise, my mind goes off on journeys,” he explains. “It's a catalyst for that. I started thinking about this whole world that we live in – AI is everywhere and it has been for a while, but it's becoming much more obvious now. We're heading towards a point where these artificial intelligences are going to get to almost a sentient consciousness level. 

"Probably within the next decade, we will see something that, in essence, thinks it's alive and feels like it's a consciousness. That is a really interesting area. And obviously there's a lot of discussion around the dangers of that sort of thing happening. But also, I know that there are lots of companies like OpenAI and various others who are trying to push this area and come out with something that's going to be useful. I was thinking, in a way, they're trying to create a consciousness.

We're heading towards a point where these artificial intelligences are going to get to almost a sentient consciousness level.

A reflection on the intersection of AI and creativity in the modern world, the album weaves dramatic and emotional storytelling with cutting-edge production, creating an immersive experience that blends musical innovation with a thought-provoking narrative. Each track represents a dream of the AI, expressed in a unique musical style.

“It really helps me if I have a theme or a story, because it motivates me to keep going,” he shares. “I thought, ‘What's a quick and easy way to explore different styles of music?’. The AI could be dreaming. I thought each dream could be a different style, so it created a template. Then I started trying to think of some dramatic moments. When you watch a film, you'll have an introduction to a character or characters, and quite often something goes wrong in the middle, and then they have to resolve it, and then you get an ending. 

"I wanted to get that narrative in there – and that was another thing that started coming to me on the bike,” he grins. “I was cycling along and I was putting voice notes into the phone because when I get those spontaneous moments, I have to capture them, otherwise they may end up disappearing. I was putting all of this verbal barrage of thoughts into the phone, and things started taking shape.”

Lewis has created Night Tales albums at this time of year for the last two years, however had no plans to do so this time. In a poetic twist of technology affecting and influencing human behaviour, it was learning about Steinberg’s Cubase 14 features that led him to feel inspired to create new material.

“I started thinking about the new features in the software that I wanted to explore,” he nods, “so in some respects, the motivation for the album was to explore Cubase and the new features through the concept of the album. It always amazes me how you can start with nothing. It's weird – it was almost like a call and response between myself and Cubase.”

Steinberg’s Shimmer tool added this mystic, ethereal space and texture.

Lewis felt particularly inspired by Steinberg's Shimmer plugin, allowing him to create a shimmer effect by using a reverb and pitch shifter in a delay loop and create ethereal ambiences and dreamlike, reverberant spaces for the album.

“There's a track called Part Of The Deep, and in one of the dreams, she becomes a free diver,” Lewis uses as an example. “She goes down to the bottom of the ocean, just existing with no air, but is actually enjoying that space down there. So I thought, what can I do for that? Steinberg’s Shimmer tool is one of the new audio plugins in Cubase 14, and it added this mystic, ethereal space and texture that really suited that. I also like that there's an element of pitch change as well, which created an interesting metaphor for depth. 

"That whole thing got born out of playing around with the effect and the idea of free diving. That's what I'm talking about in terms of the call and response – the ideas could come from a plugin, and then the story gets fleshed out as it goes back and forth between my brain and then the software. Cubase, in a way, became my writing partner in the process.”

it was almost like a call and response between myself and Cubase.

Steinberg’s Pitch Shift functionality allowed Lewis to change the pitch of the audio and create harmonies by specifying several pitches or applying pitch shift based on an envelope curve, which he made use of in conjunction with – fittingly, for this project – an AI Voice Generator from ElevenLabs.

“What happens with that is, you tell it what you want it to say, and then you choose a voice, or you can create a voice, and it will say it back,” he explains. “A lot of the time it comes back in really fantastic quality, but sometimes there are problems with the audio itself, as you can never expect it to be 100% perfect. What I needed was some means of filling in the gaps, or blurring the issues between the syllables or the other elements of these AI-generated voices, because they were my actors, my performers.”

Here, Steinberg’s Shimmer came to the rescue again. “It's a futuristic reverb, but also, rhythmically, I wanted something to fill in the gaps,” he elaborates. “There was something that was really immediate about the StudioDelay. What I love about it is the fact that it has the pitch change in the delay signal path. That became something really immediate for me due to the very quick nature of switching between the different patterns with delays. 

"I love the sound of it, and I needed stuff to work at speed, because when I'm really motivated I need stuff that can get things down quickly. StudioDelay was a great plugin for adding an echo repeat to the sound, but it was very immediate and allowed me to flexibly play around with ideas and concepts very quickly. These new effects have got a great balance of audio complexity, but also simplicity of use and action,” he notes.

Lewis cites another key piece of inspiration for the album as being Steinberg's new modulation tools. “If you've got a library of plugins – and I've got 100 or so – it's impossible for anybody to know how to work every single parameter on every single one of those plugins. What's great about these new modulators on Cubase 14 is the fact that you don't have to know about the internal routing. 

"If I want to change the way that a parameter behaves on that plugin, I can use Cubase’s modulator, plug it into that parameter, and then automate from Cubase. It means you can use the same generic modulation sources on hundreds of different plugin devices.”

Cubase, in a way, became my writing partner.

He elaborates on how Steinberg’s modulation effects proved to be instrumental in shaping a wah-wah guitar effect on the album’s second track, The First Dream. Instead of using a pedal to modulate the guitar, he mapped a tempo-synced LFO from the new modulator tools and plugged it into the wah-wah.

“I considered modulating it by hand, but I thought, ‘No, I'm going to do the LFO on there’,” he shares. “I got it working, and it didn't sound perfect at first, but then I shifted the phase of LFO that was being used to modulate it, and all of a sudden it started sounding like someone who's playing wah-wah guitar. I used it elsewhere as well, because, as I said, I was working at speed. 

"These new modulation components in Cubase were fantastic because it allows you to change the behavior of any of the plugins without having to relearn and know where all of the modulation routing options are internally on their instrument. Cubase is now getting the accessibility and quick, speedy stuff like StudioDelay and Shimmer, but equally now also you're getting this DIY construction kit stuff, which is what I think these modulation options are potentially the early stages of. This is the freshest Cubase I've seen in a long time.”

This is the freshest Cubase I've seen in a long time.

On Night Tales 3 - The Dreams Of Eve, Lewis prompts deep reflection on the intersections of art and science, pushing audiences to reconsider what it means to be human in a world increasingly shaped by technology. Given that the album reflects on the intersection of AI and creativity, was influenced by technology itself, and makes use of AI vocals, Headliner is keen to hear Lewis’ thoughts on how AI is influencing the music industry today?

“From my perspective, I do not want to use any form of AI composition, because I feel that it's not me anymore,” he states. “I create all of my music myself, and for me, it's the enjoyment of the experience of creation. I don't want that to be changed.

“Self sufficiency is an interesting thing,” he considers, following a pause. “I think I would be probably the kind of person that would use a solo AI generator, should it exist, but I certainly wouldn't try to get myself replaced, because for me, it's the enjoyment of creating all of the elements, like programming the drums, playing the bass lines, doing the chords and working out the orchestration. I wouldn't want that replaced. 

"But on this album, I have literally used AI voices, and one of them I created from scratch, and she became Eve. AI voices are great, certainly for spoken words. I have explored some of these singing ones, and to be honest, that is opening up Pandora's box…”