- Synths and Samplers-
This
bad boy is probably my biggest workhorse over all being that it’s capable of
doing just about everything from pads to ripping leads to bass to growling
robot sounds. A friend once summed up the Nord Lead
just about perfectly by saying “…it doesn’t always give you the
exact sound you are looking for, but it always gives you the sound you actually
need.”
The
other big work horse, this guy gets used often for squelchy ripping leads, as
well as pads and random weird stuff. I also use the audio inputs a lot for
filtering software synths or samplers through, not to
mention the vocoder is fun as well.
I
was looking at Native Instruments FM-7 when I came across the synth it was
based on at a used shop in
Another
find in the junk section of the local used everything shop, this nice little
analog synth is actually a beast in hiding, not surprising really being of the
Juno series. Programming is a little slow at times, but the results are well
worth it. Also the slightly shorter than standard keyboard makes it a great
synth for taking to live gigs as it has more than enough range for most
situations, but isn’t as cumbersome as a standard full-sized keyboard.
Always
being on the hunt for orchestra based sounds and samples, I couldn’t let this
go when it was offered to me cheap. It’s quite useful for pads, strings and
choirs as well as nice glassy clean upper register type. The internal effects
are a mixed bag so it often it gets run though a few other processors and then
more often than not midi-gated to hell.
While
I tend to do most of my sampling on the computer, this unit was another
fabulous deal from a local seller that I couldn’t pass up. Besides being
upgraded as high as it could go, it also came loaded up with a mess of nice
orchestral and other non-electronic samples, as well as a bunch of drum kits,
which alone made it worth the price I paid. The 17 different filter types are
great fun to play with, especially on break beats. Being hardware, I tend to
use it differently than my software samplers, which is good to breaking up my
sampling habits. It’s also quite handy (and mainly used) for triggering sounds
at live gigs which I tend to do for live percussion elements using an old
Roland SPD-8 as the controller.
This
guy I’ve been using for ages now. One of the first Korg
Electribe synths and I
think it is still one of the best. Its simple and
doesn’t do everything, but what it does, it does well.
- Outboard
Gear -
Probably
my mainstay effects processor these days. The M-One is great for subtle effects
use to enhance the placement of tracks in the mix. The reverbs almost always
get used on percussion parts and on any sampled instruments that are based on
acoustic instruments to give them a more organic feel in space. This unit has
been used in just about every track I have written since I bought it.
Technically
this is a pitch correcting processor for fixing flubbed notes in a vocalist’s
performance. I occasionally use it to fit the pitch in vocal samples, but being
essentially based on pitch shifting technology, I tend to abuse it and use it
for things it was never intended, like running percussion lines through it and
manually playing with the pitch correction settings on the fly. This is another
processor I could never afford new and probably wouldn’t have even considered
if it hadn’t been such a good deal used. Fun stuff.
This
lovely unit is the “King“ of my effects rack. Even
used, I would normally never be able to afford this beauty, but lady luck was
on my side and I ended up getting this monster for an incredibly low price when
one of my local used gear shops mistakenly thought that one of the buttons was
broken and threw it in the junk section at a 90% discount off its original
retail cost. Even with a broken button that would be a good deal, but it was
made even sweeter by bringing it home to find the offending button in perfect
working order. While the M-One is my “subtle” effects processor of choice, the
H3000 is the go to processor when complete audio destruction is called for.
Fabulous reverbs, delays, pitch effects, flangers,
etc. there is little to complain about except when you actually have to decide
which of the million audio delights to choose from.
My
main mixer in the studio; I got this guy for a ridiculously low price used because
the fader on channel two is messed up (although it works fine). 24 channels and
4 subs to play with make this a handy little (?) tool in the studio.
This
is primarily used as my live mixer. 14 channels, 2 subs, nothing too fancy
here, but its solid, basic and gets the job done with no fuss and no noise.
Again,
nothing fancy here, but they gets the job done until they can be upgraded.
I
originally bought this for live sets with my laptop. The knobs are fun, but I
find the keyboard too small in range to be very useful for playing. These days
it’s used primarily as a second midi interface for my desktop and for banging
around on soft-synths while creating sounds before
moving over to a full sized keyboard for actually making parts.
This
is used pretty much exclusively to control Ableton
Live during my live sets. The faders are connected to the mixer faders in Ableton, while the knobs and buttons control the parameters
of the internal effects I use live. Very handy and it makes it so that I hardly
ever actually have to touch the laptop during live sets.
This
guy is the second half of my live set control wise. Its
usually wired up to Discovery (which is very stable in Ableton
Live) which I need play live adding bits of whatever.
I
only use this to control the MS-20 soft-synth when I’m in an experimental mood.
It looks nice, but doesn’t see much action these days.
Another
midi interface, simple, but it works.
This
is a electronic percussion pad I hook up to the EMU
ESI-4000 sampler for live percussion during live sets. Single,
fun, effective.
This
is an amp simulator for my guitar work. Normally I stay away from Behringer gear, but this was actually pretty nice.
Occasionally it gets used as a distortion pedal for synths
as well.
I’ve
been an Ibanez man for since the early 90’s and I probably always will be. This
is a 7 String model from the RG series. Someday I’d like to get one of the hard
to find S series 7 string guitars, but for the moment this bad-boy gets the job
done.
- Computers -
This
is a Frankentein computer I put together myself and
it used as the heart of the studio.
This
is my brain for live sets.
