box completely, so a huge part of my equipment are the the
plugins I own. Fan of everything that Fabfilter makes, I use
them everywhere and they are my go-to. Apart from that I like
a few brainworx plugins like the digital v3 EQ, Townhouse
compressor. Absolutely love everything Soundtoys make, my
favs are Echoboy, Sie-Q, Little Plate, Little Alterboy, Microshift.
Omnisphere and Keyscape Instruments sound fantastic, GForce
Audio stuff is great, Arturia stuff is great, Korg’s new Gadget
plugins pack is brilliant. I use Izotope’s Exciter and Maximizer
in all my Mixing/Mastering projects. I love the things that
Sonic Charge make, I’m a huge fan of Microtonic and Synplant
- their synthesizer plugins that are absolutely stunning. I use
everything that Valhalla makes, their new Delay plugin is
really cool, I use Ableton’s Sampler a lot, you can see them
everywhere in my productions, it is very flexible, powerful and
easy. My latest finds that I love and use everytime I mix are
‘Bassroom’ and ‘Reference’ by a compamy called Mastering The
Mix, 'Soothe’ by Oeksound, ’Gullfoss’ by Soundtheory, and Vulf
Compressor and WOW Control by Goodhertz.
I love the possibility of using software synthesisers and samplers
along with some hardware stuff that I have in the studio -
Elektron Octatrack, Elektron Machinedrum, OP-1, guitar amps,
microphones etc. I’m a fan of synths/samplers on the iPad like
Samplr and Animoog.
Philosophy or reasoning behind gear choice s
Invest in a piece of gear (software or hardware) if it means
dramatic increase in scope of creative potential in your
workflow. Buy less, make more music/mix more and
consistently. If you buy a piece, make sure you can recover the
cost in the least amount of time possible. Avoid big loans if you
are not rich. Make wise and tangible limitations, invest well in
primal pieces of gear like speakers, room, acoustic treatment,
audio interface, microphones, instruments and your computer.
Start small, and upgrade little by little when you feel you can’t
grow any further with what you have. You don’t need pieces of
outboard gear like Consoles, EQs, Preamps, and Compressors,
Synthesisers and expensive software plugins etc to make a great
sounding record. Not to say they don’t sound great, a lot of them
sound great in general, but what is more important is how you
keep building your taste, improve your palette, your ears, your
curiosity for art and things around you, and how well you keep
and know your toolset. A lot of the albums that I love were made
entirely in a bedroom with very minimal equipment, and mixed
entirely on a software (DAW) using mostly stock plugins on
budget speakers. I believe people build mind blowing things with
minimal tools.
Tips to aspiring owners of studios
If you’re not rich, start small, upgrade little by little when you
feel you grow further with what you have. Invest time everyday
to learn new things about music/mixing or whatever that is.
Head out and meet more people, work out everyday. Don’t waste
huge sums of money on a sound engineering school. I’m not
against it or anything, but I feel there are way better ways to
learn these days. You could join as an intern at a studio whose
body of work you really like, you could learn from friends who
are doing well and have the time to help out. Listen to different
styles of music, get curious, your style of music/mixing is only
going to be a reflection of your taste and the palette that you
develop over time.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
37