Ableton Live
“I’ve been working on another hip-hop compilation recently and, compared to how we used to put compilations together, working inside the box makes things so much easier.
“I started out with Pro Tools, but Chris Bishop - who I work with - is an absolute don on Ableton. Yeah, you could argue that Pro Tools has a more polished sound, but Ableton just seems tailor-made for this kind of project.”
Native Instruments Kontakt
“For things like drums, it’s so easy to throw audio clips onto the page, and, graphically, that can provide you with a lot of versatility. But if you want something across the keyboard, it’s still nice to work with a sampler.
“With Kontakt, you can operate on a very basic, surface level, but it also gives you the option to dive right in there and design your own scripts. You can really make it your own personal sampler.”
Xfer Records Serum
“For a lot of the new stuff I’ve been working on, Serum has become the bass machine of choice. There’s still room for Massive, but the quality and character of the modulation in Serum really takes some beating.
“And to get the best out of your bass sounds, you need a decent compressor, which brings me to…”
Cytomic The Glue
“As much as I love the Ableton stock plugins, I do think there’s something missing from their version of Glue. Obviously, I work with Ableton, but I tend to use the old, pre-Ableton version. To my ears, it seems to have a bit more flexibility, a bit more control, and a bit more oomph.”
Native Instruments Traktor
“Alongside the massive explosion in studio software, we’ve seen something very similar happening in the DJ world. For me, Native Instruments have the edge because they already have the producer/DJ mentality.
“We all know what Traktor can do, and I honestly think it provided the impetus to push DJing into the next stage of development. You can go and see a DJ today and you’ll see a proper live show.”
