What So Not on Evolving Your Sound Without Losing Your Audience

What So Not breaks down how he navigates genre shifts, breadcrumbs his audience through sonic changes, and keeps creativity alive across years of touring.

Australian producer and performer What So Not sits down with the Ableton Podcast to unpack more than a decade of reinvention — from organic Soundcloud-era club music through halftime, drum and bass, and back again. He covers the strategic thinking behind genre shifts, the physical and mental disciplines that keep creativity alive on the road, and a live session inside Ableton Live working on a track from his forthcoming EP.

What It Covers

What So Not is candid about the tension between artistic instinct and audience expectations. Rather than abandoning a sound abruptly, he describes a deliberate process of releasing music that gradually leads listeners toward a new direction — what he calls breadcrumbing. That approach has let him move through drastically different scenes without alienating the core audience he built early on.

He also opens up about the relationship between physical health and creative output. From training at a kung fu temple in China to surfing big waves, he makes a direct case that looking after your body is inseparable from sustaining a long production career. Tour burnout is real, and his approach to managing it is practical and honest.

The conversation then moves into the studio, with What So Not working through a track built around a live-recorded acid riff from the Acid Box plugin. He walks through how he managed sub bass in C/C# to avoid rattling rooms, his use of ProQ4 for sidechain EQ and ring modulation, and how layering Noisier and Bunshin splice sounds added weight and texture to the arrangement.

How to Use It

• Breadcrumb genre shifts: Release transitional tracks that lead your audience toward a new sound before committing fully — sudden pivots risk confusion and drop-off.
• Choose your key carefully for bass music: Writing in B creates extreme highs or lows for bass frequencies; C or C# gives more workable headroom while still hitting hard.
• Use automation to add movement to sub bass: A flat sub throughout a track loses groove; subtle automation breaks and tom hits create the rhythmic push that makes a low end feel alive.
• Apply sidechain EQ with ProQ4: Use dynamic EQ to carve space around competing low-end elements in real time rather than static cuts that thin out the mix unnecessarily.
• Track acid lines live rather than programming them: What So Not recorded a seven-minute live performance of the Acid Box plugin, capturing spontaneous automation changes that would be difficult to recreate by hand.
• Collaborate in person wherever possible: Sending stems and files freezes decisions and loses the push-and-pull dynamic that produces unexpected and authentic results.
• Treat music creation as emotional offloading: Writing from a genuine feeling — whether positive or difficult — transfers that emotion to listeners even without lyrics or explanation.

Why It Matters

What So Not has been at the sharp end of electronic music for over a decade, collaborating with Skrillex, RL Grime, Oliver Tree, and others while consistently refusing to be pinned to a single genre. The insight here is not theoretical — it comes from someone who has navigated mainstage pressure, creative reinvention, physical burnout, and the practical realities of building music inside Ableton Live on the road. Whether you are trying to push your sound into new territory, get more power out of your low end, or simply stay creatively motivated across a long career, this episode offers direct, applicable perspective from an artist who has done all of it.