This
is the pci version and it has never given me any
trouble. It is coming up soon on the list of things to get upgraded, but it has
served me well and was a great deal for the money.
This
is my card for the laptop during live sets. Again this will get upgraded
eventually, but it is simple and gives me no problems.
- Software -
This
is my primary sequencer and the heart and brain of my studio.
This
is on my old laptop and doesn’t get used too much these days. I harbor dreams
of system linking it to SX one day, but don’t have a proper interface for the
laptop yet.
All
purpose editing, recording, burning, etc and fast to boot.
I
don’t use FL as much as I used too, but it still gets brought out to create
loops to be imported into Cubase fairly often.
My
choice for live sets, it does just about everything I want it to do in a live
situation and with the UC-33e and PCR-M1 controllers it’s almost like using
hardware again. I’ve also started using it some for writing while on the road.
To date I’ve mainly am used it for writing downtempo
stuff while hanging out at friends’ houses and such, but it quite nice (and no
dongle, which I refuse to take out on the road).
Software
versions of four classic synths, I use the original
three of these all the time (the M1 was added later when the “Digital Edition”
was released). The MS-20 is great for nasty leads and freaky sound effects, while
I use Wavestation a lot for pads and atmospheric
stuff. The Polysix gets used for a lot of things and
has been a bass favorite recently. The M1 I used a lot on “An Angel Takes
Flight” and is good for downtempo
work. The Legacy Cell synth is a monster (if a bit CPU heavy at times) and the
built in effects plug in sees a lot of action as well.
A
great little vst synth here, I tend to use it a lot
for leads and occasionally bass lines and pads. It has a bit of a darker sound
quality and I use it a lot recently for dirty FM type of leads..
This
is one of the two soft-samplers I use for drums and the one I seem to use more
frequently these days. The filters and various audio destruction additions are nice
and the CD of drum samples is a well used friend.
I
tend to use this as a total audio destruction sampler mostly for flyby sound
effects and weird bleeps and pops.
This
is my main software sampler for just about everything but drums.
The
late Symphonics (of Phi fame) turned me on to this
guy while we were working on what ended up being the only track we ever did
together in the studio. He couldn’t stop talking about how great it was and the
more I use it, the more I understand why. All good synths
should have a flavor to them that makes them stand out of the mix and this one
does. I use it a lot for bass these days as well as a wide variety of leads.
One
of PSP many excellent plug in effects. Good for your straight ahead sort of
effects.
Basically
this is the 42 on steroids. Great for sound design and lots of purely mad
effects, this was another Symphonics favorite that he
turned me onto.
Yet
another excellent PSP effects plug in. This one is extremely powerful in the
filter department as well as having great flanger and
phaser effects. Its great to
mashing up just about anything really and has become another standby after
fighting a bit with it at first trying to figure it out.
This
guy gets used a lot for sort of “compression with character” type of work. Its great on bass, but gets used in a lot of different
places
This
one is still new for me but I’m finding myself using it a lot in place of the Cubase EQ recently.
Basically
my “portable Nord Lead” as it were.
This little guy is very solid in Ableton live so I
tend to use it for almost all of my live synth work. While it sounds alot like a Nord Lead, it is of
course still a bit different (I find my actual Lead 1 to sound a bit brighter)
and adds a nice flavor to the mix when used properly.
A recent
favorite here, this guy is excellent in the pad department. Sounds great and is
priced far below its value. I definitely recommend picking it up.
More
pad madness from H.G. Fortune here. It works a bit differently than ProtoPlasm, but sounds just as good. Again
very under-priced in my opinion and worth buying.
The third
synth in the H.G. Fortune synth package, this one is a bit more lead-like
focused, but still very unusual. I find it good for one off noises, bangs, boinks, stabs and sweeps.
Another
great little synth here, ripping leads, fat bass, you name it, it does it. It has a nice sort of clean and clear sonic
quality that helps it stand out fairly well in the mix too.
Absynth is probably my single most
favorite soft-synth in the world. Most people think of it as a pads and
atmosphere’s synth (which it does well), but I use it for just about
everything. It is also one of my hands down favorite bass synths.
Hmmm,
what do you say about a product that literally does everything? I use it
regularly for drum loops and the Junatik synth gets
abused often. Basically anything you could possibly imagine can be done here
something. It can be a bit CPU intensive so I tend to render it to wav fairly
soon for further tweaking.
My
other drum sampler, it’s basic, but gets the job done although I must admit I
haven’t used it in awhile.
This
is a truly freaky delay effect. It’s great for making weird swells and flybys.
A bit tricky to use at times, but the results are worth it.
A
basic solid vst based multi-compressor here. I think
it often sounds a little bit warmer than Cubase’s
internal multi-compressor and so it gets used when a warmer sound it called
for, often in the tracking stages.
I
ended up getting this jewel for free when a friend bought a new laptop and
didn’t want to get a point card at the shop. I had one already so I got the
points and ended up with enough to pick up this “synth” which I’d been eyeing
for awhile. It’s a vocal modeling synth and is responsible for all the female
vocals on “An Angel Takes Flight”. When used to sing a lot of distinct clear
words it can be a bit robotic, but soaked in reverb and delay it sounds
positively wonderful.
A vst synth carried over from FL Studio, this guy doesn’t see
too much action these days, but it is usually used in background repeating
lines, usually soaked in delay.
Another
FL Studio carry over, I tend to use this one a lot more than Sim Synth. Its good for dirty
techno type sounds and I actually really like its internal reverb as well.