NoiseAsh CEO Beyhan Talks Music, SpeakerSim, Rule Tec and More
Earlier this year, we had the chance to interview Beyhan (NoiseAsh CEO) and pick his brain about his experience and one of our favorite plugins RuleTec.
Can you tell everyone a little about yourself, and how NoiseAsh came to be?
I’m originally from Turkey / İstanbul. By trade, I’m a Chemical Engineer MSc. I’ve worked as a quality control laboratory manager in several pharmaceutical companies for almost 15 years.
I know you’re thinking, ‘wait I thought you were a plugin developer?’
I’ve always been a music and technology lover. I love all good stuff, no matter the musical genre. If it sounds good, then it’s good for me.
I’ve done a little bit of everything. I was a composer/arranger. I’ve produced and mixed a lot of music, starting from my teenage years. I was heavily inspired by Prince, Michael Jackson, Spice Girls, Ricky Martin, The Cranberries, and dozens of other wonderful musicians.
Childhood Music Creations
My brother and I started off recording the sounds on a shitty microphone with ‘found sound’
- dishes (as clap)
- armchair bottom (if you hit softly to the fabric with your finger it can sound like a good kick)
- bass (with our voice)
- funk guitars and even synth sounds (with our voice)…
It was so much fun for us, just experimenting with what we had.
Then in the early 2000s, I was introduced to techno & progressive trance and then started to produce techno & progressive trance. Then the production, mixing, and mastering ideas grew.
Making Music For Ads and TV
Over the years, I was able to land work with agencies producing multiple genres of music; nu-metal, pop, alternative rock, advertising jingle music, tv music, even classical soundtracks.
That business has really improved my producing & mixing skills. I made some music under the NoiseAsh alias. After some years in that world, I decided to make my own audio plugins. I always wanted to make plugins that would give me a shortcut to cool sounds with just a few clicks – That’s NoiseAsh’s first goal, good sounds with little effort.
Transitioning From Music Production To Plugin Development
Many hours went into research and figuring out how to merge my musical experience and expectations from a musician and producer to a consumer. I had to switch hats back and forth between finding the right blend.
Then as time goes, you grow, and now I have a team of very talented individuals helping me create great audio plugins under the NoiseAsh brand.
Where the company is located and it’s birth: Noise Ash Inc. was incorporated in Delaware / US. It’s a young company, It’s been 3 years old.
What is the meaning behind NoiseAsh?
That word has a really private meaning for me, I just don’t prefer to say it
What was or were the first plugin(s) developed/released and why?
The first plugin was called Sweetcase – Electric Piano instrument. I was using really warm and shiny electric piano tones in my mixes and everybody loved it.
Actually, the process of its warm sound is a little bit painful. The signal goes into lots of analog gear including tape machine, tube eq, compressor, and channel strip then passes through several software plugins.
Since people loved the sound I figured…why make an instrument plugin from it? The tweaking is already done.
So I recorded my processed electric piano sounds then built the instrument. It was a fairly simple build, the user didn’t need to tweak anything, just play it, that’s it.
That was the first one and I gave this plugin for free (it is still free).
What was the idea/inspiration behind SpeakerSim?
It fit our motto, something that sounded good and wasn’t difficult to operate. Like I mentioned early, our first goal is to make plugins that will give our users a shortcut to cool sounds. SpeakerSim fit that bill.
NoiseAsh RuleTec What Went Into Creation Creating It?
This was a very tough process! As you know, analog modeling brings nonlinear interaction of each component. Also, we want our plugins to be as accurate as possible in terms of color and tone, but with the light on CPU consumption.
It’s much easier to make accurate tones with tons of CPU usage, but staying true to the real tone and keeping the low CPU usage at the same time, is a very hard task.
Lots of times, making good emulations is difficult. But we worked hard to reach this goal. First, we modeled circuits but sometimes modeling circuits only don’t give accurate results. So to keep the sound accurate, we also modeled complex interactions between each component.
It took a lot (A LOT) of time to handle but at the same time that made a huge difference as you know and before we knew it, RuleTec was ready to rock.
What would you say is your most popular plugin?
Definitely Vocal Finalizer. Then Rule Tec Collection & Need 31102
Why do you choose to keep your prices so affordable when you could charge more?
Every user deserves good quality software with good prices. There will be no need for using warezed stuff if the prices are fair enough.
So it motivates us to make affordable premium plugins, another one of our visions.
What’s next for Noise Ash?
Our short-term goal is to continue making amazing software stuff at highly affordable prices. With that being said, NoiseAsh is a ‘technology company, and while I can’t share too much information, there are plans to develop hardware as well.
Are There Any Plugins You’d Recommend People Start With?
Any plugin is good to start with. Our plugins are easy to use and are equally geared to beginners as they are pro-level engineers. You don’t need to be a sound nerd to mix the songs as professionals do.
