Lukan gives a complete tour of his recently built studio
and the equipment used and how he organizes and
plans out his work
Studios are basically split into three types- Recording, Mixing
and Mastering and are built to serve these very purposes.
However, with the rise of electronic music and bedroom
producers, the three are often combined into one multi-
purpose unit run by one artist who is not only the producer
but the recording engineer, the mixing engineer and often
even the mastering engineer. I too am an Electronic Music
Producer and DJ and have purpose built my studio around
the production and mixing of the more underground side of
house and techno music.
Studios can be further broken down into ITB (In the Box),
OTB (Out of the Box) and Hybrid (ITB+OTB) which get this
nomenclature based on their workflow and signal path. My
studio is a Hybrid, which means I use both ITB (Computer/
DAW based) and outboard gear processing/production. I wish
I could have it all OTB but that would have meant my parents
throwing me out of my house, probably with a bowl in my
hand to beg for some money.
Talking about the complete equipment and software list, let’s
get on with the outboard gear first. I currently use a Universal
Audio Apollo 8 Quad Interface patched up via ADAT to a
PreSonus DP88 which helps me expand the I/O’s of the Apollo
and enables me to connect all my synths, drum machines,
processing units and future outboard gear to the Apollo 8
which otherwise has only 8 line in’s. I do not use the DP88
for it’s pre-amps. Instead I just use it as an expander for my
audio interface. I then have an EQP-WA Tube Equaliser and
a WA76 solid-state compressor/limiter which are the Warm
Audio clones of the legendary Pultec EQ’s and the UREI 1176
respectively. These go on every single track that I make,
provided the channel I am using it on is mono (usually kick,
snare, bass, lead vocals, parallel crushing etc.). Since they
26
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
are single channel units, they can only process in stereo if
used in pairs but I do not have pairs of each at the moment so
I do only mono processing on them. Moving further, I have
an Audient ASP800 which I use only for it’s HMX and Iron
saturation effects usually on kicks and snares and sometimes
on synths. The final glue point for my mix downs is my most
prized possession – The NEVE 5059 Summing Mixer. After
finalizing a surgical mix-down in my DAW using UAD and
Waves plug-ins, I can pass up to 16 channels/stems into
the 5059 and back into the DAW to the print the final mix,
which then goes for mastering. I do not master any of my
productions.
In terms of equipment that actually produces the sounds that I
use for my productions, I have an NI Maschine, Roland TR606,
Roland TR8 and Arturia DrumBrute as my drum machines.
My small collection of analog and digital synths includes a
Moog Mother 32, Dopefer Dark Energy 2, Arturia MicroBrute,
Roland TB3, Roland JP-08, Roland RS-09, Novation
BassStation 2 and the Novation X-Station. I also have a few
pedals like the RAT Distortion, TC Helicon Hall of Fame,
MXR Carbon Copy etc. which I use to add effects and flavor as
per the mood. A bit obvious but I also use a DBX Patchbay to
connect all this gear to each other and also to the DAW.
Moving on to acoustics, I use a pair of Genelec 1032A Monitors
for producing and mixing and a pair of Yamaha HS80’s
for listening to records via my turntables. The Genelec’s
are connected directly to the monitor outs of the Apollo 8
and the Yamaha’s to the out’s of my DJ mixer. The room is
acoustically treated but not isolated as I do not record any live
instruments or vocals. The acoustic treatment consists of a
mix of glass wool absorption panels, bass traps and wooden
diffuser panels. This was the only thing in the Studio which