Here’s my music production studio! This is where I create all my music and sound effects. Let’s have a look to what I’m using to work, basicly I got all the outboard, synths and DAW in one single rack. This keeps everything nice and tidy.
(Last update: November 2009 – I actually moved twice from this location!)
In the upper (and easier to access) part of the rack, I have some hardware synth modules. Top to bottom:
Motif Rack ES - Plenty of good acoustic and electronic sounds. Compared to my other Yamaha synth, this one provide more modern and contemporary feel, and got some solid and crispy sounds. It’s got some nice arpeggios too.
Fantom XR – Modern and classic Roland sounds. I expanded this baby with Studio Session card, which gave me some totally new studio-quality sounds and drumkits, Dynamic Drumkits card filled with outstanding acoustic durmkits and Ultimate Keys featuring big variety of sounds from past Roland’s expansion cards.
MU100R – My first synth (to be honest that was a S-yxg50 softsynth replaced later with a SW1000XG soundcard – same sound-set of the MU100R) and I have a special feeling with it. It’s starting to get a bit old nowadays, but I still think it sounds pretty cool and above all it have the PLG100VL expansion, physical modelling for some interesting and original monophonic sounds and good emulation of wind instruments.
XV5050 – Derived from the famous Roland XV series. I got this synth mainly due to the high number of sounds and effects often used in videogame music, and I’m really pleased to be able to use them on my recordings. One regret is the fact that can’t be expanded with SR-JV80 cards.
Proteus 2000 - This one is for “bread and butter” sounds. Altough I rarely use this for acoustic sounds, I like it for its personality derived from old Emu and Ensoniq synths, very different from japanese synths. It also have unique filters and editing capabilities.
Orbit V3 – This amazing module featuring the Proteus 2000 engine, has got any sort of electronic classic and original sounds (many of them signed by Rob Papen), and lovely clear and warm overall sound, 16 arpeggiators totally independent of each other! Mine is expanded with Xtreme Lead 1 ROM card, which adds other techno-based sounds and arpeggios. Funnily enough this card sounds more powerful and crispy rather than when I have it mounted inside the XL-1 rack.
In the lower part of the rack, I have some outboard and interfaces. Top to bottom:
Sansamp PSA1.1 – Analog guitar preamp able to produce a wide range of quality sounds. I use it when I’ve got no possibility (because of noise-limitations) to record with a real guitar amp. Actually it have no cabinet simulation, so I need to use some good real cabinet sampled impulses. I forgot to mention another guitar preamp, the Rockman Sustainor (not pictured) for unique 80s style sound. You can hear it on The Entrance.
Chameleon Labs 7602 – Vintage sounding microphone preamp with equalizer and I love the way it sounds with my AT4050 mic. Actually I also record electric bass straight into its DI input. I do very small use of the equalizer (I prefer to do equalization after the recording) so I use it just to get some slight tone variations.
MOTU Midi Express 128 – Midi patchbay with eight input and output channels. It’s perfect for the job, I use it to control all my synths from one master keyboard and for timing synchronization when I use synths own arpeggiators.
MOTU 24 i/o – The “core” of my studio. This versatile unit handles 24 analog inputs and outputs and give possibility to mix and route all the signals via software having a clean studio quality sound.
Synergy Origin – This audio-optimized PC is built with quality hardware components to hold intense work sessions and be absolutely stable and quiet.
The Adam A7 is a good pair of speakers able to translate very well in any audio system I have heard. I also use AKG 240 headphones. They’re useful for tracking session and as second reference, but never trust headphones too much for mixing, as they tend to give wrong impression of bass frequencies. I use them to adjust levels and panorama instead.
This is a great unit: the Mpatch2 allows me to connect two couple of speakers (plus headphones), and have an unique volume level for everything. So I can avoid to do adjustements on all devices all the time. The unit is passive, preventing any alteration of audio quality.
And here are my axes: the Yamaha RGX820z, versatile electric guitar with Sperzel locking tuners, Seymour Duncan pickups and Piezo for simulating some acoustic sounds – but I would not really use it for this purpuose. As acoustic guitar I use an Ibanez Artwood AW40 and get a nice natural sound when recorded with a good condenser microphone. Then I also own an american 4 string Ibanez ARTB100 shortscale bass, that really means it is shorter and easier to play than normal basses.
My Fatar VMK 88 Plus master keyboard. 88 semi-weighted keys that give good feeling both with piano and synth sounds. Extremely useful are the programmable faders and potentiometers I mapped to have access to the most common features of my hardware synths.
Software! An important part of any digital recording studio, I use it mainly to record and sequence music, mix and add effects such as reverb, delays, compression, equalizer etc. but also to make use of big sound libraries.
Cubase 5 – My main sequencer since many years, I feel it very comfortable and have great MIDI and Audio features I never found anywhere else, plus it handles nicely my hardware synths. Other important things like realtime audio pitch and tempo correction, convolution reverb, and complex routing capabilities are integrated into the sequecencer.
Machfive 2 – Easy-to-use sampler that can become really complex if needed, able to load a lot of sample formats like AKAI, GIGA, Kontakt, Soundfonts, etc. also include an useful generic library with mostly acoustic samples. I also use this to create and customize my own patches sampled from my hardware synth or free samples over the internet.
Ethno and Symphonic Instruments – Must-have for every composer, you can’t rely on hardware synths for this stuff. I love MOTU instruments as they’re so playable, lively sounding and easy to tweak mantaining a good level of realism.
FM8 – Great piece of software, reproducing those digital sounds of old Yamaha DX synths. FM synthesis is also the kind of sonority I grow with, so can’t live without it. I found that very creative for videogame sound-effects too.
Stylus RMX – This thing is able to add the right groove to every track I write, and so it became indispensable. The great thing is that all the loops included can follow dinamically the tempo of the song without losing quality. I also got all the expansions from Spectrasonics – good stuff.
Liquid Saxophone and Trumpet – As above, these licks and phrases can follow the tempo and the tonality of your song (!) being really useful when a real player can’t be engaged.
Voice Spectral – I believe a vocal library can spice up an instrumental track and this one contains lots of samples I heard often in videogame music of the nineties and not only.