Studio
My current studio setup
In general, equipment comes and goes on my desktop. I switched over to a software-only production system years ago, and have not regretted it at all. There’s less hassles with cables, recording to audio tracks, remembering patches, and so on.
My mode of working is to work with a few software synths at a time, learn them well, and when they get boring, move to another set of synths. Same with effects. After a while you start to know them inside out, and it’s easier and faster to make decisions.
Also, with Logic and Ableton Live, there’s so much already in the base setup concerning synth and plugin effects, so sometimes there’s really no need to even load in external plugins. But as any packrat producer I collect software along the way, so that’s the reason the list below looks long. Anyone starting, just get a good DAW and you could easily work with the provided plugins for a very long time.
PowerMac 2×2.0GHz, Gb RAM
For the time being I have a 2GHz PowerMac. It works fine for most productions I’m doing just now — even if the plan is to move to a Mac Pro 2.6Gz 2x system soon.
I’m running 10.4.10 (Tiger) on this system.
M-Audio FW410 Firewire Audio/Digital Box
I got this box when it was one of the first cheaper FireWire systems
out there. Yes, it was one of the first. I expected driver issues, and there
were those, but now my setup has for the last nine months been very stable.
The trick is to avoid using outside power supplies to the box, instead let
the box shut down and restart via the Firewire power handling. Also, depending
on the driver release, going to sleep mode is bad…
Yes, I can’t properly do an iPod sync over the same firewire connection,
and I dread to hook a Firewire hard disk to the same connector setup…
Event TR8 Studio Reference Monitors
I spent days and days trying to find the perfect monitors, went at that time
through all the known reference monitors with a decent price, below $1000 or so.
Always ended up with liking the Event TR8 monitors. Monitors are a personal thing.
You really need to go with your heart, as you will sit and listen, and listen
and listen, for many hours, hopefully not too long. But you don’t want to
get your ears tired or annoyed due to bad monitors. Spend money and time until you find monitors you like.
Why do I like TR8s? Well, they go down to about 35Hz so I could check out
any rumbling or low level kick and bass levels. They sound nice, I could listen
to any kind of music through them, without getting that effect of ‘linear
reference monitor boringness.’ They could stand out for abuse, sudden
loud bangs that happens by mistake, sometimes killing other monitors.
The price is right, too.
Logic Pro 8.0.1 DAW
It took a while for me to tame this beast, I’ve been using Logic Pro since the
4.x days. The interface was a challenge, the setup, configuration, just
getting it to work with MIDI was a challenge. But major version by major
version the UI elements improved. The 7.x series are quite useable to the
point of me now really having fun with the DAW.
But actually the secret feature set are all the software synthesizers
bundled with the 7.x release. Sculpture is amazing, I like the ES2
vector-based synthesizer, and all the plugins and other parts are top-notch.
And Logic Pro 8 is now finally very, very userfriendly!
Ableton Live 7.0.1
I’ve used this amazing audio sculpture dream tool since
the 2.x days. What could I say. I like audio products that makes the musician
smile, and have fun creating. I feel like a jazz musician improvising with
a whole studio…
Reason 2.5
I purchased Reason long time ago. The SW synthesizers are very good,
I seem to use Maelstrom in more places than I expected it to be used. Also
drum programming is fun with Reason. If my sons need game music for their
computer games, I could start Reason and whip out something game-ish in
about five minutes or so. Otherwise I use it mostly to produce loops
of all kinds.
Various Camel products, Camel5000, CamelSpace, CamelPhat
Oh, Camel rules. The Camel 5000 is a fun fun fun additive synthesis
synthesizer, good for evolving and strange sounds. Only drawback is that
oh how much CPU juice it really requires. CamelPhat is my new favourite
compressor/distortion tool. CamelSpace is good for creating rhytmic
delay patterns of all kinds.
Izotope Ozone 3.1
I use this one mostly for the final mastering. Ableton Live does not have
really good mastering plugins by default, they are decent. However, with Ozone 3 that’s corrected. It has a very good limiter, and the exciter section is something I also use a lot, to warm up the final mix. I also like the interface, such as how the graphic eq works.
You could really clean up bad productions quickly with this mastering plugin.
PSP VintageWarmer
Alas, the secret is out. Vintagewarmer was this odd Polish product
for mastering and limiting use. It takes the harsh bit-stream and converts
the material to a more soft and naturally saturated blend. In addition,
it works as a brick-limiter. If you want to join the club of highly compressed
sound, but still there’s something natural in there, then VintageWarmer
is for you.
Zebra 2 SW Synth
I’m using this one more and more nowadays. What I like about Zebra is its
modular system, you could hook together really crazy combinations, and see what happens. Also, it has basic electro-buzz sounds that I need a lot nowadays. It’s definitely one of those sleeper synths, not all know about Zebra2, but those who know, really likes using it.
The included mini-version Zebralette is also good to have around. Also, I use the ZRev plugin that is part of the Zebra release, as well, as it has a nice artificial reverb sound.
Automat SW Synth
It’s a free software synth — very handy to make electro buzz sounds. I use it here and there to add lead lines with a raw Oscillator sound.
Octopus SW Synth
This is a FM synthesis SW synth with character. Does not sound like any other FM synthesis product I’ve seen. You could actually make gritty sounds with this FM plugin — if you load in sound waves and let Octopus analyze it and it tries to emulate it via FM, nice rough sound…
Vanguard SW Synth
I was looking at getting a Nord HW synthesizer, but stumbled upon this product by a reference by a fellow producer. Hey, saved $1000 dollars. You could get a very saturated trance sound, and much more, with this SW synthesizer.
NI Massive
I have this one, the sounds are indeed massive, this is one of the first software synths that have extremely powerful waveforms, not that Zebra is close, and Vanguard has its strong movement. I use it for various techno and electro productions. Only drawback is that it takes a lot of CPU cycles.
Orca
It’s a free one-oscillator synth, but it has its own charming sounds that could be used from time time. This is one of those softsynths few know about, so it’s good to have around.
RMIV Drum Machine
In addition to tons of drum sets, it also has a nice set of various MIDI drum patterns that I load in and modify for my liking.
AlphaCM
I got this one from one of the Computer Magazine editions, compared with FreeAlpha it has a modulation section that makes the sounds more extensive.
Absynth
I’ve used this synth from time to time, for textural work it’s very good, sound very alien and has a lot of landscape-focused sounds available. But best not to go overboard with too much Absynth.
Guitars, Basses, Amps
I’ve been using Ibanez guitars since 1978, so my main guitar is an Ibanez SG model. My main bass another Ibanez EX3SX2. I like passive humbuckers as bass pickups, so that’s the setup.
I’m also a big fan of Line 6 gear, so I have an LD150 bass amp that also works surprisingly well as a clean guitar amp. I’m also a huge fan of the Pod XT as I could download and do all kinds of amp simulation experiments with this effect box, not to speak of it emulating lots of old stomp-box effects.
And yes, an older JCM800 Marshall combo is also sitting in my studio.
Other Stuff
Seems there’s always a new small controller on my desk, UC-33e, Novation 25LE, Tranzport, other odd controllers and keyboards…
