The French producer explains why he loves the new Roland System-1 synth and why he hates his monitors.
Nicolas Masseyeff – My Studio
My studio is my own little space on earth, situated in the basement of an old house. This is my place, where I really feel comfortable, where I can make the sound loud. The acoustics are just great here. The studio itself is not so big, but it’s just what I need, especially nowadays when I use fewer instruments than before. I actually sold quite a bit of my equipment over the last months and years, because I was not using all of my machines and I felt bad for them, left to the dust, so I gave them a better home. Now they are of great use to some friends of mine and whenever I feel like seeing or using them, I can always drop by to say hello.
Moog Voyager
What shall I say here? I will never stop working with this synthesiser. I am simply in love with the Moog Voyager. The sound is outstanding, hot and precise. I can play with it for hours, making sounds and melodies. The first time you touch this masterpiece, something happens inside of your body. I really used it a lot when producing ‘Vero’ and ‘Len’ on my latest release, which came out on Herzblut a few weeks ago.
UAD2, Powercore and TB-303
I invested in these two DSP cards a few years ago. The Powercore was actually quite the investment, I must say, but it gives you access to dozens of plugins which are just amazing. I use the Master X5 a lot. The TB-303 is also a legendary machine that I believe everybody knows.
Micro Modular by Clavia
This is one of my all time favourite synths. It’s small, but just massive. I really love it. It’s been in my possession since 2000 and I have used it in so many tracks for the bass, chords and pads. This synth has simply so many features. Its only disadvantage is that Clavia no longer provides support for it, so you need to hook it up to an old computer so that you can work with it. I used it when producing ‘Belle Rive’.
Roland System-1
This is one of the last instruments that I bought. It’s a really inspiring synth with an amazing sound. I have currently used it for some lead parts for some upcoming productions. I must say that Roland did a nice job with the ‘plug out’ function and their new plugins with synths. I believe I will be using it quite a lot in the future, because I am so happy with it.
Event TR-5
These are pretty old studio monitors. I’ve had them since 2002. I actually hate them, but one thing I know is that if a track sounds good on them, then the mix must have been done the right way. Their sound is not really good per se, but it helps me to check what’s missing or what’s too loud in my mixes.
My Maracas
I bought them the first time I played in Mexico. Whenever I get anxious or stressed out, I take them and either start making some grooves with them or simply hold them… They somehow have a soothing power on me.
My Turntables
They have been in my studio for more than 23 years now. I love playing vinyls on them from my huge vinyl collection. I actually used to own a record store in the past, so as you can imagine I am pretty addicted to the black gold. It is always a pleasure to play some vinyls on them.
Nicolas Masseyeff’s new release VERO EP is out now on Herzblut Recordings. Find him on Facebook and SoundCloud.
12.43 AM
The nord micro mod is great, Nomad is a little flaky, but works with most modern computers. http://nmedit.sourceforge.net/
12.11 PM
Nico is a such talented guy…Specially loving his timbres and great overall mix. Solid.
04.44 AM
He has an E-mu 5000 Ultra under the powercore. E-mu’s are secret sauce.