Let´s talk about technology

Here is the section for the geeks among us musicians. It is beyond question that every musician would like to know with which equipment the songs were created. Sure, also my work is computer supported. A Mac Pro with a 34“ curved-monitor, a 27” display and 4 cores slaves and does its best.

As Outboard equipment I use a DSI Prophet REV2, a Kawai W5000, an Access Virus A, a Roland JV 1080 with the expansion Vintage Keys and Orchestra 1.
The synths are connected into a MOTU 828 MK3 and a MOTU 8 Pre. The 828 MK3 is connected via Firewire at the Mac.
The 8 Pre is connected via optical output to the 828. A midi interface from MOTU connects the hardware synths with the Mac. Also connected is a PreSonus Faderport 8 and a Korg nanoControl 2.

To listen my music I use active nearfield monitors from Adam Audio.

Oh yes, as masterkeyboard comes a Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 MK1 to use.

For drums that are not played by keyboard, I use an Alesis Drumpad.

I have other Outboard such Compressors from Behringer, but the parts are no longer used. Everything just comes from the purely analog time. For that you get nothing more and to throw away they were too good for me. Who knows, maybe we’ll do something with it again.

Then we come to the software department.

The heart and core is the DAW Studio One Pro 5.x from PreSonus. I love this software. Actually, I’ve always been a fan of Cubase. Already on the Atari I used Cubase and was always happy with it. But at some point, when Cubase came out with the SX in the name, it was no fun to work with it. Which eventually brought me to Logic. But even this was not really great joy.

The large DAWs are now so overloaded, that you are more concerned with the technique than with making music. Intuitively there is not much anymore. By some coincidence I came across Studio One and then I pulled the Free version and noticed immediately, that’s the right DAW for me. It reminds me of times when Cubase was still manageable. As far as I know, some Studio One developers are former rock miners who worked on Cubase. So it’s not surprising that there are certain similarities. At Studio One everything is very intuitive and fast. Real drag & drop e.g. makes it really nice to quickly swap the synth of one track for another. Or quickly put a reverb on a track. Everything was very nice. A direct connection to Nimbit and Soundcloud make the package almost perfect. There are also software instruments and effects that are also very good and I like to use them. Above all, the Fat Channel which is since version 2.6 here, can convince the whole line.

So enough of the eulogy.
It continues with the Komplete 11 from Native Instruments. Also a company that has convinced me very much of the quality of their products and real treasures on offer. What is all there you can also read the page of Native Instruments. As I said, I have the Komplete 11 which I use with a lot of fun. What is also gladly used by Korg Korg Collection, formerly Legacy Collection. I still have those from the early days when even the MS20 controller was there. Meanwhile, of course, updated so that it is actual. Far ahead are also the things from U-he (Urs Heckmann). I have the Ltm-Labs stories from him, the Zebralette, Zebra 2 and the Tyrell.
Ingenious synths and drum machines. Great sounds !! Brilliant. A visit to his site is always worthwhile.
For my rather non-electronic stuff I also use the BFD2 drum plugin.
Generally I let myself be inspired by the sounds of the synths. But I also like to screw myself. Which makes more fun with the hardware synths. Especially the Prophet and the Virus are the best suited for that.

Finally I use some Guitars by Squire, Epiphone, Ibanez and PRS. Also 2 Basses by Ibanez (4-string and 5-string) and a Hohner Headless Bass. Guitaramp is a Hughes&Kettner Tubemeister 36 and the Bass-Amp is a Hartke 3500 Top. I use 2 Black Widow cabinets from Peavey with the Hartke. A 4×10″ with 1″ Horn, and a 18″ cabinet. Oh, and a great Cajon 🙂

Some Microphones and a lot cables can be found in my studio. What you surely find in many studios.

See some pictures in the gallery or on instagram.