Shlomi Aber

Shlomi Aber – My Studio

Israeli techno and tech-house mainstay Shlomi Aber gives us a tour of his Tel Aviv studio…

Studio Electronics SE-1

Many producers out there are using the Moog synths, while not many of them know the Studio Electronics SE-1, a raw, dirty monophonic synth that reminds me of the basic Moog stuff, though it’s got wider oscillators that are maybe even more useful in their simplicity.

Even though the Moog Voyager may be presented as a higher standard of synth, I find the SE-1 more interesting and lush, and it has often been used on my older tracks, such as as ‘Freakside’, ‘Portico’, ‘Sea Of Sand’, ‘After Love’ together with Guy Gerber, and many others.

AMS Neve 1073 Pre-Amp

Neve never fails their reputation, and these two sets of pre-amps – AMS 1073 and DPA 1073 – are the living proof of that. They’re some of the only pre-amps out there that can colour different sounds and frequencies and still make them all sound excellent. Many times some pre-amps do justice with the high end while not with the bottom, or vice versa, but these babies are always on point.

Manley Vari-Mu Compressor

One of the main highlights of my studio. I can’t see myself producing without having the Manley somewhere in my input and output chain. The latest version has this fantastic high-pass option to filter the input into the old-school tube compressor, which helps to keep the dynamics alive and not over-squeeze the track while having hard compression.

Manley Massive Passive EQ

Another great piece from Manley. This one is used more often for mastering purposes, though I often also use it on every channel while producing. It can change the character of a sound if used in the right way. I love the way I can EQ a mastered song with it, after taping it on my Tascam machine – it really compensates the missing frequencies.

PMC twotwo.6 & 8 Speakers

I was completely addicted to my cheap old Behringer speakers, which I had owned for over 15 years, and was so used to them that I didn’t want to change them even though I got many studio monitors for free from high-end companies. I tried them, but always sent them back as I didn’t want to fix what wasn’t broken, until I listened to my music on the PMC speakers, and that was when I finally realised that it was indeed broken! These speakers reveal so many frequencies I couldn’t hear in any other speakers, and have very special dynamics.

When switching the 8″ pair on, that was the first time I got noise complaints from the neighbours after years.

Studio Door Mat

My studio door mat, just to keep out those who may try… 

I got it at a famous flea market in Tel Aviv. It’s always nice to enter to the studio with a smile.