Nick Reiß | Application, Voltage Labs team

Recent video sample

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Why do musicians still pay five services to reach their own audience?

On the instruments

Short pieces from my own setup.

Short 3 (9:16)
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HiChord and a steering wheelA car steering wheel mapped in FL Studio to ride the filter cutoff by hand.

Short 2 (9:16)
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Orchid and SynplantHardware chords, plugin sound design.

Short 1 (9:16)
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HiChord and OrchidTwo chord machines in one take.

How I'd add value to the team

I explain music from inside the process.

Ten years at the desk means I can open a record up and say why it holds you, not just when it came out. And I can show it on camera.

When the tool does not exist, I build it.

My own streaming platform, my own pre-save system, my own fix when the smart-link API everyone used was shut down overnight. For the MS Wissenschaft, eight tracks that only become a song when eight people touch the table at once.

I know how reach works under the hood.

Ads, SEO and landing pages by day, producing by night. I can tell you why something travelled or didn't, without treating reach as the reason to make it.

Three pieces I'd make

Ideas for the channel, each built on something I actually do.

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Pitch

Whyloud all the time stopped working

Modern club records are technically excellent and relentless, and after an hour most people are just tired. How tracks hold you with two or three things at a time instead of twenty, seen from the producer's side.

Video essay, 8–12 min

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Pitch

Nobody minds the machine. They mind being lied to.

The AI music debate keeps getting stuck on whether a track is real. The sharper question: what happens to a crowd that finds out afterwards, and who profits from music getting cheaper to make.

Video essay, 6–9 min

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Pitch

The guitarI almost threw away

Building a chord with your hands instead of clicking it changes which ideas survive. From a cheap guitar I nearly binned to HiChord and the Telepathic Instruments Orchid, and where the shortcut starts to cost you.

Gear story, 6–10 min

What you asked for

A deep understanding of electronic music cultureHistory, artists, labels, venues, sub-genres. Community, topics, trends, audiences.

I grew up on CDs my dad burned for me, mostly Depeche Mode, with sunshine live running in the background.
A Tomorrowland aftermovie made me start producing in 2012. I came in through the most commercial door there was, and have spent the years since working outwards into everything it drowned out.
That makes me sceptical of hype by default. I've played clubs like Charles Bronson in Halle, and I follow Circoloco Records, Paranoid London, Martinou, and Mike Dean for his craft.
I keep an archive of old plugins, samples and sounds that are no longer available. As emulation replaces hardware, those libraries are becoming the record collection of this decade.

Musical know-howMusic production, sound design, mixing. Music theory, songwriting, arrangement.

Releasing as Skruuul since 2012, registered with GEMA. FL Studio as the main DAW, Ableton alongside, mixing on Waves, FabFilter, Soundtoys and iZotope.
Written and produced with vocalists in German and English, for example How It Ends with Cole Swensen.
Arrangement is what I care about most: how long a track can hold someone before it has to give them something new. Underworld, Depeche Mode and Burial are my reference points, and Out of Control is where I pushed it furthest.

Technical know-howSynthesizers, drum machines, samplers, sequencers. DAWs, plugins. Interfaces, speakers, recording devices, mixers.

Hardware I play: Telepathic Instruments Orchid, HiChord, Synthux Academy Touch 2 (Daisy Seed, swappable firmware), electric guitar.
Trained IT systems specialist: firmware, signal flow and troubleshooting are familiar ground, and I map whatever works as a controller.

Content Production skillsVideo shooting and editing. Color grading, audio mixing.

Video sample above: shot on Sony, cut and mixed in Premiere Pro.
Podcast production in my current job.
Audio-reactive and generative visuals: TouchDesigner, p5.js, oscilloscope graphics.

Social Media ManagementChannel and community management. News, trends, channels.

Paid social, SEA and SEO day to day, first at the agency Projecter for clients like SportScheck and Hagebau, now at steuerberaten.de.
My own channel: Instagram @skruuul.

CV

2026: Sound for the MS Wissenschaft
Music and interactive sound design for an installation aboard the federal science exhibition ship.
since 2024: Digital marketing (part-time), steuerberaten.de
Google and Meta Ads, SEO, landing pages, CMS, podcast production, CRM automation.
2021 – 2024: E-commerce apprenticeship, Projecter (Leipzig)
Affiliate, SEO, SEA and social ads for clients including SportScheck and Hagebau.
2020 – 2021: IT administrator, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Network administration and system support.
2016 – 2020: Apprenticeship in IT systems integration
Network department, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
since 2012: Skruuul
Producer and artist. Releases, visuals, generative art, and stream.skruuul.com, a platform I built myself.
Languages: German (native), English