Chymera

Rack

Underneath the desk is the ‘rack’… Being the thriftmonger that I am, I made it myself from wooden slats. From the bottom up:

The Oberheim Matrix 1000 was very first hardware synth I ever bought, back in 2004 I think. And what a beauty. Obviously it’s impossible to edit on the synth itself. For years I would either just use the presets out of the box, or sample in a C-note of a patch and use it in Ableton’s sampler. I’ve got a software editor for it which is pretty woeful but does the job. Very soon I’m about to get a hardware controller for it, I’m thinking probably this one. This machine has been my go-to pad merchant since the early days – the pads on ‘Arabesque’ and ‘Valerian’ were made from this.

I’ve had the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 for a couple of years. I love being able to route all my hardware straight into their own channels in Ableton. It allows me to record live takes of my tracks and record all the external synths to their own channels in one pass. I recently doubled my inputs with the addition of the Behringer Ultragain, which connects via ADAT and works seamlessly with the Pro 40. No complaints here really; they both do their job just right.

The ESI M8UXL is my main MIDI interface. When I bought it, I went for the cheapest solution on Thomann. It’s rock solid and never gives me any trouble, but is one of those studio purchases that you don’t lust after, but you just need to have. You can add it to the cables and stands category. Speaking of cables, they are like the socks of the gear world – they always seem to go missing and I can never find them when I need them, no matter how many I buy.

The Novation Bass Station Rack is quite an under-rated synth, although I haven’t even turned it on in the last three years – the Vermona and Minitaur fulfil all my dual oscillator monosynthular needs. But I’m keeping it as it has a Midi-to-CV convertor which may prove useful in the future.

Nord Rack 2

I bought this second hand about 10 years ago. It’s my go-to polysynth. It’s got such a distinctive sound, it is really the best virtual analogue synth I’ve ever used. You can get some really warm, fuzzy and very analogue-sounding textures out of it if you need to. I love the envelopes and the filter – they are super snappy. At the same time, there are periods where it’s just too Nord-y, and I need to let it sit out for a couple of months. It’s definitely quite a marmite-y synth among my friends. They either love it or hate it. You can hear this on the constantly filtering synth on ‘Moot Point’, and the lead melody in ‘Caprica Burning’ too.

The Akai LPK25 is a tiny lightweight mini-keyboard. I use it infrequently. Not such a fan of the key action but it does the job.

Roland TR-8

I love the actual process of programming the drum patterns and jamming with it, but I’m still a little on the fence about the sound. I’m saving it for potential use in my live set.

Access Virus

This was the core of both my studio and live set from about 2005 until 2009 or so. The main synths in all my early tracks like ‘Arabesque’, ‘Wish’, ‘Hundulu’, etc, all came from this. I think the built-in delay is one of my favourite delay sounds of all time. I also love the built in arpeggiator – ‘Wish’, for instance, would be nothing without it. There are two assignable knobs and I had a particular breakthrough when I assigned the pitch of oscillator 2 to one of them and started tweaking it live. You can hear the sound of this in full effect on tracks like ‘Under The Slip’ and ‘Fierenix’.

However, I really feel like I used it to its full potential. It’s done a lot of hard work, been dropped a few times and now is sitting out the rest of its days in a pleasant retirement home. Even though I rarely use it anymore, I would never sell it. It’s super useful if I want to remake one of my earlier tracks for my live set, plus we’ve been through too many great experiences together.

Ableton Push 2

Ableton has been my sole DAW since version 4. I know it inside out, and probably couldn’t live without it, considering I make all my music with it and play live with it too. Push 2 is the second incarnation of their in-house controller. It’s dead handy for throwing stuff down really quickly. In general though I only use it sometimes for playing stuff in in key or inputting a drum pattern quickly. It’s a big improvement on Push 1, but I still find myself browsing devices and presets with the mouse instead. I would love to use it live but it’s just too big and heavy to bring.

Assorted VSTs

TAL 101 and Uno LX, Valhalla VintageVerb and Shimmer, NI Monark, and Korg Polysix.

Apart from Ableton’s built-in effects, I like to stick to this small and simple set of VSTs for the bulk of my software-based needs. The TAL line is simply superb – they have a bunch of free plugins which are better than a lot of commercial synths from other companies. But I definitely recommend buying both of these. The 101 and Uno-LX are clones of the Roland SH-101 and Juno-60 respectively.

Valhalla makes superb effects, and these are my go-to reverbs in almost every track.

I was lucky enough to be able to use a real Minimoog D last year when I took part in Studio Stekker week in Utrecht. The NI Monark is a clone and a damn good one I must say… They absolutely nailed it.

I’ve been using the Korg Polysix plugin for years and years. After the TAL UNO LX it’s my favourite software polysynth. I’ve never used a real one, though – maybe I don’t want to as I’m sure it’s probably a pale imitation but, nevertheless, I really like it.

Alesis Monitor One MKII

I’ve used these monitors since 2003. I guess it’s what you’re used to. I am definitely upgrading very soon though. I’m struggling with certain aspects of my mixdowns and I feel it’s time that I invest in some more reliable monitoring options. That said, they’ve served me exceptionally well and for the price they are a steal.

Audio Technica ATH-M50

I use these every single day. Lovely, warm and very cost-effective headphones with enough bass so that you don’t have to turn the sound up too much. I tried out a few other different brands and models, all more expensive than this, and I just found the sound to be much more natural on these. A very important part of the production process for me involves listening to the tracks on headphones and fine tuning all the little details.

Shelves

On these shelves are a small portion of the albums, singles, books and movies that shaped my musical upbringing from my teenage years until now. Even though I buy everything digitally now, I wouldn’t get rid of them. In front is a Korg Wavestation, which comes in handy for depositing the contents of my pockets. Seriously, it’s a great synth but the VST version of it has all the same patches so I’ll probably sell it very soon.