The Past
Like many of us, my studio has changed a lot over the years. It’s grown and shrunk, then grown again.
I originally, like, a million years ago, started with a tracker. I guess this was before I even considered it ‘making music’. I was just a kid playing around with sound.
Somewhere later, I picked up a copy of Acid, then Fruity Loops, quickly migrating to Reason. I loved Reason. Running cables from one machine to another became a fascination of mine that continues to this day.
When I started working for Musicworks, I was handed the first copy of Cubase SX in the country and told to learn it. Congratulations! I was now the national support officer for Steinberg. Cubase, Nuendo, and Wavelab became my mainstay.
Somewhere towards the end of my time there, I also started using Ableton. Initially, it was just to be the backbone of the live show, but after leaving Musicworks, I found myself using Ableton more and more, and now do the majority of my work in it.
Along the way, I have always held an interest in hardware. Something about the physicality, in both the literal sense, the workflow and the sound, has always appealed to me. I don’t like touchscreens, I like touching a button, I know, physically reaching out and knowing what it is I am about to control, without excessive menu diving.
Working in a music store and, over the years, in various importers and distributors, had obvious advantages. Second-hand synths are an obvious one. The Pro One that had lived in a chicken coop for a year comes to mind! I loved playing with old dusty bits of kit. The noise, the crackles, the frustration and the challenges they brought to the production side of things.
Life meant the larger studios were sold off, and I moved on. For the longest time, my studio was Ableton on a computer with a Focusrite Scarlet Solo and my old trusty Yamaha MSP5s. I went from an extensive setup to a bedroom studio again.
But I find myself now returning to a more hybrid DAW/Hardware setup.
The Present
The Software
The DAW of choice remains Ableton on a PC. I spent a lot of time building Studio PC’s for others. So I know them well. They have their frustrations, though – so there is a big change coming up!
While there are still some things I miss from Cubase days (like a dedicated mixing environment), it does more than I need it to, and I have started to really enjoy things like the Max integration and, now, CV.
VST-wise – I am using more and more of the Softube Plugins – the intent is to get a Console One in the near future – so I like the integration that would come with that. Pigments is a mainstay for Pads, while the Softtube Emulations get a lot of use for the Bass, Leads and Chords.
Modular
I have finally dipped my toes into physical modular synths. Ever since Reason, the notion of plugging things together has appealed to me – creating the instrument as well as the sound. I used the Arturia Moog Modular Plug-in extensively and have spent many an hour with VCV, so the idea of investing in some actual hardware made a lot of sense to me.
