Polarity Music - About
Greetings everyone, I'm Polarity and it's my pleasure to share with you some valuable insights and practical tips about music production. As an experienced music producer, I've had the opportunity to experiment with various techniques, tools, and workflows to develop my own unique approach to music creation.
video overview
Biography #
Born in Eisleben, East Germany, on May 1, 1979, Polarity a.k.a. Robert Agthe grew up in a musical family and in a communist country, without public ads, computers, or television.
His father was a professional drummer, so Polarity got in touch with the kicks and snares at an early age. When he was seven, his parents enrolled him at the local brass band where he learned drumming and marching.
However, he did not like this of genre and stopped making music untill he obtained his first computer, a Commodore C64 in 1993. After the wall came down and his family moved to West-Germany.
Polarity quickly learned to use software like trackers and samplers and saw his future in producing electronic music. Without much knowledge and hardware (only a Korg Poly 800), he tried to realise his compositions. Every year, new technology brought new possibilities and he tried to use them for his productions.
Starting with Trackers and the Techno Sound Turbo cartridge for the Amiga 500+, he began gaining experience in recording and arranging music. You could only record a few seconds of stereo audio at 11kHz at the time, but it was fun nonetheless.
Around 1995, with the release of Windows 95, Polarity started using the first versions of Fruity Loops (version 0.8) to create beats. With the help of standalone applications like "Rubber Duck", "Sim Synth", "Hammerhead", and others, he was able to create samples and loops to use in "Fruity Loops" or early loop-based DAWs like Sonic Foundry’s Acid Pro. Back then, CPUs weren’t powerful enough to run plugins, so each process had to be done separately and then combined using WAV samples.
The idea to use Acid came from his experience with "Music Maker", which had its own samples but was very limited. Searching for more professional software led him to Acid Pro, the first software that allowed easy use of loops and samples, which he then adopted for his productions. It was somewhat of a predecessor to Ableton Live, but with a different approach, Acid Pro focused more on loops and samples, while Ableton Live emphasizes live performance and real-time audio manipulation.
Later in the '90s, he began using Reason and ReBirth to create music. These applications allowed him to do everything in one program without hitting CPU limitations.
Since 1999, Polarity used the Internet on a daily basis, so the question of contacing likeminded people arose. Without further ado, he decided to found a website to provide a forum for producers. The project producer-network.de was born.The site should give hobby producers the possibility to exchange experiences and to present their tracks.
In 2000, one of Polarity's internet buddies called his attention to the singer Terra from Vienna. Via ICQ, an online chat, they exchanged the first ideas and Terra introduced Polarity to her then team colleague Shroombab. Shroombab liked his music and they started to work together in 2001. Uniting their musical roots, they produced very danceable tracks.
Their work quickly beared fruits, leading to a release on Micky Finn's lable Urban Takeover. Furthermore, they released tunes on labels like Protogen, Thermal Recordings and Trickdisc. In 2002, they also foundend their own label High Tension on which they have released one record up to now.
At the same time, Polarity got mail from the producer team Phace from the Saarland in Germany. He was thrilled and invited them immediately to Aglasterhausen where they produced several tracks together, presenting a different side of Drum and Bass.
In 2003, Polarity programed the website junglistic-sistaz.com. With Junglistic Sistaz, Shroombab wants to encourage and promote young, talented women DJs and producers, like Alley Cat, Dj Wildchild, Nexxi, Jenna G, Adi-J, Mi-Ka, Dhanu and many more.
In 2004, Polarity and Shroombab separated to realise their individual musical ideas. Shroombab decided to continue to manage High Tension, present her sound on it and to pursue her DJ career respectively. Polarity carried on to concentrate on his production skills, Producer-Network and Djing.
At the end of 2004, Polarity teamed up with Jericho, a producer from Nuremberg he met via his website Producer-Network. Jericho's liking for dubby sounds and Polarity's preferrence for midrange basslines harmonised well, and so they produced five 1998-Virus-Recordings-style tunes between 2004 and 2005.
At the same time around 2005, Polarity produced the first German Drum and Bass & Hip Hop album „Vogel oder Fighter", together with MC Mankind from Ulm. The album met with very positive responses, mainly from the Hip Hop fraction. A worthy sequel is already in planning. The idea for the album came from the surprisingly successful single „Mein Weg" Polarity and Mankind had recorded in 2004.
It's production took one year and features German artists like the Giana Brothers, Nphect & Display, the NMEclick and Broken Harmony. For the first time, Polarity produced two Nuskool Breaks tracks for the album.
The Album led to many various gigs in Germany to perform the Album live with Mc Mankind.
In the beginning of 2005, Polarity and a group of highly motivated editors founded the German online magazine DnBSzene.de.
Here, one can read interviews, reports, watch videos and get information on party dates. The site is characterised by its unconventional layout. Everyone can participate, and so the users can decide about design and content of the website. The forum offers freedom for all kinds of thoughts and is not strictly moderated. DnBSzene wants to provide free and neutral information and to offer quick access.
In 2006 Polarity also started to form a group of producers, djs and mcs on the newly founded Urban-Poetry label by Dj Turrican. The label consisted of Jericho, Polarity, MC Sinista, Su3-ject and Dj Turrican at that Time.
In 2006 polarity moved to Berlin and started a label called PNR or Producer-Network Records. The imprint is focused on supporting talented artists who are registered Members of the Producert-Network. Featuring Music by Skyence, Erdbeerschnitzel, Cruel Culture, Hi-Lar, Kandel, Marauder, Term, Bowser and Er.iC.
Cover and art design for Producer-Network-Records by Marie Schweiz and Yvonne Richter:
2008 was the year of Syntax. Polarity's debut album. Packed with deep drum and bass tunes and published on his own PNR imprint. It kind of defines his sound and style at that time. The album was well received by the scene and led to several gigs in Germany and abroad. There was a release party in the VCF Club in Berlin alongside NIZE5IVE,HNS & MO
In 2015, Polarity started his niche YouTube channel about producing music with Bitwig. It has reached 25k subscribers as of 2025 and is still growing. The channel features tutorials, tips and tricks, and insights into his music production process.
Clubography #
Besides, Polarity had numerous DJ gigs over the years and distributed his producions to miscellaneous clubs in Germany. However, his main focus is still on producing because he sees the biggest creative possibilities here.
- Kings of The Jungle (Mannheim)
- Made in Germany (Mannheim)
- Basstard (Berlin)
- Vesss (Insel Poel)
- Juz, (Mannheim)
- Sounds Of Life (Frankfurt)
- Cube Club (Chemnitz)
- Music 4 A Hard Life (Frankfurt)
- Treibhaus (Regensburg)
- Raw Tempel (Berlin)
- Polarity (Saarbrücken)
- BumRush (Bad Kreuznach)
- Rosis (Berlin)
Discography #
All releases are listed and tagged on Discocs. Go to the Discogs Polarity Profile. Whoever maintains my page there, thx for all the work and fast updates, much appreciated!